When the Beat Carries War: A Policy-Minded Reflection on the Good vs. Evil Battle in Music

Shoshanna Page
Jul 31
3 min read

By Shoshanna M. Page, Founder & CEO, The First and Last Page

🎵 Music Was Once a Sanctuary

There was a time when music wasn’t just art — it was an altar.

For Black communities, music has historically been a sacred offering. From the spirituals sung in cotton fields to the gospel-infused harmonies of Sam Cooke, the soul of our culture resided in sound. Music held memory. It held God.

But today, something feels different.

And based on my experience in public policy, community safety, and systems work, I believe we are in the middle of a cultural war waged through music. A war of good vs. evil.

⚠️ What Happened to the Sound?

As someone trained to study patterns — political, cultural, social — I’ve noticed a shift that is undeniable:

I no longer hear God in the music that dominates our youth’s playlists.

Where there was once healing, there is now harm. Where there was once prophecy, there is now profit.

At first, I thought maybe it was just me. Maybe I was the one called to preserve something holy. To keep a piece of sound that still carried God to myself. It was selfish, but it was my secret. My sanctuary.

But silence becomes complicity.

And now, I believe we owe it to our children to confront the truth.

📊 The Data Doesn’t Lie

Let’s talk facts:

A 2023 USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative study found that only 1.9% of Billboard’s Top 100 hits contained themes of hope, community, or justice.
Meanwhile, Rolling Stone and Pew Research report a 300%+ increase in violent, hypersexual, and nihilistic content in popular music since the early 2000s.
The 1996 Telecommunications Act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton, deregulated media ownership, resulting in mass consolidation of Black radio and music platforms — drastically reducing the diversity of content and community-based programming.

What we’re experiencing isn’t random. It’s engineered.

🧠 Culture Is Policy — And This Is Spiritual Warfare

Music doesn’t just reflect society — it helps shape it. Which means this isn’t just about what’s on the radio. It’s about what we’re allowing to enter the minds and hearts of the next generation.

When we strip spiritual grounding from our culture, we make space for noise. For confusion. For darkness.

Someone’s president let the devil in — and whether through deregulation, exploitation, or distraction, we are now witnessing the consequences in real-time.

✝️ My Confession and My Offering

I didn’t want to say this out loud.

I wanted to protect what little sacredness I still heard in the beat. But now I understand: God didn’t give me ears to hoard. He gave me discernment to warn.

So today, I give you something I never wanted to share:

There is a war in the music industry. And we are losing if we don’t act.