At least nine people died and over 300 people were injured in the tragedy that was Travis Scott’s Astroworld festival, ushering in a new wave of ‘satanic panic.’
The events that took place that night were horrendous, but shame to the opportunists who are trying to connect the victims’ death and trauma to devil worshipping and Satanism.
Since the incident, many people have tried to portray the Astroworld festival as a devil worshipping ground with loose connections, including the shirt Scott wore, which contained a picture of people going through a door transforming into ‘demonic’ beings, or the burning phoenix, somehow symbolizing a new world order, in the middle of the stage, according to a Nov. 8 Rolling Stone article.
Satanic panic is the belief that a shadow organization is harming children and making plans to worship the devil, according to a May 18 NPR article.
This panic has been long unfounded and I can promise that the world is not going to end with the devil coming to Earth.
Satanic panic exploded during the 80’s with the emergence of heavy metal bands including Judas Priest and Black Sabbath.
The heavy metal genre is defined by its energetic and highly amplified electronic rock elements with hard beats, according to Merriam-Webster.
Tipper Gore, former wife of former Tennessee senator and vice president, Al Gore, and other senators’ wives founded the Parents Music Resource Center in 1985 to pressure the U.S. congress to censor certain music from being sold. Most of the censored music was in the rock ‘n’ roll or metal genre because they believed it threatened the hearts, minds and eternal souls of American youth, according to a Sept. 15, 2015 Rolling Stone article
The original censorship bill that was to include alphabetical labels for what type of content was in a CD was not passed, but explicit music containing mature themes including sexual or occult themes in its lyrics, were tagged with the label “Parental Advisory: Explicit Content.”
This ironically increased heavy metal albums sales, according to the same Rolling Stone article.
Similarly to heavy metal, Scott’s music has explicit themes but it’s not a gospel to speak of the devil’s uprising.
Scott is not a devil worshipper but his concerts have a history of carelessness and injuries.
In May 2017, Scott incited a riot at the Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion by inviting the crowd to overpower the security and come on stage. The incident resulted in several people, including a security guard and police officer, being injured and Scott was charged with disorderly conduct, according to a Nov. 8 NBC Chicago article.
Scott’s music is not a lure for him to sacrifice people during the concert, people just wanted to see one of their favorite artists performing live on stage.
While the government refused to censor music, people continued preaching the panic of the devil’s music.
Jimmy Swaggart is one of many televangelists, who preached certain music genres, rock ’n’ roll and metal, were the music of the devil with his book, “Religious Rock ’n’ Roll: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing,” according to a May 16, 2018 History Today article.
History Today is a London magazine that covers a wide range of topics since its inception in 1951, according to its webpage.
However, Swaggart was caught with a prostitute and confessed his sins to God and the public, according to the same History Today article.
If there’s anything to panic about, it should be hypocritical religious fanatics.
Nothing about Scott’s music is being used to promote devil worshipping. He just wanted to make money from people who like his work, even if there was ‘occult’ imagery on display.
If Armageddon were to occur and the devil was going to make a return to earth, he probably would have come back around the 90’s in Norway.
During this time, black metal was gaining traction and it resulted in churches being burned, satanic worship and multiple murders throughout the decade, according to a Feb. 12, 2019 Los Angeles Times article.
Black Metal is a subgenre of metal that has a focus on being anti-Christian, satanic and paganistic themes, according to an April 21, 2019 CNN article.
If the idea of satanic panic were right, the gates of hell should have opened with the devil coming back and the world should have ended.
Instead, we got Fenriz of Darkthrone, a black metal band, holding his cat with the caption, “Please don’t vote for me,” to unwittingly become part of his city council, according to a Sept. 14, 2016 Time article.
While there were objects on fire at Astroworld, Scott doesn’t have a history of church burnings or cold-blooded murders, just pyrotechnics and extreme carelessness that unfortunately lead to people’s deaths.
If Scott takes some time off to find ways to make his concerts safe by not inciting riots or putting minors in danger, maybe I’ll buy the Travis Scott Burger at McDonald’s when it comes back.
The people who are trying to connect the tragedies at Astroworld to Satanism should be ashamed for justifying a long-winded panic on a return that has yet to occur.
