Posted on 08/22/2009 4:09:10 AM PDT by Kaslin
The baby boomers are trotting out the celebrations for the 40th anniversary of the "Summer of Love," complete with all that soggy and groggy Woodstock nostalgia. Perhaps the singular statement of that summer was the music and the open celebration of "free love."
All of which, believe it or not, is preferable to what is on the air this summer.
Start with the big hit "Birthday Sex," which brought quick fame (which is to say, infamy) to a singer named Jeremih. (Why must these people always celebrate illiteracy?) His basic lyric is "Don't need candles and cake / Just need your body to make / Birthday sex." But Jeremih also elaborates about how he wants sex in the kitchen, on a waterbed and so on. It's an audio porn movie.
Interestingly, and sadly, few can be found to disapprove of foisting these "adult situation" lyrics on children. Radio station managers are, as a group, completely apathetic. But school administrators? The Chicago Public Schools enlisted their newly famous alumnus Jeremih in an online Twitter campaign to urge Chicago teens to go back to school this fall.
At least the Chicago Sun-Times was bold enough to disagree with this campaign. "We know CPS kids will listen to 'Birthday Sex' and far raunchier tunes whether Jeremih is a CPS spokesman or not," the paper editorialized. "We also know CPS must do all it can to deal with its horrific dropout problem. But that shouldn't include implicitly promoting the message in 'Birthday Sex,' no matter how appealing the messenger."
Jeremih was not alone in the gutter. The rapper who calls himself Flo Rida unleashed a big hit with "Right Round," which celebrates oral sex: "You spin my head right round, right round / When you go down, when you go down, down." He's not talking about spinning his eyeballs around.
Dirty lyrics don't keep an "artist" from appearing on the network morning news programs. They're fine with it, too. On the Aug. 14 "Today" show, the rapper also performed a previous hit song, "Low," with lyrics like this: "Shawty was hot like a toaster / Sorry but I had to fold her / Like a pornography poster."
Flo Rida granted an interview to NBC anchor Matt Lauer, who buttered up his guest by asking if his mother deserved credit for inspiring him to ascend from the rougher neighborhoods of Miami. Flo Rida's answer was even more offensive in its hypocrisy: "I mean, most definitely. She always taught me to dream big, put God first, you know, sacrifice and the sky's the limit."
I wonder what God thinks of that.
It's not just men who behave like pigs. The dance diva named Lady Gaga had a hit song titled "Love Game" that repeatedly celebrated the male anatomy: "Let's have some fun, this beat is sick / I wanna take a ride on your disco stick." A newspaper in the Philippines put the perfect spin on her concert there: "Lady with Legs Wide Open." Her songs aren't just a smash on the radio; they star on TV shows like "So You Think You Can Dance" on FOX.
These songs are not the cutting edge; they are the mainstream. The Culture and Media Institute studied 29 songs that were listed on top 20 airplay charts posted by Mediabase from June 10 to July 22. A large majority (69 percent) of the songs made at least one reference to sex, alcohol, drugs, or contained profanity. Nearly half (46 percent) of the songs contained sexual lyrics and 31 percent of the songs referenced drugs or alcohol. Profanity occurred in 41 percent of the songs.
Dr. Brian Primack of the University of Pittsburgh Medical School studied more than 700 ninth-graders and found in a study earlier this year that sexual songs lead to more sexual activity by teens: "High exposure to lyrics describing degrading sex in popular music was independently associated with higher levels of sexual behavior. In fact, exposure to lyrics describing degrading sex was one of the strongest associations with sexual activity." This might seem like an obvious finding, but no one in the music business bats an eye.
If tobacco companies can be blamed for lung cancer, and oil companies can be blamed for global warming, why aren't radio stations and record companies that churn out pornographic music blamed for teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases?
I wasn't alive in the 30's, but I'd be surprised if blues music was marketed directly to children, as is the case today.
should say, “as rap music is today.”
I wasn't alive in the 30's, but I'd be surprised if blues music was marketed directly to children, as is the case today.The blues (most of which was marketed as "race records" in the 1930s and up through about the early 1950s, by the way) was also a lot more subtle than what's going down today. The raunchiest bluesmen---and blueswomen, for that matter---were downright seminarians compared to today's rappers and metalheads.
I play blues on my weekly radio show, here in Las Vegas (either the hardcore blues, such as Muddy Waters, Albert Collins, Big Bill Broonzy, Johnny Winter, Lowell Fulson, Mose Allison, Ray Charles, or Sonny Boy Williamson; or the jazzmen who didn't forget the blues, such as Wes Montgomery, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Milt Jackson and John Coltrane---whose "Bags & Trane" is my opening theme music, and whose "Blues Legacy" is my closing theme music, by the way---or Miles Davis), and the raunchiest blues lyric on any of my chosen selections would be tame today. (About the raunchiest blues lyric that's been played on my show thus far is "Spoonful"; I used the studio version by Cream two weeks ago; I also used Muddy Waters's merely suggestive "The Same Thing" last week. On my first show, in early July, I used Sonny Boy Williamson's original "Bring It On Home," the number Led Zeppelin nicked for the album-closing track of the same name on Led Zeppelin II.)
I should advise that I don't pick by lyrics, raunchy or otherwise, though I'm pretty careful not to get that far out into the bullpen; I pick because it's just a good piece of music, and I'd wanted to play "The Same Thing" on radio for a long time, anyway, I'm that big a fan of Muddy Waters.
If I wanted to, I could probably get away with playing the aforesaid Bessie Smith side (though I'd first play her impeccable "Sing Sing Prison Blues," once I can land the recording again, especially since she was backed by Fletcher Henderson at the piano with Louis Armstrong playing crisp cornet); or, Lil Johnson's "My Stove's In Good Condition"; or, Bo Carter's "My Pencil Won't Write No More (The Lead's All Gone)"; or, even, Hunter and Jenkins's "Meat Cuttin' Blues," and get away with it---because almost nobody now would catch on when actually hearing the music. (I have those and other such selections on a CD in Columbia/Legacy's Roots 'n' Blues series, Raunchy Business: Hot Nuts and Lollypops.) Any teenagers listening to my show would probably miss the double- and triple-entendres entirely. Rap and heavy mental music have probably stripped them of any sense of appreciating a good, subtle double- or triple-entendre.
Guns N Roses....
One of them is home schooled.Her Dad[My brother]raised her in a church.Rebellious teenagers run in the family.It’s a phase like what I went through.[I hope].
I still remember “Whisperin’ Bill” Anderson who was supposed to be a devoted Christian but used to stand up tall, slim and handsome and sing a song of which I only remember one little bit;
Who do I have to lie to
So I can lie with you
Then there was Tanya Tucker who hit the scene singing;
Will you lay with me
in a field of stone
I think she was fifteen or less at the time.
“People have forgotten in the seventies and eighties, the music industry substituted the word “love” for the F word...”
Right you are sir. I wish I could say I didn’t know what the lyrics were, but I did. If I couldn’t understand them I would go to the store to get the lyrics sheet. And it had a direct affect on my behavior. Whether it be rebellion or otherwise....this stuff ‘pollutes and infects’.
Metal does not usually deal with the topics of love or sex, that removes a large portion of the double entendres.
Metal does not usually deal with the topics of love or sex, that removes a large portion of the double entendres.A lot of it doesn't, but a lot of it does.
Ahh, yes.....it's coming back to me now...."The Lemon Song". And remember Aerosmith's "Big 10 Inch"? And Foghat's "Slow Ride"?
Yep.......and to think we look at that as good times. See the blindsiding and brainwashing started during our (I’m assuming you are around my age) childhoods. My Family was one of the first to be divorced (lived in a tiny town) which caused my mom and I to be ‘ripped’ from home and then onward to the big public school system in a big city. It was like night and day (we still had God in our school in the tiny town). What I was exposed to at age 13 was something reserved for 30 somethings.
Anyway.......not to get off on a jag..I had many, many, what we would consider good times. Now.......I see it for what it was..a huge planted distraction for the youth. Keeping us distracted with music, sex, drugs and rock & roll. But I had just enough of the ‘old’ system in me that it took root after I reached my late teens. Now, the teens, they’ve never been exposed to goodness, mercy or God and are full of hatred and completely souless (for the most part). People you are dooming your children if you send them to Public school. Look for the alternatives available.
You forgot the Manson killings....a clear reminder of what was manifesting right before the nations eyes
I guess we just controlled the input more closely. They were not exposed to MTV, etc. It worked.
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