Posted on 08/20/2010 5:27:42 AM PDT by Kaslin
Ever wonder what those teenagers are listening to while wearing those iPod earphones? Maybe you'd rather not know. You will be horrified.
The Culture and Media Institute recently reviewed the top pop songs from May through July. To say that hedonism is in the air is an understatement. Of the 22 songs on the charts, a whopping 64 percent made at least one reference to sex, drugs or alcohol, or contained profanity. All 22 songs had music videos, and 68 percent of them featured sexualized dancing, alcohol, violence, or partying scenes.
The "anthem" of the summer seems to be the song "California Gurls" by Katy Perry, the ex-Christian singer who kick-started her career with the hit "I Kissed a Girl (And I Liked It)" in 2008. She's so "mainstream" this year that she hosted the Teen Choice Awards on Fox.
Her "Gurls" song is catchy and raunchy, starting with the boast that she and her girlfriends are so hot "we'll melt your Popsicle." That phrase is hot slang. Please imagine 7-year-old girls learning and reciting the lyrics to these songs -- because they do. Perry sings about "Sex on the beach / We don't mind sand in our stilettos / We freak in my Jeep" to Snoop Dogg, who also raps on the song. Snoop calls out the men to "kiss her, touch her, squeeze her buns." The boys hang out to "all that ass hangin' out," watching the girls in "bikinis, tankinis, martinis, no weenies."
Shakespeare he is not. Romantic sonnets are not in season. Getting sex quickly seems to be the only aim.
The hottest new star is named Ke$ha, and her song with pop band 3OH!3 (No, I don't understand it either) is called "My First Kiss." It sounds innocent, but innocence isn't allowed. The lyrics include a request for sex: "Lips like licorice, tongue like candy / Excuse me, Miss, but can I get you out of your panties?" Another song, "In My Head," is sung by Jason Derulo and features the lyrics "Instead of talking, let me demonstrate / Yeah / Get down to business, let's skip foreplay."
Would you like more song sheets for the kiddies?
Rihanna is another princess of pop. Her song challenges a boy to make a move: "Come here, rude boy, boy / Can you get it up? / Come here, rude boy, boy / Is you big enough?" She also promises to "give it to you harder" and "turn your body out." The video matches the theme, with Rihanna holding one breast, putting her finger in her mouth and constantly rotating her hips as she asks her beau to "take it, take it, take it." Is this woman a singer or a stripper?
Just one version of this song's video has 90 million plays on YouTube -- just in case you'd think no one really pays attention to these things.
Rihanna also sings in "Rude Boy" that she likes the way "you pull my hair." The most controversial song of the summer is her duet with the rapper Eminem called "Love the Way You Lie." In between Eminem's rapping, Rihanna repeatedly sings, "Just gonna stand there and watch me burn / But that's all right because I like the way it hurts / Just gonna stand there and hear me cry / But that's all right because I love the way you lie."
There is no shame in this industry. Consider that Rihanna was physically abused by fellow pop star Chris Brown. So she milked the attack to pump up her star power. But what message do young people take from this? The Chicago Sun-Times reported the video (starring actors Dominic Monaghan and Megan Fox) shows "an ugly cycle of domestic abuse --- graphically loving, fighting, drinking, shoplifting and ultimately burning down the house."
Burning down the house? That's because Eminem raps, "I just want her back / I know I'm a liar / If she ever tries to f---ing leave again / I'ma tie her to the bed and set the house on fire."
Like most rappers making no attempt at anger management, Eminem loads his songs with profanity and dares the radio programmers to try and bleep them all out. On his first new single "Not Afraid," Eminem used six F-bombs and three S-words in four minutes. That includes an "F-you for Christmas," an "F the world" and an "F the universe." That doesn't include the bonus usages of countless other vulgarities.
It's clear that the major "music" companies, desperate to ring up sales as their market collapses due to technological change, are refusing to exercise any restraint of any kind on these "artists" they sell. It travels way beyond hipster rebellion into a dark, loveless, violent underworld.
There is a button on every radio, It allows the operator to turn it off.
I remember when singers could sing,not scream & you could actually understand the words & they dressed like stars. Johnny Mathis, Perry Como, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra.. too many to list them all. Oldies but goodies, glad I was born back then!
Reason 5,628,303 to despise pop “music”.
(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction....summer of ‘65.
It’s a different year yet the same theme plays out..summer and sex.
shocking, isn’t it?
Not in our home!
My younguns seem to be obsessed with something/someone called “Owl City”. Sweet, cute pop songs filled with clever puns. No nastiness or cuss words.
My kids (14 & 16) are actually disgusted by the mainstream music and won’t listen to it.
I reckon I raised them right...
“Come here, rude boy, boy / Can you get it up? / Come here, rude boy, boy / Is you big enough?” She also promises to “give it to you harder” and “turn your body out.”
“When i’m ridin’ round the world
And i’m doin’ this and i’m signing that
And i’m tryin’ to make some girl
Who tells me baby better come back later next week
‘cause you see i’m on losing streak
I can’t get no, oh no no no
Hey hey hey, that’s what i say
I can’t get no, i can’t get no
I can’t get no satisfaction
No satisfaction, no satisfaction, no satisfaction”
Not even close to the same thing.
It sure looks like it, and keep it up
Hundreds of years ago, artists painted scenes of fruit and food because they were hungry and these things were on their mind.
Today, artists think mostly about one thing.......
Jazz was the music of the devil.
Ravel’s Bolero was sinfuly suggestive.
Every generation is outraged at the previous generation’s music.
Every generation’s music’s purpose is, on the whole, to facilitate rebellion and procreation.
It’s how the human mind is built.
Funny thing is, is that I never got all uber authoritarian on them and decreed that kind of music wasn't allowed. They just kinda intuitively knew that stuff was spirit killing and degrading. I've actually asked for some of "their music" to be transferred to my mp3! It's nice to be the "cool Mom" for all the right reasons!
This is not industry wide, but mostly the “pop” stations.
I just recorded a four song EP in Nashville. The label wanted us to change our song “Every Good Girl wants a Badass Boy” to “Bad, Bad Boy.” We declined. We pointed to Zac Brown’s song “Toes”...”Got my toes in the water, ass in the sand...” Country still has a prety clean image, but even that is slowly changing.
* Jazz was the music of the devil.
Ravel’s Bolero was sinfuly suggestive.
Every generation is outraged at the previous generation’s music.
Every generation’s music’s purpose is, on the whole, to facilitate rebellion and procreation.
It’s how the human mind is built.*
Fair enough, but the fact that there are fans of today’s blatantly low class music that it reminds me of people applauding a dog taking a dump.
I’m reminded at one of the greatest ancient playwrights is still remembered and studied for his scripts featuring ... fart and lesbian jokes.
Nothing is new but our awareness thereof.
“Shakespeare he is not. Romantic sonnets are not in season. Getting sex quickly seems to be the only aim.”
May I remind that Romeo’s goal was to bang Juliet within hours of meeting her whilst plastered at a party.
**Country still has a prety clean image, but even that is slowly changing.***
No wonder I am still a Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys fan!
Modern country is sleeze!
Listen here all you rounders,
You better leave my good gal alone!
Listen here all you rounders,
You better leave my good gal alone!
Cause you can’t giver her nothin,
She can’t get at home!
-From a bob Wills song.
I agree, and I don't think it's an improvement.
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