I do not own a TV. Thank goodness. Five years ago, it disgusted me to watch music videos on TV's because even the most romantic of songs would have wild, naked women in them. Now, I have a radio on my phone, a radio in my clock, youtube, pandora and every single resource possible to obtain/listen to songs. Yet, I always find myself reverting to the Carpenters and the Bee Gees, and even Annette Hanshaw(much to the irritation of my friends; my phone never gets picked for playing songs in the car), but not contemporary pop. No, I do not like rap- I can't stress that enough. Which automatically makes me turn off all hip-hop that comes out these days. I also don't like Eminem, Lady Gaga or, especially, Rihanna. And if you can see where I'm going with this, you're gonna see how much I detest Rihanna's songs.
The girl is barely 23, and she already has a string of No.1 hits, even more tattoos and millions of fans- half of who don't even know how to pronounce her name(it's Ree-Yanna for those of you who keep hissing in my ear to listen to RuHaanaah). One of her biggest hits, as most of you might already know and hum, is called S&M. Its first few lines say:'Feels so good being bad/There’s no way I’m turning back/Now the pain is my pleasure.' Yes, the song is catchy(I hummed it as soon as I heard it for the first time). Back when I was a kid, I sang a nursery rhyme that was used to spread awareness among children about legal implications of physical abuse versus verbal- sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Today, you can hear S&M's refrain being sung by children all over the world: Sticks and stones may break my bones but chains and whips excite me. Generally speaking, young pre-teens would have no need whatsoever to know about sadomasochism. But thanks to the increasingly revolting music industry, they are now extremely familiar with almost every permutation of the sex act. My roommate was taught the names of 2 from her ten year old cousins! Rihanna grew up watching her drunk of a father repeatedly beat his wife, and was herself very famously assaulted by her then-boyfriend Chris Brown, who went on to face 5 years of probation. She then immediately recorded a song with Eminem, whose lyrics go, (Eminem): ‘I feel so ashamed I snap/I laid hands on her/I’ll never stoop so low again/I guess I don’t know my own strength,’ he raps. Rihanna's line then says, ‘Just gonna stand there and hear me cry...But that’s all right because I like the way it hurts.’ During one of her latest concerts, she showed the middle finger on multiple occasions, pulled up a female fan and straddled her right in the middle of the stage, gyrating on top of her.
Rihanna of course, is not alone in sexualising the world's teenagers a few years too early. Madonna has done it, so did Britney Spears. Miley Cyrus and Taylor Momsen are barely out of their teens, and they have dance routines that are embarrasing for me to watch- alone! A friend of mine played a song yesterday(which prompted me to write this),called 'Do it like a Dude' that goes, " Dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty sucker/You think I can’t get hurt like you, you mother******." It turns out, this song was sung by a pretty 21 year old girl called Jessie J. The accompanying video- I'm not even going to get started on that. It was on top of the charts, again.
It makes me wonder why songs like these, with such explicit lyrics and almost compulsively sexual videos are liked by many. Is it the mere fact, like the sex revolution of the 60's, that people are now openly talking about what was considered generally to be a taboo topic- and hence exaggerating its worth? Money, is very obviously, at the root of all of it. But is it so important to include vulgarity in songs to ensure a hit? Is crass language, crude character and porn star-like clothes a part of it? If so, what does it say about our culture today? Not just the pop culture, but human culture in general? A lot of young girls tend to look up to young female celebrities whether we like it or not. And to that, this is Rihanna's response- 'The music industry isn't exactly Parents R Us! We have the freedom to make art, LET US! Its your job to make sure they(your kids) don't turn out like US.' Why isn’t she telling the kids who buy her songs that violence towards women is never acceptable? Why is she making songs that glorify near-rape? And last of all, why do half of today's generation not see my point when I talk about this?