Popular Music: What It Is, What It Was.

I feel very strongly that the media decides what music is popular. MTV and Much Music, along with every other music video or radio station decide what they will play, giving those “artists” plenty of exposure, then all of a sudden that band is at the top of the charts. The media decides what they will play, how often they will play it and when they play it. The media has so much sway over the public, especially the youth. The public watches the music videos and they get told what music is cool, and what is not. The sad part: people buy into it. People spend big money to be what the media tells us is “cool”. Music has greatly changed over the years. Today music is based on raunch. Who can write the raunchiest song? Who can make the sleaziest music video? Most of today’s music is discriminatory and offensive. Lots of music today, especially rap, hiphop, and pop music, are completely degrading to women. The rappers “sing” about keeping their “hoes” in line and have lyrics like “It’s hard out here for a pimp”, excuse me but I think it would be a bit harder for the prostitute that the pimp runs and beats. Female “artists” don’t help the situation either. They are singing song like “My Humps”, why not call the song “Judge me by my Breasts, and Stare at my Ass”. I find these songs and many more to be degrading, offensive and objectifying to women. Back in the day this sort of message in music was not tolerated. Think 20 years ago, in 1986, sure there was music about sex, drugs and rock and roll, but it wasn’t rude or offensive, it was about having a good time, rocking out, and okay, maybe getting laid on the way. Even further back, 50 years ago, the music was about doing the twist, which was a semiracy dance at that time, but now the twist is much cleaner then the dances the young prepubescent children do. Today “artists” have to make edited radio versions so they can be played on the radio; this was unheard of 20 years ago. It seems that “artists” today drop Fbombs just for the sake of it, and hope of getting to the top of the charts, sadly, it works. If the music continues to move in this direction I feel sorry for the generations to come and for the few great musicians and songwriters who will watch their art, and way of life, crumble and turn into trash. Now the question is: Does the music affect our lifestyles, or do our lifestyles affect the music? I think that it is a vicious circle. As society becomes more tolerant and more open with topics such as sex, musicians feel the need to sing about it and express it. Every one knows that sex sells and because of that Britney Spears feels the need to wear as little clothing possible in her videos, her videos of which could be easily mistaken for softcore porn. Then of course, you have all the teenage girls imitating her and her behavior. Other “artists” witness this imitation so they feel the need to get even raunchier; they keep on pushing the line further away. Musicians try to be more expressive then the listeners but the listeners try to be just like the “artists”. It is a vicious circle of today’s raunch culture. Popular music has changed greatly over the years. Not only has the style changed but the emotion, obscenity, and the level of respect as well. In 1966 and 1967 popular music was all about peace, love, being a free spirit, and standing side by side with your fellow humans. Now popular music seems to be about screwing as many random women as possible, and keeping your “bitches” (yes, more than one) in line. Sex sells, that aspect of music has never changed, and the sexier or more sexual the music and dancing the more popular it will become (not only does that statement apply to the music industry but to one of societies screwed up paradigms. Some food for thought: Did music bring on this idea, or did we create it and the music scene follow the trend?). Elvis experienced the sex sells theory, look what his sexual, swinging hips did for him, those moves brought him fame and fortune. It’s too bad that being a sex icon got to his head, he started using drugs, now where is he? Six feet under in an early grave. I wonder what other popular “artists” lives will become. Popular music has always been pushing the limits, unfortunately after many decades of this pushing it seems like anything goes, and it does.