You learn a lot by listening to pop music. Apparently Brian McFadden likes his women “drunk as shit at the bar” so that he can take them home and “do some damage”. Or so say the lyrics oh his new single which has just been pulled from the radio.
I like you just the way you are/ Drunk as shit, dancing in the bar /I like it /I can’t wait to get you home so I can do some damage.
McFadden has defended himself in light of the public outcry surrounding the song – funnily enough people are not that thrilled about McFadden advocating date rape. But he says it’s not about date rape it’s just about how easily his girlfriend Delta Goodrem gets tipsy.
Huh? Oh and the mug shot on the cover of the album totally fits in with your version of a tipsy girlfriend, Brian.
While the song has been pulled and McFadden has pledged to donate all proceeds to charity (props to the record company for at least acknowledging a major screw up) the fact remains that he released a single about taking advantage of a drunk woman. Presumably the song was heard by producers, sound engineers, his manager, his promoter and countless others. Did none of them think to say it’s not cool to take advantage of a woman without her consent? In fact it’s called…..what’s that word……oh yes: rape.
How important are the lyrics that we are exposed to on a daily basis? Blogger Bern Morley writes:
Rihanna
“The very first record I ever bought was Madonna’s “Like a Virgin”. My mother accompanied me to McDonnell & East and didn’t bat an eyelid when I took my hot piece of Vinyl up to the counter and paid for it with my hard earned pocket money. I played that sucker on repeat in the lounge room on the record player repeatedly. The following is just a snipped of the lyrics I would sing as loud as possible at any given time. Yeah, I was 9.
Like a virgin, ooh ooh
Like a virgin
Feels so good inside
When you hold me, when your heart beats, and you love me.
Oh yeah, inappropriate much??
Clearly I didn’t know what a virgin was. Or what something feeling so good inside was. But my mother did and she was either choosing to ignore me or was just not paying attention. Or both.
But I, well I am a prolific lyric knower (technical term). I love them. I love knowing what a song is about. Although to this day, no matter how much I love them, I still don’t know what Crowded House were on about. Apparently if you can work that out, the meaning of life is yours.
And, I still remember the days of pressing play on my double tape deck, listening, pressing pause, writing the song line down and repeating the process through the entire way through the song. Imagine how many misheard lyrics were going down. Although even with all the goodness that is Google available to my 11yo, she still sings “Like a G6” as “Like a Cheesestick”. Just for shits and giggles I don’t correct her.
But now, now that I’m a Mum and I do give a shit what my children are listening to, I get panicky when I hear the following come out of my daughter’s mouth when she’s beside me in the car seat on the way to school:
Blindfold, feather bed,
Tickle me, slippery,
G spot, nasty pose,
In a video,
Love machine, by myself,
Climax, hot wax
[youtube r4XjmDqG48A 640 390]
Keep in mind, this song is played by most every major Radio Station in the country. A song about dirty talking. Now Mads doesn’t know what the heck this chick is singing about, much the same as me a la Madonna and her cherry popping, but man, it feels all kinds of wrong to hear your little girl singing about Legs up on the bar in the backseat of your car. All kinds.
Rihanna is another one. Don’t get me wrong, I actually really enjoy most of her songs, it’s just that when you hear this from the off-key eleven year old kicking around beside you in Woolies on a Saturday, shit gets kinda real:
Cause I may be bad, but I’m perfectly good at it
Sex in the air, I don’t care, I love the smell of it
Stick and stones may break my bones
But chains and whips excite me
Let’s just say that and a few other choice songs have recently been erased from her iPod.
But is that what I should be doing? Ban them from listening to the radio? Certain songs? The thing is, even when it’s not completely obvious the lyrics can be sly. Remember Lady GaGa and her disco Stick? Well my daughter questioned her school principal whether they would be selling any at her school Disco last year. I believe his response was “No” with a very quick retreat. What about Kelis bringing all the boys to the yard with her milkshake? My kids loved singing that song with my son even hoping it was “a chocolate milkshake” she was bringing because “he loves them the most”. Don’t think about that too much.Am I just being ridiculous or is this getting a little out of control? Any other songs out there you find inappropriate, or were when you were a kid? More to the point, how many people are going to land on my blog now after I’ve mentioned climax and G-Spot in one post?”
Did you listen to the lyrics of songs as a child? Do you allow your children to listen to the radio and how on earth do you explain the lyrics when they ask?
Top Comments
This has already been mentioned but I remember as an 8 year old absolutely LOVING the song 'Sweat' by Inner Circle. My Grandma even gave me a tape for Christmas with this song on it - I"m pretty sure she never listened to the lyrics!! However, it's still pretty tame compared to Rihanna's S&M.
I used to live in a part of China where the level of English was pretty low. Young children/elderly people would regularly be seen bopping along to songs with inappropriate lyrics, none the wiser about the content. I remember I was once on a bus when a woman in her 50s phone starting ringing loudly. The ringtone was "lick my neck, my back, my pussy and my crack", loud enough for the whole bus to hear it. Obviously I was the only one who understood the lyrics because I couldn't contain my laughter whilst the other bus patrons looked at me in total confusion!!
Being in my mid 40s with a 5 year old daughter, I well and truly remember the 80s and there was nothing like the explicit lyrics that you get nowadays. I cannot understand why some parents let their young kids listen to explicit music, but then I have a relative who does not believe in "censorship for children" and has no limits whatsoever. (Maybe that's why the 9 year old has the worldweary ennui of a 14 year old.) Anyway I find it amusing that so many thirtysomething parents of primary school age children are so determined to stay hip, cool and relevant that they still listen to radio stations targeting 18 to 25 year olds and feel a compelling need to download the latest Katy Perry or Rhianna track (or whatever - to tell the truth I have not heard of half of the current crop of singers). Are they also channelling their need to stay youthful through their children – i.e. if the parents are feeling their age, then at least they can make sure their children are on trend and listening to the latest music, no matter how inappropriate the lyrics? Is this because thirtysomethings do not want to face the fact that they are at least on the cusp of middle age, if not actually in the ball park?