Make a connection between popular music today and one of the other themes we've talked about this semester, such as women & sexiness or men/masculinity & violence. Can you find examples of popular music either support the standard message of those themes or working against them? How important do you think popular music has been in spreading these ideas?
The face of popular music is changing in a sense. We now have country artists such as Taylor Swift pretty high on the pop charts. There are many female artist on their way up the pop charts who's songs tend to have a different message than the age old hip-hop where women are objects, life is about money, and lets kill anyone who crosses us. There are however still quite a few artist that tend to deliver just those messages. Kesha's single "Take it Off" is one great or horrible example of objectification. Lets go to a place where women are used as entertainment and the more you pay the more they take off. Or Rhianna's "Rude Boy" but this is more objectifying men and taking anything special out of the act of having sex. With songs like this populating the airwaves its no wonder that polls are showing kids are losing their virginity a lot sooner than even a few years ago. Chuck Klosterman talks in "Toby Vs. Moby" about the way teenage girls are sex crazed when it used to be more heavily boys. We hear all the time that girls should have equal opportunities which has become most prevalent in fast and reckless driving and sexual interest. Due to the fact that we have been getting the messages the longest they are the ones that are most embedded in our brains.
I think the freedom kids are given has increased faster than their sense of responsibility for their behavior. We're too often taught that our choices don't have consequences, which is of course total balderdash.
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