Over the arrival of the New Year, I spent time wondering as usual about what could possibly inspire young people to collectively form a movement, or, to ignore one. There are signs everywhere that societal progression is constantly and consistently happening (although never without a debate), right? As much as it seems a change gon’ come, something still feels like it’s tugging at that notion, insisting that perhaps the change isn’t going to be as universally progressive as just technologically and sexually evolved. This tugging feeling is haunting; it gets louder when the radio comes on, irritating me while I’m driving; and, if it had a name, it would be something along the lines of Lady Gaga.
“Just Dance” and “Poker Face” were at the top of this past year’s most requested songs on mainstream “biggest hits” stations across the U.S.- stations that perhaps reflect what the majority of kids are listening to. For any of you that didn’t have the pleasure of involuntarily hearing those songs an uncomfortable amount of times, they are pretty simple to break down: get drunk (“I love this record baby, but I can’t see straight anymore”) and sexualize yourself (“Wish I could shut my playboy mouth”). If that’s not convincing enough just Youtube any one of her videos and watch as Lady G gets closer to naked in every orgy-like scene. If she’s really just “bluffin'” with her “muffin” then why does it look suspiciously like she’s giving it away in every one of her music videos or for that matter, in her strange and revealing outfits?
I get that her decision to be a joke has some humor and consciousness to it, but she’s not convincing enough that she’s actually promoting some sort of truly positive social change. Sexual liberation is one thing; but if it’s only available in the form of Lady Gaga with her head in some guy’s boxers, then I’m not really interested. I have to give her props for her activism and speaking out at the National Equality March, I just wish I could shake the feeling that she is corrupting ten year old girls across the nation because some glittery corporation told her to.
Obviously the problem doesn’t lie solely within Gagaland, she’s just a symbol of a movement gone wrong. The other day I heard my little sister, who just hit sixth grade, singing the latest lyrics of Britney Spears; the song is called “3”and in it she has said everything but “some”- really, I mean everything. I thought about what I was listening to in sixth grade, and to be honest, it was Britney too, just a really different Britney. I remember me and my friends trying to choreograph her dance moves from videos like “Sometimes.” I just watched the video for “3,” and I have to say that my sister is experiencing a whole different Spears; of course, in reality, a whole different culture.
This is not to say that there isn’t a decent hit song now and then, but they are extremely few and far between lately. When the top tunes have such articulate titles as “My life would suck without you” and “Whatcha say,” or every pathetic lyric about dancing with girls in clubs is a carbon copy of the lyric before it, one may begin to wonder who is keep everything that may even border on intellectual away from the masses. The more I think about it, the more it seems like a conspiracy against thinking – how many times can you rhyme low with flo’? Not to mention that objectification – of women as sex objects, and men as wallets- is constantly being given the green light in the midst of all this (I am still utterly confused by Akon saying “I’m trying to find the words to describe this girl [something he does in every song, by the way] without being disrespectful.” The song is called “Sexy Bitch,” and I really wish I could personally ask him about this.)
In the end, I am sad, not only for my ears, but for my little sister, her friends, and every unfortunate partaker in the popular radio scene. Although, as Britney so eloquently put it, “living in sin is the new thing,” I’m just not ready to face the music.