BY OLIVIA PASCALE-WONG
Music is one source of history that can’t be printed in a textbook, magazine, or journal; it is our own personal way of time traveling that brings us back to what life used to be. Songs give us insight into the morals, values, and opinions of society during that time. If people from even a decade ago were to hear the music playing on the radio today, I can say with confidence that they would be appalled. Of course, everyone favors the tunes from their youth, but the negative opinions in our generation’s music would make even the most tolerant adult queasy.
Switch on the radio and you’ll hear lines such as “Bands will make her dance,” “Pop that (expletive),” or even “…getting drunk and high at the same time.” Hearing things like this coming out of the mouths of some of the most glorified people in America, listeners are forced to wonder, how is this constant stream of corrupt values effecting us?
Forget about high school students, middle and elementary school kids are being exposed to the disturbing things these “artists” are referencing. It’s not unusual to walk into a 5th grade class and hear a boy mimicking his favorite song. Before kids can even develop the capacity to understand what they’re hearing, they are vocalizing it to everyone around them – talk about a therapist’s worst nightmare. The only thing kids at that young of an age should be repeating is their alphabet and multiplication tables. When I was in 5th grade, I was singing the lyrics from High School Musical, not the latest 2 Chainz song.
Some of pop culture’s biggest musical influences include Tyga, Walka Flocka Flame, and Rick Ross, all of whom make references to the use of drugs and less than courteous treatment of women. To say that lyrics from their songs are disrespectful is an understatement, degrading is much more appropriate. This argument goes back to one of the oldest debates in psychology, that of nature verses nurture. Now I may be wrong, but I am pretty sure that we don’t come out of the womb thinking “money over bit****.”
All joking aside, the brains of kids hearing this music are still building neural connections and developing before they can even comprehend the meaning of these lyrics, and before they can judge whether it fits into their value system and morality. This is not to say that after hearing these provocative lyrics, kids will want to go out and emulate the type of activities heard in these songs, but it is giving them the illusion that it’s okay, normal even. How are girls going to avoid feeling inferior to men or even dominated by them? Tracks often have the underlying message that women are disposable, useful for a moment then tossed out when done with. Not only does this influence men’s perspective on women, but also woman’s perspective on themselves. If every 15 minutes young girls hear lyrics telling them these negative messages chances are they will start to believe them. Another prime example, “Bands will make her dance” refers to rubber bands around stacks of money, encouraging women to dance, and I don’t mean the Tango. Are these the things we want girls who are becoming women, to consider cool, or socially acceptable? I hope not.
These radio hits are not slowing down anytime soon, artists are making millions off of teenagers’ eagerness for provocative lyrics. While the artist are making big bucks, and kids are soaking up unintelligent punch lines which is causing our society and pop culture to go down the drain in a less than sophisticated manner. Still, as long as these records are being bought by the masses, record companies could care less about their influence on society. There may come a day in the future when statistics show a spike in strippers and drug dealers, but if and when that day comes, we can’t say we didn’t see it coming.
