Lewd Lyrics in current pop music

A lot of pop music today contains lewd lyrics that sometimes get by parents. Money-hungry label owners should act more responsibly. Pop music artists and their music have a huge impact on the younger generation. Lady Gaga wearing raw meat? Pop artists singing about rough sex, suicide, self-destruction, abuse; that's not cool or trendy and it's nothing to play with.

I am talking about bubblegum pop, the music 9, 10, 11, and 12 year old girls listen to.

Here’s a saying I heard recently that sums it up: “You Can’t Unring the Bell.” Now that vulgar curse words and blatant sexual connotations are allowed on the pop airwaves, what’s next? It will move forward, based on the slippery slope syndrome. Seems pop has joined the hip hop and rap music industry in constantly striving to descend to the next level. Most rap and hip hop music that succeeds on the charts is misogynistic and violent, promoting negative stereotypes.

Nothing compares to meeting the school bus to pick up your precious 12-year-old granddaughter and hearing Eminem screaming “Tie you to the bed and set the house on fire,” when the doors open, except perhaps Rihanna bellowing “Rude Boy, Can You Get It Up ?” Yes, our middle school allows the buses to play the current FM pop radio station and they play a steady stream of Ke$ha, Katy Perry, Eminem, Rihanna, etc.

A June 2008 CMI study of Billboard’s top 50 songs found that nearly half contained sexually suggestive lyrics and over 25 percent featured sexually degrading lyrics and looks like it’s holding steady in 2010.

Song lyrics affect teens. Of course they do. A study published in Pediatrics found that adolescents who listen to music with degrading sexual lyrics were more likely to initiate sexual intercourse and engage in other sexual behavior.

Britney Spears’ hit, “If You Seek Amy” and Flo Rida’s number one hit “Right Round” snuck in themes without some parents knowing but I assure you that young kids are picking up on those themes. Kids as young as 10 were listening to Spears sing “F**K Me” and are now listening to Flo Rida sing about oral sex. These are the messages young kids are receiving from popular music today.

Sadly, it looks like lewd is gaining ground; just glancing at the current lineup on the Billboard (October 2010), here’s my opinion of the lyrics:

Teenage Dream, Katy Perry, Take It Off, Ke$ha, California Gurls, Katy Perry, all three lewd

DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love, Usher, most of the lyrics are okay but they slip in one MF and a slimy reference to being your gyno. Tacky.

I Like It, Enrique Iglesias, suggestive but not blatantly lewd

Club Can’t Handle Me, Flo Rida, not blatant - suggestive

Only Girl In the World, Rihanna, suggestive but not overtly lewd

Love the Way You Lie, Eminem and Rihanna, horribly violent and misogynist

Just the Way You Are, Bruno Mars; Dynamite, Taio Cruz; Just a Dream, Nelly; not lewd

Like a G6, Far*East Movement, stupid and who knows what it means, not overtly lewd

Mine, Taylor Swift, inspiring and not lewd

Secrets, OneRepublic, not lewd

Cooler Than Me, Mike Posner, laughable but not lewd

Animal, Neon Trees, freaky but not lewd

Airplanes, B.o.B, not lewd (love Hayley Williams’ voice)

If I Had You, Adam Lambert, Misery, Maroon 5, Magic, B.o.B, not lewd

These artists don’t NEED to bombard and corrupt the ten, eleven, and twelve-year-old children with dirty lyrics. Their music is going to sell anyway, based on the beat, the rhythm.

So since they don’t need to do it – what kind of unpleasant personality would corrupt 10-year-olds -- just because they can?

News flash to Ke$ha, in real life when a girl starts “taking it off” in a mosh pit, she doesn’t turn into stardust, like in your video; instead she is probably going to be sexually assaulted.

How many young girls are lured by the lyrics and wake up the next morning bruised, diseased, pregnant, and reputation tarnished at school. You can’t unring the bell.

How many criminals are spurred on by lyrics such as Tie her to the bed and set the house on fire ? Which has actually been done recently, in a horrible home invasion, where an entire family was wiped out and the two girls were tied to beds and then the house was set on fire (after the mother and the 12-year-old were raped).

Girls and boys don't really consider the fact that these artists are heavily-processed money makers for behind-the-scene moguls who are raking in millions of dollars. It’s a tragically cynical business where young girls like Ke$ha and Rihanna are turned into money-making caricatures. If you get pregnant, is Ke$ha going to help you financially to raise your baby? If you contract HIV, is Rihanna going to visit you in hospice? If you are brutally murdered, is Eminem going to attend your funeral and comfort your mother? How about Lady Ga Ga? Katy Perry?

These music stars are making lots and lots of money off of young teens while singing lewd lyrics that are affecting their personalities in a negative way. Britney Spears earns $64,000,000.00 a year. Lady Ga Ga earns $62,000,000.00 a year. They don’t need to pound out nasty, degrading lyrics. Their music would sell based on their name and the beat.

"Don't Trust Me" by 3OH!3, became the band's breakout hit. It is their first top ten hit in the U.S, reaching #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in its twenty-third week on the chart. It has sold over 2,000,000 copies and has been certified Double Platinum. This is the one that goes: Do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips. Sadly, cynically, they are referring to a real girl, Helen Keller, a girl who could not see, speak or hear. Lovely message for our beautiful young girls, eh? Don't talk, just grind your hips.

Money-hungry label owners, you've made millions off the backs of children and their parents. Please, act more responsibly.

Remember the Spongebob episode. The hook brings you back:

http://www.lyrics.com/index.php/artists/lyric/blues-traveler-lyrics-hook

As Mr. Krabs told Spongebob and Patrick, Watch out for the hook.