What happened to music?

[Maniac Craniac]

Your parents said the same thing.

...and they were correct.

People want reality and they want reality in their music.

"Reality" is one of the least apropos ways of describing it.

[burbuja0512]

Music is primarily the domain of young people and what they sing about is indicative of how they feel about the world they're going to inherit. Shock songs like shock jocks speak for a generation who want their opinions heard. With the loss of censors it is not surprising crude, hateful lyrics fill the airwaves.
People want reality and they want reality in their music and unfortunately this includes reality in their lyrics.
I can remember when the movie "Dirty Harry" came out. The old folks were up in arms over the crude language, the violence and the perceived evil of it. We young folks loved it because it was real. It wasn't some sugarcoated, over-veneered movie - "Dirty Harry" was down, it was dirty, it was cool.
At the time, our country was mired in an unwinnable war which shook the foundations of American life. The nuclear arms race contributed too. Fear, uncertainty, frustration couldn't be escaped.
In regards to the music, while there was Elvis, Wayne Newton and Barry Manilow on the tamer side, there was Led Zeppellin, Santana, Black Sabbath, Janis Joplin and the folks who brought you Woodstock and they scared the beejeebers out of our parents with their blatant use of hard drugs, alcohol and promicuous behavior.
Did the country survive? Yes.
Was it changed? Yes. "The times they are achangin..."
My advice is listen to the music you love and ignore what you hate. This too shall pass - guaranteed.
Just my opinion... from a person who was in high school when Nixon was president.

I agree. I don't agree with a lot of the lyrics out there, but I also don't make a big deal out of it.

If we all ignored it, it wouldn't be so shocking and wouldn't sell. If many teenagers want to rebel, they'll listen to music that 'society' hates. Just my 2 cents.

Conversation with my teenager goes like this:

DS: Mom I'm going to listen to Cannibal Corpse.
Burbuja: Oh.. sounds like they're trying to sound really tough with a name like that
DS: Yeah, you should hear their lyrics. They're talking about blah blah blah... (Insert disgusting stuff here)
Burbuja: Oh.. what do you think about that?
DS: Hmmm.. sounds kind of gross. I guess that's not really my thing.

I can't say how DS would have reacted if I had approached this differently, but knowing my DS who is sweet, but loves to annoy parents, had I made a big deal about it, he probably would have been more interested.

[FinancialWorld]

Lol I mentioned right there I was a teenager...but to be exact I'm almost 18 and a half...lets hope they the children won't say the same :ack:

When you get over 20 years old, you no longer describe your age in half, quarter, or monthly stages. hilarious Believe me, I was once there (OK I'm only 20).

[PonyGirl93]

If we all ignored it, it wouldn't be so shocking and wouldn't sell. If many teenagers want to rebel, they'll listen to music that 'society' hates. Just my 2 cents.

Although I mostly agree with what you said, I disagree here. I think it would sell, because most of it doesn't shock anyone anymore! For ex., my mom would die of a heart attack if she heard any of Kesha's music. But most of the people that I know that like it don't like it because of that, they like it because it's "cool" and "fun." But at the same time there are other "cool" and "fun" music that they like that isn't shocking. So, I realize this is a very unorganized statement :p , but I think it is more the way their peers are responding to it than society as a whole.

It isn't even the lyrics that bother me in that case, I just listen and picture people banging on trash cans and singing in a bizzarre voice whatever thought pops into their head at the moment, with a tape player sitting on the ground in the center :puke:

[burbuja0512]

When you get over 20 years old, you no longer describe your age in half, quarter, or monthly stages. hilarious Believe me, I was once there (OK I'm only 20).

hilarious. You mean I should stop saying that I'm "34 going on 35" lol

[burbuja0512]

Although I mostly agree with what you said, I disagree here. I think it would sell, because most of it doesn't shock anyone anymore! For ex., my mom would die of a heart attack if she heard any of Kesha's music. But most of the people that I know that like it don't like it because of that, they like it because it's "cool" and "fun." But at the same time there are other "cool" and "fun" music that they like that isn't shocking. So, I realize this is a very unorganized statement :p , but I think it is more the way their peers are responding to it than society as a whole.

It isn't even the lyrics that bother me in that case, I just listen and picture people banging on trash cans and singing in a bizzarre voice whatever thought pops into their head at the moment, with a tape player sitting on the ground in the center :puke:

I see what you mean.. I do think it would probably still sell because there are people with bad taste everywhere. However, with my kids, If I make a big deal about something, it seems more appealing to them. I usually don't react and get them to talk about it and they eventually come to the conclusion that any other rational person would make.

Take swearing for example. My parents made a huge deal about bad words when I was growing up. I wasn't even allowed to say "that sucks" or other relatively harmless comments. This made me such a rebel for a while that I probably had the worst potty mouth of anyone I knew as a teenager.

For my kids, I don't make a big deal about it, we've had discussions and they've come to the conclusion that swearing makes you sound uneducated, but I think that's because I don't act shocked by it. We just talk about it like adults.

Ha ha.. maybe my philosophy is correct, or maybe I just have really good kids. I may never know...

[FinancialWorld]

It isn't even the lyrics that bother me in that case, I just listen and picture people banging on trash cans and singing in a bizzarre voice whatever thought pops into their head at the moment, with a tape player sitting on the ground in the center.

Haha Exactly. Do you ever see how crazy those people are when they perform. Can you imagine Yo Yo Ma jumping up and down with his cello? haha...well..NO I couldn't.

hilarious. You mean I should stop saying that I'm "34 going on 35" lol

LOL. Or "50 going on 16" :roflol:

[Maniac Craniac]

I do think it would probably still sell because there are people with bad taste everywhere.

Indeed. Two years ago, it was the Jonas Brothers and now it is Justin Bieber. People will buy anything, so long as someone else claims to like it.

I would, however, add the seemingly benign Justin Bieber into the category of trash music, since his lyrics re: love are so superficial that they may actually be harmful to young people's perception of relationships. If you don't believe me, just read them yourself.

Saw so many pretty faces before I saw you you
Now all I see is you
I'm coming for you (I'm coming for you)
Noo No
Don't need these other pretty faces like I need you
And when you’re mine in the world
There's gonna be one less lonely girl

A thousand years from now, some bright young doctoral candidate will write a dissertation exploring literary parallels between "Lonely Girl" and Homer's Ilead.

[PonyGirl93]

I see what you mean.. I do think it would probably still sell because there are people with bad taste everywhere. However, with my kids, If I make a big deal about something, it seems more appealing to them. I usually don't react and get them to talk about it and they eventually come to the conclusion that any other rational person would make.

Take swearing for example. My parents made a huge deal about bad words when I was growing up. I wasn't even allowed to say "that sucks" or other relatively harmless comments. This made me such a rebel for a while that I probably had the worst potty mouth of anyone I knew as a teenager.

For my kids, I don't make a big deal about it, we've had discussions and they've come to the conclusion that swearing makes you sound uneducated, but I think that's because I don't act shocked by it. We just talk about it like adults.

Ha ha.. maybe my philosophy is correct, or maybe I just have really good kids. I may never know...

I heartily support your philosophy, as a child whose mother thinks that unmarried people kissing in movies is questionable and sparkling grape juice is evil because it "looks like alcohol." There have definitely been (and still are) moments in my/my sisters' lives where we wanted to do something, bad or not, just because "mom would hate it." Thankfully none of us went overly bonkers with it though :p

[burbuja0512]

I heartily support your philosophy, as a child whose mother thinks that unmarried people kissing in movies is questionable and sparkling grape juice is evil because it "looks like alcohol." There have definitely been (and still are) moments in my/my sisters' lives where we wanted to do something, bad or not, just because "mom would hate it." Thankfully none of us went overly bonkers with it though :p

Sounds like we may have similar parents. I wasn't allowed to drink coca cola (it's a hard drink) or see any movie that wasn't rated G. Even then, our movies would get shut off for any situations that were even mildly uncomfortable. I remember once having a movie shut off because someone used the term "opposite sex." The word 'sex' even in that totally harmless context meant that the movie was bad.

Not to knock strict parents, but kids are smart. They can understand why things are bad if you have a conversation and let them draw their own conclusions.