Akon, "I Wanna Love You", Hip Hop, 2008.
Billy Currington, "Pretty Good at Drinkin' Beer", Country, 2010.
Katy Perry, "Peacock", Pop, 2010.
Elton John, "Something About the Way You Look Tonight", Pop, 1997.
Christina Aguilera, "WooHoo", Pop, 2010.
Community Service:
Clay Walker, "The Chain of Love", Country, 2000.
Carrie Underwood, "Change", Country, 2009.
Tommy Shane Steiner, "What If She's an Angel", Country, 2001.
Martina McBride, "Love's the Only House", Country, 1999.
Young Artists for Haiti, "Wavin' Flag", Pop, 2010.
I observed that the concept of pleasure is much more prevalent in American pop music than community service is. It took me no time to go through my iTunes library and find five songs about sex, drinking, love, and all things pleasurable. On the other hand, I had to think long and hard about songs that spoke to the subject of charity and good will. I knew that there were country songs that I had heard in the past that addressed this topic but I could not remember their titles or who sang them. I ended up having to do some Googling to find the songs. On the other hand, I could rattle off five songs about pleasure and happiness that I listen to regularly in just a few seconds. Of the five songs that I did find that are about community service, four are country songs. While I know that there are pop songs about charity and service, they are much less popular. I think that this has to do with the general audience of these two genres. Songs about angels and spreading love to others will probably be more openly embraced by a forty-year-old mother of two than an eighteen-year-old high school senior. Their priorities and life experience, in general, are simply very different. I realize, of course, that this is a very simplified generalization. However, the lack of songs about community service in Top 40 music must speak to something.
I am not surprised that pleasure is a more popular topic in today's music than community service. In general, people want to hear songs that are light-hearted and fun, songs that make them want to dance and have a good time, and songs about enjoying life without taking things too seriously. For some, the way to enjoy life is to get drunk and party with friends, while for others it is all about sex, whether you're into the "Peacock" or the "WooHoo". (We don't discriminate!) In Hinduism, it is understood that pleasure is a temporary thing and that it must be attained in a moral, intelligent way. I am not sure that today's pop music, or pop culture for that matter, is too concerned with morality or intelligence. Compare a song like Elton John's "The Way You Look Tonight" to "I Wanna Love You" by Akon. While Elton John's is romantic, Akon's is degrading and rather immoral. Unfortunately, in this country sex sells and until that changes, pop music will continue to be about pleasure.
You are so right about what sells these days. I agree with what you said about how pleasure songs are easier to find because all people want to do is have a good time. I noticed while I was looking for community service songs, and since I don't listen to a lot of country, that I found 5 that were by Michael Jackson alone in the pop genre. I had to ask friends who listened to different types of music (and some still named Michael Jacksons songs), to find some by different artists because I wanted a variety. I had to expand my view of community service and what it means to help people, or the world in general, to find more songs.
ReplyDeleteI listen to country music and I could not think of those songs. I didn't even think about it in that way. The only songs I could really find were about helping people after huge disaster. I also agree that sex sells in our country and I don't think it's right, but who am I? Community service to me is about getting out in the community we live in and helping the people that are right in front of us, or helping the environment that we live in. I think that you did a good job on finding those songs.
ReplyDelete