Kelly is a mother, runner, writer, designer and serial entrepreneur. She is also a reformed over-committer and believes that a busy life need not be a stressful life. She blogs about all this and more at A Life Less Frantic.
Why does every popular song have to sound like this?
By
7 comments
I don’t spend a lot of time in the car which means I don’t get to listen to the radio very much. On the weekend it became apparent that this is not such a bad thing.
Driving along in the car I was treated to these wonderful lyrics from Johnny Ruffo:
“I’m on top of the world when I’m on top of you girl …”
What. The. Heck.
Now let me back up here for a second and say that as a rule, I am not a wowser. I have quite the high tolerance for things that incite others to violent reactions because I think ‘well, there’s room for all kinds of weird stuff in this fair world of ours and we can’t control everything.’
So why such a furious reaction to the Johnny Ruffo lyrics? Two things:
The first is that they are just so overt. Sure, hearing little pre-tweens singing Katy Perry’s ‘Disco Stick’ is a little unsettling, but I am pretty sure none of those kids know what ‘disco stick’ is a euphemism for. I can guarantee they know what being ‘on top of you girl’ means though.
The second is that Johnny Ruffo is an X-factor graduate meaning his fan base is almost entirely comprised of young girls, girls who are right now sitting there imagining (dreaming?) that Johnny (or some other boy) is singing these words to them. I don’t even know where to start with how horribly inappropriate that is.
The final icing on the cake for me came after visiting Russo’s website. After describing the moment where he came up with these special lyrics (much to the horror of his studio mates) he says:
“For me, I love to push boundaries, and I love to push the envelope. I’m a pretty cheeky person and I love to have a bit of fun, so I like to push things to see how far I can go before I get into trouble. The song is cheeky and fun, but it’s not disrespectful in any way - hopefully people see the lighter side of it.”
No Johnny, sorry, I am not seeing the lighter side of it. I don’t think you’re being cheeky or edgy at all, I think you’re being hugely disrespectful to your fan base. I think you’re telling teenage boys that this is an appropriate way to serenade teenage girls. I think you’re telling teenage girls that it’s cool to have boys on top of them … that this is how girls know boys love them. I think that is quite … shit!
For all your musicians out there wanting to ‘push boundaries’ and be a little ‘cheeky’, I have a hot tip for you – for free!
Why not try sophistication. Or subtlety. Or cleverness? Or god forbid … all three.
Now THAT would be something different.
