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Tuesday, 10 September 2013

Trend in music : Shock over Substance


I am sick of turning on my television and internet and seeing female artists going to extreme measures to get attention, yes Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga and Nicky Minaj I am referring to you. Being confident and feeling sexy is the prerogative of any woman, in fact there is something empowering about knowing your body and being proud of it. My problem comes in when you force your sexiness on people for no other reason than to sell records.  Most artists of today go through extreme measure to create a buzz around their performances. They take the notion that sex sells one step too far and do not take into consideration that most of us quite frankly have had enough of seeing these desperate measures for attention to last us a life a time.

I think that it is fair to say that all the antics that these women employ during their performances and music videos are a way to distract people from the obvious truth that their talent pool is not up to scratch. Think about it they spend more time on finding ways to shock us and less time on singing songs that have lyrics with meaning or even creating videos that tell a story.

It is comforting when I come across stars like Adele who break the mould and let their voice do the talking. She is innovative and all her success can be attributed to her voice. She has sold millions of records world wide all while keeping her clothes and self respect intact. She shows that it is possible to be successful while relying solely on your talent.

Yes music is a platform for people to express themselves and when done in the right way magic happens. Your body is a tool for expression but like any other tool over use can lead to erosion. Artists need to find a balance when expressing themselves and overexposing themselves. So often the antics are more shocking that we end up talking more about the performance and what they did on stage then the song they were singing.

 Female musicians are looked up to by a variety of young impressionable girls. I have a 12 year old sister and often cringe when i think that these are the idols she has to look up to. Luckily for me she is wise beyond her years and like me seems baffled by some of the music videos that play on TV during the day. I find myself wondering how i would feel if she ever decided to become a musician in this day and age. Would she be encouraged to wear a skimpy outfit and act a certain way in order to be on par with modern day stars? How is it that some of these women act so inappropriately and their family doesn’t intervene? Is the money worth it?

To be fair even Men have taken having a sexy female in their video to the extreme. Think Robin Thicke for a moment and his video for blurred lines. I first heard the song on radio and I cannot lie I actually liked it. Then I came across the video and was so surprised to see a barrage of naked girls being paraded up and down. Shock is the best way to describe my reaction, even worse so when i took the time to actually listen and understand what the song means. Basically he is saying that women often say No but actually mean yes, and that women are unaware of what they want and need a man to show them. The nature of the song is actually offensive as it portrays women as submissive creatures unaware of what they want or need. I have never been one to focus on lyrics actually I like a lot of the songs that I do simply because I have no idea what exactly they mean, but this blurred lines song rubbed me up the wrong way. Come to think about it the video  did the song justice and probably depicted the lyrics exactly the way he wanted them to. The main thing about the success of this song was the shock value, which is what male and female artists seem to be going for these days.

I don’t know about you. But I miss listening to talented musicians that have stories to tell through their music. Recently the only thing I really like about a song is the beat it has, because most of the time the lyrics are absolutely pointless. My playlist consist of songs I listened to back in the day and a handpicked selection of music from 2013. Evidently music has become more about the artists love of fame and money and less about their love of music.

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