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Mixed messages in popular music
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When we think of feminist music, we step back into the ‘70’s or the “Janis Joplin era”. We tend to think of feminist music as a thing of the past rather than our present. The generation today, as older people may think, is messed up because of the messages of the music we play gives us. Granted, there is a ton of music, particularly rap, pop, and R&B, where the music is gay bashing, misogynistic, money, drugs, alcohol, you name it. And when we look at the artists, we don’t think much of them, and laugh at them in the tabloids.
My music of choice tends to be rap, hip hop, and Top 40 music. I’ve always listened to the lyrics, not necessarily the beat, but recently became more sensitive to some of the music. On occasion, I would shut off or switch stations on certain songs, such as “Blame It (On The Alcohol)” by Jamie Foxx and T Pain. Not just because I find the beat annoying, but for some reason the misogynistic lyrics seem to stand out more in that song than anything else. Jamie Foxx might as well say “I’m a sexual robot and alcohol is just an excuse.”
But not every song is bad. In the past few years, particularly in hip hop, I’ve noticed more feminist songs, even if the artist doesn’t consider herself as a feminist. If you watch “Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes”, a documentary by Byron Hurt, some of the interviewees pointed out that they rather rap about positive things, but it’s the white upper-class men who pay the rappers in the end. The rappers produce what makes money. Rap isn’t what it used to be, but it’s coming back in small ways, and with women.
“If I Were a Boy” (Beyoncé), “Like a Boy” (Ciara), and “Can’t Hold Us Down” (Christina Aguilera featuring Lil’ Kim) are some of the more recent “feminist” songs that have hit the radio waves. While it is just the occasional song that comes out, it shows that feminist music isn’t completely lost. To quote my grandmother after seeing a Cosmopolitan magazine “you girls today have ruined what we have fought-for for a long time”; hate to break it to you grams, but we are still here.
Women’s rights in general, not just music, still have a long way to go. It’s not saying though that we quit back in the ‘70’s. Instead of huge changes, we are just making small ones in different ways. I still listen to the popular music because there are positive messages out there. The problem really is that this generation tends to listen to the beat, not the lyrics. What’s confusing is that the same radio station may play the “Alcohol” song one minute, and then the next song is “If I Were a Boy.” Both songs are of similar genre, but not the same message. That’s what this generation has to worry about.
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