Do 13-year-olds know how to shake it like a Poloroid picture?
PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. — At JWB's bar mitzvah reception three years ago, the DJ played "Hey Ya" by OutKast. At the time, I was somewhat taken aback to see parents clap along as they watched their twelve- and thirteen-year-old kids dance to a song that includes the lyrics:
I don't want to meet your daddy/
I just want you in my Caddy
I don't want to meet your mama/
I just want to make you come-a
I just want you in my Caddy
I don't want to meet your mama/
I just want to make you come-a
Fortunately, I was spared the experience of feeling like a prude this weekend. When the DJ played Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl," he scratched out the swear words, choosing the radio-friendly version instead.
5 comments:
I thought the lyric was "comma." This changes everything.
very interesting observation dl004d.
it's a complicated question of how much effect the words to popular music --especially music with an overpowering beat meant to elicit movement--have on the listeners.
suffice it to say that it at the very least sends words and phrases percolating into the daily discourse of pre-teens and teens.
but these words and phrases do have implications for a particular "world view" ---often negative toward authorities and social institutions and of course certain gender roles.
music and dance are commonly celebrated as the language of the oppressed where subtle and not so subtle politically forbidden statements and ideas can be expressed (e.g. brazilian capoeira).
the theme of adolescence IS breaking bonds and overcoming the oppression of adults---sooooo are these kids "playing with matches" in a safe place and are the parents clapping along clueless or beginning the process of "letting go?
To answer the last question: I think the parents are clueless. For most songs recorded in my lifetime, it's been pretty hard to understand the words until you're heard them a few times. REM was never known for their diction. Heck, I never understood the second line of James Taylor's [!] Mexico ("Feel like a fool") until I heard it on a live album. So parents are especially in the dark -- as are most people hearing a fast-paced song for the first time.
When I was ten years old I was in the car with my dad when "Papa Don't Preach" came on. I started singing along and my dad said, "Do you know what this song is about? It's about a teenager who is pregnant and wants to keep the baby." I really hadn't realized what the song was about and felt pretty stupid. So I must agree with those who say sometimes kids just like a tune and a beat.
My mom wouldn't let me get the Madonna album "Material Girl" because of that song and "Like a Virgin."
Of course, every time I went to my friend Brooke's house, we listened to the album and danced around like we were pop stars. Oh to be in fourth grade again...
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