Hit Songs and Carwashes
This morning I was doing some errands, and I was thinking about some of the ways we prepare people who are coming to Mexico short term. I was thinking that maybe we should tell them how they can learn to look away.
You might not be surprised that magazine stands are a good place not to look, but would you expect car washes? Let me tell you, more often than not car wash signs are just not appropriate to look at.
Not too long ago we had a "situation" where our daughter ended up with a written copy of a song that was immoral in the extreme. I won’t go into details about how she got it or what the song was (but I can say it wasn’t her fault).
But this led me to wonder what sorts of songs kids are listening to here in Mexico.
Rather than analyze all the popular music that’s out there, I stuck to English songs. I didn’t trust myself to catch the subtleties and double-meanings in Spanish.
This isn’t totally fair, of course, since people’s English is liable to be limited to only a few words. So these songs are often listened to because they’re just catchy, or popular elsewhere.
On the other hand, some people do understand the words. Also, they’re looking at the videos, which means they get the gist.
And many English songs do make the "top 10" here in Mexico.
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So, I took the top 30 or 40 songs from the last month or so, and listed some interesting facts about them. How many of these songs would be appropriate, say, for our children?
Here’s what I found:
- 44% were directly about sex. We’re not talking subtle language or symbolism here – almost half of the hit songs were just plain and simple blatant detailed blunt graphic descriptions.
- If you include songs that were very explicit on the same topic, the number goes up to 64%. That means that, if a child is listening to hit songs (and they do listen), more than 6 out of 10 that they here will be very graphic.
- If you get a little more subtle and include songs with some sexual reference, we easily get to 73%. Most often these songs are describing or promoting immorality.
- But what about just plain sensuality in the song and/or in the video? Now we’re up to 88%. That’s almost 9 songs out of 10.
- Now I actually didn’t include some other things that parents might be concerned about. For example, 12% of the songs included swearing. 21% mentioned drugs, drunkenness and smoking (we’re talking clear abuse)
- There were other topics included in this list, such as torture, violence, and plain old blasphemy.
Out of all the songs, maybe 3-6 songs out of a hundred didn’t have any of the above objectionable material (well, if you don’t watch the video, that is).
Now before you run out and tell all your friends how terrible Mexico is, go get a top ten list from your country and see how it compares. Just a hint – you might want to read some descriptions of the music videos instead of actually watching them all. But, of course, the question is – what are your children, friends, and others around you watching?
What are you and I watching and listening to?
12 October 2010 @ 12:43 pm
Jim: Satan seems to have done far too good a job of taking over the music the world is listening to (and sometimes addicted to)! If Christians are not isolated, we’re finding it more and more difficult to be “in the world, but not of it”. The armour spoken of in Ephesians 6 is so important.
Thanks for doing this research.
12 October 2010 @ 2:19 pm
Thanks Jim for sharing this! What a broken, spiritually darkened world in which we all live. Moral lostness is characteristic of every age group, right from birth to seniors. Genuine love seeks to raise awareness of a higher standard which is not condemning in itself, though some will take it to be so. Too many folk misunderstand unconditional love, thinking that it means to accept without correction. So, in many cases parents try to put a positive spin on the sin of their children’s behaviour, often to hide their own guilt for involvement in the same lost behaviour. This may ease the conscience, but the stain remains. Good for you to ring the clarion in a call to holiness.
12 October 2010 @ 2:31 pm
A revealing analysis, Jim. And from my awareness of the United States and Canada, I’d say that our popular music is at least as bad, possibly worse.
Being an old guy, I can remember the early days of television in the 1950’s. I vividly recall a performer being caught be surprise and using the word “damnâ€â€“then, apologizing to the viewing audience! And I can well remember the fuss made about Elvis Presley. On television, on at least one occasion, only his face and upper body were allowed on camera, because his sensual wiggle was considered indecent. Now, many laugh at how “narrow†we were in those days, and how harmless it all was. But, of course, it wasn’t.
The Bible says, “In the last days perilous times will come. For men [i.e. human beings] will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God….Evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived†(II Tim. 3:1-4, 13). I could hardly come up with a better description of today’s pop music scene.
There is a fallacious argument you perhaps have heard: that history is cyclical, rather than linear. That similar things keep happening again and again. We are reminded that, in the nineteenth century, many felt that waltzes were immoral. Now, hardly anyone thinks that. In the mid-twentieth century, Elvis and his ilk were labeled the same way. Now, they’re fine with most folks. Today, some make a fuss about contemporary pop music, but soon it too will be broadly accepted. It’s all the same, round and round. The problem with that argument is that it’s not true.
History does not simply repeat itself over and over. The “worse and worse†of Paul’s warning to Timothy is coming to pass. In practical terms, something happened in the 1950’s with the early rockers that had never happened before. The new music was marketed to teens as uniquely their own music. Before that, popular music was much more cross-generational. But for the past 60 years young people have been fed a most seductive line of propaganda: “This is yours; you need this. Don’t let the adults take it away from you. They don’t really understand you.†There are echoes here of the devil’s lie in Eden (Gen. 3:4-5). And its corrosion is eating away at the souls of our youth.