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.
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?
