Image via Wikipedia OK, moms . . . I know you’ve heard this song, and I wonder if it bothers you as much as it bothers me. It’s a very popular, overplayed tune called “Paper Planes” by MIA. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sei-eEjy4g) When you first listen to it, it has a cool sound, a catchy tune and the singer belts it out in a very distinctive voice, I'll give her that. You can’t help but listen. Then comes the chorus: “All I want to do is . . . (pop, pop, pop – the sound of guns going off) and take your mo-nay . . .” then you hear a cash register drawer opening up.When I first heard this song, my teen acted out the gun-shooting part with the thumbs and index fingers on both her hands, as though she was actually shooting at someone, and then when the sound of the cash register comes, she pulled down on an imaginary slot-machine lever. I couldn’t figure out what she was doing and what “mo-nay” was, and she quickly educated me.
“Mom, it’s ‘money.’ They’re shooting someone and taking their money.” At the end of the song, the gangsta gal brings it to a dramatic close by singing, "Some I murder, some I let go . . . "
What the HELL??? Is this what record producers think our children need to sing along to, or for that matter, is this what these musical geniuses think is going to sell records? Who do they think is going to give our teens the money to BUY these records, anyway?? Not me, and I implore YOU not to buy this CD or let your children download this song to their iPod, either! Since WHEN did it become popular for our children to emulate and glorify gangsters?
Please, PLEASE do your children – and the world -- a favor and switch the station every time this song comes on. Either find the Disney Channel, some soft rock station or shut the radio off altogether and use this time to connect with your children in a loving, way, rather than the way Hollywood is trying to reach them – through mainstreamed violence.
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2 comments:
Man, what a twisted message!
My daughter (16 years old) just complained to me that I've stunted her musical growth because I never played "popular" music in the house when she and her brother were younger. So now she can't participate in discussions about "this group" or "that one."
I either played kiddie music, jazz or classical tunes.
Now I'm even MORE grateful I did that! Yikes!
Holly,
You did the right thing, in my opinion. There's no such thing as "musical growth." Ever since RAP stepped on the scene, it's been downhill ever since. Your daughter hasn't missed much. I'm constantly complaining to my daughter about the lyrics in songs these days. There really aren't any. It's just a bunch of punk kids screaming into a mike and calling it music. Or, some band repeats a word or a phrase and calls it a song. There's some tune out now called "Womanizer," and that's pretty much the whole song. The female artist sing, "Womanizer, womanizer, you're such a little womanizer." Rinse, Repeat. I always tell my daughter, "I guess anyone can write songs these days, huh?" What today's music scene needs is a good storyteller. That's what's missing from these songs -- a good story that you can sink your heart into.
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