Shoot The Messenger

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.