“Sweat baby sweat baby sex is a Texas drought
Me and you do the kind of stuff that only Prince would sing about
So put your hands down my pants and I’ll bet you’ll feel nuts”
Do you guys remember that Bloodhound Gang song? Well I do, too well. For show-and-tell in 2nd grade, I sang “The Bad Touch” to my classmates, after being introduced to this song by my elder brothers; needless to say that my teacher was not impressed by my choice of song, nor by my singing for that matter. She asked me if I knew what I was singing about and I answered the discovery channel. I got into trouble for singing about sex at school.
Sex and music are so heavily linked it almost seems foolish to think one can dissociate them. With this upcoming thematic week, Pornography: Flipping the Point of View, I almost twinkle with amusement at all the controversies about pornography in music. Some pillars of the industry have vocalized their concerns with current singers and the sexuality present in pop music, like Sinead O’Connor who developed a twitter feud with Miley Cyrus or Annie Lennox’s concerns about the new trend female performers have been following where they act like a “pimp and prostitute at the same time”. When thinking about this topic, my inherent question was: are music videos today more sexual than 10 years ago when I was young, naïve, much shorter and impressionable? Most of the debate today is that the music videos made now are a bad influence on young girls, teaching them poor values or unrealistic expectations of what it means to look attractive.
So I dug deep in my past to think of the sexiest video clips I grew up with, to compare them to the stuff that is screened today. Growing up, my top 5 hottest and naughtiest video clips were:
2. “Dirrty” – Christina Aguilera
1. “Call On Me” – Eric Prydz
I compare theses songs to the current female artists that have been criticized for being too sexual, artists like Rihanna’s “Pour It Up”, Nicki Minaj with her “Anaconda” or Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball”, for instance. I do find that these video clips are racier than the songs I grew up with. Yet I view them in a different way. I don’t think I belong to the market these songs are targeted to. Thus, my critical eye has no judgment to give because these songs are not made for me. Just like “Dirrty”, back in the day, was not geared towards the Annie Lennoxes of our society.
I think what has changed is how sexuality is addressed. I find it is less implicit now than it used to be. Growing up, I knew Shaggy’s song was about sex, but not knowing much about sex, all the innuendos were not blatantly spelled out. I believe that most 11-year-old girls won’t fully grasp the lyrics of “Anaconda” however, what is left for the imagination is spelled out with the video clip. This sums up the biggest reproach I have with sexuality in the music industry. In a world where no one has time anymore, artists do not even try to leave things unsaid anymore; everything needs to be spoon-fed to us.
I don’t think that this surge in sexuality is a new form of empowerment for female performers. Artists are meant to shock the norm. Perhaps there is more nudity in music now than a few years ago but that is because I think there has been an increase in nudity as a general form. The video clips of today match the nudity that we see in movies, ads or other forms of media. Why do we call out Nicki Minaj for her video clip, but yet we don’t call Eva Mendes out for her Calvin Klein ad?
The media is so harsh on these new female performers classified as pornographic but nothing is ever said about songs that have sexual innuendos. I recently had a glass shattering moment when I realized that “All My Life” by the Foo Fighters is actually about Dave Grohl’s love for oral sex.
Why are we so shocked when music is obviously sexy? Because sex is synonymous with music. Too many songs were written to mimic the act of sex and its climax. Most music is described using sexual terms. And almost everyone loves making love to music. I think the problem that comes with pornography and music is that what you don’t know doesn’t hurt you. Adults and influencers in the industry can’t help but feel shocked about sexy dancing or lyrics that are about sex because they know what is being said. When you are young, that’s not necessarily what you focus on, hence the message cannot be as bad. But if things aren’t even kept implicit, that’s where I have a problem. Music is able to make you feel things that you didn’t know existed; sex is almost impossible to describe to someone because most of it is just a feeling. The rapprochement between pornography and music is understandable, but let the illusion last on forever.
WRITTEN BY MARGAUX JOLY
TITLE: QUOTE BY MARVIN GAYE
