I hate to sound old fashioned, but when I was around ten years old I had just grown out of my Spice Girls tracksuit and the way forward was winning the school disco dance-off to S Club 7’s ‘Don’t Stop Movin’. As cringey as that sounds, it is nothing compared to hearing the ten year olds of this century singing along to songs that include explicit sexual references.
The ‘Parental Advisory Sticker’ was proposed in the year 2000 by the Recording Industry Association of America (with similar stickers being made in 1985). It was displayed on the cover of any audio or recording material that contained sexual references or inappropriate language – a fair warning that worked well for all of twenty years. Now it seems that this label is used merely as an accessory, nonessential but desired to complete the album cover.
Text about the Parental Advisory Sticker read “Some albums may receive Parental Advisory labels even though these albums contain no use of strong language, sexual references, or violent lyrics at all”. The preferred reading of this message was to believe that the Parents Music Resource Center were being exceptionally precautionary, when really we should ask ourselves – Is this label just being stuck on anything because it looks good? How do we know that these organisations are taking any notice of the content of the millions of albums being produced daily?
A friend of mine was upset to see her younger sister, still at primary school, singing along to Cover Drive’s ‘Lick ya down’ in the living room. There are a number of artists in the charts at the moment who haven’t had the thought to blank out the crude language, which gives the impression that they are willingly exposing it to children who are of course bound to be listening to the latest popular hits. In some cases this language is left in as the song can be branded ‘uncool’ if parts containing sexual references are censored out.
There are a number of songs in the charts nowadays that have maybe taken sexual education in a wrong sense. A friend who is about to study Music Management commented “ When Rihanna’s ‘S&M’ was released, the music channels would only share a thirty second cut because of its sexual content. It shows that some music organizations are making the effort to consider their younger audience, but it is clear that the problem is rising”.
On that same note, Rihanna has recently gotten herself into trouble by wearing close to nothing in a farmers field in Northern Ireland. She was filming for her new single ‘We found love’ when farmer Alan Graham stepped in and requested that they stop filming, as he found it inappropriate. With all due respect to Rihanna, this isn’t the first time she has been seen wearing provocative outfits in front of large crowds – no doubt some of these crowds include younger children.
In 1980, Lionel Richie composed the song ‘Lady’ – this was a time when artists sang about women being beautiful, Lionel said they ‘make me whole’. Thirty years on, music is all about women being ‘sexy chicks’ and their ‘junk’. This is most likely why younger girls are becoming more obsessed with wearing excessive make-up and wearing their skirts a little higher – what they need to know is that it may not be positive attention that they receive.
I asked Sebastian Simone from Lazy Bear Records what he thought of this – he said:
“I completely agree that contemporary, commercial popular music is sliding down a slippery slope. Whilst crude lyrics are making inappropriate language a ‘norm’ within youth culture, it doesn’t just stop there. The subliminal messages from popular music, such as ‘the perfect image’, convey an irrational view on dress style, physical figure, make up and even personality. Adolescent teenagers and even children, are far more prone to the idealistic nature of pop stars and is something that should be considered carefully within commercial music production”.
It is certainly true that the ideology of ‘the perfect image’ has had an impact on young children, it may not be long before ten year olds are modelling themselves around the artists wearing seductive and revealing clothing in their videos.
A band member from Autumn Ruin agreed that children are being influenced by an ideology which suggests that being ‘cool’ involves revealing too much skin to get as much attention as possible.
“I just think a lot of chart music these days is sending out all the wrong signals for young children, almost making them want to grow up too early, and act like their role models which is becoming more of a questionable thing. Especially when these so called role models having music videos wearing next to nothing, dancing around provocatively and singing songs laced with adult innuendos, fortunately it is a small percentage of music, but it seems to be rising”.
With chart music being the most popular with younger children, it seems as if this issue will escalate before it gets better.
I believe it is time to say enough is enough – the Recording Industry Association of America need to step up and start looking at this issue with some sensitivity. When it comes to making money or the protection of ‘childhood’, I think that the children should always be thought of first.
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