Health & Fitness
Name That Tune
The lyrics behind some of today's most catchy beats might surprise you!
Music is all around us. It comes to us through ear buds and on the radio, at restaurants and the mall, through social media like Facebook and YouTube, in the background at sporting events and video games, on TV, and in commercials and movies. Today’s musicians are also entrepreneurs - they are brands more than artists, with their own lines of clothing, perfume and accessories. The extensive impact of music on our society is impressive. For centuries music has been celebrated – from kudos by literary greats such as JK Rowling (“Ah music! A magic far beyond all we do here!” Harry Potters and the Sorcerer’s Stone) to philosophers like Nietzsche (“Without music, life would be a mistake.”). Though that praise is not misguided – music does play a large role in many lives - today’s unfiltered, suggestive lyrics can also hazardous.
In America, 8-to 18-year olds spend an average of 7.5 hours a day interacting with media. This means 4,950 minutes of exposure on smartphones, television, Xboxes and iPods to both blatant and subliminal messages from all genres of music about partying, drinking, sex, lust, and entitlement. Often, parents are not privy to the tunes kids like because so much listening is done through headphones or behind closed bedroom doors on laptops and game systems. Here are some examples of what kids might be hearing (and seeing -click the link to check out the music videos with scenes of wild parties, too much skin, alcohol, and product placement that accompany each example).
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“Got a hangover like too much vodka
Can't see me with ten binoculars
So cool
No doubt by the end of the night
Got the clothes coming off
Til I make that move”
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-Wild Ones, Flo Rida, feat. Sia (#6 on Billboard Top 100)
“So let's go somewhere no-one else can see, you and me
Turn the lights out now
Now I'll take you by the hand
Hand you another drink
Drink it if you can”
- Glad You Came, The Wanted (considered a “boy band”, this song is #8 on Billboard Top 100)
“Fill it up, throw it down
I got a 40 hour week worth of trouble to drown
No need to complicate it, I'm a simple man
All you got to do is put a drink in my hand”
-Drink In My Hand, Eric Church (#40 on the Billboard Country Top 100)
Even TV shows like Glee feature songs that send questionable, inappropriate messages to young viewers. During episode 4 of season 3, the cast sang Candyman by Christina Augliera:
“Met him out for dinner on a Friday night
He really got me working up an appetite
He had tattoos up and down his arm
There's nothing more dangerous than a boy with charm
He's a one stop shop, makes the panties drop.”
Video games are not free from these messages either. Not only does Grand Theft Auto IV include references to stealing, drugs, pornography and prostitutes; the soundtrack includes songs like Swing Ya Rag by T.I. featuring Swizz Beatz:
“Full of stacks rubberbands round big cash
Got a sick swag tell the haters get mad, comeon
We in the club homes gettin our thug on
Bottles of Patron if you grown get your buzz on
We brought the broads out and brought the cars out
I'm like the moon I shine and bring the stars out
When it dark out, get the squad out
We ball hard sucker n**** eat your heart out”
Because of the massive impact of music on our society, it can easily be used as a tool to open lines of communication between youth and adults. Whether or not we let ourselves be influenced by a media message depends on our thoughts, feelings and expectations about the behavior being promoted. To make that analysis we must learn media literacy – the ability to critically and competently analyze and evaluate messages as positive or negative. This is a vital skill that can sometimes be tough to master, especially for young people. Being an active, literate consumer of media messages helps all of us to recognize the need to make positive, healthy lifestyle choices.
Clinton, along with the communities of Branford, Chester, Deep River, East Haven, Essex, Guilford, Haddam, Killingworth, Madison, Meriden, Middletown, Old Saybrook and Westbrook would like to help young people and adults to build these important skills.
To do so, they have invited Mr. Marc Fomby of FTC Prevention Services to bring his Message in the Music presentation from Mississippi to Connecticut for two big events. According to Marc, “by stressing the importance of media literacy this workshop provides tools to help participants critically analyze various genres of music to detect subtle (or not-so-subtle) influences and suggestions that glorify and promote reckless, negative lifestyles [and] choices.”
On Monday, June 25th Marc will be leading a discussion for adults at the Saybrook Point Pavilion, 150 College Street in Old Saybrook, from 7:00-8:30pm. This free workshop will focus not only on the messages that our young people are exposed to through music, but on other dangerous behaviors, slang terms and trends they are exposed to in our digital world.
The next day he will help high school students to explore the messages from all types of music at the second annual Leadership Encourages Asset Development (LEAD) Conference at the First Baptist Church of Branford, also organized by these towns. The goal of the LEAD Conference is for students from each community to work together to educate themselves, their peers and their communities about the media’s impact on young people’s risky behaviors, especially underage drinking, and what young people can do about it.
From both presentations participants will leave with a better understanding of what it means to be an active, literate consumer of media which will empower young and old alike to make positive choices.
