Let The Music Play! Cuz We Some Phreaky MFers!!!

Hey Y’all! It’s been a hectic couple of weeks.  With Prom, Graduation, Luncheon, and Dance Recitals my head has been spinning!!! Sorry to have left you so long. 

Anyhoo  . . .  I knew a few weeks ago that my follow up post to The Boomerang Hammertoe Effect would be about music’s influence on our culture and our young people.  I didn’t realize, though, that I would encounter yet another reason to write about it on my hiatus.

So we’re at the prom and it’s time to announce the Prom King and Queen.  My colleague and I are trying to figure out what song to play as we call them up to be crowned.  Naturally, I figure that the ancient melodies in my head wouldn’t excite the kids, so I defer to my colleague who is a few years younger than I.  He suggests .  .  . DJ Khaled’s “Take It To The Head” . . . Insert sound of needle scratching on a record HERE! 

“Take It To The Head”? I told him there has to be another song.  Has to be.  So I asked the kids.  I asked a few who were standing close by for the name of a nice slow song that we could play . . .  Chris Brown’s street team must have been outside the prom because they all said --- “Take It To The Head”.

Really!?!

Let me stop now and grab my Bobby Pins kiddies, because it’s time to put my hair up in a bun – librarian-style.

Ok. So, first off, I know you gotta be careful when you say anything bad about music. People will accuse you of censoring them, of being out of touch, and will lump you into a category with other banished culture critics like the late C. Delores Tucker.  I’m not going! Music’s influence on our culture is real and should be acknowledged without fear of being labeled a Puritan, a prude, or worse  . . . a lame.

For those too young to remember, those who have forgotten, or those who never knew, C. Delores Tucker was an activist in the 90’s who came out hard against Gangsta Rap.  She said it was destroying the moral fiber of the African American culture.  She even fought against Tupac being honored with an NAACP Image Award.  In doing so she made a name and an enemy.  She subsequently found herself the object of ridicule in some notable rap songs, like “How Do You Want It” by Tupac and others by Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, and Eminem to name a few.  She didn’t, however, stop Gangsta Rap.

C. Delores Tucker

As for “Take It To The Head”, Dr. Tucker would probably be outraged, but in fact, it’s a hot song. And one could make the argument that it’s about “going all the way” in life or taking “life” by the balls!  Sure . . . okay.  That’s not necessarily the message that I find in it, but okay.  Especially when you over hear a young man singing it in the echoed hallways of a high school.  Eww!

Now, to be fair and honest, I confess.  I have gotten my boogie on to some songs that were just as bad and those that were worse than “Take It To The Head”.  I love music – the lyrics and the beat.  But today, as a mother and educator music puts me in a weird place - try being a Poms coach and choosing music for a performance or a plan a playlist for a kids birthday party, It’ Tricky (no pun intended – okay, maybe a little).  I can remember vividly dancing to “Phreaky MFers”, “There Some Hoes In This House”, “My Neck, My Back”, and  . . . . “How Do You Want It” . . . . and the list could go on and on.  I guess I’m just more sensitive today because I see teens use media and popular culture as a blueprint or a road map for navigating their way to adulthood. 


Case in Point:  Recently in a quiet suburb near me, my friend tells me of a sex scandal at her son’s school.  He was a 7^th grader.  The scandal involved a young girl giving a boy a BJ while he recorded her on his phone.  It’s unfortunately the kind of incident that we hear about more and more.  But in that suburban school district it was the first incident they’d had to deal with involving students so young.  The boy was caught showing the video to his friends who in turn started to call the girl a slut and a hoe (go figure).  The saddest part is that, initially, before she was labeled a hoe, she asked the boy for a copy so that she could show her friends. You see, she was confused.  She wasn’t forced into the act.  She knew it was being videotaped.  And, she somehow thought her sex-scapades would lead to renown and popularity not judgment and ridicule.  That’s 7^th Grade thinking for you!

Is the song to blame? I don’t know, probably not.  Hey, there have always been freaks, girls that are rumored and whispered about for doing what the other girls wouldn’t.  But when you have young men and young ladies, even ones from “good” homes, figuring out adulthood in this climate – reality TV stars acting a fool, young “models” becoming new celebrities because of who they’re sleeping with, Too Short giving advice on how to finger a girl in an interview (Yes, really!) - having “Take it To the Head” as the only slow song they can think to play at the prom really doesn’t  help.

Pass me my knitting needle and I sit in my rocking chair – Damn, I sound old!

Youth consume media differently.  From the boys cutting slits in their eyebrows to look like Big Daddy Kane, wearing bandanas to look like Tupac, wearing big ass fake earrings to look bling-ed out like Puffy, to tattooing and sleeving to look like Lil Wayne and Wiz Khalifa (and that’s just the guys). We know that pop culture guides fashion, opinions . . . but behavior?

The Boomerang Hammertoe Effect would say yes.  But it’s hard to know what things will stick and what things won’t.  Clearly, eyebrows have grown back and most people 30+ aren’t all still running around shouting “Thug Life”.  But, can we expect young girls to regain their modesty, self-respect, and self-esteem once this phase in popular culture is over?

Maybe there is no long term effect and/or reason to fear.  When I too was condemning C. Delores Tucker for being just another old broad who didn’t understand the youth, I never realized that I would one day wonder about the moral climate that my own child would grow up in.  Truly, the songs I listened to didn’t scar me for life or turn me out.  I turned out okay and so did nearly all of my friends.  Maybe, music’s influence isn’t as strong and doesn’t stick as much as we think.  

Maybe there really is nothing to worry about. I guess I’m just surprised that no one seems bothered by it.  When I told my colleague not to play the song at the prom he seemed shocked.  He said, “Oh, I guess I need to listen to the lyrics”.  Yes, but . . . the title . . . ?

The record has made it to the Top 20 of the Billboard R& B and Hip Hop chart and no one seems to mind.  The artists are safe.  There are no new C. Delores Tucker-types jumping out of the shadows to boycott them and lambast the direction of media and popular culture.

So, I guess I’ll just sit my old ass down then!

Maybe this phase/trend in music and media will pass too.  Maybe. 

Until then . . . I guess . . .  We’ll just Let the Music Play!?!

Tell me what you think? Do you think today’s music is having a negative affect on our youth? What “bad ass” songs did you listen to?