Whatever happen to music

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Years ago there used to be songs that revolve around love, joy, whimsical stories, everything but now it's about drugs, sex, and some nonsense. I don't know what happen to music. Very rarely back in the day you would hear that kind of content and if any song about drugs aired on the radio there would be an uproar though this is no longer the case, since we have freedom of speech. I don't mind free speech but sometimes people go too far with what they say and how they can get away with their opinions, whether it's going to cause controversy or not.

Some time ago female singers never engage in strip teasing or dance like a stripper, similar to how Beyoncé, JLO and other singers do it today. Don't get me wrong. I don't hate sex but I hate the pornographic version of sex as seen in most media. I can't understand why it's profitable for the media to present yourself as some sort of like a sex doll for people to gawk at, especially if you're a woman looking to earn a living. For the media to portray women as one way, is that why there have been cases of rape or sexual assault year after year? Is that why girls or women and some cases men have been trafficked for sex? Is that why girls struggle with eating disorders? Is that why there are women who have never been happy with how they look and resort to plastic surgery to make themselves feel better for the man they want to be with? Is that why they risk being slut shamed for daring to express their sexuality? I think the media played a role in why these things happen all the time. It seems so normal for female singers or models today to take on the role of a seductress, stripper or an object of what they call is the male gaze, though I've never heard of that word.

I don't think it's empowering of Beyoncé or other singers to present themselves as strippers, as a way to express their sexuality. I don't subscribe to feminists saying that this is female empowerment when really it's not about their agency. Female empowerment is a bit complicated because they will say one thing or another. How am I supposed to empower myself when I'm exposed to so many mixed messages about what is to be a woman? The world's not telling how to be myself, how to love myself, how to be intimate. It's telling me how to hate myself, how to hate my body, how to love/hate men, how to hate sex, how to hate the way I look, how to hate other women, how to wish to someone I'm not, how to model my lifestyle after a celebrity's. I don't know what to do. I'm never gonna get away with it. At least I didn't have to pay attention to the media trash every day. I'm glad there are organizations that challenge the bad media.

Look up the song "Indo Smoke" by Mista Grimm on Youtube. That song is about smoking weed. When it was released in 1992, there was a HUGE uproar. One pop music station in my hometown flat out refused to play it, calling toking a "deathstyle" (yes, on the radio!). We're talking a city of a million people, in California. I was 17 and rebellious at the time, so I immediately went out and bought the single (they were on cassette tapes back then) to show that I would not be cowed by censorship. Censorship or not, that song was relatively mild compared to the hubbub it caused. And then there's 2 Live Crew who had songs with names like "Me So Horny" and "Pop That Coochie" that got banned in so many places that the group put out a song called "Banned In The USA" to tweak their critics. That also was early 90s.

Now, I listen to today's pop music, and there are so many songs about anal sex ("booty") that frankly it's kinda creepy. And then there's the songs about binge drinking like "Like A G6" by Far East Movement ("Got bottles in my eyes like a blizzard/When we drink we do it right, get blitzed") and all the songs where half the song is bleeped out because of FCC antiobscenity rules, such as "I Don't f**k With You" by an artist whose name I can't remember, where half the song consists of "F Bombs". And then I log onto Craigslist personals and all the women have photos of their "booties" up. Gee, I wonder why, when pop culture is about women needing to be "bootylicious" to please men? And then, for added 'WTF?", we have Elliot Rodger, who killed six people and himself because he thought women weren't respecting him as "the true alpha male". Men are told that they DESERVE sex. Pop culture is very misogynistic. It's all really sickening.

Wow, people were really that strict when it came to musical content back then? I mean, I heard music was a bit cleaner back in the 90's but I didn't know an uproar would start if an explicit song got on radio air. Me being born in '96 I pretty much don't know a "clean" radio station other than gospal music. Even when my mom tried to be careful at what kind of music she played, it still wasn't enough to keep me from listening to some pretty rauchy stuff. I mean, it's not like I was rebellious or anything it was just that type of music is absolutely everywhere. I grew up hearing it on tv, in school, on stereo systems in the nieghborhood, radios, other students' ipods-when I say everywhere....
I guess I just got used to it over the years. So, when someone of a different generation describes a time when people cared a lot about the material that they released to the pubic, it makes me realize......our society has gone so far down south. And it's concerning that I've been desensitized to the vulgar language and sexual proformances/dances. Like I'm numb to it. It's actually really scary if you think about it. Judging by your descriptions of the music when you grew up vs the music content that I grew up with vs the material out in today's media obvious conclusion that people are just going to take it farther. The part that makes me uneasy, is that I have young nieces and nephews growing up and going to school. (preschool-3rd grade) and if keeping explicit music was hard when I was growing up, how much harder are their parents going to have work to keep today's hits on lockdown?

I remember a song that came out when I think I was starting fourth grade that everyone loved to play and sing to. Unfortunately that song that all of the kids were singing had so many swear words in it, you couldn't hardly listen to the 'clean' version because there was a censorship sound every 4 seconds. Listen to the clean version of Lollipop by Lil Wayne and tell me you don't get annoyed. So, people just listened to the explicit version because the cencored one was too annoying. That song was the most vulgar song I listened to during that time. Now, I'm hearing songs like Anaconda by Nikki Manaj (which both annoys and creeps me out.) The Weeknds version of 'Or Nah' everytime I hear the beginning of that song in that version I can't help but make a face. I think that strangest outbreak from the media these past several years is twerking. That...I don't even...what, where, why and how?

There are still songs about the things you mentioned, lots of them. Also, when you say back in the day what era do you mean? I mean there has been music with lyrics related to drugs and sex since the early 60's if not before, just look at The Doors, The Beatles and all that other psychedelic music made by people who used psychedelics drugs. I actually hate essentially all the mainstream music of today....nothing wrong with music pertaining to sex or drugs in my opinion, though there are many more topics to explore so a band that stuck to those things would probably be sort of redundant lyrically. but a lot of popular groups are just really over the top and kind of disgusting about it, mostly with the sex like all the rap/hip hop about 'B*tches and hos or whatever' and yet this sort of rap/hip hop is popular. Than those pop singers are all essentially terrible, they seem more about being 'sexy' and having media attention than being passionate about making music...though many of them don't really write their own songs even from what I gather. Oh and then there is that horrendous stuff that is supposed to be the 'rock/punk/metal' of today is really largely crap, and sadly since a lot of these bands call themselves 'metal' people unfamiliar with metal assume its that atrocious crap with terribly done harsh vocals that is popular but that is not metal and its not punk either its crap.

I'd say quit listening to the radio(unless its like a good classic rock station or something), don't watch MTV or any of those crap music channels if you are doing any of those things stay away from the mainstream media when it comes to music....there is actually a lot of good current stuff out there, you honestly just have to look for it. I personally like last.fm since you can type in bands/artists you like and it will play similar ones so you can discover more music you like. But look to the stuff that's not so popular and isn't getting all the hype.....if more people would do that then perhaps these better bands could take over and become the popular music.

Sort of agree with with OP and Sweetleaf on this. There's an awful lot of really good music around today that's accessible via the Internet, but unfortunately it's not that popular and there lies the problem. The people buying the music just don't have the ears to listen to good music. All they want is fast music in their face and that's what they get. Nothing wrong with female empowerment, but it was already done back in the 1980's with Madonna. Now it's a competition to see who can outdo each other and the sad thing is that a lot of the female singers out there today have good voices, only what they do is trash music. It's encouraging though when they hand out awards at the Grammy awards on TV. Excellence is rewarded.

Premise that there was little sex and drugs in song lyrics back in the day is just wrong

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZhuuoWENeQ[/youtube]


Part if the issue is that today's listeners do not understand the slang and references of yesteryear.
There were a lot of lyrics which lyrics "love grows" "my love grows" which could be innocently interpreted or interpreted to mean erection
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqJAaO_zoj4[/youtube]


While the above is innocuous there was some pretty explicit stuff. To understand the next song you need to understand that women's private areas were generally unshaved in the '70's
http://soundcloud.com/rlpmix/push-push- ... -retouched


"Move in, Move it down, move it all around"
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3JkEoQ0Cz8[/youtube]
Interesting back story explained in the video
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOCTHbNsl64[/youtube]
Pretty self explanatory
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C4j6q6PQc0[/youtube]

Less anal lyrics then, but it existed Anal reference at 4:47 but everything else from the lyrics to vocals to sound effects is fairly explicit
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6yCFZ5eL5s[/youtube]



Bubblegum Rock late 1960's genre aimed at Children
Oral references
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uo9tMoew6o[/youtube]
S&M if not rape hints
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2E7mrp-mTQ[/youtube]


These songs were outwardly pedophilia and would not be on the radio today but were hits then
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJFVPxBpezk[/youtube]
Singer was 33 when he made this. I think you know the singer
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkR7u_sOtHI[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUL_3hdFSEE[/youtube]

I could could go on about the 80's and 90's and drugs but don't have the time. Lyrics about heroin were often used going back to the Punk Days and had it's hayday in grunge/alt 1990's with Groups such as Alice and Chains

I had the impression that "songs about drugs" were actually passe'.

Had been since the end of the classic rock era of the Seventies ( celebrating drugs was the thing from about 1967 to 1980).

Prince made the Eighties movie "Purple Rain" which was noted at the time for being the first rocknroll movie in years "that doesn't even mention drugs" (even though it was contraversial in other ways).

I am watching the video for "Anaconda" now and I can tell you that if you are taking it remotely seriously, you are doing it wrong.

it is always the same.