The Falling Blog

My mind and actions in viewable format.

Posts tagged katy perry sucks

Aug 13

Katy Perry Sucks addendum.

I’m pretty amazed at the decoding process, as well as the lack of reading comprehension displayed by some random readers.

Let me break it down into TL:DR for you:

1. Music is more than beat, meter, measure, and vibe kids. The words matter. The meaning behind those words matters. Fun music to dance to does not give it a pass. Music defines society. Check it. Our entire society was, is, and will be changed by the music of our varying generations. Feel free to evaluate the music of the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. I’m sure you can find entire theses built around this particular topic. Further, most of you kiddos just got here, like, on the planet, so calm down. You’re totally entitled to your opinion. But so am I.

2. I actually didn’t tell my daughter to stop listening to anything. I simply gave her a more robust and definable way for her to approach music, or indeed anything else she’ll encounter in her life. It’s called parenting. Also, if you’ve not parented a human before: your argument is invalid. Children have a small view of the world. If you want them to grow into people who can grow into adults who can think for themselves, you may consider exposing them to larger topics earlier (Like swear words OMG??) so that they might learn to use those tools effectively. In this way they may be able to live life to the fullest. Opening doors for your children is half the parents job. Do not think for a second that improved understanding of something somehow diminishes the topic. Knowing all about something is much more fulfilling than simply dancing to the beat.

3. Katy Perry totally sucks. Not just for the aforementioned reasons, but like for all the other corporate rock, plebian appeal bullshit pop music that is out there. She may be a singer, but she is not an artist.

It’s a sale. Feel free to rock out to it.

Katy Perry Sucks.

I have a daughter, and she is at that very impressionable age of 7 years. She is inquisitive and she is becoming very interested in music. So much so that she’s trying to learn how to play the piano herself (and not just banging on the keys, she is seeking out books and training from my wife right now).

She came to me two nights ago while I was sorting music for a project I’m working on, and she asked me if I’d heard about “Katy Perry.”

I sorta smiled to myself, and said, “well sure hun, I’ve heard of her, what have you heard of her music?”

And she said the “Last Friday Night song”.

Knowing the content of the song, and really I do not let my children listen to this stuff, I asked her if she’d heard it from her 4th grade friend next door. She said yes.

I asked her if she knew what the song was about, and she of course said no. Then I asked if she knew the words. She’s learning to read, and I searched a lyrics page for her and started the song.

She asked what a hickey was. Thankfully she didn’t ask about menage et tois. After a bit, I asked her if it sounded like a good song anymore. She said no. I said does it sound like the kind of activities a young woman would want to sing a happy song about? She said no and kinda got upset. My wife asked her if she was disappointed in Katy Perry. My daughter said yes. We kept the lesson going. I told her that songs have meaning. Some songs are great, and some songs are terrible. I played her “Pumped Up Kicks” and about half way through I told her it was a song about a terrible crime that was committed by a boy for no reason. I told her that just because the music sounds great, doesn’t mean that it is a nice song. The crux of our discussion was that words and songs have power. They are things that become who we are. Then I played my daughter “Fucking Perfect” by Pink. And although it has a curse in it, I explained to her the message of Pink’s song was much more appropriate to a young girl than Katy Perry’s. We talked about the difference between a classy lady and a trashy lady. My wife even bade me to bring up pictures of the artists in question, as well as pics of Natalie Portman, Megan Fox, Marylin Monroe and Audrey Hepburn to make similar comparisons. (Google Safesearch on!)

As a people, we need to seriously reconsider putting these “artists” in front of our children. We need to monitor what they are feeding the brains of our kids. We don’t have to censor, but we should help our children’s growing minds approach music and entertainment properly. I told my daughter what she was listening to was a story. And in this particular case, it was an advertisement to a lifestyle. I also told her that if we changed the key signature and slowed it down a bit it would be a biting commentary on what is really wrong with our society.

I’m trying to raise a daughter who considers herself to be more important than a dick puppet who gets too drunk to remember what happened on Friday night. She deserves better than that. So do all the women I know.