It's Friday night at college, and you're looking forward to a night out at your friend's house party. The music playing is catchy, so you're into it. You bop along without knowing what you're supporting.
It's Sunday morning and you hear the same songs that you were jamming to at the house party. They don't sound the same, though. They actually sound totally different. You listen to the lyrics and find yourself appalled. The song you were so gleefully listening to the night before is objectifying women in a sexual way and portraying them as the submissive gender, and suddenly you're feeling anything but gleeful.
I am for sure guilty of listening to music just because it's catchy and ignoring what it's actually about. However, lately I have been more attuned to it because I am taking a music & gender class. And I have a few things to say about it.
If we all actually listened to the words being blasted into our earphones and paused to think about it instead of just ignoring it, I'm pretty sure most of us would feel very differently towards certain music. At a party or other social gathering, it is natural to just go along with the music selections and dance. I'm here to say that it's overrated for us to do that. We all have the power to change things.
There is a seemingly endless list of songs that degrade women as being either inferior to men, objects to be used and discarded, and/or only useful if they are putting out sexually. This happens in certain songs by female artists as well where men are portrayed as sexual objects, but it is more common for women to be degraded in the music industry. It is particularly apparent in rap. Rap is so popular and so many people are listening to it, which concerns me. There are just so many rap songs that talk about women as though the true value of women is their ability to perform sexual acts. That is truly and completely messed up. Some people might say these songs "shouldn't be taken too seriously." I disagree. Language has meaning and is not simply empty words. There is no exception just because it is a song, or because Drake raps it.
You might be thinking, "artists don't always write their own songs, they have ghost writers." This argument could not be more frustrating. Everyone has control over how they present themselves and the decisions they make and there is no exception for people in the music industry. If they don't agree with a song, no one is forcing them to sing it. They are artists, not puppets, and they have a say in what their name gets associated with when it comes to their music.
This does not apply to all rappers, all songs, or all male artists. If you've ever heard the genius that is Twenty One Pilots, you know that rap doesn't have to have any inappropriate language or degrading comments to be amazing. There are plenty of male artists out there doing great things for the music industry and this is not to say that every male artist is evil, or that every rap song is unacceptable. However, it is important to be picky.
The answer to this problem does not come from censoring artists, of course. People have free will to think and write what they want and it is unrealistic for any of us to sit here and think eventually we could censor all of that. The answer lies in us, the listeners. So for anyone reading this, I challenge you to 3 things: 1) Start really listening to the lyrics of the music you frequently listen to. 2) Make a judgment call. Do you really want to be supporting that song/artist? If not, delete the song off of your music. Yes, even if it's really catchy. And finally, 3) The next time you're at a party and the music they're playing is offensive or talking about women in a negative way, politely ask the DJ or your friend to change the song. We have the power, and we should use it wisely.
