Sunday, August 07, 2005

It's late

...And I can't fall asleep because of a bad cough among other things. And here I came home kind of early to "catch up on sleep." Anyway, I was thinking about dance clubs in the 1970s versus dance clubs now and how the music then was so much nicer and less antagonistic.

Take the lyrics of 50 Cent's "Candy Shop" (I take you to the candy shop/I'll let you lick the lollypop...etc. you can read the rest here if you wish) versus Sister Sledge's "We are Family (Living life is fun and we've just begun/To get our share of the world's delights/(HIGH!) high hopes we have for the future/And our goal's in sight). I don't mean to comment on quality of the music but just the very different atmoshpheres these two songs might create on a dance floor. The former song promotes, misogynistic attitudes towards women ( though I will admit, I do like the song's rhythm), the second promotes optimism and unity. I have a feeling men weren't trying to get all up behind a woman while "We are Family" was playing in some club, and maybe that's a good thing.

Hell, I'd go back to the 1970s minus the inflation, hair, and interior design. I'd even take bitter, vengeful Richard Nixon over ignorant, vengeful George W. Bush. At least Nixon did a few constructive things while in office and knew the meaning of hard work. But I digress...

1 comment:

Elaine said...

Yeah, songwriting, even among the better groups, can tend towards trying too hard to be edgy/cool or just make any damn sense. And among the artists who clog radio airwaves (*cough*payola*cough*) and who probably can't write a grammatically correct sentence to save their lives, we have awful record companies to blame. Take this chestnut from Britney Spears:
All you people look at me like I’m a little girl.
Well did you ever think it be okay for me to step into this world.

Always saying little girl don’t step into the club.
Well I’m just tryin’ to find out why cause dancing’s what I love.

Why bother getting a college education?