Dirty-Pop Culture
I’m sure everyone remembers that wide-known song by N*Sync: Dirty Pop. Now, let’s take that definition a little bit further. We have the innocent group members of N*Sync to drive the crowds of young girls wild in temptation and fandom. The band breaks – now you’re left with seperate career paths – Lance Bass is doing voice acting and acting in general, J.C. is appearing in rare songs, mostly under electronica (And it’s so rare to find people that listen to this stuff anymore, you’d might as well call it an indie genre), and there you have Justin Timberlake – young, dreamy in the eyes of young girls, and hideously sexual. If it wasn’t Justin Timberlake, would you honestly let your 11-year old daughter or son watch Sexyback, or attempt to extract the meanings of the lyrics? I think not!
It may seem as though we are caring less for our children for what they are watching, what they are listening to, and what they’re going to know – but does that stop us with blasting the synthetic voice, preaching BDSM and proving examples on what happens in the hotel rooms of two romantics? Why did they suddenly make the exception?
We censor music then give children guns
[…]
No money left in Africa
Starvin’ to death
In Bosnia we close our eyes and a nation cries
And in the west
TV possessed and weight obsessed
The media dissects, infects
We think real life is reality TV(Darren Hayes: Spin -2002)
When we have parents concerned about teen pregnancies and those that induce peer pressure amongst others, little do we realize that our media arts have become polluted. It’s not about the “clean” government propaganda or proving the right point anymore – it’s how fast we can strip our clothes, sweat, and being ready to go. In the near past, sexuality was simply a gimmick for those that have matured – but those audiences have become selfish. They aren’t complimenting for the presence of young, angst-ridden teenagers and preteens – it’s not that damn pop music anymore, folks. It’s the wrong focus on audiences, and people are following the incorrect practise of aiming sexuality and various other inappropriate content to teens such that it becomes easier to cater everyone’s entertainment hunger. It would not technically be catering “everyone’s” entertainment craving several years ago – we’ve just forced the other age groups to sit themselves in the same culture.
It’s merely human nature to be selfish – if we had no selfish people, we wouldn’t necessarily have career opening for jobs to cater to the higher parts of authority (think Enron), and we wouldn’t necessarily have an earning – no one would put the crown on our heads for impressing superiority. However, we have gotten selfish enough to expose the same content that we are supposed to play the paladin on. Sexual jokes are all shits and giggles, but when it hits a child’s ear, at many times they may take it in a curious way – is it really that pleasurable? Is it really important for public identity? Does it really relieve stress? I can vouch for this sort of response, but not from my parents. They’re very careful with sexual content – even now, being almost 18, they’ll change the channel during a sex scene in a movie and start apologizing even though I’m mature enough to sit through it with no effect – and they skim down their swearing while I’m in discussion (and all swearing becomes eliminated when my niece comes over). It was majorly the other adults that I have had to communicate with – teachers (weird, huh?), custodians, volunteers, guest parents, and other older people – that have placed me within a margin of curiosity for a few years. (And of course, being one who took biology for two years, sex jokes don’t amuse me because I already did an assignment on that!) I haven’t had any sexual relationships and whatnot, mostly because of my lack of interest in the consequences behind it, and the fact that I’m bitter and not the most greatest looking person ever (but that doesn’t matter to me). Besides, I prefer to spend my money on hopes of schooling – then I’ll be able to pay for all of the gifts later.
Nonetheless, not all kids will think this way. As long as we have the word “sex” flying around the air of the city, you will always strike a sense of curiosity to young people, and that in itself causes a huge problem; you’ll have girls wanting to be skinny, even though they’re merely skin and bones, and you have egoistical males with more than 7 sex partners. Should it be something to be ashamed of? That depends on what kind of person you are. If that is what you live up to, or it’s the art of sex that puts food on your table, then do as you will. It will always result in an endless cycle – everything has a consequence, and sex happens to be the most common generator of the cycle. As long as we continue to evoke peer pressure, no cycle will halt, and we’ll live a simple cycle for such complex vessels.
Indeed, this is the blog of Franky Liu. Voukah is simply a compilation of random thoughts and useless rambling as he goes through an interestingly mundane life. With that, he is quite emotional and many times annoying; sometimes he wonders if he is narcissistic as well. He also may cause upset stomach. He also enjoys speaking in third person.