Catchy beat but scary message

Let me start by saying I realize I am not among the Gap’s target market. The styles and construction of the apparel sold there are simply not meant for a woman who birthed four children, starting 20 years ago. But I ended up there recently while on a hunt for long sleeved t-shirts. (They had t-shirts, but I didn’t buy any. Re-read sentence #2).

Back to the point of this post… so I’m shopping at the Gap and there’s this song on the sound system. I assume the song is called “What’s so bad about feeling good?” as that’s the line that was repeated most often, in between verses about dancing and “letting your love mingle with mine.”  

I had to give this band credit because the lyric was at least marginally euphemistic, a relief from most songs that include now-familiar graphic descriptions of every sort of lewd act.

But then this song did something scary – something I have not heard in even the most offensive rap or hip-hop tunes. At the bridge, the singer chanted, and a chorus repeated, “No guilt. All pleasure.” in a rousing tribute to hedonism that built to a fevered crescendo for several measures.

I googled those few lyrics and found the song, by Ben Lee. (I was right about the title. How creative.) Here’s the part that bothered me:

No guilt. All Pleasure. C'mon I wanna hear you yell it now
No guilt. All Pleasure. C'mon everybody yell it now
No guilt. All Pleasure. I wanna hear you yell it baby
No guilt. All Pleasure. C'mon everybody...Tell me what's so bad, about feeling good

The message is literally drummed into your ears in mindless repetition.

But hey, the song has a good beat and a catchy tune. So what's the big deal, right?

I’ve written a columns lately about the issue of lyrics in today’s popular music. I’m concerned that our kids are being indoctrinated into attitudes about sex that are dangerously cavalier (and sometimes even violent) thanks to the vulgar and hedonistic messages in the songs to which they mindlessly sing along.

In defense of today’s music, I often hear that it’s no more shocking to us than were Elvis or the Doors or the Beatles to our parents.  But it’s not the same as when we were growing up, because in order to “push the envelope,” every generation has grown increasingly bolder in graphic sexual content.

Back in the day, love songs merely implied making love. But love songs are different from songs about having sex, and that’s my concern about the music of our children’s generation. They don’t hear love songs. They hear songs glorifying soulless, mindless, meaningless sex.

“No guilt. All pleasure” is a deeply disturbing anthem. It’s the soundtrack to the hookup culture that is devastating the hearts and souls of our college students, trampling the innocence of our high schoolers, and creating in our young children a selfishness that will rob them of happiness in the years to come.

When it comes to our kid’s music, we need to sustain our ability to be shocked. We can’t just throw up our hands, claim ignorance of the words to the songs, and play the role of the tuned out older generation. If we’re worried at all about the direction our culture is headed, we have to become more engaged, more aware and more outraged.

As I said at the outset, I’m not in the demographic that the Gap is trying to lure into the store. Considering the messages that are piped into the minds of their shoppers, I wish my kids weren’t in that demographic either.

QUESTION:

I would shop faithfully at any store that deliberately played inoffensive background music.  Doesn’t it seem that a chain of stores that made a commitment to upholding a more wholesome environment would be successful? What do you think?