What if we used the same explicit lyrics in our mainstream songs?

Did I just hear Chris Brown and company talk about rimming?

 

While driving my 1 hour commute to work, the radio is my copilot.  I often listen to and decipher the lyrics while singing along and sometimes I wonder, are these lyrics okay for regular radio stations to play during regular business hours?  One of the biggest hit songs I have an issue with recently is Tove Lo’s Talking Body. I LOVE THIS SONG!   It’s hypnotic and you’ll find yourself singing along quiet easily, but at 7:30 in the morning should all the stations in existence play the half assed bleeped out phrase “f*&k for life?”  Anyone can tell what they are really saying. They leave the f and the k right there and just bleep out the u and the c.  I’m just wondering how many parents have their kids in their car singing along to these songs.  Do the parents even listen to the words?  Some times these same stations that play the “f*&k for life” version, will play the “love for life” redo which I think is much more appropriate for carpooling / driving your kid to work. 

But some of these explicit lyric songs can be a little eye opening. Getting back to Chris Brown and company.  Post To Be (feat. Chris Brown & Jhene Aiko) by Omarion might be another one of those songs that we need to listen to carefully.  Jhene Aiko decided to lyrically share with us one of her wishes – “but he got to eat the booty like groceries.”  I guess I knew that rimming was on the list of gay sexual occurrences, but it’s in the the straight world as well?  Yes, I knew it occurred, but to be embraced and accepted by a group of people producing an album?  Does this make it no longer taboo?  Are the straights having a sexual revolution themselves?  How long has this been going on for?  I know that “back door play” has been occurring in straight bedrooms for some time, but for many it’s still taboo.  Now with Chris Brown and company singing about rimming in a straight hook up and having it blared across radio waves not bleeped or altered, are we seeing an acceptance of something many gay men love to do but most think are judged negatively for doing by our straight counterparts?  Is one aspect of gay sex culture becoming more mainstream?  For the Post to Be’s full lyrics, see below, but first, here’s the video.

Aiko says the song was meant to be playful, and that she didn’t really think about her choice of words too hard. She’s also noticed that each person has reacted to that line in the song differently.

“I really take my time when I write,” she said. “With this, I was like, let’s just have fun. I didn’t know that it was going to be so popular. People take it different ways. Some people are appalled. Some people think it’s funny. I feel like it’s a fun song. It’s not meant to play at anyone’s wedding or funeral.” – thesource.com

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Should we be happy that Omarion’s song has put the topic of rimming out there?  Can we now feel more free to talk about our sexual exploits with our straight friends?  Since we have to listen to some of their sexual conquest stories in detail, can we now add a little bit of our own?

So “f*&k for life” and “eat the booty like groceries,” pretty sexual for our mainstream music.  Any other current examples that may shock you?

In the case of Nicki Minaj’s song, “Truffle butter” is not referring to the gourmet butter that is created by infusing tiny pieces of truffles, a very rare and edible mushroom. Truffle butter is created when  … 

Ok … If you want to know, go over to Madame Noire’s page here.  I really didn’t want to read it another time so I’m not posting it here.

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Well, now that you’re sitting there with a screw faced and totally grossed out, let me tell you the problem with eating booty “like groceries” and making truffle butter. Unfortunately, in our overly sexualized and under-educated society, many adolescents and even adults try to mimic the sexual behaviors that are being glamorized by music, media, and reality television.  However, they do not understand all the implications and risks involved. – madamenoire.com

So, um, yeah, I definitely will not experience that song again the same way. 

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So to recap, “f*&k for life”, “eat the booty like groceries”, and Truffle Butter  are adding to the explicit sexuality experienced on our FM broadcasts.  Should we care?  Do hum these tunes right along with our nieces, nephews, and pee wee cheerleading squads across the nation?  I think of my 13, 11, and 8 year old nieces and hope to high heaven that they don’t know what the song truffle butter is really talking about.

But if the straight music community can act like this and have it seem very acceptable, why can’t the gay music community?  Where is Sam Smith or Mika or Adam Lambert or Moby when it comes to sexual lyrics?  Willam’s Let me Take a Hole Pic was epic but she doesn’t have that mainstream audience and her song was definitely not played on any national radio station.  It looks like Chris Brown and Nicki Minaj have opened the flood gates of “let’s put all the taboo sex stuff we can on the radio!”  Is it our turn?  Then again, we probably shouldn’t follow people that have been accused of beating his girlfriend and another of getting ass implants. 

Do we not get explicitly lyrical and take the high road or would you rather have some gay sex talk in our mainstream music?  What if we even used the same phrases as others.  What if Adam Lambert came out with a song that had “eat that booty like groceries” in the chorus.  Would that be as widely accepted?  It couldn’t be as bad as listening to the directions on how to make truffle butter.

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What are your thoughts?

 

 

 

Lyrics to Post To Be