So let's look at billboard for a sec here...
Katy Perry is in the number one spot. I'm not surprised. She's generally liked. Party Rock is sitting strong at #2 and I have no qualms with this.
Looking down the list. Wait... Britney Spears is still in the top ten? Are we still in the 90s? What is this? I thought we were done with her after the multiple children and the shitty falling out of her marriage. Don't get me wrong, I like the fact that a pop star can have kids, but I still can't respect Britney.
Oh gosh, Lady Gaga is still up there. Does anyone remember her last big hit, Born this way? It's so bad. I guess once you prove that you can sing about wanting anal sex without any of your fan base noticing, you no longer have to care what you're singing about.
Born this way is a badly written song. So let's start at the beginning. How many just decided that they believe in g-d the moment that heard this song? It's very un-subtle about this topic. Things that it is subtle about:
- People from Asia are "Orients"
- "Chola" is the new word for Latina descent
- Gay guys who dress up as women are a "drag" and should stop being so
- Lesbian is separate and different from gay
- There is nothing wrong with you and you should never stride to improve!
Some of these are arguable, but I'm going to start with what I find the most offensive. "Chola." This is the term for a Latina gang member. This is not an endearing term. This is not something that any woman should want to be called. (also, subtext here is that if you're a man you don't matter, but since Lady Gaga's audience is mostly female this point is less important.) Basically, why is she using this terrible terminology for something that could have been much less offensive with one more syllable?
You could argue that calling Asians "Orient" instead of "Oriental" is not as bad, but that's akin to saying that you're calling me a turd instead of a shit, when I'd rather you call me neither.
The point that she's calling people who dress in drag is a little less enforceable, but I do find it funny that she says, "Don't be a drag - Just be a queen." 3 times and then says, "Don't be!" Really, she should have left out this last line. Even if it isn't telling people not to be drag queens by resoundingly saying "Don't be" it's very easy to misinterpret it as such, and therefore should have been avoided.
Then there's the overarching theme that you should not try to improve. "We are all born superstars," so why even put in the effort to improve your skills? I rage at this so hard that I don't even know how to put it into words. Hard work is often more times more important than innate skill. But this song spins it in an entirely different way.
Lastly, to address the less subtle idea in the song, g-d has made us all the way we are. Good job making an entire decade of preteens and teens into bible-thumpers. I never thought I would hear a pop fan tell me that I was made in g-d's image and that I was disgracing him by not believing in myself. Also, why is Gaga advocating the idea of a male g-d? This idea seems like it is against one of her central ideological pillars.
So, to be strictly clear, I don't think Lady Gaga is a bad singer. In fact, she brought herself into stardom from relatively little. I respect this. However, she can't say that a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck didn't also contribute. Also, don't have an unnatural hair color when telling your fans that you were born this way. Hair dye is completely artificial. I have nothing against hair dye. Actually, I like hair dye. I was planning on bleaching my hair again this coming school year, but I'm very unmotivated. The point is, I think you should recognize the unnatural aspects and address them in order to not sound like a hypocrite.
And now to bash a song that I actually really like. The Cave is probably one of the better songs out right now, but lyricists seem to give less and less of a shit daily. This isn't a nostalgia rant, because Sage Francis is very recent, but his lyrics are incredible. Instead, this is a rant aimed at pop and pop rock lyrics. The Cave upset me because I listened to it and thought it was a song about empowerment. Then I looked up the lyrics and saw "And I won't let you choke; On the noose around your neck." For those who were slow to pick up on what I'm talking about, when I first heard the song I thought it said that I will let you choke on the noose around your neck. This changed the song from being about empowerment to being about kindness. It took one word to change the message of the song. I will continue to sing the song the way I hear it, because I like my message more. At least, it's more unique in this industry than one about kindness and acceptance. Also, it fits the rest of the song better.
Well, I got distracted from the top 100 list. Nothing else pops out at me. Maybe Cobra Starship and Black Eyed Peas. I don't recognize most of these names. How out of touch with current culture am I? Or maybe I'm just more critical of it... Oh, ET by Katy Perry at 32. A friend recently pointed out that this song romanticizes rape, but that's not my rant, it's her's. And then the Lazy song at 34. I like Bruno Mars. Avril Lavigne is still relevant? She's at #73.
Where's Aloe Blacc? Well, even though Billboard doesn't have it, I can still leave you with good music.
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