Island Voices
Parents must guard against sex in songs

By Stanley Chang
Hawai'i resident attending Harvard University

Pop musicians have a long history of defying long-held standards of decency.

Elvis Presley's hip gyrations were enough to scandalize much of 1950s America; the Beatles' drug references in "A Day in the Life" brought censorship from the BBC.

Even with such an extensive tradition of rebelliousness, however, today's artists have reached a new low. Moreover, because their explicit lyrics and suggestive videos are marketed toward children, parents must take strong action against the irresponsible executives who are responsible for this phenomenon.

Any casual music industry observer would observe immediately that today's teen pop artists make their living from sex appeal: The more plunging a decolletage, the more likely 19-year-old Britney Spears is to wear it to the Grammy Awards.

Suggestive lyrics are an integral part of this industry, and romance is the principle theme of virtually all hit songs. Even so, hit songwriters have for the most part kept sexual references to vague slang, until quite recently.

Both pop lyrics and videos have rapidly become less innocuous in the past two to three years. In her 2000 hit "Oops I Did It Again," Spears boldly declares, "I'm not that innocent." Sure enough, her 2001 music video for "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know" was directed by erotic photographer Herb Ritts and can be described as soft-core pornography.

There is no shortage of lyrics so sexually explicit that they are better suited to adult magazines than young children's listening habits. Witness Janet Jackson's proud admission in her No. 1 hit "All for You": "He's got a nice package all right. Guess I'm going to have to ride it tonight."

Songs like these familiarize our children with casual sex and introduce the obscene language used to describe it. Even as innocent a group as 'N Sync, described by Time recently as even more wholesome than their boyband rival the Backstreet Boys, is to blame. The 2000 song "Digital Getdown" describes cybersex encounters in no uncertain terms: "I get so excited when I'm watching, girl, I can't wait to see you touch your body, girl."

Sadly, the knowledge that sex sells records has induced Hollywood to market a growing quantity of offensive lyrics to the most vulnerable segment of the population. Protection of our children must be the highest priority of both parents and the entertainment industry.