The Ugly Truth Behind Today’s Pop Music

Henry Jeong

 

The cheapskate song that mentioned undressing. The pornographic scene appearing in the middle of a popular music video. Okay, these are starting to sound like part of a scene from the adult film industry. But these things actually exist as part of our mainstream music scene (“My First Kiss” by 3OH!3 and “Teenage Dream” by Katy Perry), whereas other types of music, such as country, jazz and soul, are struggling to stay successful because they don’t include as many sexual references in their songs.

Pop music, whose main audiences are teenagers and children as young as 5 or 6 years old, thrives on the purchasing powers of these audiences. Pop is generally full of oversimplified and artistically dreadful compositions and songwriting, which are considered the most important part of the music, whether you play jazz, blues or country.

You may wonder what’s wrong with cheeky, fun and catchy tunes. But let me ask you one question: do these songs raise your soul up and inspire it when you’re down?

In order to survive in this harsh reality of the music industry, the pop musicians have developed a distinctive image and type of music. That’s good because diversity of music is always needed; however, much of its content and lyrics have become sexually inappropriate for younger audiences.

Look at some of the most viewed music videos: I bet you could find at least one song that’s considered being over-sexualized, such as my first two examples at the very beginning. For instance, “Teenage Dream” contains pornographic, grotesque depictions in middle of the song, and the lyrics of “My First Kiss” mention the undressing of undergarments.

Given the mass popularity of these artists and songs, more people feel the need to imitate and follow the actions of their idols and role models, thinking these things are cool, cute or sexy. This will cause negative social effects and deterioration of personal and social protection from these dangerous factors, such as exposure to pornographic materials.