Have you watched the new Lady Gaga/ Beyonce video. You guessed right i am talking about the soft porn entitled Telephone. That is what music has become now-porn. The song is supposed to be about a girl who catches fun in spite of the hindrance a sticky boyfriend is trying to be. But there is no club. Instead there is a gallery of nude, semi nude girls with cleavages bouncing out of their bras and butts twisting and shaking out of tight-fitting pants that leave very little to the imagination. That’s how raunchy videos have become now and there is no control as to who is watching it. Children even sing it loudest and perform the same sex-driven choreography. I was infuriated last weak when i met my 14 year old younger brother watching pornography! When i tried scolding at him, he retorted that it was the tour of Britney Spears’ Circus album which i bought for him. Unconvinced i decided to check. Alas! it was. I need not be graphic but to simply say i reached orgasm. I mean that literally.
Then as i went out to relax from the pressures of the video i just watched, my 12 year old niece was singing Rihanna’s Rude Boy. Oh my God i had never taken the time to listen to it. That’s the lyrics. While she twisted her body and moved her butt, she chanted the song distinctly moving to the demands of the music. So i said to myself Rihanna was asking her rude boy “...is you big enough” and it it is, then “...it is time to get it up” and if she is if she “...don’t feel it, she ain’t faking it”.
There we go the pressures i was trying to put off came back full swing. Thank God i am neither pedophile nor an incest. Heaven alone knows what would have happened.
Maybe i am not just getting the fun because i am old fashioned and conservative or maybe these videos and lyrics are actually getting a hold on our society. Perhaps, just perhaps i might be more tolerant with the Britney’s. Madonnas, the Lady Gagas and porn impresario R.Kelly. What i cannot seem to tolerate is when i go to our local studios to listen to music from our local brew and what i get is a deliberate copy cat of western rap/hip hop style accompanied with lyrics like “...imma gonna screw your p***y with ma hard c**k” and the female back up singer responding out loud “come on baby...put it on me anytime...anywhere.”
That’s the point i am not getting. Since when did African music become so ribald, downright pornographic and unrestrained? It is ridiculous, i must saying to listen even to the fake western accent, it just simply painfully ridiculous!
I realise that we are in a time where the drive towards globalization means the the homogenization of experiences and culture but that does not mean that a certain group of people should loss track of their cultural roots and become imitators of others. Globalization in effect means different people now have or should have greater access and awareness of other cultures. It doesn’t call for the erosion of cultural values and morality.
It is even normal for Lil Wayne to pile up hundreds of girls into his flamboyant limo, spray champagne and claim he would f**k the living hell out of them. It is understandable because he can actually do it. He has the money and the fame and the groupies! But for UB student who barely survives on the breadline or for any other Cameroonian artist to preach thus in his music is just wishful thinking and largely antithetical to the reality of their life. Most cannot afford even transport money. Maybe i have exaggerated but the point is we can’t afford it. So why not sing music that reflects our reality.
By this i don’t mean our musicians and aspiring music artists should get into music that has people clothe in leafs and carrying spears and shouting oh oho oh ooo! What i mean is that if limos are not what we find here, and girls are not cheap enough to be piled up in it for sex and champagne, then we should not mislead people or fool ourselves with it.
Most of us indulge in sex. It is no stranger but what we should not indulge in is portraying sex as the only thing we indulge in. If we must talk about it, then subtlety is the best recipe. If you listen to Beyonce’s sweet dreams, it contains a lot of sexual innuendo but is not the least offensive. I was about saying Lady Ponce before i realised she is just what sex expression should not be. Micheal Jackson’s Thriller is the biggest video of all time. But it was devoid of graphic sex.
Music is a form of communication and therefore the experience should be decent, vibrant and unobtrusive.