"You all know it's wrong, but you're singing along."
- Five Finger Death Punch, "AfterLife"
Comedian Dustin Nickerson has a bit where he looks at the Looney Tunes from today's point of view. As good comedy does, he gets his laughs by making the audience uncomfortable. Children now are learning empathy from Bluey; what were we getting out of the hijinks of Bugs Bunny and his famously chaotic co-stars?
Did spending our Saturday mornings laughing at the speech impediments of Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, and Elmer Fudd permit us to do the same to disabled students on the playground? How many boys learned that "no" doesn't always mean no through the lessons of Pepe Le Pew? How many young girls were conditioned to believe that this type of behavior was a normal part of life; that it was acceptable for them to be sexually harassed?
Apparently, Pepe survived the #MeToo movement atop his ride at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
(Image by Carl J. Petersen) Details DMCA
Nickerson's bit turned my thoughts to the music I listened to after I outgrew Saturday morning cartoons. Driven by the success of MTV, the eighties were a unique time in music history, when Madonna coexisted on the charts with Mötley Crue. The era had its share of throwaway songs, but also produced tracks that would stand the test of time. For every "Hey Mickey," there's "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," which still pulls in roughly 1.18 million daily streams.
Then there are the songs that should have been retired long ago, the ones that get rotated into your playlist and make you say, "What were they thinking?"
"You want me to fix up lyrics while our president gets his dick sucked?"
- Eminem, "Who Knew"
There was a group of Washington Wives who tried to use their husbands' political power to implement a plan to police lyrics, but their efforts said more about their personal hangups than a real concern about songs that propagated harmful societal norms. Three songs on the PMRC's "Filthy 15" list were there because of their references to female masturbation: Prince's "Darling Nikki," Vanity's "Strap On 'Robbie Baby'," and Cyndi Lauper's "She Bop." Prince's second entry on the list, "Sugar Walls," is a reference to the lining of female genitalia, though the reference would have been lost on most children.
It is hard to understand why W.A.S.P.'s Animal (f*ck Like a Beast) would need a warning label, as its title seems to tell you all you need to know, but this song is also on the PMRC's list. Its inclusion is bewildering because the song was not included on the initial domestic version of the album. While the band had a considerable cult following, they were not exactly burning up the charts. Mercyful Fate ("Into the Coven") and Venom ("Possessed") were even more obscure.
The most obscene part of the PMRC's list was the inclusion of Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It." While the song was described by the group as containing "violence," the closest the lyrics come to this description is "We'll fight the powers that be." Questioning those in power is essential for a functioning democracy and should be celebrated, not labeled as potentially harmful.
"And freedom is the reason
You can't take it without a fight."
- Anthrax, "Startin' Up A Posse"
It would be unfair to judge older songs based on today's standards. As a society, we have become more cognizant of the harm words can inflict and have relegated many to the trash heap, replacing them with euphemisms like "the n-word" or "the r-word." But songwriters do not have the luxury of retrofitting what has already been recorded.
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