Yesterday morning, the radio was tuned in to Sonic again.
But really, I think what annoys me most isn’t the monotony of the really popular music of today, it’s the crappy lyrics. And how some of them might even be harmful.
One of the songs that is played each morning, without fail, on Sonic is One Direction’s “What makes you beautiful”. There is a line in it that comes over and over, “You don’t know that you’re beautiful”, and then, the final line with a twist: “That’s what makes you beautiful”. And sure, the singer has been giving examples of things that apparently make this girl beautiful for the entire song, but still that last line makes me feel as if he’s saying that one of the things that make her beautiful is that she’s so insecure and cute. She is a girl that needs to be told her worth – and that worth is measured in how attractive she is to a man.
There are more songs like that. A while ago there was a Bruno Mars song that was played everywhere, “Just the way you are”, and in the video to that he had a super gorgeous supermodel that apparently didn’t know she was beautiful. Now, that’s just crazy.
I’m not saying that all girls know their own worth and feel good about their bodies all the time, but I’m saying that they should and one of the reasons why they don’t is this constant exposure to the message that if you just keep underestimating yourself, a guy will soon come along and pick you up. The Prince Charming Concept. You get it in the movies, on the tv, even in the song lyrics.
And then you get the other songs, the ones about pleasing a man, being ‘a wild one’ or what have you, and it’s all about finding your worth through a man’s eyes. Everything on the guy’s terms.
Of course, there are also the Beyonces and Lady Gagas, but somehow it feels as if they are too few to get their message through. I imagine it being a lot easier growing up in the nineties, with girl power and “If you wannabe my lover, you gotta get with my friends”. I might be mistaken. I might even be wrong in thinking that songs can affect the self-esteem of teenage girls.
I just know that the Sonic songs bug me like hell.
Katja Malmborg 