I don't talk about music here very often, mostly because my musical taste is possibly even more random and strange than my clothing choices. I love all sorts of stuff, lots of it either really annoying/strange or totally awesome, depending on who you are. Possibly the most potentially annoying of all the stuff I listen to is Aqua (close second is probably my slight love for the Spice Girls, especially their song Wannabe). I would try to blame it all on my being a child of the 90s, but since I only started listening to them in the past year, I guess it's just my tendency to love annoying songs.
Honestly though, how could I not love a band with tracks like these?
Lollipop
Dr. Jones
Cartoon Heroes
Barbie Girl
Someone once asked me how I could love the song Barbie Girl, when it's so degrading towards women. Personally, I don't find it degrading. I think it shows how strong and real women are by talking about the stereotypical "barbie girl" and making us realize how ridiculous it is. Maybe it's just all the literary analysis I do at school talking, but I find songs like this incredibly thought provoking and interesting. To me, it doesn't say "you are pretty and wear makeup, so you must be a a naive slut." It says "You aren't actually like that. Most women aren't, they use their heads for things other than displaying hair."*
Do you think that "degrading" songs like Barbie Girl help people realize how diverse women are, or do they reinforce stereotypes?
Love,
Rosie
*I had a really good ending for that sentence, but I try to keep this blog clean for those of you who don't want your mind polluted.
24 June, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
You brought back memories of life in the 90's. I loved Barbie Girl back then, but I haven't listened to it in ages. I didn't it find it degrading at all. I think it was supposed to be ridiculous and sarcastic. "Life in Plastic, it's fantastic" sounds like it's making fun of what was really going on at the time -the boom of plastic surgery.
ReplyDeletewoah, totally forgot about Aqua, I loved Dr. Jones! This band was huge when I was about 8. I remember being on the school bus one morning and some cool older girl has her walkman (yea I know!) and we all took turns listening to this CD, but one girl didn't realize that we were all passing along the walkman after we heard a song each, so she kept listening, and I never got to hear a song that day haha, wtf that was a depressing little story. trust me, I was only a pariah on the school bus ;) And in 8th grade we used to do lipsyncs, we wanted to do Barbie girl, but it was considered lewd because she said "you can undress me anywhere" HAHA, oh my puritanical school (and it wasn't even a Catholic school, but a nondenominational prep school)
ReplyDeletethis post MADE MY DAY. i LOVED aqua like no other! i had a dance solo to candyman! lmao
ReplyDeleteps: thank you for the kind words! xoxo
Wow, that was quite the flashback to my younger days.
ReplyDeleteI think the song is sarcastic so I don't think it's degrading. Nostalgia!=)
ReplyDeleteI never thought Barbie Girl was degrading, but funny and quite witty. I knew the song, but not the band behind it. Guess I need to listen to more Aqua. xoxo
ReplyDeleteI LOVE Aqua!!!
ReplyDeleteWowww BLAST FROM THE PASTT!! I miss the 90s! Soo many childhood memorites :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for having the courage to profess your musical loves. I may have several Backstreet Boys and Boyzone CDs hidden in a secret compartment in my car. Maybe...
ReplyDeleteAnd Aqua always made me happy, if only because the dude has pointier ears than I do.