Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Foul-mouthed and fed up
NY Times (Via Orange County Register) ^ | 7/15/07 | David Brooks

Posted on 07/15/2007 7:41:08 AM PDT by BCrago66

If you've been driving around listening to pop radio stations this spring and summer, you'll have noticed three songs that are pretty much unavoidable, and each of them is a long way from puppy love.

First, there's "Before He Cheats," by Carrie Underwood. This is a song about a woman who catches her boyfriend in a bar fooling around with someone else. But she's not wounded or insecure. She's got nothing but contempt for the slobbering, cologne-wearing jerk. She's disgusted by the bleached blond girly-girl who's leading him on and who doesn't even know how to drink whiskey.

(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: beforehecheats; carrieunderwood; countrymusic; davidbrooks; domesticviolence; doublestandard; revenge
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-79 next last
A decent column by David Brooks, available - at least temporarily - because the OC Register broke the "Times-select" embargo on its op-ed columns.
1 posted on 07/15/2007 7:41:09 AM PDT by BCrago66
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: BCrago66
American pop culture is about the scankification of America's young women.

If that's not bad enough, we import it, i.e., Posh Spice.

2 posted on 07/15/2007 7:46:28 AM PDT by lormand (Michael Wiener - faux Conservatism for faux Conservatives.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BCrago66

Don’t listen to “pop” music very much.

This may be why.


3 posted on 07/15/2007 7:48:06 AM PDT by BenLurkin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BCrago66
The Carrie Underwood song always pushes my double standard button hard.

There is NO $&#*@($# WAY that song would be tolerated, much less celebrated, if the genders were reversed. A guy taking a bat and a knife to his girlfriend's car, just because she cheated on him? Come on! Women shelters across America would take to the airways to shrilly whine about abusive, controlling guys, violence against women, blah blah blah.

But felonious property destruction is ok in a domestic dispute if the victim is a guy. You go grrrrl!

4 posted on 07/15/2007 7:49:57 AM PDT by MichiganMan (Last year, this consumer spent over $150 on native Linux games. Who wants my business next year?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BCrago66
This is the end result of Feminism: Paris Hilton, Lindsey Lohan, Britney Spears.

Bored, free, drug addicted, drunk and sexually loose.

Just the girls momma wanted to bear her grandchildren

5 posted on 07/15/2007 7:52:35 AM PDT by Popman (I removed my Bushbot brain chip after he didn't veto the McCain Feingold election anti freedom bill)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MichiganMan

The double standard you speak of is based upon the assumption that women are the weaker sex, thus it’s OK to allow them to indulge violent fantasies, because they usually don’t do anything about it.

So when you think about it, the double standard demeans both sexes.


6 posted on 07/15/2007 7:55:34 AM PDT by BCrago66
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: BCrago66
I'm not sure why he tries putting any kind of admirable spin on this angry persona. It doesn't seem at all an accurate analysis. True emotional independence is not vandalizing your boyfriend's car because he's flirting with someone else, getting loaded with your friends at a bar where you know darn well men are watching, or trying to get a guy to have sex with you in hopes that the nookie will hookie.

This is just pitifully needy behavior, the lashing out phase that comes after having been rejected. It's an update of the ridiculous "You Oughtta Know" by Alanis Morrisette, where she alternates between ranting about being dumped and wanting to know if he still thinks about her. No. He doesn't. That's why he dumped her.

Foul-mouthed rage is simply the defense mechanism of the emotionally-crippled. There's nothing Clint Eastwood-like about it. Brooks has no idea what he's talking about.

7 posted on 07/15/2007 7:56:50 AM PDT by A_perfect_lady
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BCrago66

This is why I don’t listen to pop music anymore. It’s like listening to a group therapy session of dysfunctional, angry whiners.

(Whatever happened to romantic songs?)


8 posted on 07/15/2007 8:02:19 AM PDT by LibFreeOrDie (L'Chaim!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: A_perfect_lady
Foul-mouthed rage is simply the defense mechanism of the emotionally-crippled. There's nothing Clint Eastwood-like about it. Brooks has no idea what he's talking about.

Pink's interesting in that respect. She doesn't seem to like men much. You have her open contempt for those that would buy her a drink in Hand, and then criticism of of men for favoring women more attractive than her in Stupid Girl. Bitchy and needy all in one package, oh boy, where do I sign up?

9 posted on 07/15/2007 8:08:29 AM PDT by MichiganMan (Last year, this consumer spent over $150 on native Linux games. Who wants my business next year?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: lormand
American pop culture is about the scankification of America's young women.

There are other top of the chart songs that are more wholesome. Taylor Swift's "Tears on My Guitar" plays a lot in this house and is reminiscent of the bobby socks era.

10 posted on 07/15/2007 8:11:29 AM PDT by mtbopfuyn (I think the border is kind of an artificial barrier - San Antonio councilwoman Patti Radle)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: MichiganMan

What about “Norwegian Wood”? — A guy goes to a girl’s place planning to sleep with her and she brushes him off so he burns down her apartment.


11 posted on 07/15/2007 8:11:38 AM PDT by ZGuy (Democrats : Corrupt or deceived. There are no other options.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: A_perfect_lady

Nail on the head.


12 posted on 07/15/2007 8:15:27 AM PDT by L98Fiero (A fool who'll waste his life, God rest his guts.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: BCrago66
Sheesh! Did this guy just turn on the radio? Has he not been listening for the past 40 years or so where sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll have been mainstays on the airwaves since the '60s?

Listening to many of the '70s and '80s songs I grew up on... there's not much to complain about, unless you're talking about modern-day curse-filled (c)RAP.

13 posted on 07/15/2007 8:17:32 AM PDT by DTogo (I haven't left the GOP, the GOP left me.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BCrago66
Songs remind me of what I've noticed since Roe vs Wade... women are not held responsible for their actions.

Is it because other women think women are weak? I think so.

Women need to protect themselves in healthy ways, for instance:

1. Birth control is available. Use it before you get pregnant.
2. Don't hook up just because it's the thing to do among your peers
3. Have some self respect.

While our educators are teaching kindergartners how to put a condon on a cucumber... maybe they could find the time the children's parents seem to be lacking to tell said children that "engaging in sexual activity before you're a grown up can and does screw you up" ... especially true for girls.

14 posted on 07/15/2007 8:17:43 AM PDT by xtinct (I was the next door neighbor kid's imaginary friend.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MichiganMan
Pink may not like men, but it's the neediness that leads to the rage. Once you no longer need someone, you lose your anger toward them for failing to give you what you had hoped for.

Well... sometimes there is still some... residual irritation. ;^) But this foam-at-the-mouth aggression that these women are displaying is just momentum from rage leveraged to compensate for weakness.

15 posted on 07/15/2007 8:26:58 AM PDT by A_perfect_lady
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: ZGuy
What about “Norwegian Wood”? — A guy goes to a girl’s place planning to sleep with her and she brushes him off so he burns down her apartment.

What about it? Its an obscure Beatles song from forty years ago. Before He Cheats is currently in heavy rotation, and has peaked at #8 on Billboards Hot 100.

There are plenty of examples of songs out there in which violence against women is performed by the protagonist. In every case though, they're roundly criticized, and certainly not celebrated as "empowering". In contrast, Garth Brooks third verse in The Thunder Rolls involves the woman shooting, and killing, her guy when he comes home smelling of perfume, and its one of his biggest crowd pleasers at concerts.

16 posted on 07/15/2007 8:27:52 AM PDT by MichiganMan (Last year, this consumer spent over $150 on native Linux games. Who wants my business next year?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: BCrago66
Lyle Lovett, "L.A. County"
And they kissed each other
And they turned around
And they saw me standing in the aisle
Well I did not say much
I just stood there watching
As that .45 told them goodbye

17 posted on 07/15/2007 8:28:39 AM PDT by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MichiganMan

“Alison” by Elvis Costello and “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town” (written by Mel Tillis) by Kenny Rogers don’t seem to have generated too much protest.


18 posted on 07/15/2007 8:29:15 AM PDT by drjimmy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: BCrago66

Where are parents? Why do they let their kids listen to garbage, watch garbage, go out wherever with whomever as young as 11 or 12, and dress like gangstas and hos? Will I lose my radio show for using that last word? Well, if I had a radio show.)

None of these kids have their own money. If parents chose to put a stop to it, they could. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen some grungy, pouty teenager out with his mom buying back-to-school clothes, and I am so tempted to ask her why she lets her child dress like that. I guarantee she’s the one with the money.


19 posted on 07/15/2007 8:29:43 AM PDT by Pining_4_TX
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ZGuy
What about “Norwegian Wood”? — A guy goes to a girl’s place planning to sleep with her and she brushes him off so he burns down her apartment.

There are lots of interpretations of Norwegian Wood. I think you are subscribing to the darkest interpretation of all. In the UK, "lighting the fire" meant turning on the room heater.

Nevertheless, the fact remains most pop and certainly all rap is unadulterated junk "performed" by talentless muscians operating electronic "instruments."

20 posted on 07/15/2007 8:30:22 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-79 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson