Posted on 08/11/2010 4:14:01 AM PDT by cycle of discernment
11th August 2010
The man who helped launch the career of Kylie Minogue yesterday condemned modern pop culture for 'sexualising' youngsters.
Mike Stock, one third of the legendary pop factory Stock, Aitken and Waterman, said: 'The music industry has gone too far. It's not about me being old fashioned. It's about keeping values that are important in the modern world.
'These days you can't watch modern stars - like Britney Spears or Lady Gaga - with a two-year-old.
'Ninety-nine per cent of the charts is R 'n' B and 99 per cent of that is soft pornography.'
He continued: 'Kids are being forced to grow up too young. Look at the videos. I wouldn't necessarily want my young kids to watch them.
'I would certainly be embarrassed to sit there with my mum.'
Mr Stock believes that today's children are being 'sexualised' as a result of images put out by the pop industry of stars such as Lady Gaga.
He said: 'Mothers of young children are worried because you can't control the TV remote control.
'Before children even step into school, they have all these images - the pop videos and computer games like Grand Theft Auto - confronting them and the parents can't control it. Talking to mothers' groups, they were saying that even they have lost faith in brands like Disney.
'They were quite happy to put their kids in front of the telly to watch Hannah Montana but recently Miley Cyrus [who played Montana] has shown off her maturing body.'
'I'm being told by mothers of young kids they're worried by the pressure on them for their children to wear clothes and make-up at a young age.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Yep. Like Ronald McDonald and Happy Meals.
So you support anarchy when it comes to having some kind of societal standards?
Or are you so self centered that you don’t care what happens to this country?
“Yep. Like Ronald McDonald and Happy Meals.”
No, those are easy to solve by not going to McDonalds. Its a little harder when you have to deal in the real world with real people.
I’m not being smug. I sacrificed my career and material goods to homeschool my daughter. I didn’t turn her over to be indoctrinated by the state or corrupted by unsupervised peers. I also learned how to block channels on the tv. I consider it a matter of priorities. The easy thing would have been day care, then public school, and me raking in the money as pop culture encourages. I considered that a greedy and self serving route. I’m not suggesting parents can control all outside influences, but they can certainly dramatically cut down on them when children are young if they choose to. Then when their children are older and are exposed to the garbage they will still know how to blush and eschew it.
The best thing that ever happened to pop music was MTV. And the worst, most self defeating business mistake ever made was when the RIAA decided that MTV should pay immense royalties for advertising their music.
People who watched MTV still remember dozens of musicians and performers from that time. But if you ask them who is hot today, with the exception of the holdovers still performing, maybe only two or three new artists. Do they like their music? Meh.
The reasons that only a few grunge performers remain is that they have little or no competition. The RIAA wants all the money, every penny, from everybody, and doesn’t want to spend even a penny to make more.
For pop music to flourish, the RIAA delenda est.
But kids see the ads and commercials, and nag their parents into submission. Perhaps a ban on fast food advertising would work.
Perhaps some kind of societal standards would work?
I also think you missed my point. The article says “Mothers of young children are worried because you can’t control the TV remote control.” Yes they can and if they don’t, to me that’s being lazy. “...the pop videos and computer games...” again, don’t buy the games or videos and take control of the tv. The easy route is to say “yes” to them rather than “no.” “They were quite happy to put their kids in front of the telly to watch Hannah Montana...” and that is a poor babysitter and again, laziness in parenting.
I blame the parents who let their children indulge in this stuff. The music industry is only publishing it because THEY BUY IT.
Children nag their parents because the children know that nagging will get the parent to give in. The parents simply have to say NO and mean it.
It’s everywhere, even in places like the doctor’s office. The photos in the articles and advertisements in the magazines in the waiting room would have been considered porn not so long ago.
I homeschooled 3 of my children. ( No TV etc.) But...It was impossible to fully shield them from society's influences.
Even though we attended a conservative church the other youngsters in the congregation did attend government school. Then there were the neighbors, and our extended family and their children. Even in the places like the dentist's office their were common magazines with photos in the articles and advertisements that would have been considered pornography not so long ago.
Again...Our nation is in desperate need of spiritual revival.
“What’s needed here is not government control but **spiritual revival** across this nation.”
As your reply is to me, I hope you’re not suggesting or assuming I support government control. I support saying, “no.” I support saying, “no, that’s not appropriate reading” if a child picks up a magazine that might have offensive pictures. I support raising my child by Christian values and pointing out the sharp divide between that and our current culture. Christians are to be in this world and not of it, and teach our children that. My child has been exposed to a lot, but as a parent, I’ve tried to be diligently there to point out right from wrong and good from evil. I didn’t even have to be a “hover parent” to do that. I just controlled the tv the first 6 or so years of her life and was there for her.
Did your parents have to deal with YouTube? The world is a lot different now. Back when we were growing up, you had to seek out explicit entertainment, now it comes right into the house via cable TV and the Internet. When we were growing up, our parents could let us be by ourselves and pretty much knew we wouldn't be exposed to those things, today you have to watch your kids like a hawk.
Heck, with YouTube you don't even have to buy it.
I’m young enough that my parents did have to deal with the internet when I was a late teen and do deal with it for my younger brothers. Again, computers in a central area of the house, no smart phone for kids, monitor their friends and you can’t keep everything out but you can limit a lot.
Societal standards are fine. How do you enforce them?
“Societal standards are fine. How do you enforce them?”
One way is to speak out when they are broken, instead of sticking your head in the sand and locking your kids in a closet.
Exactly, but it definitely takes a lot of work on the parents’ part.
I think it helps also if the parent is aware of what’s going on and try to counter it.
For example, I have totally sold my kids on the fact that the music I grew up blows away anything that comes out today. And so far it’s working, if it’s from the 80’s, they’re all over it.
Of course that never would have worked on me when I was their age. ;) Let’s see, Ray Conniff or The Beatles?
“now it comes right into the house via cable TV and the Internet”
Only if one lets it. Just say “no.”
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