music rant

[amelia_petkova]

I’m just going to mention at the start of this that I’m getting my Angry Feminist on. I’ve had these thoughts scattered about for a while but once I started writing, it all came pouring out. Most of these apply to country western songs by female artists related to bad relationships (“Because of You” is the genre exception). For the most part, this is just going to be laid out as notes on each song with themes mentioned.

“You Belong With Me” by Taylor Swift and “Because of You” by Kelly Clarkson
Vs.
“Cheater Cheater” by Joey & Rory; “Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood; and “Gunpowder and Lead” by Miranda Lambert

Each title has a link to its song.

The songs that drive me up the wall:
“You Belong With Me” Taylor Swift
Synopsis: The pov character is a teenage girl (supposedly a tomboy) in love with her best (male) friend. She contrasts herself against his ultra-feminine girlfriend and sings about waiting for him to notice her. Of course he does, at the end.

The moment this song starts, I change the radio station. I do understand the pov character not wanting to tell her friend how she really feels about him because that happens in real life all the time. Aside from that, I can’t find anything good in this. Now, I like to be girly sometimes. I like to dress up because it isn’t something I do every day. That does not mean that I think I’m unattractive when wearing jeans and a t-shirt. There’s also the message of, “All women with glasses are fugly!” Well, maybe if she’d wear a pair of glasses that actually fit her face, she’d be happier about it!

The song gets even more infuriating if you watch the music video. My mother’s greatest (and most frequent) complaint is, “Stop bashing the band members!” (My mother played flute in her high school band. I now use the same flute—over 30 years old, and it still works!)

The song/music video ends with the two of them hooking at the prom, as soon as he sees her in a dress and sans glasses. Because of course the boy is only interested in her when she dresses up like his ex-girlfriend! I give that relationship a month, at most.

“Because of You” Kelly Clarkson
Synopsis: pov character sings about how she’s afraid of everything in life after her boyfriend left.

Here's the thing: if you don't watch the official music video, it's easy to think that it's just about the boyfriend. If you watch the music video, it somehow turns into this thing about a father abandoning his daughter. I still don't like it and I'm sticking to the boyfriend interpretation, since more people are likely to listen to the song than watch it.

Look, we all have break-up music. We all have our guilty pleasures. But I want to tear my hair out whenever I hear this song. I don’t even enjoy it on a musical level! Kelly Clarkson just doesn’t do anything for me.

And the songs that I like:
“Cheater Cheater” Joey & Rory
Synopsis: A wife is telling her husband that she found out he cheated on her. She proceeds to verbally trash the other woman and ask if her husband really thought she was that stupid. The husband gets kicked out of the house.

This song cracks me up—the music is fun and the lyrics are hilarious. (Almost all the country songs I like are funny ones.) The fact that a real-life husband and wife are the singers just makes it even better. Although she insults the other woman, the wife still tells her husband, “Hope you love her / ‘Cause you’re stuck with her now.”

“Before He Cheats” Carrie Underwood
Synopsis: Boy meets girl (pov character). Boy dumps her for other girl. POV character trashes his car and actually, you know, learns from the experience instead of getting sucked into a vicious cycle.

If I were ever in a bad break-up, I would hope that I’d go the route of keying my ex’s car instead of wailing that I’d never trust anybody ever again or blaming myself.

“Gunpowder and Lead” Miranda Lambert
Synopsis: The pov character is an abused woman whose wife-beating husband just got out of jail. She knows that the police either can’t or won’t protect her. So she loads her shotgun and waits for him to turn up.

I’m not pro-violence, but at least the woman’s ready and willing to defend herself.

Thought round-up:
I don’t really have any grand essay planned around this. We all like break-up music at times. We have singers that maybe we like all of their songs except for one or two. Sometimes we’re in the mood for depressing materials. (Just look at the popularity and sheer number of books written by Lurlene McDaniel! Yes, I read a lot of them in high school.) It just really burns me when female artists sing about being worthless because they dress a certain way or because they were dumped. I think I’ll go listen to “Cheater Cheater” again.

Comments

[hasufin.livejournal.com]

I'm almost afraid to ask your opinion of Utada Hikaru's "Baby Come Back to Me". The POV character cheated on her SO and is begging him to forgive her, promising she'll change. Which is interesting in that it's a definite gender reversal from the typical theme, but that aside is pretty typical.