I watched a live musical performance of Katy Perry on the Today Show this morning. Check out www.todayshow.com and click on the Concert Series Link to watch this performance. Katy peformed her summer single "I kissed a girl" and then gave a short response to Matt Lauer about her song and the message it sends to the listening world. Lyrics in this song include 'I kissed a girl, and I liked it. The taste of her cheery chapstick. I kissed a girl, just to try it. I hope my boyfriend don't mind it. It felt so wrong, it felt so right, don't mean I'm in love tonight'. Side note - Go look up the lyrics (www.lyrics.com) and read more of this window into today's culture. Matt asked Katy if she was worried at all about the message this song sends to her listeners or if she felt her music has to be separated from message. Katy responded with saying that she 'always speaks from the heart/she doesn't really censor herself and that is what she feels like is missing from music these days". Hmm, interesting... Here is her single cover picture...again, interesting.
So, what do I think?
First, what does Katy mean when she talks about 'speaking from the heart'? I love the quote from scripture that says "Out of the heart, the mouth speaks'. We can certainly get an idea of what is in her heart. It appears as though her moral compass is broken and that she supports the 'whatever' attitude in life. Does she see any consequenses to her message?
Second, I don't think Katy has much integrity to her music...what a casual attutude she has toward things that are very offenseive to many people. Girls kissing other girls is not my idea of fun nor would I just 'try it'. Her song goes on to say that this behavior is 'no big deal and its innocent'. What is innocent about this behavior? In my opinion, its just not the way things were intended to work. Sure, the song is catchy and has a good beat, but does that trump everything else? Do we buy/listen to music because it is cute and has a catchy beat? What ever happened to talent and creativity?
Third, I don't know about you, but my husband WOULD mind if I kissed a girl just to 'try it'. I'm sure many other husbands/boyfriends would mind if their girlfriend was engaging in such casual and emotionaly harmful behavior.
Fourth, there are a lot of people who sing this song and I wonder if they have really thought about what they are singing. If you watch the video, you will see 10 year old girls singing this song. Do these young girls know what they are singing? Is someone talking to these 10 year olds about the REAL impact this behavior can have on their lives and the lives of others?
Ok, thats all for now. Please also check out Walt Mueller's comments about this song/artist on his blog. I also highly recommend www.cpyu.org for ways that we can engage with culture. Oh yes, I am not afraid of this song. I think it is important that we listen to it, discover what message it sends and decide how we will respond to that message. I think that is a good model for how we should engage with all types of culture.
No comments:
Post a Comment