Pop Tarts
When did pop songs by women all start being about how hot they are and how you can or can’t sleep with them? This Is This’s Cliff Jones investigates.
Engine’s running high baby, can you come and check it? Got such a pretty kitty, boy I know you want to pet it.
The weather’s nice and wet just south of the border. I can cook up anything that you have to order.
It’s your serve baby but the ball’s in my court, I’ve got a landing strip clear for you at the airport.
These are not my words, but the words of the Sugababes in their current chart single, Easy.
It seems that everyone from Nelly Furtado, Beyonce, the aforementioned Pink, Fergie from Black Eyed Peas, Sugababes and Natasha Bedingfield all record songs with words to the effect of
you can(’t) have my big hot stuff like you know you want
followed by something said over and over that could be filthy given the context, like “shortcake”, “watching” or “big time”.
Then you’ve got your posh singers, who are a bit more sophisticated. I’m talking your Norah Joneses, your Alicias, your Alanii, your Maria Caries and your Jennifers Lopez. But even then, you get songs like Keys’s “Rock Wit You” which leaves little to the imagination.
And don’t think age is a barrier. Paedowatchers can have their fun when it comes to people like Jojo and Ashlee Simpson. Even Joss Stone asked “Don’t Cha Wanna Ride?” at a shockingly tender age.
Yeah, I know it’s supposed to be empowering and everything, and you go sista, but can you imagine this 20 years ago? I’m pretty sure that when Joni Mitchell sang Big Yellow Taxi, she meant just that. Can you imagine Karen Carpenter belting out “We’ve Only Just Begun (Baby Yeah)”, or Sarah Vaughan crooning “Something’s Got To Give (It To Me)”. Neither can I, reader. Neither can I.
The roots of it can be traced as far back as 1977 when Donna Summer first groaned her way into the opening bars of “I Feel Love”. When Olivia Newton John was extolling the virtues of getting physical, I think the jogging she was referring to was the horizontal kind. (Shudders)
And now it seems if you’re a woman in the pop market, you have to make some bold statment about how licious your booty is, allude to your hump, your hump, your hump, your hump or boast about how many boys your milkshake brings to the yard.
Just how far this trend will continue remains to be seen.
For This Is This, I’m Cliff Jones.
November 15th, 2006 at 10:00 am
I had to fact-check you there, because I didn’t believe that those Sugababes lyrics were real. But, unless you’ve got some clever and highly-organised ruse on the go, they seem to be. That’s terrifying. It sounds like a French & Saunders sketch.
November 15th, 2006 at 10:15 am
Another attack on Pink I fear, referring to her song ‘u and your hand’ about guys who go to a club and think that the women are there for them and bet with their mates whether they can pull them or not.
I don’t see anything wrong with these women telling blokes how great they are. Men in clubs have often rated women out of 10 when they are out drinking, and talked of ‘mingers’ and ‘beer goggles’, now it’s our turn to say ‘er, you wish mister’.
Everytime women feel they are empowered men take it away by saying ‘that’s not real empowerment, you’re just kidding yourself.’ Stop moving the goalposts.
November 15th, 2006 at 10:47 am
and have you seen the outfits they wear!? wouldn’t have caught me wearing that in *my* day - tsk!
November 15th, 2006 at 12:30 pm
Oh yes Pete. All true. Google it with caution.
Meester - When you said that, a little bit of sick came up and made me feel icky.
Mel - Not a problem with it in itself, but it seems to be every other song now.
November 15th, 2006 at 1:11 pm
Most of those songs aren’t written by the singers. If you really want to get down and get dirty in your investigative work, ask the SINGERS how they feel about it.
November 15th, 2006 at 2:05 pm
Done. When asked about it over the weekend, the Sugababes pointed to the next one and said “her line’s far worse than mine.” They looked little embarassed
November 15th, 2006 at 3:06 pm
I suspect that most of them never gave much thought to what they were singing and didn’t know what half of it meant anyway. And then there were some that knew what it meant and played the image of the innocent up anyway. I don’t knwo what to think of that, but I do know I don’t like being manipulated, and that’s certainly a form of manipulation.
I’m glad these girls weren’t popular when I was young. Sade and Olivia and Patti Labelle were risque enough.
Joan Jett and the Runaways rocked, though. Did you know the drummer died very recently?
November 15th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
Mysogonists rule eh?
So if they wrote the lines themselves, they’re nasty, and if someone wrote them for them, then they’re puppets.
Girls have it so easy nowadays…
November 15th, 2006 at 3:53 pm
Jeez. I can’t say anything without having it twisted into a sharp letahl instrument and flung back at me at high speed can I?
Guys have it so easy nowadays. Sheesh.
November 15th, 2006 at 4:50 pm
Got such a pretty kitty, boy I know you want to pet it., I’ve got a landing strip clear for you at the airport. is that really empowering? i don’t think i’d find writing lines of innuendo about any part of me empowering. maybe i’m an old meesterfuddyduddy.
November 15th, 2006 at 5:10 pm
Mel - They are probably a mixture of both - nasty puppets.
Ed - You mean like … THIS!!!!!!!!?
Meester - I’ve just got what that means. They should have stuck in a line about “getcha boody doody free”
November 15th, 2006 at 6:02 pm
OW! STOP THAT!
DAngit, that’s gonna leave a mark!
November 15th, 2006 at 10:27 pm
I can see when I’m outnumbered.
I didn’t realise this was a working men’s club, should I tell a joke about women and how rubbish they are?
November 15th, 2006 at 10:43 pm
Mel, not at all. Men and women I think should not go on about how male or female they are, in my view.
My point was not to criticise either sex. It’s the droning on and on about sexuality that I find boring from either sex, and in the case of young pop female singers over the last year and a bit, that’s all they seem to do.
Male rappers are just as annoying. “Ah, riiight, so you have a penis? Excellent. Well done you. Snap, in fact.”
But maybe that’s just me getting old. I don’t know.
November 16th, 2006 at 12:20 am
I blame Madonna.
ANd just so I don’t get attacked for not blaming a male, throw Springsteen in there too.
November 16th, 2006 at 10:15 am
like Cliff in a way, i was questioning what’s empowering for someone, irrespective of their sex, about touting their wares in such a manner.
my point is probably that people should be seeking empowerment somewhere deeper.
after all let’s face it, that airstrip is going to get worn out and need resurfacing eventually… hell, they might even curb low cost air travel.
November 16th, 2006 at 12:38 pm
Ed, I’m going to leave it alone because I simply cannot be rational when it comes to anyone saying anything about Madonna. I may have to find a sharp instrument…
November 16th, 2006 at 2:52 pm
And you see what I’ve done here? Sod the can, we’ve got worms on tap.
November 16th, 2006 at 3:41 pm
Yipe!
Cliff you didn’t done it, I did.
Mel, I’m sorry. Can I say something about.. um… Jamie Lee Curtis?
November 16th, 2006 at 4:48 pm
No Ed you can’t - she’s Tony Curtis’s daughter and I think her mother’s famous too. And she’s androgenous (ish)
It’s all ‘gettin’ down wiv da kids’ innit? - the bands touting their image and a almost-risqué lyrics for the kids who see this as ‘coolness’ - in my day we had a field day with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang because you could say ’shitty’ and get away with it!
November 16th, 2006 at 4:48 pm
Great title
November 16th, 2006 at 4:56 pm
Thanks Sooz - I took the time.
November 16th, 2006 at 4:56 pm
I don’t think Jamie Lee is androgynous, I think she’s rather sexy to be honest. I think the girls AND boys both do it because they feel like they have to do it to get noticed these days.
Janet Lee was Jamie Lee Curtis’ mother- the girl in the Psycho shower.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is one of my favorite movies of all time. Ian Fleming and Roald Dahl wrote it! ‘Truly Scrumptious…’ ‘Old Bamboo’, ‘Toot Sweet’- how much better can you get? Not very! Then toss in Benny Hill and Goldfinger for good measure! ( This film was made by the same team that did the ’60s era Bond movies )
I’d watch that movie any old time.
November 16th, 2006 at 10:15 pm
Cliff, I thought the title was a cheap shot, but what do I know?
I don’t want it to seem that I think this misguided concept of sexualised behaviour/lyrics is empowering in a postmodern ironic sense or otherwise. I guess what I take exception to is men discussing women in that way. I don’t see that men are in any position to tell women what they should and shouldn’t be doing to feel empowered.
On a lighter note, wasn’t Benny Hill liberating? Afterall the women were chasing him, how right on can you get?
November 16th, 2006 at 10:48 pm
Mel, with love in my heart, I’m going to disagree with you this time, but it’s a fair challenge which brings up some good points.
If the pop stars put themselves out there in a promiscuous way, they are going to be discussed. I’m not taking pot shots at how anyone might behave, or dressing however they want to dress or what they say. I’m not even saying there’s anything wrong with it.
I’m making an observation about how pop stars choose to market themselves. Many women have views about male rap artists’ political incorrectness and I would probably agree with them morally but not on artistic merit. I’m a man with views about this as well.
As Tony Blair would say, “let’s be absolutely clear”. I’m not telling anyone women how they should or shouldn’t be empowered and if anyone does, they can get the hell off my webstie and you can help me get rid of them.
Also, pop tarts was a cheap shot, but only because it pop tarts are a nasty breakfast snack, and I think that’s the true crime that was committed today.
November 16th, 2006 at 10:53 pm
Or maybe I’m agreeing with you, because you didn’t actually accuse me of anything.
Shethinks me doth protest too much.