April 2006 WUGGIE'S MUSIC, MEDIA AND MORE!
Wuggie's Music Media and More
My Review System:
++ Patently Christian
+ Conforms to Christian morals and value
M Mature content
X Mild objectionable content
XX Objectionable content
XXX Offensive content
Daniel Powter / Daniel Powter / M
This guy is going to be huge. His songs are perfectly crafted for 2006, his sound is edgy ultra hip pop, and the hooks are mercilessly catchy. I've been singing "So you had a bad day" in my head so much this week, I'm ready to track this guy down and shove his microphone down his throat. He is also the poster child for "the more talent you have the less you have to push the envelope". No bad words, no objectionable topics. Mostly he sings about how it feels when you've broken up with your girlfriend, and he does it with emotional word pictures, not bad language.
Daniel is also a good example of an interesting phenomenon I've noticed in just the last month or two. Daniel's MySpace page has more content and more detail than his web site. For a year or more artists have been posting a profile on MySpace with info about themselves, directing people to their web site. In the last month or two, I've begun to notice the opposite. More and more artists are now posting skeleton web sites directing people to content laden MySpace pages. Interesting.
Ne-Yo / In My Own Words / M
This is the #1 download on iTunes right now, and for good reason, it is soulful pop, and Ne-yo has a great voice. His lyrics are unfortunately banal, but they are also very clean. The worst line is "I want to turn you on like your favorite song." If that was all parents had to worry about, the world would be a better place!
Pink / Stupid Girl / XX
You've got to be kidding? Only in America could this happen. Green Day's song from last year, "American Idiot" comes to mind to define what is going on with Pink. Green Day is right - most of America will swallow Pink and never see the blatant contradiction. But not readers of this column!!!! Here are some sample lyrics from Pink's latest song, 'Stupid Girl':
Stupid girl, stupid girls, stupid girls
Maybe if I act like that, that guy will call me back
What happened to the dreams of a girl president
She's dancing in the video next to 50 Cent
Hey, I like her attitude. She's pointing out that girls today are more interested in being highly sexualized objects than in being President. I agree with her that we need a change in what girls are encouraged to be by our society. She's dead on. Alright Pink! I was about to join her fan club! Until, that is, I saw her on the cover of her CD. She's wearing skin tight leather shorts, a bikini top, and she's lying in a seductive pose on the sudsy hood of a car with a hose in her hand. I laughed so hard, I almost pulled the microphone out of Daniel Powter's throat! Does she really think that no one is going to notice that she IS everything she is singing against?
If her lyrics didn't deserve 2 X's, her image does.
Cascada / Everytime We Touch / X
Cascada is simply the euro-trance-dance diva of the moment. The hit single, "Every time we touch" will race up the charts, it's follow up will get lots of airplay but no one will notice, and she will fade into oblivion. That's a good thing, because while the single is squeaky clean, the rest of her stuff isn't. I compromised with one X.
Sean Paul / The Trinity / XXX
Man, don't mess with terms and imagery from my religion when you title your filthy rap album. Does this fall under the category of religious persecution? If so, then I'm blessed. (Matthew 5:10)
Bird York / Wicked Little High / XX
(The hit single, "In The Deep" also available on the Crash Soundtrack)
Sophisticated ethereal pop singer Kathleen "Bird" York sings about lost love, found love, and "the tingle in my jeans". Her sophistication makes everyone think that she knows something you don't, and creates the perception that you are totally missing something in life. Listening to too much Bird York would make me feel hopelessly inadequate and discontented with my life. (If you're like me, you already feel that way sometimes, but I have Jesus!! - she has her wicked little high.) She isn't as blatant as Sean Paul or Eminem, just more sophisticated.
Parents Need To Know
It used to be that parents had to do their homework and make sure that there would be a parents or responsible adult at the party their teenager was going to. If there was a parent, you could rest assured there would be no alcohol or illegal substances. Now, it's gotten a little more difficult. More and more, there are parents who are thinking, "Heck, I drank when I was in high school, why can't my kids? There going to do it anyway, so I'd rather they do it under my roof." End result: some parents are actually buying and supplying the alcohol for the party that your teenager is being invited to. This is especially true in our affluent community. Law enforcement agencies have stepped up to the plate and now write $500 tickets to parents who host such parties. The problem is that around graduation season, some parents are actually thinking: "Heck, if the cops give me a ticket, I'll just pay it. That's less than the tent rental."
It's going to be impossible to restrict your 18 year old high school graduate, so it's a good thing you've developed all those good communication skills and passed on those values to your kid. For teens under 18 who are being invited to grad parties, parents might want to make a phone call to the party host before the day of the party.