This week on Billboard’s Hot 100 is Katy Perry at #1 with ‘I Kissed a Girl.’ For anyone who read my article two weeks ago, ‘She Kissed a Girl…I Didn’t Like It,’ guess what? I still don’t like it. Some songs annoy you when they first get airplay and then the more you listen to it you kind of decide that it’s okay. This isn’t one of them. In an attempt to promote tolerance and reduce oppression, we as ‘Los Angeles-er’s’ need to make sure I don’t have to complain about this song again in two weeks. This song promotes negative images of Bisexuals and the LGBTQ community at large. We’re bigger than this, people, come on.
At the risk of sounding like an angry young activist, I really believe in the power of media. What we listen to, who we listen to be it Billboard, The Los Angeles City Zine, CNN or People magazine; influences us, our mindsets and opinions. I fall prey to it too, if Gwen Stefani told me that scrunchies were back, I’d be all over it. As part of the millennium generation I feel like we have the power to choose what we want to believe and hear. It may be as small as ‘I Kissed a Girl’ or as severe as a ‘nappy-headed Ho’ comment, but it’s still “we,” the people speaking out and making a difference. Change starts with us, it has to. Before musicians started preaching and influencing our ideas about racism, sexism and classism, they were part of the people too.
At #2 is Rihanna’s ‘Take a Bow.’ I actually really like this song because it’s so simple. It’s actually quite boring. The classic break-up song, if you will; the words are simple, the message is really clear, it should even be boring, yet somehow it’s not. I like that Rihanna chose this song almost as much as I appreciate how she performs it. The tune is calm and steady, the anger of the girlfriend is shown here but does not promote the ‘Angry Black Woman’ generalization that is often internally oppressed upon by African-American or Black culture.
Holding the third spot is Chris Brown with ‘Forever.’ I’ve heard this song before, in every genre possible. It still works somehow. With lyrics like, “It’s like I waited my whole life / For this one night / It’s gon be me you and the dance floor / ‘Cuz we only got one night / Double your pleasure / Double your fun,” Brown has peaked at # 3 after almost 15 weeks. What it lacks in creativity or originality, it makes up for by being dance-able and not Katy Perry.
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2 responses so far ↓
1 Lindsey Darden // Aug 7, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Chris Brown is fun. Young, pumping out hits, making big bucks. I can’t hate on him.
I always felt that “Take a Bow” was Rihanna’s answer to Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable”. I unashamedly listen to both songs when feeling snarky.
I dunno about Katy Perry. I can’t wrap my brain around the idea. Talent is a non-issue when you have the imagery of someone who looks like her leading another girl into a room for perhaps more than a kiss - and you know how much that sells.
2 Liana Aghajanian // Aug 8, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Although the top 3 songs are fun and horribly annoying if they get stuck in your head (and believe me, they will) they have no substance at all, which is a given I suppose. Maybe they’re not meant to. I took a look at the other songs on the billboard this week and the only one in my opinion that deserves to be there is M.I.A. with Paper Planes.
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