7 years ago
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Music Approval ...... Some help please?
With the dances we do for MCYC comes the responsibility of approving the music. I am having a hard time deciding where to draw the line. For instance, who's values should have the last word. When we used the church it was cut and dry...church standards. Now we are in the new school. Should things change? We are not church sponsored. We are city sponsored. So should I force my values on the rest? If it is OK for radio should we play it? What if they play it at the school dances, is that OK then? What if it is regularly played in my own home? If we don't play new music will our dances be considered lame? Wouldn't it be better to have a safe place for kids to be, then to have them do something else, because our dances are lame? Is it "safe" if we play all the music we want? See my dilemma? Most all of the songs the kids hear now are about sex. Some are worse then others. And yet some of the really bad ones are cryptic and hard to know what they are really about. That is unless the urban dictionary is your best friend. Let me tell you, sometimes ignorance is much better! So what should I allow. Absolutely nothing? Just a little bit of garbage? A lot of garbage? Give me your opinion? Some of the songs in question are: "Shake it" by Metro Station, "Soulja Boy" by Soulja Boy (if you don't know what this is about, don't look it up, you don't want to know), Hot and Cold by Katie Perry (the only thing in here is the "B" word) and Low by Flo-rida. There are many others, these are just the ones I could think of at 10:30 at night. So if it was you, what would you do?
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8 comments:
I would say that you don't use any songs with potty mouth or references to sex. I think it should be that simple. These are young impressionable kids and as a parent I wouldn't want my kids listening to stuff like that. Now having said that, you are more than welcome to borrow some of our music, I have Dora, Backyardigans, Lauri Berkner and Milkshake for your listening pleasure. That is the extent of my CD collection these days!
These "young impressionable kids" are the ones describing to me what these songs are!
If it is not church sponspored, I don't think it should necessarily be church standards. You don't need to be playing nasty, dirty songs, but a song that is completely clean except for the "B" word should be fine. You can guarantee they will here it all at the prom...
It's hard to know where to draw the line. Strictly speaking, you would probably be on solid ground if you played what was played at the school dances. Of course, that may be too far over the line for you. When I was that age, they would just edit out the bad words out of most of the songs, and only really explicit songs would be banned. Of course, it's not that simple anymore! From looking at the lyrics of the songs you mentioned, "Hot 'n' Cold" seems fairly innocent, but the other songs...not so much (except I think you'd have to look up information on Soulja Boy, like you did, to figure out what on earth he's talking about! :) Of course most kids probably have little or only a partial idea of what these songs are about, and probably can't even understand half of what they're saying, but that doesn't make it OK. Hmm, I'll have to give this some more thought.
Wow, that is a tough one. I guess I lean more toward what Kim said that as a parent I want to feel like I am sending my children to a place where I won't have to worry about anything questionable going on. Even if the kids already know the songs because they've heard them at school or on the radio or at a friend's house(or have them in their own collection--yikes!). But then as a parent, I am also not cool and therefore, the dance would probably be considered lame as you pointed out. Man, Laurie Berkner really is easier--great lyrics and you can dance to it!
I am glad I do not have to make that decision. Have you asked what kind of music is allowed at the high school dances? NOw that you are using the school in Mendon and not the church for the MCYC dances you definitly could loosen the standards on some of the music. I do feel that songs with very explicite lyrics should not be played, by that I mean if they are actually saying the filthy word and not just some word that you need the urban dictionary to translate. Also songs that are explicitly full of sex words probably not. I am sure this did not make any sense. Good luck.
They play everything at the school dances. All the songs I mentioned plus some. That is why the kids are upset that we aren't playing them. Of course we can edit the songs. The swear words are no problem. It's the others that are a problem. If I edit Low for content I have nothing left but the chorus.
Let's face it, in todays day and age there is no way to fully protect the youth. If it is approved for the radio I say you are good to go. With of course the editing of swear words. And don't anyone for a second think that those kids don't know EXACTLY what the song is saying and what the meaning behind it all is. I say that you are providing a physically safe place for the kids to dance to the kind of music they want to dance to. They could be going out to clubs where there is no safety at all. Drugs for example. Just becuase they are teens does not mean they can't get in. My opinion. Keeping in mind... I have Low and Hot N Cold on my IPOD and I am a mom.
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