Tuesday, February 8, 2011

The Dirty Old Man in Pop Music

There is a song by a popular female artist Kesha called, Dinosaur(2010).  Although the tune is catchy, when you listen closely to the lyrics, you quickly realize that it is about a young girl that is complaining about an "old man" looking at her.  This conjures up negative feelings in me, and it perpetuates a "dirty old man" image.  I wish the younger generation would not produce songs like this because it puts old age in a negative light.  This is called, "ageism".  This is where people assume that older people do not deserve to be treated with respect and do not deserve the same privileges of the younger adult population because of their age. Ageism is harming our society, and songs like these aren't helping the situation.

Here are some of the lyrics:

Oh man, Why are you starrin' at me
Mack on me and my friends it's kinda a creepy
You should be prowling around the Old folks home
Come on dude! Leave us alone


When Kesha was discussing why she wrote this song, she said,

"Dinosaur" came "about [when] this old guy who was hitting on me, and his toupee was kind of falling off, and I was like, "Oh my God, you're so old, you're prehistoric, you're like a dinosaur. D-I-N-O-S-A-you are a dinosaur." (From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_%28Kesha_album%29)

 
Click on this link to see a music video (not the official one) of Ke$ha's Dinosaur: http://vodpod.com/watch/3578477-dinosaur-kesha-music-video.


Angela Gentile

No comments:

Post a Comment

What do you think? Any comments?