Have you ever enjoyed something that was mostly good? Mostly likely, since there's little that's perfect in the world. But how mostly good does it have to be to counter-balance the slightly bad? Or, to put it another way, how many swears do there need to be in a song before you quit listening to it?
For me, I've gone through this with a few bands:
- Cake's cover of "I Will Survive"
"I should've change my [expletive] lock
I should've made you leave your key" - Queens of the Stone Age's "Quick and to the Pointless"
"Oh, baby, baby, please
[expletive], [grunt]! - Flobots' "Combat"
"To get you to bomb back
Two fisted contact to
Get the pond packed
Cause I'm on some [expletive] that exists beyond that"
You get the idea (by the way, I don't listen to those songs anymore). Further, what does a song (or band, even) have to say to be offensive enough to push you away? There's the Spoon song "Jonathan Fisk" where, seemingly randomly, right in the middle of the song, there are the lines, "Religion don't mean a thing / Just another way to right wing." I get that they're frustrated with right wingers using religion as justification for political choices, but the rest of the song is about a bully (Jonathan) that followed the singer home after school. It's just so weird because the offending lines don't fit with the song. I don't like the message of John Lennon's "Imagine," (so I don't listen to it) but at least it's the whole song that pushes the message.
What am I getting at?
Swears or other things that are offensive can sometimes be overlooked if they are small enough and the song is good enough. But sometimes the good can't outweigh the bad.
3 comments:
Today a student was given a referral for foul language. The first word out of his mouth was, “Da_ _!” This was not the first time. We have talked to him, and sent him to sit outside for time-out several times. Finally, I had enough so I wrote a referral. His parents came to school for another matter, but it gave me the opportunity to speak with them. The mom felt we needed to be more understanding. The counselor pointed out that it was a mild swear word; this was not done in front of the parents or student. I said the word offended me, and the other adult in my room. Time-out wasn’t working, and so the punishment needed to be increased. I told the mom I had been very patient with her son, and he was capable of good manners. After-all, she had taught him well. I told the mom it was important for her son to know the limits on his inappropriate behavior. She agreed that her son could do better. He was assigned two days of lunch detention.
He most likely listens to some of the music you have mentioned, but that does not justify his behavior. However, it might explain it.
In the examples you give, the other lyrics don't exactly sell themselves. The tune must be extraordinary.
Well, those are the only parts with the bad language. The rest of the songs have more to offer, though I should mention that the last song is a rap.
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