Has pop music gone to far, marketing adult content to the tween generation or was it already there? In a time where Kim Kardashion and Paris Hilton are famous for doing nothing but being born into wealth why are more and more young girls looking up to them as role models? Is it a sign of the times or something a bit more sinister.
As you can see in this home video and in there T.V Show ( the name says it all, “keeping up with the kardashians”) the unhealthy image and way of life shown to people, this is giving a false image of how to live and an unrealistic expectation for life. So who is behind this crap they like to call Pop Stardom and why do they pray on young peoples minds at the expense of social wellbeing just to make a quick buck.
Well lets take a closer look at where the past wave of this Sexualised Pop Music came from, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera were all Mouseketeer and started there career on the worlds biggest children’s entertainment company Disney.
In there Adult life they would again rise to Pop stardom with the help of Music producer, Martin Sandberg, known professionally as Max Martin.
Born on the 26 February 1971 in Stockholm Sweden Max Martin broke through as a producer and songwriter in the mid to late 1990′s after crafting a string of hits for Pop artists like the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, NSYNC and Robyn. Some of his earlier hits include “I Want It That Way”, “…Baby One More Time”, “Larger Than Life”, “Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely”, “Oops!…I Did It Again”, “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)”, “That’s the Way It Is”, and “It’s My Life”.
His trademark during the second half of the 1990′s and the early 2000′s was a danceable, keyboard-laden Pop sound that blended music styles such as Disco, Glam metal and Europop. However, with Kelly Clarkson’s 2004 and 2005 hits “Since U Been Gone” and “Behind These Hazel Eyes”, Martin stepped back into the spotlight after reinventing himself with a heavier, rock-tinged sound.
In 2004 Martin Sandberg AKA Max Martin would come to meet Łukasz Sebastian Gottwald AKA Dr Luke while deejaying at a house party.
Łukasz Sebastian, better known as Dr. Luke, was born on September 26, 1973 in Westerly, Rhode Island in New York. Luke performed with the Saturday Night Live Band for ten seasons until 2007.
Dr Luke currently owns two publishing companies, Kasz Money Publishing for his own songs and Prescription Songs. Prescription Songs employs a network of 17 songwriters, including Ke$ha, Katy Perry and Benny Blanco. As of January 2011, he has garnered 21 Top 40 Billboard Hot 100 singles, becoming the producer with the third most such hits since the charts were created. Luke co-wrote and co-produced the Kelly Clarkson Hot 100 number two song, “Since U Been Gone” with Max Martin, he provided the singer another hit in “Behind These Hazel Eyes”. Subsequent songs by Pink, “Who Knew” and “U + Ur Hand” reached the Hot 100 top ten. He would go on to co-produce a number one for Avril Lavigne with the song “Girlfriend” as well as seven other songs on the Lavigne album. He also achieved a UK number one with the song “About You Now” for the Sugababes. Luke contributed two songs to Katy Perry’s debut album, Hot 100 number one, “I Kissed a Girl” and “Hot n Cold”, as well as three songs to Britney Spears 2008 album, Circus, including the title track. Luke also co-produced the US number one song “Right Round” by Flo Rida. His third co-production for Kelly Clarkson, “My Life Would Suck Without You” would reach the top of the Hot 100 as well. In late 2009, his song for Miley Cyrus, “Party in the U.S.A.”also written by Jessie J. would reach number two on the chart as well. In December 2009, Billboard named him as one of the top 10 producers of the decade. In 2010, “Tik Tok”, recorded by Ke$ha and co-produced by Dr. Luke, became the longest running debut number one single by a female artist since 1977.
Since 2008, Max Martin has written and co-written more than 10 number-one hits, including “So What” and “Raise Your Glass” by Pink, “Hot n Cold”, “I Kissed a Girl”, “E.T.”, “Teenage Dream”, “California Gurls”, and “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)”, by Katy Perry, “My Life Would Suck Without You” by Kelly Clarkson, and “3″ by Britney Spears. Since 2010, he has co-written 10 top-10 singles, including “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz, “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love” by Usher, “Whataya Want From Me” by Adam Lambert, “F**kin’ Perfect” by Pink, “What The Hell” by Avril Lavigne and “Hold It Against Me”, ‘”Till the World Ends” and “I Wanna Go” by Britney Spears.
This new wave of Sexualised Pop Music is far more aggressive and doesn’t even bother trying to cover up the promiscuous nature and drug induced fun it is promoting in it’s lyrical content. In fact it embraces it and promotes bad behaviour as the norm, unfortunately not in a way that Punk did in the 70′s which was about free thinking and anti establishment.
This style of Pop created by Max Martin and Dr Luke would have to be the complete opposite of punk it’s all about mind control with their clever product placement, promoting wasteful consumerism.
One of the biggest Pop artist at the moment who was quoted as saying “i sold my soul to the devil” Katie Perry is the perfect Pin Up Girl to replace the Drug f*cked Britney Spears. This year Miss Perry was supposed to feature on the public broadcasting TV show Sesame Street, a show that is marketed to the 2 till 8 age demographic. Who would of thought of bringing Katie Perry the same girl that brought you “I Kissed a Girl” and other Sexual orientated Pop on Sesame Street, thank god it didn’t air but still what was the network thinking or better yet how much were they paid off by the record company.
It’s all about marketing, making sure that everywhere you look the Pop Star is there it doesn’t matter if its for a good publicity or bad just as long as you remember the name.
But it’s not just Max and Dr Luke pushing out this bad taste Sexualised Pop Music to the youth of today, as i started doing research for this article i came across this artist Nicki Minaj and her track “super bass” what i found amazed me as this clip has 202,204,400 views and hundreds of young people copying her Rap on You Tube. To top it off the start of this clip had a ad for The Penguins the Movie (video game) as it was on VEVO.
The lyrical content in this song is so shocking it sums up perfectly the point i am trying to get across in this article. You may say “it’s a Rap song not a Pop song” but take a closer look at the catchy chorus.
I know this is a bit off topic then my usual articles about Vinyl Records but this is a story i feel needs to be told. It gets me so angry to think that there are people out their manufacturing this terrible Pop music and marketing it to kids just to make a lot of money for themselves and the companies they represent. Don’t they realise the damage they are doing to the population as a whole, it is so morally wrong.
If after reading and watching this article you still think that this music is not targeted at the pre teen market take a look at the Brats Dolls or better yet go to one the these Pop star concerts and look at the age demographic if you could bear this crap called music.
I leave you with two viral clips that come out of ARK Music Factory of wanna be Pop Stars trying to copy there favourite artist instead of just being kids. The first song is the much hated “Friday” by Rebecca Black
The next track I was going to play was Jenna Rose first viral song “My Jeans” but this song sums up the article perfectly.
Article Compiled by Owen Mitchell (for CrateDigging.org) ©
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