Nothing New About "Provocative" Music | Teen Ink

Nothing New About "Provocative" Music

September 14, 2014
By Anonymous

Recently, Nicki Minaj released her provocative video for her song Anaconda. The majority of the video is just Nicki provocatively dancing, with lots of close-ups on her posterior. The lyrics themselves are racy; however, nothing new.

However, I couldn't help but notice the number of people who seemed to be outraged by it. There were a lot of older folks (not much older though; some of these people were as young as their early 20s) posted comments along the lines of "How scandalous for Nicki to..." and "Back in my day..."

The people who posted these comments are missing something important. A large portion of the song is samples from a little song by Sir Mix-a-Lot known as Baby Got Back, a racy song about a man who only likes girls who...well, let him put into his own words:

"My anaconda don't want none unless you got buns, hon."

This song came out twenty-two years ago. People who were listening to that song as young teenagers are now old enough to have their own teenagers.

A lot of "back in my day" people are missing just how racy media in their time was. In the 50s and 60s, persons such as Elvis Presley were all the rage; however, there were complaints about his sometimes suggestive lyrics and his gyrating dance moves, which teenagers loved.

Almost as early as music has began there have been songs with hidden meanings; did you know in 1931 a song was released about a man killing his disobedient wife with a gun entitled 22-20 Blues? Yes, believe it or not, Eminem wasn't the first to do it!

What I'm saying is that there's nothing new about provocative media; the next time you hear an older folk complain about "kids these days and their foul music", point them towards The Beatles' Please Please Me or the Everly Brothers' Wake Up, Little Susie; or if they're a bit older, ask them if their parents approved of Nirvana, or if they understood the true meaning of the forementioned Baby Got Back when they were young.

Or perhaps maybe we could take a break from being "provocative" for a while and write some catchy songs that parents won't have to worry about young ears singing along to? Just an idea.



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This article has 1 comment.


on Sep. 29 2014 at 7:06 am
GillianBorromeo PLATINUM, San Pedro City, Laguna, Other
24 articles 0 photos 38 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;The reward of a thing well done is having done it.&quot;<br /> <br /> Ralph Waldo Emerson

It's true that that kind of music is nothing new, but maybe what made older people say that was because provocative music nowadays are just too explicit and bold. Anyways, good observation.