I watched the Bell Hooks video link on Madonna. In this video she talks about how Madonna uses sex to make money. She makes herself sexy. In the Vanity Fair magazine she did a photo shoot where she is portrayed as a child. Even in this photo shoot for the magazine she uses sex and nudity to sell. Hooks says Madonna degrades herself to make a profit, when we all know that Madonna is a pretty wealthy person that she doesn't need to continue to make a profit. I think this is an important issued that was raised here. I don't see why women should feel the need to degrade themselves to gain money or attention.
The second video that I watched was on Rap Music. In this video she discusses the rap that is mainly about violence, sex, and foul language. Even though this music is so explicit, it sells so well. This is just the same as Madonna selling sex. Rap music is selling violence, sex, and language. These rap videos are degrading to women and make the males creating them seem sexist and degrading to women. I think at times rap music does contain alot of sex and violence in its lyrics and videos, but if you listen to all genres of music you will hear the same things. I just think that rap music takes it to a whole different degree of selling sex.
Impact
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So today we had the Company of The Year speak at my school.
Our company was Volvo.
And basically I was told to stick around my campus and the immediate are...
12 years ago
The truth is if you write a song about going to work everyday and sitting in a cubicle...it will never sell. Sex and violence are entertaining to us because they aren't boring. Does that make it right? no. Sex in my opinion is a natural thing, but when you try and use that to basically whore yourself out to the media it becomes a game of manipulation, not art or whatever other excuse they have.
ReplyDeleteIt's true that all genres of music are guilty of this. And, Chris makes a good point of saying that writing about working in a cubicle all day wouldn't sell albums in quite the same way. Then again, perhaps it *could* do well if the market weren't already glutted with so much sex and violence. We're told to "like" these groups because they are constantly thrust into the public eye. But how many artists write successful albums and have massive followings that dedicate their lyrics and their performances to deconstructing the "mainstream" music culture. I'm a fan of Radiohead, for example. A hugely successful band. Yet, they have no need to create provocative music videos or write racy lyrics in order to sell. I think our idea of what is "popular" has become so far perverted that we can no longer see through the fog...and dry ice.
ReplyDeleteEverybody likes sex and violence. Movies and music only sell because we as a society want to hear and see it. If more people would not want that sort of thing in popular culture, then artists and directors would have to stop. These sort of things is the only reason people watch the news. And if Madonna or any of the models want to show of their body I for one will not stop them.
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely not saying that you're wrong about what Bell Hooks said about Madonna and rap music. But, the part about Madonna how she says that Madonna is degrading herself, I am going to have to look at it differently. I don't know about you, but I'm not Superman, and I can be biased at times. Maybe old Bell Hooks is biased in the fact that Madonna is dead sexy and she, well, just isn't quite up there at the same level. Yes, I know that she has a PhD, but that doesn't mean that someone can't be jealous or just want to speak on behalf of one side of the argument.
ReplyDeleteBrit I totally agree. Chris and Dr. Mortimore make great points too. No one would buy or watch anything if there wasn't sex or violence in it, but why? Why are we so obsessed with seeing sex and violence that, that's all we want? I think if we as a society decided that we didn't want to see or hear any more of that then we could change everything. The problem is getting everyone away from something that they have grown so accustomed to seeing.
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