I was thinking about this earlier while listening to the radio at my house. A song came on - Low, by Flo Rida, talking about a girl and her body and the way she dances. And no, not ballroom dancing. So I began to realize - many songs by men who rap, or do hip-hop or R&B, focus on a girl's body and not her mind. Women, however, don't focus too much on that - some mainly on how a guy treats them, heartbreak, or just love.
Here are some examples:
I Know You Want Me - Pitbull Baby you can get it, if you with it we can play Baby I got cribs, I got condos we can stay Even got a king size mattress we can lay Baby I don't care, I don't care, what they say
Birthday Sex - Jeremih Just need your body to make... Birthday sex... Birthday sex oohoohoohooh (It's the best day of the year girl) Birthday sex... Birthday sex oohoohoohooh (G-spot g-spot let me hit that g-spot g-spot girl)
Fire Burning - Sean Kingston That body is a masterpiece The order is one in every hundred years But ain’t no doubt i’m taking it home I'm afraid we'll blow them legs Little mama game is about to change She’ll be on covers over the world
Smack That - Akon Smack that, all on the floor Smack that, give me some more Smack that, 'til you get sore
Bed - J. Holiday I wanna put my fingers thru your hair Wrap me up in your legs And love you till your eyes roll back Then I'ma rock your body I'ma put you to bed, bed, bed
Then, here are some songs by some women also on the Top 100 List on z100's website.
Feel Your Love - Kim Sozzi Then you wiped my tears with your soothing touch and you flew my past away I think I cant compare when you're close to me how I'm trusting you
Halo - Beyonce You're everything I need and more It's written all over your face Baby I can feel your halo Pray it won't fade away
Love Story - Taylor Swift Little did I know That you were Romeo; you were throwing pebbles, And my daddy said, "Stay away from Juliet." And I was crying on the staircase, begging you, 'Please, don't go.'"
My Life Would Suck Without You - Kelly Clarkson 'Cause we belong together now, yeah Forever united here somehow, yeah You got a piece of me And honestly, My life would suck without you
Battlefield - Jordin Sparks I never meant to start a war You know, I never wanna hurt you Don't even know we're fighting for Why does love always feel like a battlefield
I'm definitely not saying that women don't make songs about sexual things - Lady Gaga's 'Love Games' song says enough ("Let's have some fun, this beat is sick, I wanna take a ride on your disco stick" .. doesn't take a genius to figure out what the 'disco stick' is here). I also know that some men just respect women for themselves, such as Ne-Yo's "Miss Independent", Jesse McCartney's "Beautiful Soul", Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girls", and Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours".
But this just caught my attention. Many women say guys can't be trusted and they're pigs (some aren't) and all they want is a body which is fairly true when you're young, and these song lyrics just proved my point. The women singers don't necessarily sing about sexual things, for example, The Pussycat Dolls have sung about being treated right, being in love (one of my favorites, Stickwitu), etc. Has anybody else realized this? Is this true that young men really focus on a woman's body?
Mancouch says: Is it true that young men focus on women's bodies? No comment.
first of all, you picked some of the worlds worst artists (in the loosest sense of the term) to make a point. Second you compare radio rappers to radio pop stars. z100 is evil and it is the worst possible basis to judge gender relations or music by. That's like taking mtv or disney as a basis for these things. completely worthless.
And please don't refer to the Pussycat Dolls for anything except to point out a train wreck disgrace. Every time they're mentioned Simone de Beauvoir rolls over in her grave.
most guys care about what a girl looks like, but some are respectful and say how nice you are, ect. jesse mccartney's Beautiful Soul is a good example. But the odds are about 99.9% of rappers (if not 100%) talk about a girls body, not personality
Please don't base your research on the psychology of gender on popular artists, especially the ones who are manufactured to sell more records. By superficially simplifying the world, these pieces of musical jizz are designed to seem meaningful to the young and gullible.
What about Sway's "Month in the Summer"?
I don't get how Jordan Sparks and Taylor Swift got onto that list of whom you think their lyrics are written with sexual content o.O!
It doesn't make sense to me.
Anyways, I think it's very loose of the ideas expressed here. Not all men are like that. Plus, sex sells in the music industry, so no surprise you find so many of these songs (minus Taylor and Jordan's songs).
@youaintjam@xanga - @nprospect - I can see how you would think that this is not valid because the artists are... not exactly in good taste... However, they are still popular and thus are still valid. The very fact they are popular/well-known is enough to notice this opinion because it embodies a large population that is influenced and even driven by this music.
So, do not discount his opinion, which is NOT BASED ON RESEARCH BUT ON OPINION as I said and also is merely something he was asking others to state their opinion on and not an argument he was starting, just because you don't like some of the music he chose to list. I do not like most of these artists, either, but I see his point regardless.
Sex sells. It's as simple as that.
@Lil_Dude433@xanga - Actually, you should read it again and with more detail in how you read it. He says that those are songs writen by women that ARE NOT about sex, but rather about how a guy treats said girl and blah blah blah. As he was talking about how MEN sing about sex, but WOMEN sing about love in general. This being just a steriotype he was bringing up.
ahaha, mancouches comment...
shallow to the core.
I like the song featured but I'd like it 10 times more if the lyrics were more respectable and at least not so blatantly about sex.
well known fact
dude, i love those first few songs that you mentioned that the men sung.
YUMM<3
duh, 90% of songs played on the radio are worthless over produced shit anyways. Especially rap/hip hop
@aurastar@xanga - First off, when you state an opinion, you are putting forth an argument. This is the nature of discussion. His argument is that guys care only about women's bodies, while women care about other issues and he puts for these songs as evidence of that argument.
Secondly, I say his argument is invalid because his evidence is not representative of people in general. If you were to construct any argument based off these songs it would be what images the media is presenting to us about gender roles.
Third, these songs are not realistic representations of actual people. They aren't even actually songs. They are products meant to be bought and sold.
Fourth, I find the representation of both men and women to be offensive. It present men as nothing as horndogs as if you couldn't find a single song even on the radio about heartbreak by a male. And it also presents women as completely non-sexual beings who are meek and always victims.
Don't start none, won't be none.
men and women make just equally as many sexual songs. and the whole *Women, however, don't focus too much on that - some mainly on how a guy treats them, heartbreak, or just love.* thats bs. Not True.
@aurastar@xanga - Oh. Thanks for explaining! I didn't understand why he pulled in the whole comparison and whatnot, lol. =D
And yet.. whenever you go to a club its mainly WOMEN going nuts on the dance floor to this bullshit people label as music. Lil Wayne could drop a single about crankin out knuckle children into a girl's hair and it'd be a dancehall hit.
ALSO - take into account who the writers of these LOVE songs are. Kim Sozzi, Feel Your Love - self written(ok, you got me there.. surprising... the production is straight out of the late 70s though.. and not in a good way) Beyonce, Halo - Ryan Tedder and Evan Bogart Kelly Clarkson, My Life Would Suck Without you - Dr. Luke and Max Martin Jordin Sparks, Battlefield - Ryan Tedder Someone go count the posts in the past 6 months and see the ratio of women writers over men mancouch contributors, and if the subjects are hot topics or just chicks squawking.
@Pcgecko85@xanga - if you rely on the radio/tv for your music consumption you're fucking lame anyway let alone using it to judge a whole genre of fucking music that you're not a fan of in the first place.
@nprospect - I'm not trying to start anything, but I don't like it when people attack someone without full understanding, which is why I try to be so open to someone correcting me. But this isn't about that. This is about the fact that he did not state that this is what he thinks all men and all women are like. I draw from the text, his second to last paragraph to prove my point: "I'm definitely not saying that women don't make songs about sexual things - Lady Gaga's 'Love Games' song says enough ("Let's have some fun, this beat is sick, I wanna take a ride on your disco stick" .. doesn't take a genius to figure out what the 'disco stick' is here). I also know that some men just respect women for themselves, such as Ne-Yo's "Miss Independent", Jesse McCartney's "Beautiful Soul", Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girls", and Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours"."
So, that means that his argument is NOT that these gender roles are true, but rather that it is an observation he noticed about certain songs. Although, I do agree with you that the noise people call "rap" are not really songs.
Moving on to your second point, it actually is representative of people in general. I see people every day from all walks of life that worship these songs and take them seriously despite how they are not meant to be taken seriously. Every day I see young boys already objectifying the females around them and the girls keep talking about love and romance and heartbreak. I also see this pattern in people that do not listen to this type of "music". The reason why people can relate to it is because it has a universal theme, which means it is something that has a message that can be understood under the right context, thus meaning it IS something you can draw from the general population.
For your third point, true, they are not realistic representations of people. But neither is reality TV. Neither are those primped up magazines that are photoshopping girls that already are fake with all their make-up and stuff. However, people still manage to make themselves amount to this. Not everybody, but enough that it is worth mentioning.
To your fourth point, yes, the representation of the two genders is offensive, but that's what makes it sell. Making those music videos with half-naked women is offensive, but that's what makes it sell. Shirts that show distasteful content are offensive with their profane words and "gangsta" SpongeBob pictures, but that's what makes it sell. The people selling don't really care, they just know that this is what people (not all people, but a lot of people) act like and talk about and this is what they will buy. What they do buy.
I do not agree that all men are "horndogs" or I would not be in a relationship right now, and not all women are such meek little things and I know because I consider myself to be a pretty fairly strong female, but I am not dismissing the things he is saying because these things he brings up are things I see every day being proven just by walking into an area with any people in it at all.
@Lil_Dude433@xanga - No prob. Thank you for not thinking I was trying to insult you or something. I get misunderstood a lot lately.
i have to say not every song is generaly about love lol.sometimes we like to vent.
Comments (46)
doesn't surprise me.
first of all, you picked some of the worlds worst artists (in the loosest sense of the term) to make a point. Second you compare radio rappers to radio pop stars. z100 is evil and it is the worst possible basis to judge gender relations or music by. That's like taking mtv or disney as a basis for these things. completely worthless.
And please don't refer to the Pussycat Dolls for anything except to point out a train wreck disgrace. Every time they're mentioned Simone de Beauvoir rolls over in her grave.
most guys care about what a girl looks like, but some are respectful and say how nice you are, ect. jesse mccartney's Beautiful Soul is a good example. But the odds are about 99.9% of rappers (if not 100%) talk about a girls body, not personality
Please don't base your research on the psychology of gender on popular artists, especially the ones who are manufactured to sell more records. By superficially simplifying the world, these pieces of musical jizz are designed to seem meaningful to the young and gullible.
What about Sway's "Month in the Summer"?
I don't get how Jordan Sparks and Taylor Swift got onto that list of whom you think their lyrics are written with sexual content o.O!
It doesn't make sense to me.
Anyways, I think it's very loose of the ideas expressed here. Not all men are like that. Plus, sex sells in the music industry, so no surprise you find so many of these songs (minus Taylor and Jordan's songs).
@youaintjam@xanga - @nprospect - I can see how you would think that this is not valid because the artists are... not exactly in good taste... However, they are still popular and thus are still valid. The very fact they are popular/well-known is enough to notice this opinion because it embodies a large population that is influenced and even driven by this music.
So, do not discount his opinion, which is NOT BASED ON RESEARCH BUT ON OPINION as I said and also is merely something he was asking others to state their opinion on and not an argument he was starting, just because you don't like some of the music he chose to list. I do not like most of these artists, either, but I see his point regardless.
Sex sells. It's as simple as that.
@Lil_Dude433@xanga - Actually, you should read it again and with more detail in how you read it. He says that those are songs writen by women that ARE NOT about sex, but rather about how a guy treats said girl and blah blah blah. As he was talking about how MEN sing about sex, but WOMEN sing about love in general. This being just a steriotype he was bringing up.
ahaha, mancouches comment...
shallow to the core.
I like the song featured but I'd like it 10 times more if the lyrics were more respectable and at least not so blatantly about sex.
well known fact
dude, i love those first few songs that you mentioned that the men sung.
YUMM<3
duh, 90% of songs played on the radio are worthless over produced shit anyways. Especially rap/hip hop
@nprospect - I agree 100%.
@aurastar@xanga - First off, when you state an opinion, you are putting forth an argument. This is the nature of discussion. His argument is that guys care only about women's bodies, while women care about other issues and he puts for these songs as evidence of that argument.
Secondly, I say his argument is invalid because his evidence is not representative of people in general. If you were to construct any argument based off these songs it would be what images the media is presenting to us about gender roles.
Third, these songs are not realistic representations of actual people. They aren't even actually songs. They are products meant to be bought and sold.
Fourth, I find the representation of both men and women to be offensive. It present men as nothing as horndogs as if you couldn't find a single song even on the radio about heartbreak by a male. And it also presents women as completely non-sexual beings who are meek and always victims.
Don't start none, won't be none.
men and women make just equally as many sexual songs. and the whole *Women, however, don't focus too much on that - some mainly on how a guy treats them, heartbreak, or just love.* thats bs. Not True.
@aurastar@xanga - Oh. Thanks for explaining! I didn't understand why he pulled in the whole comparison and whatnot, lol. =D
And yet.. whenever you go to a club its mainly WOMEN going nuts on the dance floor to this bullshit people label as music. Lil Wayne could drop a single about crankin out knuckle children into a girl's hair and it'd be a dancehall hit.
ALSO - take into account who the writers of these LOVE songs are.
Kim Sozzi, Feel Your Love - self written(ok, you got me there.. surprising... the production is straight out of the late 70s though.. and not in a good way)
Beyonce, Halo - Ryan Tedder and Evan Bogart
Kelly Clarkson, My Life Would Suck Without you - Dr. Luke and Max Martin
Jordin Sparks, Battlefield - Ryan Tedder
Someone go count the posts in the past 6 months and see the ratio of women writers over men mancouch contributors, and if the subjects are hot topics or just chicks squawking.
@Pcgecko85@xanga - if you rely on the radio/tv for your music consumption you're fucking lame anyway let alone using it to judge a whole genre of fucking music that you're not a fan of in the first place.
@nprospect - I'm not trying to start anything, but I don't like it when people attack someone without full understanding, which is why I try to be so open to someone correcting me. But this isn't about that. This is about the fact that he did not state that this is what he thinks all men and all women are like. I draw from the text, his second to last paragraph to prove my point: "I'm definitely not saying that women don't make songs about sexual things - Lady Gaga's 'Love Games' song says enough ("Let's have some fun, this beat is sick, I wanna take a ride on your disco stick" .. doesn't take a genius to figure out what the 'disco stick' is here). I also know that some men just respect women for themselves, such as Ne-Yo's "Miss Independent", Jesse McCartney's "Beautiful Soul", Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girls", and Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours"."
So, that means that his argument is NOT that these gender roles are true, but rather that it is an observation he noticed about certain songs. Although, I do agree with you that the noise people call "rap" are not really songs.
Moving on to your second point, it actually is representative of people in general. I see people every day from all walks of life that worship these songs and take them seriously despite how they are not meant to be taken seriously. Every day I see young boys already objectifying the females around them and the girls keep talking about love and romance and heartbreak. I also see this pattern in people that do not listen to this type of "music". The reason why people can relate to it is because it has a universal theme, which means it is something that has a message that can be understood under the right context, thus meaning it IS something you can draw from the general population.
For your third point, true, they are not realistic representations of people. But neither is reality TV. Neither are those primped up magazines that are photoshopping girls that already are fake with all their make-up and stuff. However, people still manage to make themselves amount to this. Not everybody, but enough that it is worth mentioning.
To your fourth point, yes, the representation of the two genders is offensive, but that's what makes it sell. Making those music videos with half-naked women is offensive, but that's what makes it sell. Shirts that show distasteful content are offensive with their profane words and "gangsta" SpongeBob pictures, but that's what makes it sell. The people selling don't really care, they just know that this is what people (not all people, but a lot of people) act like and talk about and this is what they will buy. What they do buy.
I do not agree that all men are "horndogs" or I would not be in a relationship right now, and not all women are such meek little things and I know because I consider myself to be a pretty fairly strong female, but I am not dismissing the things he is saying because these things he brings up are things I see every day being proven just by walking into an area with any people in it at all.
@Lil_Dude433@xanga - No prob. Thank you for not thinking I was trying to insult you or something. I get misunderstood a lot lately.
i have to say not every song is generaly about love lol.sometimes we like to vent.
song - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5FG84adqlk
lyrics - http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/128852/