Driving
to work earlier this week, three songs played back-to-back on the radio. The songs were:
·
Chandalier
– Sia (sample lyric: 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3,
drink; Throw 'em back 'til I lose count)
·
Like
a G6 – Far East Movement (sample lyric: Popping
bottles in the ice, like a blizzard; When we drink, we do it right, gettin' slizzard)
·
Faded
– Zhu (sample lyric: Baby, I'm faded; All
I wanna do is drive home to you, baby; I'm wasted)
That’s
three songs (played in a row) about getting or being inebriated. Now I'm not saying these songs don't have
merit, or don't have a place in music, but there's been a hell of a lot of them
on the radio in recent years. There was
even a push by a radio station recently to get UB40's Red Red Wine to number
one in the charts so the DJ's would have an excuse to play it on their exclusively
top-forty station. They almost
succeeded.
Only,
is Red Red Wine really a song about drinking?
Here's a sample lyric: Red, red
wine; Go to my head; Make me forget that I; Still need her so. The essence of the song is the singer's blue, blue heart, not getting drunk for
the sake of getting drunk. (The lyrics
to Chandalier hint at some internal pain, but certainly Like a G6 and Faded
don’t appear to have a deeper meaning.)
This
brings me to a question I've had for some time (I know the Black Eyed Peas
asked it first, but...):
Where is the love?
There
has been a real decline in love songs since 2000. To check this theory, I looked at three
different lists entitled ‘Top 50 love songs of all time’. I checked three because each list seemed
weighted to a different era, but each list had the same thing in common. There were very few love songs included that
were recorded after 2000 and only two out of all the songs listed were recorded
after 2010.
Has
love become passé? Or is there just
nothing new to sing about love that hasn't been sung before?
Here
are some songs from the lists that I loved when I was a teen.
I
Want To Know What Love Is – Foreigner (sample lyric: In my life there's been heartache and pain; I don't know if I can face
it again; I can't stop now, I've travelled so far; To change this lonely life)
Crazy
for You – Madonna (sample lyric: Trying
hard to control my heart; I walk over to where you are; Eye to eye we need no
words at all)
Total
Eclipse of the Heart – Bonnie Tyler (sample lyric: And I need you now tonight; And I need you more than ever; And if you
only hold me tight; We'll be holding on forever)
In
the mid-eighties, these songs and many more like them were playing back-to-back. They really meant something to me. Sure love songs still exist, they're just not
the same and I think teens today are missing out.
Hubby
tells me I should just switch radio stations, listen to the golden oldies like
he does, but firstly, I like to know what my kids are listening to; secondly,
if I'm going to write for young people, I don't want to lose touch with what's
current and relevant to them; and thirdly I'M NOT OLD!
Okay,
maybe I'm old, but I'm not a wowser. I
don't mind listening to the odd song about drinking. I don't believe music has such influence on
individuals that kids will go out and get drunk because they've heard a
drinking song on the radio. Music is
usually a reflection of, or sometimes a protest against, society. So what does the decline of love songs, and
the rise of gratuitous inebriation songs, say about the society we live in now?
The
Best Bit of Eighties music: Big hair
power ballads
(Bring
back the power ballad, but leave the big hair in the eighties please; I just
can't do big hair.)
