So you know that song "beautiful girls"? It's one of the top songs in the country right now, and it also has a really weird lyric--something like "you got me feeling suicidal, suicidal, suicidal!" I feel about this lyric as I do about Amy Winehouse's "Try to make me go to rehab and I said No!No!No!"--uneasy. Am I just having a another granny moment? Of course, Amy Winehouse is reportedly in rehab for bulimia and drug addiction as I write this. One other thing---ethan and I were driving to the airport this morning and on the radio we heard an alternative lyric to the beautiful girls song, and it was "you got me in denial, in denial, in denial!". Anybody know if there was a controversy over the suicidal lyric? Mental illness isn't catchy, but pop songs are. So what happens when pop goes mental?
Here's the beautiful girls video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt6o8NlrbHg
2 comments:
Not only does it make me uneasy, but quite frankly it saddens me. To think that,Media mogles, hollywood stars, and popstars (in this ever so celeberty worshiped world)are not knowledgable, talking about and not working toward a goal of great mental health, something so many of them know so much about (on the poor mental heatlh side)makes me sad. These are people who affect millions with the ever so uncareful words that come out of their mouths- in movies, in songs, on primtime news, and all over the radio. They are talking heads with out proof or fact, spewing their own agendas, and hurting countless people along the way.
In the news suicide is glamorized and sensationalized, so are the descriptions of those with mental disorders, as if we all have leprocy or something. In movies, and TV shows misconceptions, and blatent lies about populations with Mental illnesses are spewn left and right. In songs just like Kingstons the word suicidal is used almost playfully as if it is nothing but a joke. Now after writing this, I am not only uneasy,and sad but angry, Hollywood starlets check in and out of reham like I change the channel on my TV set, It's a big farce. They do it for attention and to be the number one story on E news 3 nights in a row.
When will it change, who knows but I hope it's soon. Heck if ever star from singing to acting went ahead and Talked openly about their Depressions, Suicidal thoughts, or plain mental health issues, they could reach so far and so wide, but hollywoods got it in their head that if they speak out, they'll "fall off" little do they know that if they spoke out as a whole and with a bit of education behind them they could reach such a huge population maybe, just maybe they'd become just a little more popular, with the general public realizing they were a little less super human and a little more down to earth, a little more vulnerable.
Here's to time, we'll see what it tells!
I don't know Lizzie could be a granny moment or could be concern from a mental health advocacy level. Whenever dealing with this stuff I think back to what someone who is my current age would've thought about the lyrics that I listened to regularly when I was in high school/college or what they would have thought about my behavior. I think it's good to be concerned and uneasy, but at the same time also understanding it's pop music and whether we like it or not the song sticks in your head.
The use of the word suicidal is kind of odd in this context. He didn't go with you're too beautiful you'll have me jealous, angry, scared. He went right to suicidal which is a sign of his own insecurity and while the word should never be passed off as something of a joke, unfortunately this feeling is a reality for a lot of insecure young males in relationships with beautiful and not so beautiful girls. I actually think the song speaks to a large problem in young and old relationships.
We can always debate whether using the word like this is causing other people to use it in a not so serious way, but we also have to remember this guy is growing up in a culture that uses the word this way, so I don't know what's more unsettling his casual use of the word or the reflection of the culture we live in!
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