“I like that boom boom pow, Them chicken jackin’ my style, They try copy my swagger…” Boom Boom Pow, The Black-Eyed Peas, the number one on our Hot 100.
Take a look at our Billboard Hot 100 and see what we average people are paying $1.29 on our iPods to listen to. This week, our top 5 consist of hip hop and pop. Artificial drumbeats and lyrics consisting of relationships, sex, and dancing is what the American public wants to hear. In the 11 through 20 we’re starting to get to some music that actually uses some musical talent to compose but even at that, the vocals and drum beats are pretty basic. Also the lyrics are again bland, with only a couple of songs showing some meaning behind them.

Back in the day, our music showed emotion behind their songs. The Beatles wrote about love and anti-war, Fiona Apple wrote about her scarring experience when she was a child, even our old school rap showed segregation and the pain of living in the streets. But now, all we care about is catchy beats that you can shake your hips to at a party. Now there’s nothing with having a hook in your song, but there’s no magic in the songs that puts shivers down your spine and make you truly think what the artist went through to write that song.

Let’s also look at what our superstar single stars actually look like. Most of the women on the top 10 have been know to show a lot of their “assets” on stage. Most of them also certainly don’t wear their natural hair color and style. The men are mostly muscular, tan, and have the attitude of “I rule the world, you all just live in it.”

Only a couple of people in our music industry are breaking these chains and truly showing their real self: Beyonce with her curves and real singing talent, Sean Kingston with a huskier weight and nicer attitude, and Kings of Leon singing about the pain that the world is going through to name a few.

I know if people read this, there will be people either rolling their eyes or wanting to argue with me, but truly, look in your iPods, and see what your “idols” are truly singing about.