Earlier today, the NYT published a guest essay by transgender activist Jennifer Finney Boylan. The title of the essay is “Should Classic Rock Songs Be Toppled Like Confederate Statutes?” Therein,  Finney muses about whether we should discontinue listening to classic rock songs by the likes of Don McLean, Johnny Cash, Elvis, Eric Clapton and others because of the past “sins of [these] historical figures.” “In other words: The problem with [their music] isn’t the song[s]. It’s the singer[s].” Finney then cites to “racist rants,” “anti-vaccination activism,” and prior sex abuse offenses in some of their pasts.

Finney does not conclusively answer the question posed, but closes by writing, “reconsidering those songs, and their artists, can inspire us to think about the future and how to bring about a world that is more inclusive and more just.”

While I have been a mild classic rock fan since my freshman-year college roommate turned me onto the genre, I am no fanatic. So, I don’t take Finney’s criticism to heart. I do not doubt that some of its stars have very checkered, even degenerate pasts. I think Finney, however, is barking up the wrong tree and ignoring the elephant in the (musical) room. I will start with a personal anecdote.

A couple weeks ago, I signed up for a ten-pack of classes at Orange Theory—a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workout consisting of rowing, cardio, and strength training. Despite branding its workouts as physically grueling and not for the faint of heart, the class was compromised mainly of middle-aged folks. Approximately eighty percent were women. The fitness studio is located in an upper-middle class suburb about thirty minutes outside of D.C.

Not long into my first hour-long class, I was struck by the explicit lyrics of some of the songs. As you might imagine, the music was playing loudly. One such song, I would later find out, is titled Hood Go Crazy. It is littered with misogynistic, sexually graphic lines and contains eighteen 4-letter words, including the worst ones. Make no mistake, we were not listening to the “clean version.” The song is by an artist known as 2 Chainz. He has a criminal record that includes a felony drug possession charge, and he has apparently been sued for assault for one incident and harassment for another.  

Later in the class, an even more sexually explicit song came over the loudspeakers. The B-word was used repeatedly, and the theme of the song seemed to be that the artist could treat women as poorly as he pleased and yet still get with as many as he wanted to.

It is worth reiterating that I was not taking this fitness class with high school students or twenty-something year-olds, which would have been bad enough. Rather, I was surrounded primarily by female Gen Xers and older Millennials (i.e., thirty to fifty year-olds). Call me old-fashioned, but the experience felt surreal as we ran, rowed, and lifted weights together while listening to those terribly misogynistic, degrading songs. (Several of the songs were fine, thankfully).

This reminded me of an experience I had last summer when at my local high school’s track for a run. I posted about the experience on my Facebook page shortly afterwards:

Last week, I went to the track of the high school in my new neighborhood, Oakton, VA (a relatively diverse upper middle class suburb 20 miles outside of DC), to go for a run. On the field inside of the track, a diverse group of 15-20 girls (presumably high schoolers) were playing soccer, along with what appeared to be at least one coach. On some level, it was a beautiful picture, as the girls were a mixture of black, white, and perhaps Latino/Middle Eastern. When I arrived, however, a loud speaker was blaring a song I would later discover is titled, “I Don’t Give a F*ck About You” by Big Sean (on YouTube, three music videos of the song have a collective 442 million — yes, million — views!). As I and several others ran or walked around the track, the chorus thundered several times over at an estimated decibel level of 110+:

I don’t f*** with you
You little stupid *ss b****, I ain’t f***in’ with you
You little, you little dumb *ss b****, I ain’t f***in’ with you
I got a million trillion things I’d rather f***in’ do
Than to be f***in’ with you
Little stupid *ss, I don’t give a f***, I don’t give a f***
I don’t I don’t I don’t give a f***
B**** I don’t give a f*** about you or anything that you do

Big Sean has a criminal record that includes charges of  third-degree sexual assault and unlawful imprisonment.

How are we to think about these things? As someone once said, “If one should desire to know whether a kingdom is well governed, if its morals are good or bad, the quality of its music will furnish the answer.” (Credited to Confucius). The quality of a significant chunk of American music is rubbish.

The examples I provide above are not a departure from what is normal in our culture. They are the new normal. No longer relegated to nightclubs and MTV, shamelessly obscene songs are creeping into the likes of popular fitness studios that appeal to Gen Xers.

As for another example of the degradation of our music industry, take President Biden’s pre-election interview with Cardi B, the female rapper with the most number-one singles of all time on the Billboard Hot 100. This is an astonishing fact considering she released her debut studio album just three years ago in 2018. Prior to that, she had released two mixtapes—titled Gangsta B**** Music Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. (Asterisks added).

On August 7, 2018, Cardi B released arguably one of the most sexually graphic music videos of all time—at least among those in the mainstream. The song is titled WAP, which stands for something that is far too sexually explicit for me to comfortably share in this post, even with asterisks. The song opens with the lines “Whores in this house, There’s some whores in this house (x3).” It contains several four-letter words. Again, the music video is pornographic. The song was no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for at least four straight weeks. It has close to one billion views on YouTube alone. It is the tenth most streamed song of all time on Spotify.

Ten days later after the release of WAP, President Biden sat down for an interview with Cardi B. During the interview, he told Cardi B that his daughter is “a fan of [hers]” and that she would call him “Joey B” as a play off of Cardi B. President Biden also congratulated Cardi B for her success. Meanwhile, Cardi B repeatedly addressed him simply as “Biden”—i.e., no use of Mr., Vice President, Senator, or Joe.

Let us now move on the current Billboard Hot 100. Fortunately, Adele’s Easy on Me is at no. 1. But it’s virtually all downhill from there. At no. 2, is Stay by The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber. It contains four F-bombs. Here’s a sampling of its lyrics:

I get drunk, wake up, I’m wasted still
I realize the time that I wasted here
I feel like you can’t feel the way I feel
Oh, I’ll be f***ed up if you can’t be right here

Oh-oh-oh-whoa (oh-oh-whoa, oh-oh-whoa)
Oh-oh-oh-whoa (oh-oh-whoa, oh-oh-whoa)
Oh-oh-oh-whoa (oh-oh-whoa, oh-oh-whoa)
Oh, I’ll be f***ed up if you can’t be right here

At no. 3 is Industry Baby by Lil Nas X & Jack Harlow. Lil Nas X identifies as queer. In advance of another 2021 song of his titled “Montero,” the controversial “Satan Shoes” were ostensibly released by Nike to promote its music video. (In reality, they were released by another company, which led to a lawsuit from Nike.) The music video for Industry Baby is pornographic, as Lil Nas X and a handful of apparently queer background dancers parade around naked in a large, open shower for much of the video. Later in the video, a female appears in sexually explicit attire, or lack thereof.

Moving on to no. 4 we find Fancy Like by Walker Hayes. It appears to be a run-of-the-mill country song. It opens with:  

Ayy
My girl is bangin’
She’s so low maintenance
Don’t need no champagne poppin’ entertainment
Take her to Wendy’s
Can’t keep her off me
She wanna dip me like them fries in her Frosty

In Hayes’ defense, he is married and is presumably referring to his wife, so the song could (perhaps should) be perceived as endearing or cute.

Next, we have English pop-star Ed Sheeran’s Bad Habits. In the music video, Sheeran resembles a combination of the Joker from Batman and a zany or queer late-night television show host. The lyrics open on an implicitly sexual note:

Every time you come around, you know I can’t say no
Every time the sun goes down, I let you take control
I can feel the paradise before my world implodes
And tonight had something wonderful

Moving to no. 6, we have the most vulgar of the lot: hip-hop artist Drake’s Way 2 Sexy, feat. Future and Young Thug. Drake has been extremely popular for years. In fact, he has four more number-one albums (ten) than Michael Jackson (six). Many of his songs are very sexually explicit. This one is no exception. The music video opens in soft-core porn fashion. The lyrics include the F-word, the N-word, the B-word, and are clearly misogynistic. I do not feel it is appropriate to provide any further detail here.

With no. 7, we’re back to Ed Sheeran, this time to a song called Shivers. It’s basically about infatuation to the Nth degree (“I can’t get enough,” “[you] give me the shivers,” “Baby, you burn so hot”). It is about what very much sounds like a superficial, hyper-sexualized relationship.

To round out the top ten, we have Good 4 U by Disney actress Olivia Rodrigo. Despite the fact Olivia is just eighteen years old, the song contains an F-bomb. It is a resentful lament of a heartbroken girl in the aftermath of a breakup with a manipulative, hard-hearted ex-boyfriend. Arguably, it lacks redeeming value. Next, we have Need to Know by Doja Cat, which is all about unadulterated sex, contains several F-words and an N-word, and features the artist half-naked throughout the music video. Finally, we have no. 10—Dua Lipa’s Levitating. It, too, is about casual sex and features the artist in multiple provocative outfits.  

In summary, the current top ten of our Billboard Hot 100 features fourteen F-bombs, eleven B-words, nine N-words; near countless references to sex (most of them unconnected to love and all of them apparently unconnected to marriage); and three quasi-pornographic music videos that just twenty-five years ago would have been completely taboo (among several others that are palpably sexualized). Several of these artists have criminal records of some kind.  The song that our culture would likely view as the most redeeming—Adele’s Easy on Me—is apparently about Adele’s divorce with her ex-husband. Sadly, the lyrics note that she was willing to “give up” on “putting you both first”—an apparent reference to her ex-husband and their nine-year-old son.

When juxtaposed to Finney’s complaints over Eric Clapton’s “anti-vaccination activism,” the comparison of “a mountain to a mole hill” comes to mind. The NYT should be railing against much of the music of our day. Instead, it often celebrates the artists who perpetuate or accelerate the misogyny, sexism, and moral degradation rampant in parts of the industry. See a recent NYT article, for example, that states “things appear to be evolving in a more progressive direction” because “Nicki Minaj,” “Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion have become the new elders.” All of these female rap artists, however, “perpetuate the patriarchal and misogynistic values which have always been at the heart of hip-hop” with their boundary-pushing racy lyrics and music videos. (Varsity, Cambridge University Student Newspaper). Many of their music videos contain extremely sexually explicit material.

I wonder what our founding fathers would think about our culture in this respect. The answer appears to obvious when reflecting on quotes like this one from George Washington: “The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and low that every person of sense and character detests and despises it.” God only knows what the likes of Washington would have thought about many of the music videos referenced above. He would probably roll over in his grave.

While virtually no one today would completely concur with Washington’s quote above, more would agree with this one: “Vulgarity is like a fine wine: it should only be uncorked on a special occasion, and then only shared with the right group of people.” (James Rozoff). Something similar could be said of sexual activity, i.e., with the right person in the right context (marriage).

Our culture would be a much better one if we treated profanity and sexuality accordingly. Perhaps songs like the one below would be more prevalent.