I’m sure everyone in society nowadays has listened to or watched the popular music video “Blurred Lines” by artist Robin Thicke. If you check the view count it has 212,970,985 views (increasingly adding over time). Why did we choose this video? Blurred Lines is the ideal example of how society and the music industry has gone downhill. The video for the Billboard 100 chart-topping track, which features T.I. and Pharrell Williams, shows three beautiful women dancing around half-naked, while the three guys are singing and prancing around in their suits saying provocative things. Lyrics like “I can give you something big enough to tear you’re a** in two” and “the way you grab me must wanna get nasty” show the gender stereotypes of pop culture and how women are seen as sexual objects to men. Women in music videos have started dressing more provocatively and dressing less to be seen as attractive for it’s viewers. In this music video, they are doing exactly that while the men in the music videos are exerting male dominance. This just shows how shallow our society has been towards women and that they aren’t seen as actual people. Although the song is catchy and has a good beat, the lyrics have no deep meaning and it is degrading towards women. Compare this to songs a little bit older and you will notice more profound lyrics.
In Christina Aguilera’s song “Beautiful”, released in 2004, she discusses the true definition of beauty for women and encourages female empowerment. The music video shows people who are outcasted in the society or look different and lets them know that even though our society isn’t very accepting of them, they are still beautiful inside out. She encourages everyone to be confident in themselves and has a real message that is positive and uplifting and treats all women like people that should be valued as beautiful individuals regardless of the standards of beauty. Lyrics with “we are beautiful nomatter what they say” implies that everyone is equal no matter what race, sexuality, gender, looks, etc. I believe that the society cares less about the meaning of music now and has become more superficial in lyrics and towards beauty.
Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” video contrasted with Christina Aguilera’s older video “Beautiful” is the perfect example of how we as a society, have spiraled downhill. Christina’s video, although it has over 40 million views, still doesn’t measure up to Thicke’s 212 million. What does this say about our generation and what people want to see? Songs should have much more meaning than they do, and we should value women more for their appearance.
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