lament for lyrics

this is a rant. i'm mad.

whatever happened to good ol' R&B?  i remember when a boy would sing songs about his endless love for you, how desperately he wanted to "get to know" you, all while dressed in his best gloves or his favorite hat or his best white shirt (noticing a theme, heh). now, all that seems to be getting airplay is how much he don't need you, how he's so happy you don't need him, how he's gonna break your back, how he's gonna do you in the club (or at his house on your birthday...yeah that's what i want for my birthday...the saaaaaaame lame ass performance as always, jeremih), how you ought to be droppin' it like it's hot...awesome.

i know chivalry is dying (trust me, it's NOT dead) and men are dogs and on and on and on, but is romance being skewered as well? what do teen girls have to look forward to--let alone up to--now?

drake

this dude....

the bieber

pre-pubescent boys

r. kelly

men who will lovingly urinate on you

trey songz

and "thugZ who invented sex"....did you, indeed? i'll bet historians are baffled by how well you've aged.

seems like getting knocked up by a rapper is all that single young women have to fantasize about. no more sweet crooning--you know you loved tevin campbell as much as the next tween girl--or being dubbed the beauty in that special man's life.  no romance. nada. zip.

but it's not just the men.  we also have:

ciara

this one riding the beat. no really, the beat. pinky swear.

beyonce

the god fearing southern belle

nicki minaj

no. words. but i hear she's looking for 'real love'.

by no means were dru hill and LSG giving us wonderful messages of positivity and chastity but at least there was some inkling of....emotion there.  i was never a hardcore r&b fan but having recently listened to the radio (my dad loaned me his bose...effing amazing machine!), i realize that i'm not missing much, and i'd much rather take my billie holiday and kings of leon over this smut. it used to be that you could change the station and catch a soft word or two, but things have changed so drastically. i'm so upset by the direction that our music has taken. not 'our' as people of color, but rather our generation. every other word has got 4 letters (the more creative ones have hyphens...) and i find myself genuinely concerned for the kids coming up now. 

even the neo-soul movement has been phased out. i find myself retreating into jazz, into alternative (wtf does this actually mean, someone please explain), into hard rock, trance, electronica, anything but this godforsaken hip hop that has destroyed the popular perception of women as things to be toyed with and flung aside, or worse yet, to be used as receptacles for champagne. i want my old school motown back. i want men who begged and worked for women's attention. 

charm a woman, dammit. romance me, don't disparage me. and women ought not to be encouraging it, sitting ass up licking lollipops or disparaging men as replaceable (this means you bey). yes, we can give as good as we get, but can we maybe go a few steps back to anita baker's sweet love or faith's eagerness to get home. 

it seems that we no longer need to be talented. we just need to be marketable. sex has always sold. now it's coming in bucketloads and decent, truly talented artists are being passed over for the next best, dirtiest thing. i can't even listen to the radio anymore without feeling like i'd need to cover my ears or gasp at the things coming out of so-called artists' mouths.  i am grateful for those artists who are able to surmount this awful thing called marketability.  ladies like amel larrieux or chrisette michele.  alicia keys used to be on that list, but...nah. 

r and b used to be the only place of respite when rap got too crass and offensive or just plain stupid.  catchy as it may be, i really wish that mainstream would take the youth into consideration and try to inject some sort of moral fortitude into their rhymes (ha!) or at least make it appropriate for folks of all ages. tits and ass seem to be the foundation upon which the industry is now built. 

i have sought alternatives and people look at me strangely when they get into my car and i'm playing bon iver or listening to daft punk or blasting nina simone. i'm not a hipster. i just want more for myself, for my brain, and for my eardrums. unless i'm the only one bitching about this and everyone's listening to npr.

end of line.

check it out:






bodysuit: h&m (and a bitch to pee in...)
shorts: dkny. velvet in the summer? why, yes. i AM slow.
ruffled flats: audrey brooke

even more random:
found this quote and thought it too hilarious not to share:

"Marrying that hitler youth, demon spawn is a sure sign that Heidi Montag is not competant enough to dress herself in the morning let alone pick out her own jumbo sized new breasts."

via atila