Music with a Message

I just became aware of Taylor Swift's song "Fifteen" (lyrics found here, Youtube copy of video here). I have to admit that, while blissfully unaware of this young lady's career and music catalog in general, I am pleasantly surprised by the message I hear in this song.

Basically, the song breaks down as such:

A young girl is starting her first year at high school. She wants desperately to fit in and be accepted and to be popular. She meets a girl who becomes her best friend. A boy with a car asks her out. Her friend "gives her all" to a boy who "changes his mind." The protagonist of the song realizes that, while everything seems vital and important now, she'll do more with her life later, and waits.

Pretty heady stuff. What I especially like about this song is that it is sung by a girl with a strong teen female audience and it is pointed directly at them. They are hearing, possibly for the first time, that waiting and abstinence are good things. They are hearing that boys lie to get in their pants. They are hearing that after high school, they are going to go on to greater things.

How many songs can you think of with such a positive message for teens, and young women in particular? I can't think of any outside of the Christian Rock genre, and even there it is muted.

The vast majority of popular music is about sex, drugs, and having a good time. This is because, for the most part, the vast majority of song writers have experience in these areas, being male and having women throw themselves at them, people supplying them with any drugs and alcohol they want, and moving in a drug induced haze from one "happening" to the next. It is rare that you find a song about something other than these topics. The trappings are different, but this is generally true of pop, rock, metal, country, alternative, and hip/hop, and can be found in abundance in the other genres.

To have a female star so directly tell her audience something different is refreshing. Now, I'll grant the song winds up being a tad cliche and even a bit trite, but the message is more important than the vehicle used to say it. It certainly sounds different than all those hip/hop and rap songs talking about "bitches" and "hoes" who like being showered in alcohol and used like dishrags. It certainly comes across different than all those rock and metal songs about "sex machines" that objectify women as "sweet cherry pie" and other, less savory things.

While I wouldn't say this has made me a fan of Ms. Swift, I laud her efforts and think any positive message of this sort should be commended.

Now, if Ms. Swift would just eat a cheeseburger or two and stop looking like an emaciated size 0, she'd really be giving her audience the right message.