Controversy in popular music is nothing new, there's always a row over some new song or some meme, hell, even the introduction of rock 'n' roll back in the day was met with hand wringing and moral panic that "Satan" would devour the children and take them over to the dark side so take that same hand wringing and moral panic add in the introduction of technology and social media and bang...the issues around popular music and the consumption of popular music by children are a lot more magnified today than they were when TV was the place to see all the new music videos this much has been made clear over recent controversies around "WAP" by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion and the video for "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)" by Lil Nas X.
Now the thing I want to stress here is that pop music has mostly NEVER been written with the thought that a seven or eight year old might listen to the song, its aimed at those with the ability to buy said song or album that being old teenagers and adults. I'ts always been up to parents to be aware of and police (when I say 'police' I mean making sure they are comfortable with the child hearing the content of the song in question). what music their children are listening to.
Honestly, the Kidz Bop albums that are released every year are the perfect example of why popular music is not designed for children, most of the songs on those compilations are generally sanitised to the point that the song may as well not be on thing at all.
However it seems in 2021, we have a generation of parents out there who require modern day pop acts to cater to their children by writing songs and creating videos appropriate for their eight year old child to listen to or watch and instead of actually being a parent, blame the artist for writing "inappropriate" songs for their children despite the fact that pop music in the main is adults writing and performing songs for an adult audience hence the stupid "What about the children?" question that pops up every single time a female artist wants to sing or rap proudly about their sexuality or an artist giving some imaginary figure that exists only in the brains of the religious a lap dance.
The "What about the children" question is one that I think is a lazy one...what answer do you want? Popular music and the broader entertainment industry is not responsible if you are offended that your child heard a word or saw something that you feel they shouldn't have while you were on social media posting selfies on Instagram or whinging about the US election on Twitter, Lil Nas X, Cardi B, Taylor Swift and the multitude of other artists in the music industry are not your child's defacto mummies and daddies, they should not have to be held to writing sanitised music that even they wouldn't be able to connect to as adults so that its clean enough for a child to listen to.
I guess the end point is that its time to quit blaming pop culture for lazy parenting..if your eight year old is running around the house singing "Wet ass pussy...make that pull out game weak"...that's not on Cardi B...that's on you as the child's parent for allowing your child to listen to "WAP" in the first place and not having appropriate controls and rules governing the use of whatever streaming platforms your child has access to. Get off Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and actually sit down with your children and see what they are listening to and be an active Mum or Dad not the lazy parents that seem to be around
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