Thursday, March 08, 2012

Girls and Gangsta Rap

Well, this is how I understand the seemingly incomprehensible ability of some women to listen to Gansta Rap and get beyond its lyrics and aggression.
On the way back from the Critical Beats symposium yesterday, I realised that I know the lyrics of Girls by the Moments and Whatnauts completely off by heart. I sang it to the darkened traffic on the M25:
' Girls, I like them fat, I like them thin, some skinny, some tall, I'd like to get to know them all...
Oh the ones that ain't so goodlookin' they're the ones that do the best cookin'...'
Insidious, innit? Music can deliver all sorts of messages to us and slip them in through the back door. I mentioned this in a posting a while ago and it's really helping me to understand the appeal of rap, which I hear as 'shouting'. Having divorced recently as well as rearing two teenagers, this timbre is not what I want to hear at all.
Back to Girls for another listen before I continue writing the lecture on reception theory.....

2 comments:

Wilky of St Albans said...

OK, consider: if a girl were to sing 'girls' would it become a lesbian anthem? Would it still be offensive?

Helen McCookerybook said...

If I can work out the chords, then I'm going to play it in my set, and then I'll know!