It would seem that the days of meaningful song lyrics and inspiring artists are far behind us, for the most part.
I look at the world around me, at Miley Cyrus twerking and gyrating on stage like a crazed nymphomaniac and can’t help but feel saddened by how far celebrities have had to stoop in order to get a couple of million more hits on YouTube.
I find myself asking the question, “How much further will they go for shock value?”
Don’t get me wrong, I understand Miley’s “struggle” to break away from her childhood role of Hannah Montana, and I applaud her bravery in terms of how far she has gone to express her artistic capabilities.
I’m all for freedom of expression and being artistic, but I can’t help but feel like she’s going about it the wrong way.
I have nothing against her, and I enjoy most of her music, but her recent antics come across as more than a little desperate to me.
Look at Rihanna, for example, she broke away from her “good girl” persona slowly, giving her fans time to adjust to her transition into the “bad girl” role.
Miley Cyrus, on the other hand, has a much younger fan base, who, it would seem have not had time to come to terms with Miley’s tongue waggling and twerking antics.
Lady Gaga, on the other hand, seems to have been dethroned as the queen of shock value.
Who would have thought that the meat dress wearing, Born This Way singer would become so … tame?
I look at singers like Taylor Swift, who thrives on her good girl image as far as her music goes, but if you look at her extensive dating history (fuelled by tabloid rumours, no doubt), you can’t help but feel as if her “good girl”, cutesy lyrics about boys next door and young love are all a lie.
It almost leaves you wondering when she’s going to end up going off the rails like so many other young celebrities.
Take Lyndsay Lohan, Amanda Bynes, and more recently, Justin Bieber as examples.
All of the above were established young celebrities and look at them now.
Drugs, alcohol and other questionable activities seem to be the order of the day for young celebrities in today’s day and age.
And don’t even get me started on rap singers and the “ideals” they promote.
Then, I look at celebrities like Lorde, the 17 year-old singer from New Zealand who seems to be well beyond her years and can’t help but feel hopeful for the future of pop culture.
She comes across as your average, run of the mill (perhaps a bit weird), teenager and she embraces it.
She does not seem to portray any sense of entitlement or falsehood in her way of dressing or speaking.
Her way of writing lyrics is descriptive to a point where the sense of what she is saying gets lost in a flurry of euphemisms and metaphors.
And I, for one, absolutely love it.
She sings about typical teenage things like going to parties with friends and being a part of a clique, as if she is a well-rounded adult looking upon these antics with a calculating and educated stare.
Although, again I ask, how long will it last?
I suppose only time will tell.
For the moment, I suppose we can all look at the antics of people like Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber, and make one of three choices.
We can look at them and shake our heads in disdain, like so many already do, we can laugh about it and poke fun at their desperate antics.
Or, and this is the choice I have personally made, we can look at them with interest, listen to their music and choose not to be affected by their antics in any way.
I think what many people sometimes forget is that all of these young celebrities are young and are going to make mistakes.
The mistakes they make are different only from the mistakes we non celebrities make in that they are highly publicised around the world.
Also, they are just people, in the limelight of their success, constantly being berated by the paparazzi and the harsh criticisms of the public.
I personally, would be driven insane by the constant attention and judgements.
I suppose the real question at the end of the day is: are these the kind of people you would want your children to aspire to be like?
I think that we can take certain aspects from these celebrities and choose to embrace them and instil them in the youth.
Such as, Miley Cyrus’ bravery, or Lorde’s creativity, or even Taylor Swift’s supposed innocence.
You can either choose to focus on these positive aspects of the above-mentioned celebrities.
Or you can choose to focus on the twerking and tongue waggling that is constantly shoved under our noses by the entertainment industry.
The choice is yours.
