To want heads on platters? Utterly inappropriate school assembly

[Renarde1975]

This is a fucking corker. I am fuming but I'd like the hive minds' view.

At DS assembly today. Topic is 'Evacuation: WW2'. All good. Actually, they've done a great job and it's really excellent. Then this.

Towards the end, Christine Aguilera's 'Candyman' comes on. I'm watching open mouthed. I still cannot believe it.

MN: let me refresh you on the 'choicest' lyrics.

He's a one stop shop, makes the panties drop

He took me to the Spider club on Hollywood and Vine
We drank champagne, and we danced all night

He's a one stop shop, makes my cherry pop

And no, MN - this was NOT the radio edit.

And then to cap it all off for some inexplicable reason we are treated to two renditions of Don't Stop Believin' by Journey

A singer in a smoky room
A smell of wine and cheap perfume
For a smile they can share the night
It goes on and on, and on, and on

WTAF? Did I smoke crack this morning and enter into a parallel dimension? I am a teacher, that another member of my profession could fuck up so royally is just, wow.

I don't want my nine year old son to be singing this in a school assembly, or listening to words that objectify women and glorify alcohol. Turns out the kids were practicing the dance moves to Candyman for three weeks!

I suspect they don't think Renarde. I asked mine once what they thought "Amazing Grace" was about, as they'd had to learn it for some assembly and they literally had no idea - despite going to a religious school. I've asked the same thing about various Christmas Carols and got open mouthed guppy faces looking back at me. It is possible mine are / were particularly dim of course!

You could well be right Margo.

I taught a lower level chemistry class once. Two lessons I spent on ionic bonding. Lots of questions and the majority appeared to have got it. I give them some exercises and promptly got a sea of blank faces.

I had to go over it again [facepalm]

There is a wider issue too of how so much sexual vocabulary, often verging on soft porn, there is in pop songs

Not as much as there used to be. Most pop songs are pretty anodyne these days.

Whereas typical popular music by girl groups especially has a tendency for: Not many clothes, sexy dance moves, no artistic substance. And then it's heralded as EMPOWERING. If that's all your material ever presents I'm not so sure it is, feels all about the male gaze to me

Otherwise known as the law of diminishing returns, I believe - invite attention and the next one's got to be even more "daring" if they want attention too

Nobody (I hope) would suggest they all perform completely covered, but it seems a shame it's come to this

^she's up all night till the sun
I'm up all night to get some
she's up all night for good fun
I'm up all night to get lucky^

How is that creepy?

If ever I think modern songs are a bit risque and inappropriate, I just remind myself I was singing along to Like a Virgin at nine years old.

To want heads on platters?

A big drama over nothing, then.

I have an 8 and ten year old and can’t say I’d be particularly bothered, past thinking to myself that it’s an odd choice.

There’s much worse in other pop lyrics, especially the likes of Little Mix 🤷🏻‍♀️

Reminds me of the Christmas disco we put on at my DDs' primary school, at the time they were 6 and 9, the PTA booked a real corker of a DJ he must have been 65 but he was really into Kings of Leon. He knew all the words to Sex is on Fire and taught all the kids "c'mon everyone W O A H!!! YOUR SEX IS ON F I R E!!!!"

The main problem with a lot of song lyrics is that although younger children won't understand them they might sing them if they keep hearing them. I remember DD and her friends singing S&M by Rihanna after hearing the song on holiday...

shearwater If ever I think modern songs are a bit risque and inappropriate, I just remind myself I was singing along to Like a Virgin at nine years old.

I sang along to that song too but none of my teachers used it for a school assembly performance. Any contemporary songs teachers chose for school activities or performance were carefully chosen. Did your teachers have you perform Like a Virgin for your parents?

Got to say, little mix are not coming out of it well . I did think 'wings' had a really good positive message though.

DishingOutDone did any of the parents have an issue with that?

Anyway it's Friday so obligatory Centre Parcs tangent....

Word on the street is Like a Virgin is actually about anal sex!

Like a Prayer? Noshing.

Renarde really? Noshing? I suppose "I'm down on my knees, I wanna take you there..."

Embarrassingly it wasn't until I was in my 30s that I listened properly to the lyrics of "Run to You" by Bryan Adams and realised that the protagonist was a two-timing cheat.

I think it was Mansun who have a song that goes something like: "The lyrics aren't supposed to mean that much. They're just a vehicle for a perfect voice."

My guess is that nobody else is thinking about it as much as you are. And it doesn't surprise me.

Did your teachers have you perform Like a Virgin for your parents?

My reply was not in relation to whether Candyman is an appropriate song for a school assembly, but about modern pop songs being terribly offensive.

Renarde1975 Mind you when DS went trick or treating the other day, he put an empty plastic bowl on his head and ran around saying, 'I'm a pothead!'

That is pure gold! Totally cracked me up.

You're definitely over reacting op.

Run to you??? I thought it was a romantic song!

Oh and summer of 69 is indeed about 69s

shearwater That's a fair point

Tutti Frutti? Bumsex.

@Ocean

Touch Me - Samantha Fox

Let's Go All the Way - Sly Fox

Boys Boys Boys - Sabrina

All played at my school discos.

The vid to that Sabrina one! My stars!