To be very uncomfortable with 17 year old Billie Eilish's Bad Guy video?

[AbsentmindedWoman]

Am I being an old gimmer?

It makes me deeply uncomfortable because she's not legally an adult, and I'm pretty certain the production team around her are all adults, possibly with the exception of an intern or two. Most of the men you can see in the video are.

It feels very exploitative. I don't know much about this singer, but a quick google shows she is open about mental health issues, so possibly quite vulnerable in a way, and then she's singing about bruises on her knees and rough sex, seducing dads (who are obviously going to be adult men!) and she's only 17 years old.

I'll be honest, I would have thought in 2019 this wouldn't be legal until the singer is 18 - or at least frowned upon by the industry as not acceptable? Not that it is magically better when someone turns 18 but the whole attitude seems very dated?

Ew, I didn't realise that was the lyrics of that Vossi Bop song. That is grim.

Oh and my other observation is that some of her songs really sound like Lilly Allen

No doubt someone will come along and tell me how much they’re turned on by facials though.

Oh yes, they definitely will. And how we need to be 'sex positive' and shouldn't 'shame' all these young teenage girls who apparently love it. Along with choking, hair pulling and all these other degrading and violent acts that all of a sudden, without any outside influence at all, young girls everywhere have realised they are just oh so sexy.

Even Bruno Mars who I always thought was super-talented, managed to put out a crock of shit with that latest song and video “Please Me” with Cardi B. Here’s one of many scenes from the video - the male artists sitting back smirking while the female ones get into blow job position and stick their arses into the camera.

This is a brief selection of “Please Me” lyrics from Bruno and the uber- “liberated” Cardi B which were on loop on the radio so the kids could sing along on the school run -

“Booty so round (round), booty so soft (soft)
Bet you wanna smack it again (ayy)
Let me demonstrate
Hit it one time, make it levitate
Titties out like blaka (blaka)
Broke bitches watch out now (watch out)
Your pussy basura (basura)
My pussy horchata (oh)
I'm gonna ride it, do it just how you like it
Tonight and after that (ooh)
Let's do it one more time
Girl, I ain't one for beggin', but now you got me beggin'
Please me, baby
Turn around and just tease me, baby
You know what I want and what I need, baby
(Let me hear you say)
Please
(Let me hear you say)
Please (woo)

Woooo!

I don't pay attention to Little Mix lyrics so I don't have a discussion around them.

BE song Zanny is anti drugs which we have had a conversation about, DD knows a bit about BEs upbringing and her where she gets inspirations for her songs etc

You stick to Little Mix and their cavorting on a stage in their pants in front of 9 year old girls and I'll stick to BE wearing her baggy clothes and no make up

*xanny Not zanny

StoorieHoose - do point your DD in the direction of Kris Hallenga though, she is pretty inspirational and her charity has an excellent message that all girls should know about. Maybe that Little Mix video would be a good place to start

I'll look up Kris Hallenga but I'll pass on the Little Mix thanks

I think the point is that whether they’re morphing themselves into porn dolls a la Nicki Minaj and claiming “female liberation” via hyper-sexualised aggressive lyrics; or trying to de-objectify themselves in baggy clothes and trying to pretend they are the aggressor; they’re still essentially having to negotiate their way around the same reality which is the trend for the normalising of porn in the musuc industry.

Even Ariana Grande apparently thought it would be a great idea to wear a PVC rabbit fetish-looking headgear for her Dangerous Woman album. We’re told she came up with this “aesthetic” all by herself

Are we now actually do dim that we will believe that Ariana into fetish or hangs out in BDSM clubs in her spare time? She simply needed to express this side of her in her music? Bollocks - she’s just been persuaded by whoever controls her that kink and porn will sell more records, do she’s pandering to that new zeitgeist while her fans internalise the new normal.

Ariana bothers me a lot less because she is in her twenties. Seventeen isn’t legally an adult, she can’t drink, can’t be in adult films, in most US states can’t have sex.

I think the point is that whether they’re morphing themselves into porn dolls

This isn’t a new thing? This has been music videos for the past 20 years. If you look at music videos for 10+ years ago. It’s because sex sells, even to teens, and they want as many eye balls on the videos as possible.

YANBU. Awful song. So is the dreadful 'bury a friend.'

Awful, grim, overrated singer. Shit voice, dire songs. Called a gifted prodigy because she is only 17.

Heard better in the school talent show.

Hirhere - no sex in the music industry is nothing new, I totally agree. But it’s the porn normalising that is new.

You can see it on here when outraged younger people question concerns on lyrics about bruised knees or being slapped / punched in the face - “Oh my god! 17 year olds do have oral sex you know!” It’s as if they perceive it to be one and the same thing.

@Zaeem5 that is so true, and so sad

@bingbongnoise what is with that Bury A Friend song/video!!? Hideous!

Seems pretty tame really. I know its nice to think that all teeanger girls are like bwitchd or s club 7, but theyre not

FFS, this threads like what it'd have been like if there was MN in the 80s with Frankie Goes To Hollywood lol.
"Relax, don't do it, when you wanna come...."
Or "Like a virgin, touch for the very first time, feels so good inside...."
80s MN (collective gasp)
Internet version of Outraged from Tunbridge Wells lol.
Mrs Mangel and Mary Whitehouse all rolled into one

Dont confuse sexual violence with sexual liberation. It reminds me of all the liberal types wanting to be 'sex positive' about poor women in poverty forced into prostitution

you could pull apart the lyrics of most pop songs and deem them inappropriate. A lot of them are. Oh well. Make your kids only listen to classic FM and youll be fine

Eaudear I'm a big fan of Pink as well - and I don't even like her music.

Eilish is doing the teen goth/emo thing for the current generation. She's probably mildly messed up like most teens due to the brain rewiring that goes on, but listening to interviews she's an chatty enthusiastic lass when she's not putting on her video persona. Which is totally a persona! Guided to by the director to best sell to her main demographic! That's how pop videos work.

Not sure if you were asking how Miley Cyrus was fucked up by the system? She was a Disney actor, micromanaged in every way through the Mouse Club preteen years and then the Hannah Montana teenage show, totally desexualised and squeaky clean in every aspect of public life. Once she got out of that set of contracts she instantly went fully over to the other side - all the sex and drugs possible, 'edgy' photoshoots with tits and bum out, shitty prison tattoos, crotchfloss leotards and humping giant dicks on stage. She spent about five years doing that and appears to now be settling back down again.

Anyone muttering about how Eilish can't sing should take a moment to check out - you may not like this modern kid's music, but the girl has a good voice.

This is a brief selection of “Please Me” lyrics from Bruno and the uber- “liberated” Cardi B which were on loop on the radio so the kids could sing along on the school run -

And my school disco played "Loosen Up My Buttons" by the Pussy-cat dolls during a school disco. Would that have made you uncomfortable?

Rock/pop (and now all the other genres) have often offended people. I guess sometimes that artists/producers deliberately do it, other times they are not conscious of doing so. I remember growing up listening to the Clash, Sex Pistols, Patti Smith, etc. and my parents certainly did not understand and were uncomfortable. Looking back at the time, I liked/loved it because of the energy and stance...and did not rationalize too deeply about it.

As a 50+ year old I like kinda her music (listened a few times on Spotify), but as an adult with teenagers I can't say I'm comfortable with it, but I don't really expect to be either.

Of course I have no idea if she is being manipulated, how much contribution she has to the music/sounds/lyrics, etc.

If I do see bruises on my daughter (or son!) knees it will make me think ... so maybe I should not have read this thread

Meh, Miley Cyrus is married at the age of 26 to a bloke she has been with for a very long time (bar a break), who seems like a pretty normal and down to earth man. I think a lot of her 'rebellion' was/is carefully managed tbh, I don't know...She goes on about being so 'queer' and rebellious, when she is married to a straight white fucking gorgeous guy who seems to come from a nice family and be a pretty straight up guy (yes I know bisexual women can get married, but it does seems like she is milking it a bit). In real life she is probably very normal!

The other thing about Billie Eilish that I think gets me, is that it's all so 'oh look how sexually liberated she is, because she wears hoodies and no makeup, she doesn't let any man tell her what to do, what a great role model etc'. But when you scratch the surface, it does just seem to be the same shite - women being submissive to men - just packaged differently. In a way it makes it more insidious than if she was just twerking in a leotard.

Like I said, I haven't listened to enough of her stuff to really make a proper
judgement, but I don't really like the lyrics and video to Bad Guy, if that is a good representation of her stuff.

make your kids only listen to classic FM and youll be fine indeed