Am I being a massive bloody prude or is this the hill to die on?

[Joulesdog]

We have a 4 children. 2DS aged 24 &21, DD1 who is 13 and dd2 who was a surprise is 4.

DD1 is very into Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpinter, Charlie xcx etc. she 14 and is obsessed.
I'm happy to let her listen to whatever (within reason)

As a family we have a shared Vinyl player that is DH's pride and joy. Each child wants to buy albums for the vinyl as they like the sound of it and whoever chooses the records on a Sunday gets to have them playing through Sunday dinner etc.

Oldest DD's birthday is coming up soon and she wants as part of her presents the Charlie XCX 'brat and it's complicated' release on vinyl and I said yes but Charlie xcx has released this vinyl album with white powder inside the record that moves around on the vinyl player and it's meant
To be like a bag of cocaine.

DH thinks it's hideous and sends the wrong message coming and I'd usually disagree and say things have changed since our generation but I think this is awful

If our daughter is correct then lots of her yr 9 friends will get a vinyl copy of an album where this is white powder inside the record that moves around when it's played?

Am I out of touch? I just think this is Insane

It’s the record itself that is promoting drug use, by both its physical design and lyrics. An advertisement promoting drug use would fall foul of the ASA code of practice of course, but a record is not an advertisement.

Who the hell signs off an idea like this! Yes it’s a (clever) gimmick but such an irresponsible message. I would not be keen on youngsters having this.

Charlie XCX is not "gangsta rap".

Those lyrics are written by a woman.

Charli xcx already got in trouble last year with the ASA for running adverts for her tour with an image of a baggie on it- so she edited the image and said it was a sandwich bag all along (as a joke). Pretty funny.

Then it sounds like the drugs have already done their work on her. How do you live in a culture that speaks like that and raise children with any perception of societal normalcy? I am talking male and female here. I understand they probably grew up in abject poverty surrounded by street crime but the lyrics go to far and are to graphic for the target audience. The topics have always been part of pop culture going back to the 60's and always danced around censorship but this does very little dancing.

"I understand they probably grew up in abject poverty surrounded by street crime"

She went to a boarding school. And there are way more drugs in private schools than state, according to a friend of a friend who does research into county lines.

On MN though I assumed it was normal for teens to use drugs from 16+. I never kid, neither do my kids but from what I've read on other posts "it's perfectly normal for teens to experiment with drugs"

I find that sort of attitude really odd. It's not normal among kids who know that their brains are at a very vulnerable age and are still growing until they are 27. And don't want to damage their health or worry about a criminal record. Or don't want to support a criminal exploitative industry. Kids with half a brain really. There's actually a vast amount of children that don't find taking drugs "normal"

You can tell who caned the coke and Es in the 90s too much straight away...its pathetic that Charlie XCX.thinks drugs are in any way cool.

I've read threads here that say that drugs like MDMA, LSD and coke are all "safer that alcohol" if taken in moderation and it's just a part of being young.

There's also stuff about "oh I did lots of class A drugs when I was younger and I turned out fine"

Well, they think they've turned out fine....give it a few years and see how addled their brain is.

And anyway. Drugs are illegal. Why would people want to encourage kids to commit crimes. The ket thing is vile. You can't cure a person with those boils on the inside of their bladders so they have a lifetime of incontinence. How lovely. Maybe CharlieXCXs baggie should instead be a colostomy bag.

Normal? I hate that word in this context. It implies that the consequences of experimenting with drugs is "normal" as well. They were around when I was a teen way back when but I did not move with the "in" crowd so did not feel the peer pressure like kids do now. I live in a small town of 3000 people in the country and have lost 3 teens to drug induced suicide in 12 months and one more to a car accident while high. That was not the case when I grew up here.

I’m just laughing at the idea that Charli XCX “grew up in abject poverty surrounded by street crime.” She’s from Cambridge and boarded at a £17k a term school.

In fairness my friends and siblings who went to expensive private schools were exposed to far more drug use than I was at my (admittedly very "naice") state school

But yes, the abject poverty seems a stretch!

Excuse my automatic perception that they were ghetto dwellers as I am not a fan of the genre. This however makes the lyric composition and normalization of the drug taking even more perplexing. Educated people should be able to know when they have gone to far. They may consider themselves an artist and their job is to push boundaries but when your audience is impressionable young teens those boundaries need to be tighter.

"ghetto dwellers"

I'm certain that the majority of 13/14 year olds are not buying vinyl.

"ghetto dwellers" seriously?

Also it's overwhelming upper and middle class who take cocaine, much more so than lower classes. You are a total snob.

They love vinyl! They are all buying it. Hopefully less prone to scratching than it used to be.

There are no “ghettos” in the UK. Her genre is mainstream commercial pop.

You forgot the other "o" in pop.

Those lyrics do nothing but degrade women and yet, some think these singers are "stunning and brave". I like the term "sick and depraved" as it's more accurate.

😮 the lyrics are more of a concern than a pack of powder no?? I could check that in the bin … kids will listen to this shit anyway I know but I would not supply it … music or power

There are hundreds if not thousands of songs glamorising drug use. It's been a thing since the birth of rock & roll.

This album may well be a jarring visual amd aural example, but I think you need to have a listen to many of the words of songs by the Stones, Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, and many, many more. You've probably head banged along with a good few in your car, or sung the chorus. Your DH possibly has several in his collection. Many are considered classics.