Sexualised lyrics on mainstream radio

[myotheraccountsa]

I am far from a prude, but I'm really shocked by some of the lyrics I've been hearing on mainstream radio 1 at school rush hour times this week.

From Sabrina Carpenter with "tears run down my thighs" (yes it bleeps out you get me wet) but still leaves the other part which is equally bad. The Billie Eilish / Charlie XCX - I love your black lacy panties, want to pull them to the side, lick it, kiss it, get up all on it, ride it... and then there's all the much publicised fuss about Taylor Swift's Wood.

I don't see an issue with these women writing these songs. They're grown adults. But surely the radio stations have a responsibility to either play more family friendly edits or not play at all during mainstream hours. What the heck happened to the concept of a watershed?

It just makes me a bit sad what we're doing to our kids if they're listening to this constantly, going round singing it.

From let's get it on to sex on the beach - it's been done for decades.
Sex sells and continues to sell.
In the 90's I asked my mother "What's pimping and why isn't it easy?".
Unclutch your pearls, the children will survive.

Darling Nikki wasn't ever relased as a single, so it was probably not played a lot of commercial mainstream radio, no. It does feature in Purple Rain though, which was a 15 certificate.

No you're not, it's disgusting. The music industry now is run by a bunch of vile PD's and rpsts, who's chief aim is to to over sexualise and over stimulate young people in order to make them easier to manipulate and prey on, I remember the 80s and 90s sure some chart music was a bit close to the bone then but mainly innuendo and a lot of humour too, now it is just filthy borderline and not even borderline pornography at a gynecological level, it's the absolute pits. And the charts are completely rigged now anyway.

Agree concrete. “The kids will be fine” argument isn’t good enough. The fact there were shit sexualised songs in the early 2000s isn’t an adequate justification either.

Fine make this music whatever but it shouldn’t be piped on mainstream radio stations during daylight hours with children around. Just makes for a general degrading of the public space. It should be niche available for adults if they wish to seek it out - not the norm default for everyone including unconsenting children. It’s bloody weird and gross if you think about it.

I once listened to all the Number One records from when the charts started (1952) until the mid-70s, when I got distracted and stopped. The songs were much less (overtly) sexual, but I kept finding myself saying to male vocalists, “Just leave her alone, she doesn’t like you, and I know that’s upsetting, but you’ll get over it.” So many were really angry and stalkerish, but their lyrics were perfectly clean.

It's a woman slut shaming another woman. And here you are trying to shame me by telling me what I should be doing. I shouldn't have to be turning radio 2 off. I shouldn't have to tolerate nasty lyrics on a family friendly show. Stations used to play Delilah and Young Girl all the time and now they don't because women complained. You are perfectly entitled to advocate for stations like Radio 2 to play whatever they like and I respect that but don't tell me what to do.

Also, edited to add, my daughter is an adult but was stalked by an ex - it went to court. She was horrified by the aggressive vengeance on a partner stuff and so was I - way too close to home. Just like people whose mum's were murdered buy their partners don't want to hear Delilah.

Whilst there may be a case for some songs being too sexy for the radio. I suggest you look up CMAT before slating this song- you may have missed the mark on this one. She’s a great artist.

I’m not shaming you - I’m giving you options. You’re shaming the artists - what’s wrong with singing about sex if you love sex? If you very reasonably don’t want your kids listening to that, it’s for you to provide age appropriate music to your children, not for you to dictate that adults must also live in a sanitised world.

I think it’s one thing to say there should be times with less sexualised lyrics (which I would agree with) but another to say that “tears run down my thighs” is a particularly bad line when I actually thing it’s one of the better. Firstly because I don’t think the majority of kids will understand it, and secondly because it’s a song that promotes female pleasure to being treated right which isn’t something you see a lot. I’m glad there’s a focus on women being turned on rather than "I hate these blurred lines, I know you want it" and other rapey songs

I'm not that bothered about the sexualised lyrics tbh. I do think they mostly go over children's heads. I am much more bothered by lyrics which promote violence, vengeance, murder, damage to property, making it seem like a perfectly good response to being upset about something. Also judging other women. I have a real problem with thst!

I once saw and heard a six year old girl singing along to Bruno Mars -

Tomorrow, I'll wake up, do some P90X
Meet a really nice girl, have some really nice sex
And she's gonna scream out, "This is great" (oh my god, this is great)

Absolutely vile and the ignoramus parents thought it was fine because the child didn’t understand what the lyrics meant and was just repeating them parrot fashion.

I know, but it was cartoonish and many kids saw it as one just with foul language.

The OP isn't complaining about sexualised lyrics, or demanding no one writes songs about sexual.
The op is "sexualised lyrics on mainstream radio" - there have always been songs that wouldn't get played on certain stations or at certain times.
That's what seems to be lacking now.

It's about getting wet from the rain (ie the men falling from the sky). It's not a dirty, sexual song

Indeed !
Frankie
Madonna
cool for cats giving the dog a bone …
etc etc

what’s new ? Just the turn of phrase I guess and not heterosexual centric ?

What about the Outhere Brothers- Boom Boom Boom in 1995? I was in primary school and we all used to sing it knowing full well it was ‘rude’.

Clearly nobody has listened to The Beatles’ white album

Definitely not as explicit as the tracks quoted at the top of the thread

I haven't read all of the posts on here but, in case nobody has pointed this out yet, there is not, nor has there ever been a watershed on British radio. Whether you agree with this policy or not is beside the point because, unlike television for example, there is no set time on British radio after which adult content becomes acceptable to broadcast. This means that it, legally, it's as okay to play explicit material on Radio 1 at 10am as it is at 10pm. Individual stations may use their own discretion when deciding what to broadcast when but it is not enshrined in any broadcasting code. This explains why you will sometimes hear quite explicit language or content on a Radio 4 afternoon play for example. Also on Radio 4, Woman's Hour, broadcast between 10am and 11am each week day, routinely discusses issues in grown-up language. The assumption is that most of the listeners are adults and, while they may issue warnings at the start of the show that discussions of a sensitive nature are forthcoming, especially during school holidays, they quite rightly do not censor themselves, relying rather on parental discretion.
The point has been made multiple times that sexual lyrics in pop music is absolutely nothing new, some of the pop music I listened to in the car radio on the way to school as a child in the 90s and 2000s was absolutely filthy in hindsight, not that I realised it at the time! In the same way, I would imagine that the inuendoes in Sabrina Carpenter lyrics might similarly go over the heads of children now!
Maybe I am biased since I am a fan of Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, etc., but I really think it is very unfair to castigate them for writing raunchy lyrics since they are doing so in a fun, cheeky way and I feel are sending a strong message about female empowerment. I am also a fan of Doja Cat and Nicki Minaj, both of whom are far more explicit in their lyrics than the afore-mentioned artists but who I still feel display a great deal of sexual confidence and agency.
As a devoted Swiftie I feel I must address the controversy over Taylor Swift's Wood. What non-Swifties may be unaware of is the fact that this song is causing so much commotion because it marks the first time that Taylor has ever recorded anything quite so overtly sexual. Of course she has strongly alluded to passion and sex in previous lyrics, after all, she is a thirty five year old woman. However, she has never done so in such raunchy or explicit terms, and never in quite such a cheeky way.
Do I have a problem with it? Of course not, it's a fun song, funny, saucy and quite cheesy. There is also a radio edit which makes it really very tame indeed, far tamer than many of the pop songs from my childhood! I also believe it is a deliberate Sabrina pastiche, they are friends and collaborated on the new TS album so it makes sense. Also, TS is in love and engaged so I think she's allowed to be a bit giddy and sappy and silly for once, aespecially after all the heartbreak that led to her magnificent last album, The Tortured Poets Department! There are plenty of earnest moments on the rest of the newest album for those who like their Taylor serious!

At work a couple of years ago I had to explain to someone what Genie in a Bottle was all about and I think I ruined their early teens 😂

It’s interesting now when you hear an Eminem song on the radio from that era just how much more I bleeped/blanked out vs then. I just think songs now try different ways of getting round it and aren’t any different.

And loads of swearing now! I know I sound 100 years old, but is there any need for so many?!