My kid's listening to music with bad lyrics

[Anonymous]

OPP, yeah you know me. Naughty by nature

Laid, James

Let's talk about sex, salt and peppa

I touch myself, divinyls

I wanna sex you up, color me badd

Pour some sugar on me, def leopard

Wicked game, Chris isaac

Closer, NIN

[Anonymous]

Cake is tame compared to some of what we heard, no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He's 12 yo. Cake by the Ocean is the song he was playing and let his 4 yo sister listen to it too. Now she says she likes it too. She has no idea what the lyrics mean. I don't want him, let alone her, listening to lyrics with profanity. What can I do to teach him values so that he won't listen to these kind of songs? Is it my job to go through the list of songs on his iPod and make sure they're "clean"? He says he learned of this song from his friend's younger sister who is 8!

Yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chill. Do you remember all the songs you listened to when you were a kid? Did you have a clue what they meant? I remember listening to "Afternoon Delight" when I was a little kid. I didn't have a clue and I wasn't scarred by hearing those lyrics. You said your kids don't know what the lyrics mean. You can set the permissions for what they can listen to or download for more age appropriate or radio versions of songs. That's what I've done for my kids who listen to Pandora.

Agree with this. I was 15 listening to Little Red Corvette, thinking it was about a woman driving a car. Lol

+1

+1

And Madonna's Like a Virgin, which must have driven my parents out of their mind. But to me it was just a song.

As for Cake by the Ocean, I'm not 100% I get what's so bad about it, though I haven't listened all that closely. We just love the tune. It's crazy addictive.

As for dirty . . . FloRida's "You Spin Me" is maybe the worst I can think of these days. It's either about strippers or oral sex. Or both. And yet my elementary aged kids love the sound of it. Same with Mike Posner's "Took a Pill In Ibiza."

I assume someday they'll figure out what these songs mean, but even then, they're just songs. Not a manual for how to live their lives.

[Anonymous]

Don't forget Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Relax.

I have had a backseat full of 9 year old girls singing at the top of their lungs:

He's so tall, and handsome as hell
He's so bad but he does it so well
I said no one has to know what we do
His hands are in my hair, his clothes are in my room

OMG

[Anonymous]

Agree with all the other PP. Your kids don't know what it means, and we all did the same thing. Relax. And when they do start to understand songs with explicit lyrics, then take it as an opportunity to talk to them about the underlying issues. Don't try to hide everything from kids and censor their entire lives. That's doing them a disservice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks OP. My kids and I laughed about this song on a long road trip this summer --- we were trying to figure out the lyrics in the first place. Had no idea it meant anything other than cake by the ocean until this thread prompted me to google. I can assure you that my 7yo and 12yo have even less idea. Oh well.

My 7 year old insisted it was Cat by the Ocean for several months. These kids have no idea what it means. Frankly neither did I till I googles it a few months back.

[Anonymous]

This morning my 7 year old warbling, in his sweet boy soprano, "Uptown Funk".

Dance, jump on it
If you sexy then flaunt it
If you freaky then own it
Don't brag about it, come show me....

He also loves the song "Seven Years" which refers to "smoking herb and drinking burning liquor". Devil's music. I think he'll be okay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OPP, yeah you know me. Naughty by nature

Laid, James

Let's talk about sex, salt and peppa

I touch myself, divinyls

I wanna sex you up, color me badd

Pour some sugar on me, def leopard

Wicked game, Chris isaac

Closer, NIN

You must be around my age (39).

[Anonymous]

It make.a me giggle when my 8 year old sings "smoking herb and drinking burning liquor" from 7 Years. She has no idea.

[Anonymous]

I listened dead. All the time. Did not develop a drug problem.

[Anonymous]

Listened to the Dead. Sorry about the bad typing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OPP, yeah you know me. Naughty by nature

Laid, James

Let's talk about sex, salt and peppa

I touch myself, divinyls

I wanna sex you up, color me badd

Pour some sugar on me, def leopard

Wicked game, Chris isaac

Closer, NIN

You must be around my age (39).

If you're 39, you were old enough to know what a lot of those songs meant when they came out!

I have to go google the lyrics to cake by the ocean now-I can never figure out what they're singing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OPP, yeah you know me. Naughty by nature

Laid, James

Let's talk about sex, salt and peppa

I touch myself, divinyls

I wanna sex you up, color me badd

Pour some sugar on me, def leopard

Wicked game, Chris isaac

Closer, NIN

You must be around my age (39).

If you're 39, you were old enough to know what a lot of those songs meant when they came out!

Oh, I did! I must have misinterpreted PP's post--I figured she was just listing "dirty" songs from her youth, not necessarily ones whose meanings flew over her head. My sister, who was probably 7 at the time, thought "I Wanna Sex You Up" was actually called "I Wanna Sense You Up," as in "talk sense into you."