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Mike Stock ( of Stock/Aitkin/Waterman fame)

has been in a few papers lately talking about

how the music industry is turning to porn

with so many raunchy singers...

Katie Perry, Madonna, etc

Their videos and stage acts are becoming overtly pornographic

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1301974/Mike-Stock-Pop-charts-porn-putting-children-risk.html

There seem to be so many female singers around now, Diana Vickers, Lady Gaga, Lily Allen,Taylor Swift

The female names go on and on.

Record sales have fallen dramatically, is the music industry now more about selling sex and sleaze ?

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There might be some truth in what Mike Stock says, but to put this article into context; it's from the Daily Mail, which is a conservative newspaper of the prudish, middle-class Tory curtain-twitcher variety, beloved by the kind of people who hate the working classes and enjoy nothing more than casting a judgemental eye over the habits of ordinary people and telling them how they should live more respectable lives. So the Daily Mail may have an axe to grind. They're always on the look-out for signs of falling standards; it's part of their psyche.

Furthermore, I'm not sure what your follow-up point is. "There seem to be so many female singers around now, Diana Vickers, Lady Gaga, Lily Allen,Taylor Swift. The female names go on and on". So what? An abundance of female singers is a bad thing? A sure sign that pornography is on the rise? Female singer = porn artist? If you have a point to make, you have a peculiar way of making it.

Yes, there are plenty of female singers around these days, many of whom are intelligent people making great music - I won't list them, there are too many - the vast majority of whom are not selling sex, sleaze, depravity, etc. You list four female artists, as if they were indicative of a spiralling descent into squalid amorality. Lily Allen??? Although her lyrics are occasionally punctuated with profanities, which might displease some, she is by no means an example of a female singer "selling sex and sleaze". Far from it. If you took the trouble to listen to and understand her lyrics, you might appreciate this. "The Fear", for example, is an intelligent, insightful critique of superficial celebrity culture and the insecurities it breeds.

As a parent of a 12 year old girl, I give some thought to the "over-sexualisation of pop" issue. Some female performing artists make more positive role-models than others, that's for sure, and I'm a bit disappointed that some seem to adopt the flawed "lap-dancing is empowerment" position, which merely plays into the hands of the pimps and misogynists who run everything.

However, it is highly dubious to suggest, as you do, that female artists being overtly sexual in their performances is akin to porn, (and "more female artists = more porn") unless you apply the same standards to the legions of male performers who have placed their sexual prowess at the centre of their performance; the list, again, is almost endless, but includes Mick Jagger, Prince, Elvis "The Pelvis" Presley, etc. etc.

As for your final comment: the dramatic fall in global record sales can be attributed to many factors - not least of which, the sheer diversity of media through which people consume their music, and so much of it for free - but almost certainly not to the increased use of sex in pop performance. In the context of their falling revenues, it might well be true though, that the major stake-holders in the global music biz are resorting to ever more desperate ways to keep the dollars rolling in, of which "pushing the sexual boundaries" is merely the least imaginative.

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It's true, some female acts do seem to have sunk quite low (the Scherzinger "X Factor" performance referred to by Stock was certainly inappropriate for the time-slot) and it can easily be seen how this can influence young female fans. I am in favour of "something" being done but, for the life of me, I cannot see what. The Genie (hello Xtina!) is out of the bottle! :blush:

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  • 3 months later...

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