There's a song that's sweeping the nation, and it comes in the form of cheap
drum beats, a touch of reggae and the incomprehensible thoughts of a rapper
nicknamed Soulja Boy.
I came across "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" not too long ago during my usual
Internet exploration, and upon discovering it, I also found that it even had its
own dance. Multitudes of videos on YouTube portrayed several people attempting
this dance, one of whom is Soulja Boy himself. He has his own instructional
video about it.
I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.
I won't lie. I admit that the song is catchy, despite the seemingly little
amount of thought that seems to have been put into it. The dance is easy enough
to learn after watching it two or three times. But is that really why the song
has become popular? It's "catchy"? It has a dance that everyone can learn by the
end of a party? Is that all it takes for a song to be "good" anymore? What has
happened to meaningful lyrics and beautifully crafted harmonies? I believe there
is more to a song than simply how "catchy" it is.
I question if this is the direction in which song and dance are turning. I'm
not saying that there aren't recent songs and forms of dancing that are
impressive, but the fact that something such as "Crank That" has become
immensely popular just baffles me. Google the lyrics. I find it quite disturbing
that such nonsense was even considered for production.
Picture this: When our generation grows old, we are going to be rocking out
to songs that tell us to "Superman that hoe" and to get us some "bathin' apes."
Although I bet by that time, we still won't know what "bathin' apes" are.
You are tollay right. They played that song at my little sis 5th grade dance. What message is that teaching kids. One day when I was walking home from school i heard so little boy maybe 8 sinaging that song! GOSH! Even though I will amit to listening to it and liking it it still is not a good song for our little people to hear