Advice Part 65 - Sexist rap?

I have always considered myself to be something of a “feminist”. Whilst I have stopped short of reading The Female Eunuch, and have yet to burn my bra or stop shaving my legs (sorry, had to chuck in a few clichés there....), I would describe myself as VERY committed to ensuring that women are treated equally to men.

But in the past month or so, I have come to realise that I have a MAJOR problem reconciling my feminist political views with my musical tastes.....

My advice to young players is that it MAY be acceptable to briefly suppress your moral outrage for the sake of a bit of enjoyment. But as soon as the fun is over, get back on your moral high horse lest it gallops away (I am going to wring every last drop out of that image...)

How do I know this? Let me explain....

It may come as a surprise for those of you who know me, but I have a rather unfortunate penchant for a particular "niche kind" of R&B, hip hop, and rap music. 

"A-ha!" you're probably saying. "That's no surprise at all. I bet you like nice, conservative R&B, like Boyz II Men, or Mariah Carey or Rihanna."

But if you thought that, you'd be VERY wrong.

Rather, my predilection is for blantantly sexist and misogynistic music which:

• objectifies women
• features near nude dancers gyrating in the video clips
• is full of lyrics about sex and the singer’s “performance in the sack”

 So, some tracks which I like:

• Gett Off- Prince
• Baby got back- Sir Mix-A-Lot
• Novacane- Frank Ocean (this is a KILLER track!)

 

The strangest thing about this is that there seems to be some sort of positive correlation between the sexism of the lyrics, and the amount I like the song- the more sexist, the more I’ll like it.

What really disturbs me is that if I heard these sort of sentiments expressed anywhere other than in music, I would be absolutely FURIOUS.

But, worst of all, I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA why I like this sort of music. It seems to exert some sort of irresistible appeal for me. As soon as a sexist rap track starts playing, I can't resist.

This is one of those times that I wish Dr Freud was still alive, because I'm sure he'd have a field day with this sort of fascination.....

Advice Part 48- Buying concert tickets

So, if you are anything like me, you will sporadically feel the urge to spend an insane amount of money going to see your preferred "artistes" perform. And there's nothing wrong with that. Far from it.

However, my advice to young players is that actually obtaining tickets to said concerts tends to be a torturous process, and that it is best to prepare yourself for hours of frustration.

How do I know this? Read on.....

Last week, I was thrilled to discover that PRINCE will be touring Australia this year. And, naturally, I was keen to go. Yes, I like Prince- laugh all you like, but who can resist a pint-sized gentleman in bizarre attire singing suggestive songs?

Tickets went on sale this morning at 9 a.m.

In the good old days, if you wanted to ensure you got good concert tickets, you would sleep outside the ticket office overnight, ready to storm the counter the second it opened.

But the internet changed all that. And NOT for the better.....

At 8:55a.m. this morning, I jumped online, and prepared to buy my ticket. Easy, right? WRONG!

Because everyone else on the entire planet seemed to have the same idea, the server crashed, and I couldn't get on. Then, when I finally did manage to reach the website, I was put in a "ticket queue" for an interminable time (as I had to wait for other people to Gett Off- ha ha, note song lyric reference?).

When I eventually reached the correct page at 9:45a.m., a second show had just been announced, which meant a new flurry of activity, and the website slowing down even more. Bloody hell.

It was 10a.m. before bought my ticket.

Right up the back.

During this time I had gained another ten grey hairs, further reducing my chances of Prince one day asking me to be his back up dancer (that is a joke, OK).

But let me assure you, when I get to the concert, I'm going to party like it's 1999 (sorry, that was REALLY bad).