Are mainstream pop songs getting more sexually graphic?
 

So, three songs, in the order I heard them on the radio, seem to each raise the bar on the level of graphicness:

Saving Abel, Addicted: "I'm so addicted to, all the things you do, when you're going down on me, in between the sheets"

Hoobastank, Inside of you: "What do I have to do, to get inside of you, inside of you? Cuz' I love the way you move, when I'm inside of you, when I'm inside of you!"

And now, Nickelback, "Something in your mouth": "you're so much cooler when you never pull it out, you look so much cuter with something in your mouth!"

Have pop songs always been this graphic and I've been oblivious or has there recently been some graphic depiction one-upsmanship?

yes they have. Remember when half the states in the country banned George Michaels' "I Want Your Sex" from the airwaves?

Haha, I wasn't denying an overall era-wide increase in graphicness, but I heard the first these songs about 9 months ago! Seems like a pretty severe ramp-up.

There are at least a couple more overt references to oral sex on U2's Achtung Baby, as well as other sexual references.

From "One":

Did I disappoint you or leave a bad taste in your mouth?
--
You say love is a temple, love a higher law
Love is a temple, love the higher law.
You ask me to enter, but then you make me crawl

From "Until the End of the World":

But my sorrows they'd learned to swim
Surrounding me, going down on me

The entire song "Even Better Than the Real Thing" is about sex.

I think perhaps these bands just have bad songwriters. I like how Bono can discuss sex in his lyrics but it's not like he's clubbing you over the head with it. It's more subtle. He does acknowledge that he had oral sex on the brain when he was writing Achtung Baby (this information is courtesy of Bill Flanagan's book U2 at the End of the World).

Lyrics have always been full of sex, especially in the genre of music most of these artists fall into. It's not one I listen to, perhaps because of the lack of lyrical subtlety.

There's been blips throughout the decades of songs that would push the envelope on sexual innuendo, but they sought more to do it covertly and in a manner of metaphors. Sure, I could name some examples of popular songs in any given era to weigh the other side of the argument, but that'd do no good; as a whole, most of the mainstream music now wants to portray a message of "I want to face-bang you, and I have no qualms saying so inside your minivan".

I'd say this generation, most of the music on the airwaves and in the Top 40 are geared toward adolescents/teens, and they are way too oversexed and undereducated to pick up on the subtle cues, so the industry/artists doesn't even try to be creative anymore, instead opting to blare pornographic riffs with lyrics.

Now that I think about it more, it could have always been a sexual market, yet back then, the music was actually good and enjoyable. Who knows?

this isn't something i particularly care about either way as i don't generally pay much attention to lyrics. but in general, i prefer the approach taken in frankie goes to hollywood's "relax" because it points the way to better situations.

Have you never heard of Prince?

Sex has always been a part of pop music. The problem is that we tend to remember the songs we liked that treated it poetically. The songs you mentioned seem to treat sex like a frat party ritual.

I don't think "One" has anything to do with oral sex

You should look up the history of Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti".

When the original version of that song finally hits the radio, THEN we can answer with a definitive "Yes, indeedy!".

I don't find those lyrics sexually graphic, at all. Not even suggestive or titillating. Especially within the context of the entire song. And according to something I remember reading, years ago, that song is about (or at least in relation to) Bono's dying father.

This is why I put a citation up for my post. In the book I cited, the author Bill Flanagan actually witnesses the composition of "One," as he spent a great deal of time sort of embedded with the band. The album Achtung Baby was actually commentary on the Edge's failing marriage. Furthermore, at the time, Bob Hewson was perfectly healthy.

The song you're thinking of, Cynosure, is "Sometimes You Just Can't Make It On Your Own" from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, an album which was written shortly after Bob Hewson's death. Bono has publicly commented that he picked the title because he felt like an atomic bomb after his father died.

And yes, Prince's lyrics have always been particularly graphic. My mom used to listen to Prince when I was a kid. Of course, I had no clue.

And the Rolling Stones notably say "You make a dead man come" in "Start Me Up."

Funny you should mention a Nickelback song, I personally would have used Figured You Out instead of Something In Your Mouth lol.

I like your pants around your feet
I like the dirt that's on your knees
And I like the way you still say please
While you're looking up at me
You're like my favourite damn disease

But my answer to your post, yes they are, undeniably.

Remember "Relax" from Frankie Goes to Hollywood?

Relax don't do it
When you want to to go to it
Relax don't do it
When you want to come
Relax don't do it
When you want to suck to it
Relax don't do it
When you want to come
Come-oh oh oh

Not much left to the imagination, and that was like 1983 or 1984?

In the mid 70s Jefferson Airplane had a hit with Miracles, it contained this lyric in the full version which was typically only played on FM

In the 60s the Association has a hit with Wendy, this line was reported to be about getting a blow job

Afternoon Delight anyone?

What really cracked me up recently was an ad for a Little Tikes guitar set that had small children singing along to the Troggs' "Wild Thing."

The actual line is "When you want to sock it to it," which admittedly could still be considered sexual.

And yeah. Music is about passion. Nobody writes songs about doing taxes. Sex is often a theme.

Sorry to go off topic here, but speaking of children's toys that are inappropriate, does anyone remember those Harry Potter broomsticks that had 'vibrating action'? lol

/end threadjack