Has The Music Industry Really "Gone Too Far"?

Quite a while ago now, I mentioned that I had seen an article in the Daily Mail about how pop music is too mature for young children. I have now found this article, check it out using the link below;
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1301974/Mike-Stock-Pop-charts-porn-putting-children-risk.html

Now, Mike Stock may be one of the greatest and most influential men in pop music, and although I respect the experts in this profession, I must say I disagree with his view completely. Being a huge fan of the music industry (and hoping to maybe even one day go into music journalism) I feel that we need some insight into this article that the Mail produced.

Mr Stock believes that today's pop stars, such as Lady Gaga and Britney Spears, are not keeping values that are important in the "modern world". What the Daily Mail does a lot in this article is compare these artists, especially Lady Gaga, to the Kylie Minogue of the 80's, one of the most loved pop stars in history with hits such as "I should be so lucky". This is where my first issue with this article comes in. What are the "values" that are important in a modern world, and how are artists like Lady Gaga and Britney not upholding these values?
     It is vital to consider the changing values of society and of young people in society. This is very clearly mirrored in the way Kylie herself has changed. It is all well and good saying that in the 80's music was more innocent, but is it the pop stars fault or society's fault that music has become more "sexualised"? I am sure everyone over the age of 16 can remember the video for "I just can't get you out of my head" by Kylie, a much more sexualised video. True, this isn't quite as raunchy as Lady Gaga can be, but once again isn't this merely a measure of changing time? Young people aren't as innocent and protected as they used to be, we know about sex, we know about drugs, that doesn't mean we are all out getting our clothes off because of the music videos we see.

   Another issue I have with this article, Mr Stock's line; 'These days you can't watch modern stars  -  like Britney Spears or Lady Gaga  -  with a two-year-old." Maybe this is because this music isn't aimed at two-year-old's. It might be possible that Mr Stock is insinuating that all pop music should be suitable for children of all ages. When Lady Gaga writes her songs she doesn't think "oh I simply must make this child friendly!". She writes what she feels and it just so happens that this music is more suitable for an older audience. If you expect all pop music to be child friendly you may as well expect all music to be child friendly, that is how diverse our charts can be. Can you imagine seeing reports of how people are unhappy because their child listened to Marylin Manson or Megadeth and it wasn't "child friendly"? NO, because different music is aimed at different age groups. If you do not want your child to listen to such music, don't let them, it is that simple.

One of the things that got to me the most about this article was the example the Daily Mail uses to show how music has changed.  It gives us an example of Kylie's lyrics from "I should be so lucky" - "I'm dreaming you fell in love with me...but dreaming's all I do" from the 80's. This is then compared with lyrics from Lady Gaga's "Lovegame" - "I'm educated in sex, yes...I wanna take a ride on your disco stick". While this is clearly more sexualised than Kylie, it is also a very extreme example. Being a fan of Lady Gaga, I know this is one of the raunchiest tracks on the album, which the Daily Mail have used to lead people to believe that "This is what all pop music is like". NO once again! Taking another song from this week's chart, All Time low by The Wanted, sample lyric; "I'm in pieces, it seems like peace is the only thing I never know". This may be more sombre than Kylie, but there is clearly no sexualisation. This is coming from a track that was number 1 several weeks ago, proof that not all the music in the charts is sexualised.

As society changes, the arts change and music changes. Young people may be subject to more sexualised images, but is that necessarily the great evil it is made out to be? For parents of young children, you can stop them watching these music videos, you should be monitoring what they watch, but we cannot expect artists and musicians to change because some mothers aren't happy. And, cynical as it is, at the end of the day The Music Industry is there to make money, and if "sexualisation" is what it takes right now, nothing will stop them.