It's me against the music

I've been meaning to blog this for several months now, but the words just won't seem to string together coherently enough. They may not even do it this time. But here's for trying.

They say music can alter moods and talk to you
Well can it load a gun up for you , and cock it too?
Well if it can, then the next time you assault a dude
Just tell the judge it was my fault and i'll get sued

Eminem- Sing for the moment

Growing up, music and singing was always existenent in my life. From nursery rhymes, to Destiny's Child, to naats, and channel U, I'd always been exposed to a variety of songs. Our household carried on the tradition, that oddly enough, my Mother used to do with her Pakistani migrant parents- of watching top of the pops every week. We also used to listen to the radio every Sunday evening, without fail, to hear the top 40 songs and find out who was number one. In the mornings, I'd get changed to the radio as I found it made me more energised for the day ahead. I remember printing out lyrics to my favourite songs, sticking them on my wall and memorising them. I remember singing into a hairbrush with my two sisters to Atomic Kitten as if we were a girl-group; not knowing what "turn me on" meant, yet not caring. We used to buy cassette tapes before CDs came along; and then we'd buy CDs. Then along came the digital revolution, and I can still recall the excitement when I opened the box and lifted up the iPod shuffle. I was limited to one download a week- as the iTunes account was linked to my Dad's direct debit. Then along came limewire and other sources that enabled you to download music for free, which of course pleased my Dad.

The iPod went with me everywhere; I was always plugged in. Whenever I was cooking, eating, reading, doing homework; music was always there. I remember putting the radio on whenever I was washing up or doing chores; it made them a little more bearable. I became very reliant on and addicted to music. It was as if I couldn't function without it. Music has always had such a profound emotional connection with me; something that I cannot comprehend or explain fully. When I was feeling down a sad song would be on repeat, as the musician describes their sadness in a way that the listener can relate to. In the same way, a happy song could expel any negative vibes in no more than three minutes, and lift moods in a way nothing or nobody else could. The rhyming lyrics, the magical melodies and the pounding beats reflected the rhythm of life. My life.

Needless to say, like all teenagers I guess, the main genre I listened to was rap/hip-hop; but music being such a big part of my life from a very young age, I had an eclectic and varied taste in music, for which I was often complimented. Growing up, I was a very angry, confused and moody teenager; this may be "normal", but it's something I can now attribute to having a dormant undiagnosed disease; hypothyroidism. Yet no matter who let me down in life, however I was feeling; music was always there for me, almost as a shoulder to cry on.

Over the years, however, music evolved. It was integrated with foul language, innunedo's and was becoming more and more sexual. By the time I was 14, almost every song was about relationships, sex or break-ups. The industry was becoming tired and saturated. We couldn't watch TOTP as a family anymore, not without constant flicking the channel over. We now had to turn the radio off or switch the station if something "rude" played; as we now understood the different themes within music. But we were shunned from the sexualisation of music; since it was mainly in music videos in which sex manifested itself. When we moved house, we didn't bother getting any sattelite channels and therefore weren't exposed to any music videos. But of course- along came YouTube. And along came MySpace- in which I discovered alternative songs to the mainstream rubbish blaring from the speakers.

This obsession and reliance on music countinued up until I was eighteen. In short, the change came about because I discovered the "truth" about the music industry; how music is used to communicated subliminal ideologies and messages, and how we should unplug ourselves and listen to the beat of nature rather than the sythesised stuff we are all too familiar with. I also realised that music isn't exactly permissible in Islam. Since then, I tried to give up music completely- and managed to, for about 3-4 months, but of course, being the "addict" I was, I had withdrawal symptoms and often relapsed.

I now don't make a conscious effort to stop listening to music altogether, but a lot has changed with regards to my relationship with music. I don't care about who's number one anymore, I dislike mainstream "pop" music, I can do household chores without having the radio on, and I can go out without my headphones glued to my ears. I do, however, make an effort to listen to songs with real messages; Lowkey, the Narcicyst, Immortal Technique etc, but sometimes my ears prefer a mindless synthesised beat, which is fine. I always make a conscious effort not to listen to music during Ramadan at all- which has gradually become easier. I'm really happy that my little brother won't be brought up in a house where music is so important, especially since modern music contains themes unsuitable for young ears.

I now only listen to music mainly in the gym, and occasional Youtubing here and there- I am proud of myself and also glad it doesn't have such an impact on my life now as it used to.


Further links
- Seven ways music influences mood
-How music affects people's moods

Beyonce and the "empowerment" of Women

This post is mainly in response to Beyonce's newly released video, named "Run the world (girls)". So if you haven't seen it, you may want to watch it otherwise this post may not make sense to you. To give you a brief summary, Beyonce is basically dancing around, with an army of girls, wearing next to nothing, and chanting "Who run the world?? GIRLS!"

Lyrical problems:

I'm gonna go through the lyrics and tell you why I think this song is damaging for young women and girls. Whilst I would like very much for girls to even come close to running this world, in reality it is not true.

Beyonce says "some of them men think that they can freak this like we do, but no they won't. Make your cheques come at they neck, disrespect us no they won't." 

The last part of that is highly incorrect; they do and will continue to disrespect us. We might make up more than half of the world's population, do the important tasks such as raising children, but at the end of the day we are still being paid less to do the same jobs than our male counterparts. The situation is better now than it used to be, but the reality is that gender inequality still exists. So we are clearly not running the world. Males still dominate in the highly paid career professions such as Doctors, Dentists and Lawyers. Women are being abused and raped: so much for "disrespect us no they won't."

Another verse is "This goes out to all my girls that's in the club rocking the latest. Who will buy it for themselves and get more money later." 

So here B is trying to promote financial independence. I'm not against this at all, but, Islamically, the Man has to provide for the woman and take care of her. It's not to say that she can't have an income or work, or that she is the weaker gender, it is his right at the end of the day to provide for her. Just putting that out there. It's nice to be taken care of sometimes.

She then says "I think I need a barber, none of these hoes can fade me." I have no idea what she means by that, but I for one do not stand for being called a hoe. In case you need reminding, "hoe" is short for whore; a female prostitute. Why would you want to call yourself that? (Or other girls for that matter). It's bad enough that all the rap songs out there degrade women by calling them all kinds of insulting derogatory names, but the fact that we have turned this on its head and started calling ourselves such names is just ridiculous. How many times have you heard people calling themselves bitches and sluts, or seen it across someone's chest on a T-shirt?? All too often. It is really not constructive. I can understand how you can take something derogatory and label yourself as being that, in order for the word to become less derogatory. This can be demonstrated with the N-word, which is thrown about in rap songs left, right and centre. But has it worked? I don't know.

"Boy im just playing, come here baby. Hope you still like me, If you hate me.." Here it seems that Beyonce didn't actually mean what she just said, and kinda goes back on herself, which is confusing. I think she's highlighting the point that the boys aren't happy when girls are independent or have any kind of power, so she pretends she was just kidding and hopes he still likes her, because she's admitting that we do need men at the end of the day. That just sends out such a contradictory message. Either you run the world or you don't, there can't be any in betweens.

She then says, rather seductively, may I add: "you'll do anything for me". Looking like that, which man won't?!?

She continues later: "Boy you know you love it:  How we're smart enough to make these millions
Strong enough to bare the children, Then get back to business. See, you better not play me." Ok B first of all, you have no children so you wouldn't have a clue about childbirth (neither would I for that matter). How many women do you know who have children and still make millions..? This sends out a highly unrealistic message to girls; which says that you should give birth to children yet in this capitalistic society you can also go back to work and make millions. Err... hello?? What about the child?! Who is going to raise this child to be happy, healthy and with good morals? Society? Well they'll definitely turn out messed up if you leave it to society. Most Mothers give up work to look after and care for their children, it won't just magically happen, and those that do go back to work are usually part time or only return once the child starts school. This gives a false impression to young women who will think that they can still do everything. We have limits, we are only human. Of course there are women, single mothers, who have no choice but the go back to work; but what's for sure is that they will not be making millions.


Visual problems:

The main visual problem with this, and many other videos by Female artists is that by wearing less clothes and dancing about we are somehow becoming empowered; by using our sexuality to our advantage empowers us. (I was going to put some pictures as reminders but decided that your eyes do not need to be exposed to it). Anyway, this is highly dangerous. This then impies that our sexuality defines us. This is damaging as young girls emulate such singers; and will copy what they are wearing or doing in the videos. They are given the message that disrespecting yourself and displaying your beauty is actually empowerment. And that is really no good, because women are then seen as sex objects or pieces of meat. Women and sex can sell anything, be it a car or a laptop. Our beauty and worth has been degraded to sex; nothing more nothing less. Since we are perceived as mere objects, our value falls below that of a human, since an inaminate object is worth less than a human being. This causes us to be subject to all kinds of physical and emotional abuse; be it domestic violence or rape. This has damaged our worth and our power as women or even humans; and yet Beyonce is claiming that by being scantily clad we somehow run the world. Well, unfortunately, we don't.

How many females do you see in Parliament, or in the US Senate? Not many; just a handful. So if we're not even in government, how the hell are we supposedly running the world?

Beyonce herself should be more than familiar with the prejudices that females face, as highlighted in her song "If I were a Boy", even if it's more about relationships than female empowerment. The song bascially highlights how much easier it is for guys in this world. She is basically saying how much better she would treat a girl if she were a boy, because she knows how hard it is. This is also demonstrated in the Ciara song "like a boy"; which demonstrates how guys can be "players" and abuse women and mistreat them, so what would happen if the roles were switched? It would be highly inappropriate for a woman to act in that manner, so why do guys get away with it?

Oh, watch this as well, it's a great summary in response to Beyonce's new video:



I'll leave you with this lovely Hadith:

"Treat women nicely, for a women is created from a rib, and the most curved portion of the rib is its upper portion, so, if you should try to straighten it, it will break, but if you leave it as it is, it will remain crooked. So treat women nicely." Bukhari, 4:55:548.