As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not really able to process song lyrics, so these performers respective lyrical content has nothing to do with my judgment of their music as undesirable. Frankly, it has wholly to do with the fact that they kind of hurt my ears. I listen to a good breadth of music all day long every day, but I don’t think I’ll ever apprehend the allure of these kinds of offerings.

They are, to my ear, just bad. I can see junior highers digging them (and I’m sure that the largest segment of their iTunes downloads could be tracked to junior highers using their mom’s credit card or iTunes gift cards). But junior highers aren’t really known for their anything beyond their paucity of taste. (After all, in junior high, I thought Metallica and Motorhead were the height of musical genius. Lamentable, I know.)

Leona Lewis has such a beautiful voice, and Bleeding Love is my favorite one she sings. Not a big fan of Ke$ha at all. But in the end sometimes we need to take a minute to read the lyrics, then you get a better sense of the direction of the song. Many of my freinds wonder how I know “that” when I explain a songs meaning to them. I just tell them I read the lyrics to get a better understanding of the song. And I do. Many times I go to Wikipedia (maybe not the best source) to read about a band. Then I have a better feel of the life styles and beliefs.

Keep it up Rich

Interesting, though. I bet my wife has heard of Tik Tok, but she likes to dance. I am a bit ashamed to realize that we own six of the ten. I’m not ashamed of three. And I freely admit to trying to incorporate the unbelievably catchy chorus of ‘I Gotta Feeling’ into a worship set.

(Why did I think “I could only Imagine” would be on the top 10 list?)

And like all media, it’s okay to listen to stuff we don’t wholeheartedly agree with, as long as we’re thoughtful and aware of those differences. Because of what you said in your first paragraph (2nd comment), music presents a particular challenge because of how subversive it can often be.

I tend to connect more with music whose lyrics I do understand though, often times I disagree with what is presented therein but I find it challenging and thought-provoking nonetheless.

There is value to all music from an artistic point of view, even popular music that I deliberately ignore. It may be true that popular music is actually more open and direct about their values and worldview as presented in “Tik Tok.”

I may have ruined this young man’s appreciation for such songs because I brought this up and he no longer liked a couple of the songs. It ended with an opportunity to talk about the gospel.

Interesting article Rich, I am looking forward to more of these.