“I looooooooooooooooove Fisher Price!” – “LOL :),” Trey Songz
What do R.Kelly, Fisher Price, and Trey Songz have in common? I’ll wait.
I don’t have a problem with Songz or Kelly. I do, however, have a distaste for many of Trey Songz’s tracks. At the top of my list? The smash hit “LOL :).” While Songz and his collaborators Gucci Mane and Souljah Boy Tellem are legally grown men, this song screams Kiddie Corner. The introduction of the song, “I looooooooooooove Fisher Price” is voiced by Mr. Hubert, the fictional self-professed pedophile on the comedy Family Guy. The track itself sounds like the remix of the Reading Rainbow theme song or the song of the day on Sesame Street. While the line and song (assumingly) do not intentionally support the sexual exploitation of children, the correlation between the track (both lyrically and instrumentally) and childlike behavior are disturbing. These associations point to the categorization of Songz as a manchild, and, like I said in my previous post, he ain’t in the promised land.
Songz conceptualizes his masculinity through pubescent gestures and expectations. While it is his prerogative to express himself in whatever way he pleases, I can’t help but think about how he impacts our understanding of black masculinity in America. He perpetuates and enables the wayward assumptions of black men as sex-crazed, one dimensional boys. Think Big John from The Green Mile on the hunt for booty. Songz professes adult desires through a minimalized, abbreviated discourse. In other words, the sexual trysts and imagery presented here are childlike – short words, repetitive lyrics, and imagery. And this is not restricted to “LOL :).” “Say Ahh” fits the bill, minus the Sesame Street instrumentals. To add another layer to this portrayal of boy-like fantasies, the gestures Songz presents are considered non-threatening. For real, how gangsta is a smiley face? Does ":)" put fear into your heart? Ed Wuncler was onto something.
Of course, one has to consider audience. This song is huge with the tween to young adult demographic. We use Twitter, crackberries, and other technology repeatedly referenced in the song. AND, one has to consider how lyrical content in a song directed towards this market sets the mark for acceptable behavior by both girls and boys alike. Boys, profess your manhood through sex and a smiley face. Girls, sex and smiley faces mix. I’m exaggerating here, but where does the responsibility land?
Can it be called exploitation if a specific performance of black manhood is intentional? It wasn’t by mistake that “LOL :)” made it to the airwaves and was performed by Songz and company. It is not a mistake that Songz reinvented his look and, to an extent, his sound in order to present himself as a grown man with grown dreams and the desire for grown, ahem, things. Where he misses the mark is crooning adult lyrics over child-esque beats. There is no balance in the presentation of his physical body or the body of music he creates. Songz falls victim to the painful realization that one must live in one extremity or another in order to remain visible. There’s nothing to LOL about there.
What do R.Kelly, Fisher Price, and Trey Songz have in common? I’ll wait.
I don’t have a problem with Songz or Kelly. I do, however, have a distaste for many of Trey Songz’s tracks. At the top of my list? The smash hit “LOL :).” While Songz and his collaborators Gucci Mane and Souljah Boy Tellem are legally grown men, this song screams Kiddie Corner. The introduction of the song, “I looooooooooooove Fisher Price” is voiced by Mr. Hubert, the fictional self-professed pedophile on the comedy Family Guy. The track itself sounds like the remix of the Reading Rainbow theme song or the song of the day on Sesame Street. While the line and song (assumingly) do not intentionally support the sexual exploitation of children, the correlation between the track (both lyrically and instrumentally) and childlike behavior are disturbing. These associations point to the categorization of Songz as a manchild, and, like I said in my previous post, he ain’t in the promised land.
Songz conceptualizes his masculinity through pubescent gestures and expectations. While it is his prerogative to express himself in whatever way he pleases, I can’t help but think about how he impacts our understanding of black masculinity in America. He perpetuates and enables the wayward assumptions of black men as sex-crazed, one dimensional boys. Think Big John from The Green Mile on the hunt for booty. Songz professes adult desires through a minimalized, abbreviated discourse. In other words, the sexual trysts and imagery presented here are childlike – short words, repetitive lyrics, and imagery. And this is not restricted to “LOL :).” “Say Ahh” fits the bill, minus the Sesame Street instrumentals. To add another layer to this portrayal of boy-like fantasies, the gestures Songz presents are considered non-threatening. For real, how gangsta is a smiley face? Does ":)" put fear into your heart? Ed Wuncler was onto something.
Of course, one has to consider audience. This song is huge with the tween to young adult demographic. We use Twitter, crackberries, and other technology repeatedly referenced in the song. AND, one has to consider how lyrical content in a song directed towards this market sets the mark for acceptable behavior by both girls and boys alike. Boys, profess your manhood through sex and a smiley face. Girls, sex and smiley faces mix. I’m exaggerating here, but where does the responsibility land?
Can it be called exploitation if a specific performance of black manhood is intentional? It wasn’t by mistake that “LOL :)” made it to the airwaves and was performed by Songz and company. It is not a mistake that Songz reinvented his look and, to an extent, his sound in order to present himself as a grown man with grown dreams and the desire for grown, ahem, things. Where he misses the mark is crooning adult lyrics over child-esque beats. There is no balance in the presentation of his physical body or the body of music he creates. Songz falls victim to the painful realization that one must live in one extremity or another in order to remain visible. There’s nothing to LOL about there.
I was wondering about that Fisher Price thing-- that is downright creepy. Although leave it to R. Kelly to be on an album with something like that one it.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right about extremes. Other songs on the album venture into the extreme of verbal pornography-- Panty Droppin' and Neighbors Know My Name for instance-- which, even if entertaining, present a hypermasculinized male and his oversexualized coulda-been-anybody [which, which one a ya'll?] female counterpart. Because, of course, we don't need artists that explore the complexity of modern life, we need more childish instruction manuals on hooking up and hubristic explanations about of sexual dominance (it's LIKE you invented it, but ya didn't).
Hey sis...
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on Trey Songz and his manchildness. One of the things I really dislike is that while women of legal age may like his music, he often performs for underage teens. (On 106 and Park, he was singing "which one of y'all wanna go home" and I am thinking, "That's 5-15 years dude."
But on the flip side, few people get into the business strictly for the art of music. So many people have their hands in the demographic research, production, and other aspects that determines what songs will make the airwaves, who an artist collaborates with, and how to promote the music. It still boils down to money, and Trey Songz (nor many young artists) sits atop that food chain enough to run their own musicianship. So I don't blame him for everything...he is in the system.
Last thing...he is only on his second album. Artists, in general, need a few albums to develop. If his third album is as shallow as this one, I will officially blame him.
Good piece, sis.
Thank you gentlemen.
ReplyDelete@Matt....well played, sir. Hilarious.
@John: I agree with him being a cog in the system. I wasn't trying to put blame on him per se, just how he presented himself. We need three albums for greatness now? Dang, what happened to out the gate success?!
Side note: I wonder if he's a joint owner in Fisher Price Stock? Texting, maybe?
I hope this is right,
ReplyDeleteJoery said...
Hey. Ms. Barnett! Intersting manchild theory. The more I think about it, the more Songz fits the character of a physically developed yet cognizantly confused black man. When I pondered his discography, I began to notice a trend of pedophilic behavior. In his first album where he would profess his love for women, the tracks had titles like "Missing You" and "I Don't Love You Anymore," which really stuck out to me because as a mainstream artist, it publically displayed his inability to maintain a healthy relationship. With his sophomore, or rather "soft core" album Songz has reverted to a more aggressively explicit and sexual content directed at a highly vulnerable audience. A pedophile, someone who cannot maintain consentual and lasting relationships, has a habit of becoming a self-proclaimed sex god, "I INVENTED SEX," and forcing sex, which is equatable to power, onto his subjects. Songz has really opened the the door to black men in the music industry because as John points out, he has little if any control over the way he presents himself. This becomes problematic because, not only does Songz potray a negative image of the representative black male community, it reinforces the "parentalistic" theory that even when given the opportunity to affect change black men lack the intelectually capicity and drive to do such. It's no surprise that Songz, a manchild, identifies with the pre-pubescent population, when you are told what to do and how to think for long enough, you lose the ability to do so on your own.
Great post. I think your assessment of Trey Song's is honest and well-supported. As upsetting as his portrayal of black men is, his portrayal (via childlike, sexualized music) is profitable. He is responding to market forces. If there was no demand for such music, songs such as "lol :-)" wouldn't have ever been created (and if they were they would have flopped). My point is that we cannot extrapolate who Trey Songz "the person" is from his music. The unfortunate thing is that some members of his fanbase have such narrowly circumscribed exposure to other media (and hence, opportunities to see black men in a different light) that they will form or solidify their perception of black men using Trey Songz as the standard. The good news is that there are many examples of "real black men" out there that can help people form more informed perceptions of black men. The trouble is, will they ever get exposed to these men???
ReplyDeleteNearly all singers perform in a matter that is immature. It seems to be the only way to become popular. I am not a fan of Songz so I cannot recall if I ever heard the song. But, by appearing younger in performance, he is enticing younger listeners to do adult things.
ReplyDeleteI am so happy to hear that someone else agrees with me and some of my friends. What I don't understand is how it became so "popular." And I can only gather that this popularity was the inspiration for his colaboration with the other "popular" Flintstonian hit...."I Can Make Your Bed Rock." (lol)
ReplyDelete--MD. Hairston