Educators will tell you that everything they are involved in is a “teaching moment”–including extracurricular activities. That is why schools do them. Well, the lesson to be learned from a high school prom in Massachusetts two weekends ago is to not request popular hip hop songs at the dance–and if the DJ plays one, don’t sing along to the lyrics.
Kids at Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School saw their junior prom shut down early and police called in to investigate after some of the attendees were shouting out the lyrics from “Caroline” by an artist known as Amine. The song features scores of profanity, references to female bodies, demands for oral sex, drug references, and digs at white artists–so it’s a love song.
But those lyrics are not what led to trouble for the students at Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School. They are in hot water because the song features four uses of the N-word–which some kids decided to sing along to a little more enthusiastically than all of the others. Well that, and those words weren’t actually in the version of the song being played by the DJ. According to a statement from the school district, the DJ was playing the “Radio Edit” version of “Caroline” featuring lyrics described by the Superintendent as “clean and appropriate”.
Now, checking out the lyrics to “Caroline” I find it amazing that there could be a “clean and appropriate” version airable on commercial radio without completely changing about 50% of the lyrics. So I listened to the “clean version” (so you don’t have to) and basically all of the profanity and the N-words are muted–creating gaps in the lyrics. Don’t worry, the references to females bodies and to oral sex were kept in there.
So here’s what happened at Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School’s prom: The kids familiar with the song (which, by the way was released in 2016–making it a “golden oldie” for kids in high school today) were singing along with the version that they have on their IPods and that they have marked as a favorite on their subscription streaming services, and they just “filled in” the removed lyrics. And while the multiple profanities likely elicited giggles from everyone, the use of the N-word four times became, in the words of the Superintendent, “A racist incident”–an “incident” so severe that the police needed to be called in.
In his classic routine “The Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television”, the comedian George Carlin brings up words with “double meanings” that you can use–referring to one in particular that is a male bird that crows three times as Peter denies knowing Jesus. “Hey, it’s in the Bible!!”–which draws laughter from the audience who remembers what it was like to be a kid and to be told that “you can’t say that word!!” It becomes this little act of rebellion.
But that was the 1970’s. For kids today there are not seven but rather hundreds if not thousands of words that they aren’t “allowed” to say–not to mention combinations of words that might make other people feel bad about themselves. But the lyrics of songs like “Caroline” almost give listeners license to indulge their “inner rebel”. Tunes played before high school sporting events appall me–especially the sexual references about women–but even at girls’ basketball or softball games, there are the players singing along and grooving to the lyrics–like they don’t mean anything to them.
And if you think that consumers today have any concerns about such “racist” or “misogynistic” lyrics, check out the discrepancy between download numbers for “explicit” and “clean” versions of songs–it’s usually about 50-to-1 in favor of “what you are not allowed to say”. It’s obvious what we need is for Tipper Gore to return to her previous crusades and push Congress to require record labels to provide “racist” warnings on music content. That way Wal-Mart can sell the “white appropriate” version of albums so everyone can sing along without fear of expulsion from school or police investigation.
