Childhood Creativity

Somebody once told me
The world was macaroni
So, I took a bite out of a tree

It tasted kind of funny
So, I spate it at a monkey
And the monkey just stared at me.

Then Darth Vader
Threw his light saber
And missed me be metre
And hit Justin Bieber
Who said, 'Baby, baby, baby Oooohhh!"

My seven year old son picked this song up at school and taught me. By taught me, I mean repeated it over and over until I couldn't get it out of my head. It's a thoroughly annoying little ditty. I only hope that it stays with you, dear reader. If you do not get any enjoyment, enlightenment or perspective from my blog, at least you get a stupid song stuck in your head. If you don't have any children, this just gives you a tiny taste of the warfare they wage on your mind.

I do have a serious point. Songwriting such as this is ingrained in human behaviour. It is as natural as language itself - I believe it is the one of the most important instincts in the development of human intelligence and language.

When I was seven, we had many of our own little songs like this. However, I don't remember anything like this one. Here's why, it's a take off on a late-90's song by Smash Mouth called All-Star. Children have taken the basic lyrics and twisted them around using current pop-culture icons. The Justin Beiber part could have been added to an older rhyme - I just googled it and found many You Tube versions going back to 2009.

Who knows how many versions are going viral around school yards right now or what new creations will catch on and get spread around in the future. I just find it fascinating how people constantly twist the language and pop culture into all of these new forms. Modern technology lets us document it and spread it quicker, but this has been since the dawn of man. My sons still sings the old Jingle Bells, Batman Smells parody every Christmas that used to get punished by detention in my old school days.

Is it evidence of a rational, creative mind or genetic determinism at work?

BTW, here is the original song, All-Star by ska-rock band Smash Mouth:
http://www.slack-time.com/music-video-3228-Smash-Mouth-All-Star

I kind of like it.

Edited, March 16, 2013.

Music Post

In the 90’s, “talent” was never mentioned when describing an artist but they had to be “real” supposedly (meaning genuine). Now, everyone is described as being so “talented” but everything about them is fake - even their voices.

The biggest whiner "animal rights goofball" (AKA Morrisey) from the 80's music scene has really put his view of the world into perspective. I'm not sure what "think on the news about their treatment of animals and animal welfare" he's talking about but it sounds much worse than Tianenmen. OK so this is it, you can run over a protestor with a tank but you have to stop selling live chickens in markets so people can cut their heads off, pluck them and cook them with their feet sill attached and eating dogs? Animals are People Too! That sounds reasonable....

Rick Rubin's Associated Acts (from Wikipedia): AC/DC, Beastie Boys, Danzig, Dixie Chicks, Gogol Bordello, Jay-Z, Johnny Cash, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Melanie C, Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Shakira, The Cult, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Run–D.M.C., Slayer, Slipknot, System Of A Down, The Avett Brothers, The Mars Volta, U2, Weezer, ZZ Top
(It hurts me to see The Mars Volta in the same list as Limp Bizkit.)

Robinson isn’t saying that Taylor Swift shouldn’t sing. He’s saying, and I agree, that her music is safe and bland because it’s targeted toward children (age 8 to 13) and so the fact that adults are actually listening to it and saying “wow”, just shows the level of sophistication in the public is just sad. You might as well listen to The Wiggles. They have way more “talent”. Have you ever considered the deep philosophical meaning of Row Row Your Boat?

The only reason Taylor Swift and Justin Beiber are so popular is because everyone is tired of the bad girl/boy image now that so many have ended up in therapy.