Amy Winehouse? Not in Mine-House!

Let me just warn you in advance. I’m about to take a step up. Up onto my soapbox! This may offend some of you, or you may simply think that I’m a stodgy old conservative prude, or that I take things way too seriously. If so, post a message and tell me your thoughts, or just shrug your shoulders and laugh at me and move on. With that, here is my opinion:

I gave up watching the grammy’s years ago. I no longer listen to popular music. I don’t like most of it, and find some of it downright offensive. I was content to just ignore it for a long time. If I listen to the radio, I usually have on either oldies or Christian music. But this morning I happened to see the “big news” on The Today Show. They showed this chickie Amy Winehouse singing her famous song “Rehab” for which she won the honors of both song of the year and album of the year. The most memorable line of the song that they chose to play for their soundbite said, “They tried to make me go to rehab, I said no, no, no.” Excuse me? Then the story went on to explain that sadly, she was not able to be present to accept her awards. She even had to give her live performance via satellite from London. (she’s British) Why? Because her “drug problems caused her to loose her Visa.” Oh? And so this is the person we want to reward and proclaim as the best the music industry has to offer?

Now I know that some of my friends who loyally read my blog would say, hey, she’s an adult, she has freedom of speech, she’s not the cause of the drug problem, yadda, yadda, yadda…. (Yes, I just yadda’d you, deal with it!) But the thing is, the majority of the people buying those CD’s, downloading those MP3’s, and listening to the onslaught of crap that the industry churns out for them, are teens and young adults. The most impressionable members of our society! And what kind of a diet is our entertainment industry feeding them? Lets see: Drugs good, Rehab bad. Women worthless, Men Superior. Shooting anyone who disrespects you good, Maturity and conflict resolution…huh? What’s that? Gangsta’s equal cool. Slut equals popular. I could go on and on and on, but you get my point. I see kids even as young as 8, 9, 10 singing along with these tunes, spewing lyrics they don’t even yet understand, and gyrating their little pelvises like they see their musical idols doing in the videos. Our future leaders are swallowing this garbage like candy, and its scary as hell to me!

And every time we buy the music, read the tabloids, and talk about the latest exploits of Brittany and K Fed over lunch, we feed the growing beast. It sickens me that the nightly news is now filled with stories about which starlet was caught stoned, and which leading man got a DUI. We glorify these idiots by making them mainstream. And when they get out of jail after their grueling 12 hour stint, we clean them up, put them in front of another camera and shoot the next video or the next blockbuster movie and glorify them like they are the gods of our culture! There was a time not so long ago, I’m sure my parents can remember it, though I cannot, when a star would be publicly shamed and then shunned for such behavior. Now, they get to add an extra million dollars to their next movie or record deal, because they have so much more “publicity.”

Well, I for one, am finished feeding the beast. I intend to do the best I can not to give any of my time, attention, or money to the selfish, hedonistic, overpaid, drunken, drugged, oversexed “stars” that we have created.