you were born this way, you fuckin perfect firework!

While I was enjoying my very easy six hour shift at work today (gotta love those, especially after my nine hour shift yesterday -_- ew), a song popped into my head. This happens to me a lot. I have a coworker named Kerry who loves all the same music I do, so one of us will mention a song we like and both of us will be singing it for five hours, it is quite fun :D So today's cant-get-it-out-of-my-head-if-my-life-depended-on-it song was "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga. Not surprising, as it has been on the radio non stop for the past couple weeks. So I'm assuming everyone has heard this song, and the other two I will be mentioning. But if not, I posted the youtube videos at the bottom of this post.

So anyways, as I was singing this song to myself (I actually plan on learning all of the lyrics and doing a cover soon), I realized something: There have been a lot of number one hits lately that have to do with self-esteem, inner beauty, and loving who you are. The chorus of Born This Way, for example "I'm beautiful in my way, God makes no mistakes, I'm on the right track, baby I was born this way. Don't live your life in regret, just love yourself and you're set, I'm on the right track baby I was born this way" . Doesn't that just make you smile inside? Particularly when you hear someone singing it instead of written down. It's so nice hearing a song on the radio that isn't about love for once, except loving yourself. I'm happy with my boyfriend and love him more than anything, but hearing my-boyfriend-left-me-now-i-wanna-die on a constant loop makes even me feel depressed. And Born This Way is only one example. We also have Fuckin Perfect by Pink and Firework by Katy Perry. I particularly love Fuckin Perfect, because the actual words of the song isn't what makes it special (Watch the video!! Listen to the song!!), its the way Pink sings them and makes it sound real and so powerful. Firework is a cute song too, even though the lyrics in the first verse are just moronic! i.e . "Do you ever feel, like a plastic bag, drifting through the wind, wanting to start again" No Katy Perry, I have not, and if that is how you feel on a regular basis you should get a mental health evaluation (or stop doing LSD. One of the two.) The theme of the song is in the right place though, and it has a good melody and is quite catchy. I just realized I know how to play all three on guitar, oh my. I think I'm a sucker for inspirational music or something.

So I'm just wondering, why now? Why is the sudden focus of popular music on making people feel good about themselves? Not that I'm complaining... It really is a nice change listening to the radio telling me "YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL" vs. "YOU'VE BEEN GOOD YOUR WHOLE LIFE, TIME TO BE A SLUT" (Yes, Avril Lavigne, this is referring to you). Is a change in our society happening? Are we finally going to focus on being beautiful as you are, instead of a photoshopped barbie doll? Or am I just imagining, and nothing has changed at all?

The videos give a clue to my question (watch them, if you haven't already! or skip through the frames to get the gist of the point) . Lady Gaga and Katy Perry's videos have something in common: The stars of the videos are both perfect looking in every way! Katy Perry is beautiful, with full makeup, nice hair, etc. Lady Gaga is odd as usual, but about halfway through the video is wearing a tiny black bikini and dancing around with her perfectly thin body. Something about the video seems to ruin the songs just a little for me. The song is telling me I am beautiful just the way I am, but the video is showing me two perfect women who I will probably never look like without a professsional makeup team, photoshopping, and possible heavy equipment :P
Unfortunately, what you do usually means more than what you say, so these songs actually seemed a bit hypocritical to me.

But there is hope here. Look at Pink's video for Fuckin Perfect. Sure, she is in it herself and I think she looks amazing, but she still looks real. Like a  real person you would see walking down the street (Probably not in my fashion backward town, but still). Not only that, but the video isn't even really starring her! The girl in the video (Who is actually Deb from Napoleon Dynamite, fun fact) is really pretty for sure, but she is also a real girl! When I look at her, I don't cringe away at her flawlessness and feel inadequate. I actually watch her lovely self and the amazing acting job she does, making the whole video so real without ever saying a word. I can feel her pain throughout the song, see the hollowness in her eyes, and her joy as the video comes to a close. This woman is not perfect by our society's outrageous standards. But to someone who loves her, she is completely fucking perfect. 

So maybe we haven't come as far from the days of Britney Spears in 'Hit me one more time' as I first thought. but I think we are making progress and a positive change in the music we are listening to. And that is always something to celebrate.