Event Music: Is There Such A Thing As A Really "Clean" Playlist?

Wow. What a can of worms!
Since a Cleveland, Ohio, radio station started a ban on the 74-year old Christmas tune "Baby, It's Cold Outside" because the lyrics were deemed "inappropriate" by some listeners in the #metoo era, public reaction has been swift. Twitter and Facebook erupted. Extensive scrolling of both platforms shows that 99+% of all comments supports the Holiday classic.
But the issue started a conversation we in the event industry take very seriously. DJ Lee Dyson has a lot to say!

Can a flirty duet written in the social context of the 1940s become politically so incorrect that it has to be yanked off radio and event playlists? WDOK listeners seemed to find it offensive enough to call in. A week ago WDOK stopped playing the classic tune. Other stations followed suit.
The ban created headlines and reaction in media and on social media platforms. The overwhelming consensus: the ban is completely unjustified. Comical #BabyItsColdOutside memes popped up. Many long lists of rap songs that are truly offensive to women by every current rap and hip hop artist, including Beyonce's husband Jay Z, were published. Twitter and Facebook users had fun analyzing more Holiday tunes. If you want to be on the safe side, you better stick to instrumental jazz and classical music only. Even operas like Mozart's "Don Giovanni" could be controversial, after all.



We called DJ Lee Dyson to get his opinion and input. He immediately sprung into action and created a completely CLEAN PLAYLIST he is happy to share on SPOTIFY.


DJ Lee Dyson:  "I had to really do some research and double check lyrics for almost every song. It is amazing how many catchy songs we hear without really processing the words.
Here are my thoughts:

• This is a really difficult  and polarizing topic.
• Many songs are just clearly blatantly chauvinistic and misogynistic against women.
• However, what makes it more difficult is that many songs that exploit women are BY women.
• SO that proposes the question (Much like the “N” word if it’s used by Black people)  If a woman decides to call herself a bitch/ho….is it empowerment or are they contributing to the problem?

To be clear, I don’t offer the answer or an opinion…I’m just laying out the dilemma as I see it.

We must be sensitive to our country’s history of oppressing genders and race but at the same time, if we sanitize all art, music, books and movies from our culture that someone deems offensive then we may quickly be on our way to book burning and a big brother society and have surprisingly very few dance party songs left.

Especially considering this:

• Decades long studies show that as much as 92% of Billboard top 10 songs are about sex or courting.

"further analyses showed that the bestselling songs in all three charts featured significantly more reproductive messages than those that failed to make it into the Top Ten," the report says. That's the trend that not only dated back to 1959 in American music, the study found, but one that goes all the way back to the classy days of opera: "While the frequency of some of the themes differ, these findings clearly show that the same reproductive categories derived from the content analysis of our initial sample of 2009 contemporary songs map surprisingly well onto the lyrics from opera and arts songs dating back hundreds of years."

Let’s  explore a few examples to consider:

“Summer” by Calvin Harris
The lyrics read:
“When I met you in the summer
To my heartbeat sound
We fell in love
As the leaves turned brown
And we could be together baby
As long as skies are blue”

So far so good right?
But then he says
“You act so innocent now, But you lied so soon”

How is that to be interpreted?
Does he mean the woman is in the power position by taking advantage of him? Or does he mean that he viewed her as a woman that pretended to be innocent, but he really thinks she is a promiscuous girl?

How about another fun pop song you wouldn’t immediately think about as offensive:

Walk the Moon “Shut up and dance”

"...We were victims of the night
The chemical, physical, kryptonite
Helpless to the bass and the fading light
Oh we were bound to get together
Bound to get together
Deep in her eyes
I think I see the future
I realize this is my last chance..."

Do these lyrics mean the woman is in the power position and controlling the encounter? Or does Is mean that the woman just wants to dance but the man is assuming it’s a sign that she is going to have sex with him and neither will be responsible?

Pitbul and Ne-yo “Time of our lives”

"...She on the rebound, broke up with her ex
And I'm like Rodman, ready on deck
I told her I wanna ride out, and she said yes
We didn't go to church, but I got blessed
But I got just enough
To get off in this club
Have me a good time, before my time is up..."

Does this at first glance feels offensive and derogatory to woman?
But I would point out that in the lyrics he said he asked if she  “wants to ride out and she said yes” and also “Its my night, your night, our night, let’s turn it up”. Both statements seem to imply consent?

I’m asking you to think about this and decide if you can see where the line is and think about how different people may interpret these lyrics differently..

Arianna Grande- God is a woman

“You, you love it how I move you
You love it how I touch you
My one, when all is said and done
You'll believe God is a woman
And I, I feel it after midnight
A feelin' that you can't fight
My one, it lingers when we're done
You'll believe God is a woman
I don't wanna waste no time, yuh
You ain't got a one-track mind, yuh
Have it any way you like, yuh
And I can tell that you know I know how I want it
Ain't nobody else can relate
Boy, I like that you ain't afraid
And I, I feel it after midnight
A feelin' that you can't fight
My one, it lingers when we're done
You'll believe God is a woman, yeah, yeah”

Every empowering title that could easily be an anthem for all ladies. However, this song is clearly about sex and how well she can please her man.
So is that empowerment because she appears to be in control of the narrative? Or is she sending negative signals to young woman that the only way to get a man to see you as powerful is to be extremely talented in the bedroom?

Or how about this harmless Beatles classic “Twist and Shout”

Well, shake it up, baby, now (shake it up, baby)
Twist and shout (twist and shout)
Come on, come on, come on, come on, baby now (come on, baby)
Come on and work it on out (work it on out)
Well, work it on out, honey (work it on out)
You know, you look so good (look so good)
You know, you got me goin' now (got me goin')
Just like I knew you would (like I knew you would)
Well, shake it up, baby, now (shake it up, baby)
Twist and shout (twist and shout)
Come on, come on, come on, come on, baby, now (come on, baby)
Come on and work it on out (work it on out)
You know you twist you, little girl (twist, little girl)
You know you twist so fine (twist so fine)
Come on and twist a little closer now (twist a little closer)
And let me know that you're mine (let me know you're mine)

Is this just a fun song about two people dancing and courting?
Or does he suggest she should dance sexually for his amusement and arousal?
Does he suggest that if she is dancing suggestively it should mean that he will get to “have” her?

Again, the slippery slope evolves as our country moves more towards reacting to micro-aggressions. We may want to be careful not to overreact to minor offenses so far that we cater to the opinions of the few.

When that radio station took a poll of all their listeners, about 80% said they didn’t find it personally offensive so as of this week they put “Baby It’s Cold Outside” back on the air.

The question is this: should a song, movie or piece of art be removed/sterilized from 10 people because 1 person finds it offensive….or if 8 out of 10 find it offensive? When do we have enough consensus?

I’m just trying to point out that we live in very challenging times where our society needs to adapt and change for the better so everyone feels included and not oppressed…but without becoming thought police.  Especially considering that we as humans spend a large majority of our time thinking about finding or having love, romance and sex with a mate. So to expect that we can remove this base instinct from our art/music may prove to be problematic.

Just to really illustrate how prevalent this issue is with lyrical content and how desolate the dancing landscape would be if we removed them all……here’s a list of current pop and classic songs that are usually played at most weddings/corporate events - and I even ignored all the worst / most obvious offenders! - that have questionable lyrics regarding woman or are basically about sex. Some of these are at least clean with no swear words or have clean versions available FYI.

Luis Fonsi- Despacito
Mark Ronson & Bruno Mars-  Uptown Funk
Maroon 5 – Girls like you, Sugar, Moves like Jagger
Imagine Dragons- natural
Pitbull- Fireball, Give me everything
Train- Hey Soul Sister
Cardi B- I Like it
Iggy Izalea- Fancy
Jessie J- Bang Bang
Drake- in my feelings, Hotline Bling
Daft Punk- Get lucky
Bruno Mars- 24K, Treasure, Finesse, That’s what I like
Calvin harris & Dua Lipa- One Kiss
Fetty Wap- Trap Queen
Portugal the man-  Feel it still
Fitz & the Tantrums- Handclap
Fifth Harmony- Work it
Clean Bandit- Solo
Ed Sheeran- Shape of you
LMFAO- Party Rock Anthem , I’m Sexy and I know it
Killers- Mr Brightside
Michael Jackson- Billie Jean, Don’t Stop till you get enough
Outkast- Hey Ya
R Kelly- Ignition
Blackstreet- no Diggity
Britney Spears- Pretty much most of her songs lol
DNCE- Cake By the Ocean
Usher- yeah
Missy Elliot- Work it, Get ur Freak on
B52s- Love Shack
Vanilla Ice- Ice ice baby (About a drug related drive by shooting)
Weekend- I Can’t feel my face (about cocaine)
Commadores- Brick house
Bel Biv Devoe- Poison
Sugar Hill Gang- Rappers Delight
Sir Mix A lot- Baby got back
Salt & Pepa- Push it
Black Eyed Peas- My Humps, Boom Pow
Nelly- Hot in here
Ton Loc- Wild Thing
AC DC- You Shook me all night long
House of Pain- Jump Around
Billy Idol- Mony Mony
Lady Gaga- Let’s Dance, Bad Romance
Def Leppard- Pour some Sugar on me
Big & Rich- Save a horse ride a cowboy
50 Cent- In Da Club

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Please everyone, let's be kind to one another and relax and ENJOY THE MUSIC!
We have even found a guilt-free version of "Baby. It's Cold Outside" for modern women.

IN THIS VERSION LADY GAGA tries to keep JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT warm in the Muppets Holiday Spectacular 2013.