Lovefraud recently received the following e-mail from a reader in the UK:
I wonder what your take on this pop-music video is? This song is played ad-infinitum on radio stations in the UK; you simply can’t escape it. What disturbs me is its indifference toward the glorification of sociopathic, even psychopathic, behaviour. Clearly the character the singer is playing out has a taste for control; inflicting degrading, humiliating behaviour, even torture, pain and —as the finale of the video suggests—murder; everything the UN Convention on Human Rights was meant to prevent.
The reader included a link to the song Sweet About Me, by Gabriella Cilmi, on YouTube. Here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElY5Gr845Fw
Quite frankly, the video is shocking.
It starts out like a typical music video with Cilmi singing in front of what appears to be a reggae-style garage band. We see quick cuts of young men—not part of the band—bopping their heads to the beat. Then, 40 seconds into the song, Climi sings the lyrics,
“Tell you something that I’ve found, that the world’s a better place when it’s upside down, boy.”
The camera shows a young man bound and hanging from the ceiling by his feet. We then get to the chorus:
“Sweet about me, nothing sweet about me, yeah.”
No kidding. Through the rest of the video, we see that six more men are bound, locked in a cage, strung up in a net and taped to the floor, and the singer loves every bit of it. As she says, there is truly nothing sweet about her.
16-year-old star
So who is this singer? Gabriella Cilmi is a 16-year-old singer from Australia. Sweet About Me, which she wrote, is her debut single, released in March, 2008. In May, her song knocked Madonna from the No. 1 spot on Britain’s top 10 chart.
An article in Australia’s Herald Sun newspaper on July 13, 2008, reported that Sweet About Me spent six weeks in the British top 10. On iTunes charts, Cilmi was No. 2 in Germany and Portugal, No. 3 in Switzerland and No. 5 in Italy.
I am appalled. Yes, the tune is catchy, but the lyrics and imagery of Sweet About Me are truly disturbing.
I suppose the same could be said about many music videos—especially the gangsta rap variety—but I don’t have first-hand knowledge because I don’t watch MTV. But when messages like “the climax of the perfect lie,” along with images of bondage and torture, are being glamorized, it’s no wonder that the world’s population of sociopaths seems to be growing.
Dear strongfaith: Not to put you down, but, since when did average citizens have anything to do with what our leaders do or don’t do? We have no power to tell them what or what not to do while they hold office. Just as others throughout the world have no power over what their leaders do or don’t do. Yes, we vote. Then the person voted in holds office for at least 4 years. We do not decide others votes in this country. We cast a single vote. Conscientious voters hope we are voting the right person in office and that is as far as it goes. The only thing we can do is voice our opinions in print, in movies, in songs, in other avenues.
I personally think the leaders of countries should put boxing gloves on and go round for round when they don’t agree with their opponents from other nations … aka let the best slugger fight it out in the ring. But, noooooooooooooooo, life is not that simple. Maybe that’s why they insist women don’t get to the top of the political heap … maybe, just maybe she’d slap them all silly and tell them “shame on you”, you’re standing in that corner with no super and you’re grounded for a month … no friends coming over to the white house.
Peace.
Strongfaith,
I’m a little confused by why you would go off on Americans in this instance. If you scroll up, you’ll see it was a reader from the UK who wrote in upset about this song. How could we Americans be uppity about the song when nobody here has ever even heard of it? The UK reader who posted about it said it was playing all over *London*. Got it? London. Not the evil United States.
George Bush is responsible for a lot of things, but he’s not responsible for a silly video by a Lindsay Lohan wannabe with imitation Russell Brand hair, nor the fact that some woman in the UK writes to Lovefraud upset about it. Let’s get a grip over there.
I hardly think
And another thing if you notice this about most people … they will object to anything new, just because it is new and foreign to their senses. That’s human nature at it’s best … until they get used to it. Once it has been brought into the mainstream … then is when it is really looked at in any depth and then as usual, it no longer is such a big deal.
The average person focuses on what they can do in their personal surroundings … and for the bigger issues … little by little getting the message from one person they know to the next until another person they know gets the message to the people who can make changes. And changes do get made, just not as quickly as you would like.
Peace.
Lesley .. well put!
I’m not one of those that thinks art censorship is dangerous.. but I do not see the harm in this song. If anything it’s a warning to men to stop thinking that women are pushovers who won’t bite back.
I agree that it would be wrong to stamp out all forms of art one thinks are offensive – like those movies. You should watch those movies, and you won’t want them censored by the government.
The problem is lack of parental involvement. You shouldn’t need the government to step in & parent your children, you should be doing it yourself. I see too many people act like – well, my kid’s underage drinking and they’re like “nothing I can do about it” because they’re a teenager or whatnot. When YES, there IS something you can do about it. You can stop shielding them from the law & consequences, for one thing.
Sorry, but that aggravates me when parents claim they have no control over their kids, and have to just “let them go do what they’re going to do”. It’s BULL.
You don’t want your kids listening to certain kinds of music. DOn’t give them the money for the CD, and don’t allow it to be played in the house. AND EXPLAIN WHY. Maybe they’ll listen to it a friend’s house – but at least you’re sticking to your moral guns, and your kids will, even if not immediately, respect that. More than kids would respect a parent who says “don’t do that”, but then does nothing to enforce it or explain it.
Anyway, songs like that always creep me out. I think of that one song, “choke me in the shallow water before I get too deep” or whatever… song back in the late 80s or early 90s. Sounded to me like someone who was either a sociopath, or WANTED to be one.
Yes, there are probably many young female sociopaths who will see that video, and think it’s cool. But I don’t think that video or that song will CREATE a sociopath out of a loving caring conscientious young woman.
Sorry – just re-read that and it wasn’t clear.
By “those movies” – I mean movies about censorship. Or books. Like 1984. Farenheight 451. That one with Christian Bale. Etc.
Put the label “art” on something and it becoms sancrosanct.
That said, I don’tlike censorship- I prefer “sink of swim”…Michelangelo had a death threat (from Pope!) ove rhis head, and patrons who commissioned “snow men” ( no joke)..I think he did OK…even without apologists and the NEA
Just watched the video, but I dont see the video in the way described in the post. I see it more, like, that men easily project a persona onto a female who looks cute (sweet), and she has a nasty streak. Isnt that part of being human??. We cant all possibly be mild mannered and sweet all the time. I thought I would risk this one!! I like a good debate.
James and Beverly: If you are referring to one u-tube, then it switched to another … I didn’t see the video about what Beverly is referring too … I saw the one with Robert Kennedy.
Oh, well, progress of electronics at it’s best.
Donna – just saw the video –
At the end, she releases the pulley so the upside down boy is almost dropped – almost.
I think that the video is something of a “girl power” thing, and if you don’t listen to the lyrics, it is sort of schadenfreude for teen aged girls, over-reacting to the boys, perhaps. And the tune is catchy.
But the lyrics with the visuals. ugh.