Today at our Elementary School (Gr K-8) Assembly there were some interesting musical productions including, a young girl singing a very echoey solo of "Complicated" by Avril Lavigne, a bunch of kinds jumping around to Bryan Adam's "Summer of '69" and a grand finale of "Livin' la Vida Loca."
Our school is an international one in an Islamic country, and recently we have had some students, parents and teachers making an uproar about the almost kissing scenes in Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. Surprisingly there hasn't been any problem with the mention of gang-rape in the novel my Grade 8 students are reading, Monster by Walter Dean Myers, but I am wondering if the sound during the assembly is purposefully made to sound bad so that parents can not understand lyrics such as the following:
She's into superstitions black cats and voodoo dolls.
I feel a premonition that girl's gonna make me fall.
She's into new sensations new kicks in the candle light.
She's got a new addiction for every day and night.
She'll make you take your clothes off and go dancing in the rain.
She'll make you live her crazy life but she'll take away your pain
like a bullet to your brain. Come On!
Woke up in New York City in a funky cheap hotel
She took my heart and she took my money
she must've slipped me a sleeping pill
She never drinks the water and makes you order French Champagne
Once you've had a taste of her you'll never be the same
Yeah, she'll make you go insane.
-Livin' la Vida Loca - Ricky Martin
Seriously that is a lot more suggestive than anything in the novels the Grade 7s are reading! I wonder if the sound quality is kept low so that nobody can understand the words. I'm also wondering if Grade 4 and 5 have a clue what they're singing about, and if the music teacher paid any attention to the lyrics when he chose this piece for the ceremony. I can't even imagine Grade 4 and 5 kids in the US singing such lyrics in front of their parents at an official school event.
Our school is an international one in an Islamic country, and recently we have had some students, parents and teachers making an uproar about the almost kissing scenes in Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. Surprisingly there hasn't been any problem with the mention of gang-rape in the novel my Grade 8 students are reading, Monster by Walter Dean Myers, but I am wondering if the sound during the assembly is purposefully made to sound bad so that parents can not understand lyrics such as the following:
She's into superstitions black cats and voodoo dolls.
I feel a premonition that girl's gonna make me fall.
She's into new sensations new kicks in the candle light.
She's got a new addiction for every day and night.
She'll make you take your clothes off and go dancing in the rain.
She'll make you live her crazy life but she'll take away your pain
like a bullet to your brain. Come On!
Woke up in New York City in a funky cheap hotel
She took my heart and she took my money
she must've slipped me a sleeping pill
She never drinks the water and makes you order French Champagne
Once you've had a taste of her you'll never be the same
Yeah, she'll make you go insane.
-Livin' la Vida Loca - Ricky Martin
Seriously that is a lot more suggestive than anything in the novels the Grade 7s are reading! I wonder if the sound quality is kept low so that nobody can understand the words. I'm also wondering if Grade 4 and 5 have a clue what they're singing about, and if the music teacher paid any attention to the lyrics when he chose this piece for the ceremony. I can't even imagine Grade 4 and 5 kids in the US singing such lyrics in front of their parents at an official school event.
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1 comment:
I think you've hit the nail on the head when you say the "sound during the assembly is purposefully made to sound bad so that parents can not understand lyrics." Probably, they chose Living La Vida Loca because of its catchy music and not the lyrics.
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