The Student News Site of Monta Vista High School

El Estoque

The Student News Site of Monta Vista High School

El Estoque

The Student News Site of Monta Vista High School

El Estoque

Mainstream music’s road to nowhere

Mainstream music’s road to nowhere

ScottHow Bay Area’s #1 party station is corrupting young minds


To the surprise and bewilderment of many students, the radio station Wild 94.9 was brought in on Monday at lunch as part of Back in Action week. Blasting the eardrums of those hanging out by the Rally Court, the Bay Area’s #1 party station played music throughout the lunch period.

Listening to the songs being played, I immediately thought of an insightful experience I had recently.

It started out with an innocent invitation from a friend to go to a movie with him and a couple of his friends over winter break. Unfortunately, his “friends” turned out to be his young overweight cousins his aunt had dumped on him for the afternoon. Sitting in the backseat of a stuffy Toyota Corolla, I was sandwiched between two of the most hyper fifth-graders I had ever met.

Suddenly, a fight between the two boys broke out with me in the middle of their rather physical altercation. Already tired and overwhelmed by the combined weight of the two, I prayed for a miracle to save me from being squashed.

And unbelievably it came, in the form of 94.9’s pop music. Yes, 94.9.

As soon as Wiz Khalifa’s hit single “Black and Yellow” began to play from the car’s speakers, the fight immediately ceased and the two obnoxious brats started to rap along.

Needless to say, I was extremely entertained by the sight of two young boys singing along to the infamous rhymes of Khalifa. However, at the same time, it was more than a little disquieting to listen to the prepubescent voices of two 10-year-olds chant lyrics about subject matter that includes, among others, marijuana and alcohol.

It took approximately 15 minutes to drive to the movie theater. In that time, the two boys had sung word-for-word songs about popping bottles in the ice, hitting on many different women, and grinding on the dance floor.

From this experience, I came to realize that the McDonald’s is not the only junk that is fed to youth nowadays. The fact that fifth-graders memorize lyrics about smoking marijuana, drinking booze, and having underage sex displays the state of current American pop culture.

So next time you sit and listen to the top music artists on the Bay Area’s #1 party station, keep in mind that somewhere out in the world, there just may be two 10-year-olds singing along.

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