Regarding John Hieger's blog on my recent column, he writes: "In response to the 'Stripperella' column on Britney Spears in Sunday's NEXT page, while I agree that America should be above corny, prepackaged marketing techniques when it comes to music, endorsing censorship is a step in the wrong direction."
I completely agree, and did not intend to endorse government censorship of artistic expression. I simply wanted to urge consumers--especially youth who make a hefty portion of music purchases--to raise their standards above the regurgitated, uninspired, empty lyrics of artists like Britney.
Hieger writes, “We've gotten culturally lazy.” Yes, we have. As a consumer group, youth tend to mistake consumer choice with consumer control. Consumer choice is having several CDs available in music stores or online; consumer control is having a say, a strong voice, in what artists actually produce through selective buying and boycotting. Youth should exercise consumer control more often.
The abundance of common, dime-a-dozen songs should not be mistaken for high quality, empowering music.
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