Loving the way they lie about teenage dreams

“I can’t tell you what it really is… I can only tell you what it feels like…and right now it’s a steel knife in my windpipe…”

I don’t often write about popular culture but the irony of what has happened the last few months with the chart topping hits by Eminem and Katy Perry is something I cannot let pass without comment because I think it shows just how desperate and lost the youth are in our society today.

I have a heart for young people and have seen (and to some extent have experienced in my own life), how some relationships in middle/high school greatly damage them…sometimes forever. This is why I felt it necessary to write about these two songs and try to draw the parallels between them. If we understand the culture in which we live I think it’s one of the first steps to helping to change it for the better.

The lyric that I started this post with is from Eminem’s song entitled: “Love the Way You Lie”. It highlights the pain of love and the confusion that so many face. It is a message that I think many young people who have thought they were in love, especially when they were young, could identify with. Love, or thinking you’re in love with someone, can be very difficult to describe… much less deal with. Many could describe it as Eminem did:“…when it’s going good it’s going great…but when it’s bad it’s awful” . And while you could analyze the correctness of his thoughts or the ideas he’s trying to get across, the main message seems to be about being stuck in a relationship that is destructive but not knowing how (or perhaps not really wanting) to get out because of the occasional moments of connection you feel with that person. True? Maybe…maybe not, but the point stands that the song was definitely not your “feel good” song about love, dreams, or enjoying being young. In fact, it’s rather depressing and you can hear the pain and hurt in the singers voice as he cries “… life’s no Nintendo game. But you lied again. Now you get to watch her leave out the window…guess that’s why they call it window pane” (beautiful play on words there). Ouch. Who would want to listen to that? Probably not going to be a really popular song right? Wrong. Very, very wrong. What’s shocking (or perhaps not shocking depending on if you have your eyes open) is that young people actually liked it. In fact, they LOVED it…so much so that it spent 8 weeks as the number one most requested song in the country. Why? I would argue that many of people, youth especially, are searching for answers in a broken system of pain and destruction that they don’t know how to get out of and for someone (insert your name there) to tell them about a better way.

Enter Katy Perry. Many of you might remember her, she was the Christian singer who turned secular and then achieved worldwide fame with her controversial (yet fictional) song called “I Kissed a Girl”. She recently came out with her follow-up album called “Teenage Dream”. This song (Teenage Dream), soared shortly after release, eventually culminating by knocking Eminem’s song to number two. Are you ready for the ironic part? For EIGHT WEEKS people had been listening to the pain of love gone wrong , being stuck and not knowing why, and desperation of not knowing a way out. Then…Teenage Dream comes along. Here is the chorus: (I’ve highlighted parts that stand out to me)

“Let's go all the way tonight
No regrets, just love ( <--- really?? Are you kidding me?)
We can dance, until we die
You and I, will be young forever

You make me feel
Like I'm livin' a
Teenage dream
The way you turn me on
I can't sleep
Let's run away and
Don't ever look back,
Don't ever look back
My heart stops
When you look at me
Just one touch
Now baby I believe
This is real
So take a chance and
Don't ever look back,
Don't ever look back”

Ok umm...so maybe it’s just me but does there seem to be a major disconnect going on here??? It sounds like a cycle to me. People follow the message of Katy Perry and it leads to the pain in Eminem’s song. To prove my point, guess what song was back at number one after just a couple weeks? You guessed it, Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie” regained number one shortly thereafter because I think people realized IT DOESN’T WORK to think you’ll be “…young forever… so don’t ever look back”.

We’ve got to do something. As Christians, we have the answer for the stationary wheel that so many young people (and sadly, many lost Christian young people) are running on today. We have to get involved in their lives and tell them. Maybe you volunteer, maybe you actually start to lead those kids at your church that look up to you, or maybe you develop eyes to finally see that kid that always seems down when you see him come home from school. But please, do something. Christ sacrificed everything to save us. We should be sacrificing to save others as well.