By Claire Parsons
Will the real Slim Shady please shut up?
When most adults act like junior high school wannabe badasses they are usually not taken seriously. In fact, they would probably be reprimanded for their behavior. However, we find an exception to the rule in the rap “artist” Eminem. For the past few years, he has done everything he possibly could to establish his image as a rebel in the music world, including using bigoted and violent language in his lyrics.
The odd part is the reaction from his fellow musicians. For the most part, they seem to put up with his childish antics, and a few otherwise respected musicians have gone out of their way to defend Eminem. I’m sure none of us have been able to forget the fabricated moment of rock history when Elton John and Eminem played together. Elton even went so far as to hug Eminem. Elton was saying, “I can still appeal to a younger demographic; buy my new record.” Eminem was saying, “Although I am a bigot, I can hug an openly gay man, so it’s acceptable to like my music. Buy my new record.”
Recently, I was surprised to read that Randy Newman has come to the defense of Mr. Mathers. Newman said that he saw Eminem as a comic artist, and since that is essentially how he saw himself, he identified with him. This didn’t lessen my respect for Mr. Newman, since he already has “Property of the Walt Disney Company” tattooed on his backside, but it did make me wonder if he’s getting a little senile in his old age. I cannot begin to fathom the depths of lunacy that one must reach to consider a song featuring a man discussing the murder of his wife with his child funny. Perhaps Randy misspoke, but that is an awfully big slip of the tongue.
Eminem is not a comic artist. His work is not funny. People may laugh at it, but its guilty laughter. We laugh because it makes us middle-class white kids feel like we are raging against our middle-class white culture. We laugh because we are shocked that someone would actually say such idiotic things in public. We laugh because the only people who take Eminem seriously are middle school boys who don’t know any better. To use an old cliché, we are laughing at him, not with him.
So why am I so anti-Eminem? What is it about him that makes my flesh crawl? The root cause of my disliking him is that his whole career is based on image and how he looks to record buyers. I am of the naïve opinion that one should buy music because it is good and not because one thinks the singer is cool or hot or whatever. Eminem has no choice but to try to shock people into paying attention to him. His music isn’t that good, and he uses his adolescent attacks on people different from him as a way to hide the fact that he has no real musical ability. Eminem has repeatedly made fun of singers like Britney Spears claiming that they are fake, but to me he is guilty of the same crime.
As an opinion columnist, I understand the value of freedom of speech. This is in no way a request that “artists” like Eminem be censored. However, I am asking that we consumers demand more from record companies. We’ve put up with their banal, watered-down, and lazy music for far too long. I can understand the value of music that is just fun without being meaningful, but that seems to be all we have to choose from lately. Our airwaves are crammed either with music from the painfully bland boy bands and pop princesses or pointless rap music that only discusses money and sex. Where have the good bands gone? Well, I’m off to a séance to summon the spirit of Kurt Cobain to lead us in a sorely needed rock revolution to rid us for awhile of music from the likes of Eminem. Until the one arrives, I’ll have no choice but to listen to the same old Radiohead CDs over and over again.
Claire Parsons is a sophomore philosophy major and the opinion editor of The Louisville Cardinal. Contact: opinioneditor@louisvillecardinal.com
