In the throbbing, vibrant core of today’s music scene, it is clear that there has been a rise of expletives and an increased honesty permeating into popular songs that are flooding the charts. Hold on to your hats listeners, because this is not your grandmother’s music – it is an authentic portrayal of the current day and age.
Lets skip the cursory and dive right into the deep end. Explicit language is no longer just an ingredient, it is the primary seasoning in songs we cannot help but taste. But its not all shock value. Sometimes they are just celebrating the blunt reality of everything it is to be a person: profanity, beauty and all of the other imperfections.
Take some time to break down the lyrics of the latest hit song-lyrics like Cardi B’s “WAP” or Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode” are lyrical roller coasters riding on roller blades, using explicit language as an airbrush to paint vivid, unapologetic stories. It’s a death defying act of linguistic tightrope walking, an art-form unparalleled at capturing the essence of our lives in an unfiltered, unedited way.
This trend is not restricted to just hip-hop or rap. Pop artists such as Billie Eilish and alternative artists such as Machine Gun Kelly are just a few performers who aren’t censoring their angst. If you have ever taken a few hours to just read the lyrics to Metallica songs or your favorite ’90s-released boom bap songs, you may realize profanity is just another tool used for emphasis in word play.
Whether the artist is closer to Joan Jett’s shenanigans or Maren Morris, everyone has something to say, and sometimes, there is a quick drop of an f-bomb that cleanses the soul.
But what’s fuelling this sudden shift? In a world saturated by perfectly filtered lifestyles, crude words are a sledgehammer to the walls of pretense. It’s a raw, unbleeped reflection of the chaos, passion and regression of modern life. It’s a rebellion. An “Effin’-A Mug” with mugs all over the design, a black-edged phone case that says “Everything Is [Bleeped].” It’s the battle cry that says: “We won’t be censured.”
“Critiques will gasp and clasp their pearls, but all this is an honest response to these times, to the years of pent-up frustration and desire and unspoken truths that have simmered just below the surface for so long. These words seem like a gimmick, but they are no gimcrack — they are the tools that artists use to find their people, to make bodies merge, to share a language that has no words.”,
The controversy, though, is a whole ‘nother story. A war is waging over the explicit language used in this music, with critics focusing on how it influences young minds. Yet the pro-explicit side’s argument is that music has always reflected society, not the other way around. It’s a conversation starter and often acts as a catalyst for change. And when music becomes a mirror that’s reflecting uncomfortable truths, people are gonna call it distorting.
Explicit language in charts songs is a reflection of our society and times, and it shows no sign of going away.
