30 Day Song Challenge: Day 12

A song from a band I hate

Whip My Hair by Willow Smith. From Youtube.

Willow Smith may not be a band per-se but I hate her music for the same reason I would hate any bands material: It is written by marketers. For me music needs to be genuine. By this I mean that the person who wrote it needs to have not only put effort into the song, but have written it to communicate something that is honest and can be related to. Willow Smith does not doe that. I have nothing against her, in fact I think her Dad Will Smith is the coolest man on the earth, but her music is too artificial, too repetitive and produced for moneys sake.

Let me explain. For some of the most brutally honest and genuine music listen to Death Cab for Cutie or Bon Iver. Bands like this write music about things that people can relate to (amongst other things): affection, relationships, meaningful events, comedy, and defiance – just to list a few things. The songs convey their message from experience, inspiration or from actual feelings or stories. In stark contrast to these things, Whip My Hair has been written to make money. Producers have taken a young girl, who is a brand name (i.e. from Smith stock) and used her to sing songs revolving around one artificial and meaningless line, in this case “I whip my hair back and forth”. This line is meant to get stuck in your head – the same way an advertisement is meant to be memorable and nagging. Doing this means that the song will sell and money will be made. So essentially this song has been written by marketers to attract the most attention possible and make money! To make sure Whip My Hair was not just a one off I also youtubed her other song Twenty First Century Girl and it was exactly the same.

Another reason I dislike Willow Smith as an artist is that she is so young, yet she has been dressed and made up as another marketing tool. Other kids will watch the clip and want to be like that. This image not only steals away their childhood, but exploits it. You may disagree, and you are perfectly entitled to, that’s just my opinion.

Just to make it clear I don’t think this reflects anything about Willow Smith herself, to me it is more a slight against the money making machinery that is using her. Booooooo to them.

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