When 'Despacito' became a bad word

I don't follow all these new music and artist but sometimes I hear it from my kids. Don't get me wrong, I love music and I grew up listening to all sorts of music from classical to heavy metal. However, my favourite genre is New Wave. I have always been deep into Depeche Mode from the age of 10 years old and then, I met my husband and few other friends who introduced me to Metallica, Faith No More, Helloween and all those heavy metal bands. However, my soul resides in those 80s synthesizers like OMD, New Order, Simple minds, Thompson Twins and the ilk.

I think the first person ever influenced me in music was my mom. She was into Elvis Presley like totally big time. She had all his albums including those Christmas ones. She was also into P Ramlee and Saloma. My dad had all these old records and he was into classical music like Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Vivaldi and oldies like Andy Williams, Frank Sinatra in which I probably listened to those records more than he ever did. Then, it was my brother who introduced me to New Wave. I don't know...the sound, the beat and everything about it just captivated me. That began my love affair with British music.

So, here I am in my 40s and I keep telling my kids that "they don't make music the way they used to" and then my kids told me this hoo-haa about this Justin Bieber song "Despacito" and apparently it is so BAD that it needs to be banned in radio stations. Well, apart from the song being completely annoying and it plays in your head like worse than 'pen, pineapple, apple, pen' or 'A-yam Mee' song. I think it is overrated. The lyrics is supposed to be about 'sex' and which songs nowadays are not about sex, drugs or whinny annoying heart-broken love? We don't really get songs like, "Rasputin", "Blasphemous rumours" about lyrics that actually discusses life or historical figures anymore, do we? I mean some young people today have never even heard of the song, "Winds of change" or even know what it is about or even realize communism was not a myth!

This song "Despacito" is not even a new song. It is a remix version of the original song written by a Puerto Rican singer. So, why suddenly the big fuss just because Justin Bieber now sings part of it. Why suddenly it needs to be banned? So, I became curious and watched the original video and the Bieber remix video with my kids. Yes, we watched it all together. There was a lot of skin, showing off butt and sexy dancing. I must say the Bieber version was gross but the original Latino version had Salsa in it. I explained to my kids that it is a cultural thingy. It is part of the Latino culture that they have Salsa and yes, it is sexy but Latino have a very sexy culture. They were brought up that way. That was why they made that movie 'Lambada the forbidden dance'. I mean Puerto Rico is one of those islands near South America and South America is like, you have Brazilians and Argentinians who can swerve their hips and play great football at the same time. Obviously, if we Malays try to emulate that kind of Latino culture or to reproduce that kind of sexy Latino dance, it will look ridiculously odd and perhaps even a valid reason to produce projectile vomiting. < PIUK>

Every nation and people have their own culture. Then, we 'youtubed' some Brazilian cultural dance and watched this kind of Brazilian parade and my kids could see it themselves. I mean it was colourful with men and women wearing leaves and feathers with not much else on and my son was like "Wow! Brazil is such a cool place! It is so happening! I wanna live there"

I think the message I wanted them to get is that every nation have their own culture and we need to understand their culture and to realize that yes, it is sexy but they have a sexy culture. We don't have that kind of sexy culture. We have our own culture, in this country Malays, Chinese and Indians have our own culture so don't try to be something else. The Malays have joget, zapin, ulek mayang or wayang kulit that we should be proud of because it is artistic and beautiful. And for my kids and their half British culture, well...the British are not sexy either but they have their own traditional culture of Royal families, political satire and the British make great music since the era of the Beatles. The British invasion was not just in the way they colonized the world but also with their great music the likes of the Rolling stones, the Police, The Cure, Bob Geldof, Led Zeppelin, the Eagles even Cyndi Lauper and Culture Club. The British are pretty odd but they are certainly talented.

I don't want my kids to look at the Salsa in that music video and to view it simply as 'sex'. After all, kids will watch and if they don't watch it with us, they will watch it with their friends and God knows what rubbish will fill their heads. Some might find it arousing but without understanding the culture behind the dance and to appreciate it enough to not do stupid things or hurt anyone. Some may find it disgusting and reject totally without understanding that you can dance Salsa and be as sexy as you want with your husband or wife. That is the beauty of Islam, it NEVER says you can't, it says you can but with whom and where. You can be sexy with your spouse in the privacy of your own home. You can fulfil your sexual needs but with the opposite sex and within a legally binding contract (marriage).

Oh...and then people started saying "Despacito" is a bad word...well, it literally means 'slowly'. Should we ban Abba's 'Andante..Andante..' as well, is that about 'slowly' too? What about 'Kyrie eleison', that is a prayer related to the Christian faith. What about Def Leppard's 'Pour some sugar on me' or perhaps, Maroon 5's 'sugar' or One republic's 'counting stars'? What's that all about? - teaching people on how to avoid getting Diabetes? Aww...come on!!!!