Oh good, David Brooks has been listening to top-40 radio hits with his kids too. He writes today about how perverse some hit songs are now and links Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats” to Pink’s “U + Ur Hand,” and Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend,” all portraying sicko, unforgiving, hardened teens pursuing warped forms of girl power. Brooks writes:

The heroines of these songs handle this wide-open social frontier just as confidently and cynically as Bogart handled the urban frontier. These iPhone Lone Rangers are completely inner-directed; they don’t care what you think. They know exactly what they want; they don’t need anybody else….

Let’s hope concerts like Live Earth will encourage more performing artists to embrace a social conscience. The kids are listening, after all….
If more stars saw their work as “sacred energy,” maybe the best would restyle what they telegraphed.