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Wiz Khalifa & CHR... Song makes me feel uncomfortable

R

radiowizard101

(Meant to post this here)

The song "Young, Wild, & Free" by Wiz Khalifa makes me cringe. Is this the message we want to send to our young people? It should be "Young, Wild, Free, & STUPID". And to think, it's being played on CHR in hot rotation. Now... that's REALLY STUPID.

This is NOT responsible programming. I think the blame begins with the Consultants and Consolidation. That is the only way this TASTELESS song would wind up on CHR in hot rotation in most major markets.

We live in wonderful times.
 
Remember, not every song needs to have that deeper meaning, especially not on Pop radio
It's a great catchy tune that's very mass appeal and radio friendly.
It first broke big internationally, with several of Europe's leading CHRs giving it some major airplay.

This is also the type of attitude record that the kids are into these days. Fun's "We Are Young" also belongs in the category of youth friendly lyrics that 18-34 year olds eat up.
 
Who says that everything has to have a deeper meaning? My crticism is the blatent approval of alcohol and pot in a song that is being played over 90 times a week on radio stations that appeal to young people. It is not responsible broadcasting. Play this little ditty for anyone in MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) and hear what they have to say about it.

This years model is encouraging Alcohol and Drug abuse. Last year it was the "F" word. That's why I never listen to CHR radio. It all has an odor that really stinks.
 
I hate to say it, cause I really don't like censorship in any form, but if stations are really playing an unedited version with the line "so what we like to smoke weed" repeated over and over again, for me that draws the line between freedom of expression and encouraging kids to potentially ruin their lives

Don't get me wrong, I smoked plenty of weed in college - but these are 13, 14, 15 year old kids listening to Rhythmic-leaning CHRs and who's to say that the next Top 40 hit won't encourage them to try meth, crack, etc., without even knowing what they're getting themselves into

Not sure what the "deeper meaning" thing has to do with this...nothing wrong with simple lyrics, unless IMO they give kids in conservative states an idea which can easily give them a permanent police record
 
The alternate version ("so what, we don't sleep" instead of the "weed" line), to me, makes the song fine for airplay.

I can't speak for other CHR programmers, but there is (in my decision-making, anyhow) an internal filter for content, etc. I never E-V-E-R played "Ignition Remix" by R. Kelly while he was embroiled in an underage sex scandal. Objectionable tunes won't get added by me unless there's a super-clean edit that removes the objectionable lyric(s).

I know if you listen to AT40 they usually avoid racy lines/lyrics, too.

This song (the edit we play here, anyhow) is fine; it's a college and 20-somethings anthem for hanging with friends and having a good time because they're "young, wild and free."
 
That's not the version I heard on a station in the PHOENIX metro. I heard the weed version. Oh well, so much for responsible broadcasting. It doesn't exist.
 
radiowizard101 said:
That's not the version I heard on a station in the PHOENIX metro. I heard the weed version. Oh well, so much for responsible broadcasting. It doesn't exist.
Click to expand...

Yeah! There were never songs that glorified drinking and doing drugs and having sex before consolidation! ... Oh yeah except for every song by Hendrix, a good portion of Zeppelin's portfolio, every hit rock song of the 1980's, "Chevy Van," a song about gettin' it on in a van, "Night Moves" about underage pre-marital sex, ZZ Top telling you that the solution to a hangover is a pair of cheap sunglasses... need I go on?

This is a non-issue. I'm so tired of "revisionist history" where everybody thinks the radio, and the world for that matter, were squeaky clean prior to the past 20 years.
 
Alright. Game on. Name one song that actually mentions WEED and has appeared on a station that aims at teens with 90+ spins per week.

Last year's CHR 'edgy thing" was the "F" word. This year it's encouraging TEENS to abuse alcohol and WEED.

Just asking here.
 
Nelly "Ride Wit Me." 2001
Tom Petty "Last Dance with Mary Jane" 1993
Steve Miller Band "The Joker" 1973

This isn't a new trend.
 
Thirteen year olds don't need Wiz Khalifa or Snoop Dogg telling them to smoke weed- they have their friends for that. Peer pressure and experimentation are a natural part of getting older. Good parenting should be the stopgap, and should be stronger than any stupid pop song heard on a CHR station.

I first had sex as a teenager- and not because Color Me Badd was telling some girl they wanted to sex her up or because TLC was singing about a Red Light Special, but because despite my parents best efforts at raising a good child, we all experiment and grow on our own and find our own way.

Blaming "inappropriate" behavior on something you read or heard in the media is a scapegoat.
 
justpassingthough said:
Thirteen year olds don't need Wiz Khalifa or Snoop Dogg telling them to smoke weed- they have their friends for that. Peer pressure and experimentation are a natural part of getting older. Good parenting should be the stopgap, and should be stronger than any stupid pop song heard on a CHR station.

I first had sex as a teenager- and not because Color Me Badd was telling some girl they wanted to sex her up or because TLC was singing about a Red Light Special, but because despite my parents best efforts at raising a good child, we all experiment and grow on our own and find our own way.

Blaming "inappropriate" behavior on something you read or heard in the media is a scapegoat.
Click to expand...
Amen.

Oh, and I'm quite surprised that Cumulus was early on this one, considering how conservative they tend to be (and didn't even play "Super Bass" forever, which wasn't even offensive)...
 
"Super Bass" was about Nicki Minaj giving herself up sexually to a drug dealing guy in a club, so I'm sure some people would take offense to it. She had the benefit of most people being unable to decipher her lyrics, though, and certainly most young teenagers probably wouldn't have picked up on what she was really rapping about.
 
Ron Roberts said:
Nelly "Ride Wit Me." 2001
Tom Petty "Last Dance with Mary Jane" 1993
Steve Miller Band "The Joker" 1973

This isn't a new trend.
Click to expand...
radiowizard101 said:
Alright. Game on. Name one song that actually mentions WEED and has appeared on a station that aims at teens with 90+ spins per week.

Last year's CHR 'edgy thing" was the "F" word. This year it's encouraging TEENS to abuse alcohol and WEED.

Just asking here.
Click to expand...

I'd like to add:

You Don't Know How it Feels - Tom Petty ("Lets roll another Joint...") Hit 13 on the billboard Hot 100 and got airplay in 1994.

Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35 - Bob Dylan, 1966 #2 Billboard Pop Singles ("Everybody must get stoned.")

The Next Episode - Dr. Dre, hit #23 on the Hot 100, most downloaded song by Dre on iTunes (hey-ay-ay-ay! Smoke weed every day!)

I mean, I could go on and on....

Although, I'd like to point out that you heard one station play the unedited version, while most every other station in the country is playing the edited version. This sounds like an isolated incident in terms of the censorship.
 
Ron Roberts said:
Nelly "Ride Wit Me." 2001
Tom Petty "Last Dance with Mary Jane" 1993
Steve Miller Band "The Joker" 1973

This isn't a new trend.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but singing the word "weed" in the hook is - sure, there have been plenty of CHR hits about weed, but it was masked enough that 12 and 13 year old kids didn't know what it was about
 
The Bob Dylan Song is a metaphor.

With that said, the other songs sited (with the exception of Dr. Dre) are not as direct as "Young, Wild, & Free". The Dre song at #23 most likely didn't get 90+ spins per week.

Oh well, I'll get over it.
 
radiowizard101 said:
The Bob Dylan Song is a metaphor.

With that said, the other songs sited (with the exception of Dr. Dre) are not as direct as "Young, Wild, & Free". The Dre song at #23 most likely didn't get 90+ spins per week.

Oh well, I'll get over it.
Click to expand...

Metaphor ha? Everyone in here is debugging your assumptions here. You might just want to stop because I can give you an even bigger list of drug-induced songs going back to the 1920s like "Reefer Man" by Cab Calloway (no "metaphors" there bud).
 
CHRles said:
This is also the type of attitude record that the kids are into these days. Fun's "We Are Young" also belongs in the category of youth friendly lyrics that 18-34 year olds eat up.
Click to expand...

As of late, CHR has had a bunch of songs that are simply about just having fun and partying. Last summer "Party Rock Anthem", "Last Friday Night" to name a couple. More recently, "Young, Wild & Free", "We Are Young".

Sure, these type of songs have been around for decades and will always be around. But one has to wonder if a backlash of too many of these type of songs will soon come.
 
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