Can music influence attitudes towards relationships and marriage? Do songs reflect attitudes towards relationships, and reflect the era or do they shape them? These are the question Mick and I were discussing the other day in the car.
We were listening to some old 1960s songs. The theme in so many of them was very much the same. Songs like ‘It’s my Party’ and ‘Judy’s Turn to Cry,’ ‘Oh No, Not My Baby,’ and ‘Lightning Strikes’ were a few but there were myriad others that came out around the same time and they all had a similar theme. The theme was – it’s okay to play around but when I’m ready to settle down I’ll come back to the true one who’ll be there waiting for me.
It made Mick and I wonder if hearing that attitude expressed in so many songs influenced a generation or even more. Did this become like a subliminal message that people grew up with impacting on their attitudes and was it something they then took into their marriages?
Then it had a flow on effect as those couples parented their children and the children grew up holding marriage and relationships in a similar view. Is that far fetched or realistic, what do you think?
Back then we also had the recyclable marriage (Mick’s term). Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Button is one example that comes to mind. As it became even easier to get a divorce we had the disposable marriage.
It came out too in some of the movies where the guy played around but at the end came back to the little wife waiting in the suburbs at home. They’re still promoting similar ideas of men coming back to the wife they left behind. Movies like ‘It’s Complicated’ and there have been plenty of others, still perpetuate variations of this idea.
So should we not only be more careful what we listen to and what we watch, but also what our children and teenagers listen to and watch? Your thoughts anyone?
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