''One young woman walked up to me recently at a concert and thanked for me my work 'in the midst of all this rape music.' I never thought of it like that, but so much music nowadays is about sex, sex, sex and is quite aggressive. She called it rape music. I thought, 'Oh my God, I guess she's right.' I just try to write music that connects with people's conscience and make music for awake people rather than sleepwalkers.''
Rape music? Kinda harsh words there, Cyndi. What do you think she means? Is it either
a) Music that excites so much it causes rape.
or
b) Music that incites rape.
Let’s deal with excites first. I am aware of a woman who recorded a song about having a threesome, about “ never cared (didn't care), I never was the kind to make a fuss, When she was there, sleeping inbetween the two of us.” That’s pretty inciting right? Pretty sexy. A Prince cover off She’s So Unusual (“She Bop” about masturbation is on the same album). The Prince album itself, Dirty Mind, was long excitement to rape if you can’t take the incest, head, and worse excitements
But maybe that isn’t what Cyndi means at all. Maybe Cyndi means lyrics that incite rape. Really? Like who? Over and above the silly “Tom And Jerry incites violence” argument, whose lyrics is Cyndi calling “rape music”. Does she mean rap? Is that it? Jigga, Kanye, Tyler –all those (black) rap musicians are INCITING RAPE… Well, rap has been around for 30 years, prove it. Where is the cause and effect?
The answer is: rape music is anything Cyndi doesn’t like.