Billboard Top 100: Short Essay

All around the world music is shaping different cultures. Whether it is from rock to reggae each genre has a specific sound and meaning that appeals to individuals in different ways. In America, pop and rap seem to appeal to the majority of people compared to other genres. Rap, pop, and sometimes country appear on the top Billboard hits all the time. Since rap is usually obscene and pop is typically upbeat music this makes people want to dance and party. Sometimes these songs influence young people to make bad choices or live under the influence. Our generation seems to be addicted to the rebellious phase during their teenage years. But there are popular songs that do make American culture look respectable. The top billboard songs that I choose to evaluate were California Girls by Katy Perry, Billionaire by Travie McCoy, and Bottoms Up by Trey Songz.

California Girls, by Katy Perry, is a song about the state of California. Katy describes the good life by the ocean. Although she probably didn’t write this song, she sings about young adult girls wearing short shorts and tiny bikinis. This shows that American culture has gotten more and more indecent over the years. “Once you party with us, you'll be falling in love” American culture is obsessive with partying and just having a good time. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but maybe instead of partying we could put more time and effort into something more important.

Everyone wants to be a billionaire, especially Travie McCoy. That’s why he wrote the song Billionaire. This song is basically describing everything Travie wants to do when he becomes a billionaire. One of the lines is “I’d probably visit where Katrina hit and damn sure do a lot more than FEMA did”. So instead of just singing about all the stuff he wants to buy for himself he also includes people who don’t have a lot or lost their belongings in a hurricane. This is unselfish of the songwriter and I believe that this makes American culture look good.

Bottoms Up by Trey Songz is a typical club song. It has a smooth beat and the rap is fast paced. In the line, “Bottoms up, bottoms up, throw ya hands up”, it is showing how Americans love to party and have a good time. This song is very popular because not only does it have fast paced rap but it also has Nicki Minaj featured in it and she gives an electronic voice to the song. Our culture is obviously based around “throwing our hands up” and dancing all our problems away.

Many people in America listen to the Billboard top 100 song list. The songs that are featured on this list are either obnoxious and loud (California Girls), upbeat and redundant (Bottoms Up), or smooth and have a deeper meaning (Billionaire). These songs represent our generation and personally I think in a bad way. I feel like these songs are teaching teenagers and young adults that being under the influence is cool, but it is not. A lot of these singers are very wealthy and there is a variety of gender who sing these songs. But there are some songs that inspire people to be good. All in all, the culture in America is based on the music that influence young people.