In the States we all remember Charlotte Church as the cherub faced girl with the voice of an angel. Where her popularity might have fallen off in the US, she has enjoyed a very successful career in the UK including recording and hosting her own variety show. Recently she spoke out on Miley Cyrus, Rihanna and many other young ladies who she feels have become victims of the music industry!
Charlotte is finding it hard to see how today’s musicians are being portrayed in such an overtly sexual manner especially since she herself has walked a mile in their stilettos and she admitted:
“What this industry seems to want of its women increasingly is sex objects that appear childlike. Take your clothes off, show you’re an adult … There was a big clamor to cover my breasts as they wanted to keep me as young as possible. Then it became, ‘You should definitely get them out, they look great’ … Whilst I can’t defer all the blame away from myself, I was barely out of my teenage years, and the consequence of this portrayal of me is that now I am frequently abused on social media. Now I find it difficult to promote my music where it would be best suited.” –
While talking about RiRi’s Pour It Up, she said:
“You only have to look at the online response to see that it is only a matter of time until the public turns on an artist for pushing it too far. But the single, like all [of] Rihanna’s other provocative hits, will make her male writers, producers and record label guys a ton of money.”
What do you think? I think that she does have a point, and there is clearly a methodology, a system the music and entertainment industry has to maturing female artists, and to a certain degree I think that we are starting to see male artists coming of age a particular way…(think Justin Beiber and his pot smoking wilding out antic of late). The hyper sexual manner in which young girls are ushered into womanhood has become par for the course, it always includes less clothes, photo shoot with legs spread and asses out, risque public behavior and some sketchy dating- oh add in some drunken drugged out antics. And somehow all of this is supposed to translate into “I am an adult and I and my art should be taken seriously”. I think Church’s point is that where all of the letting your rack hang and your ass hang out, and all of the bad girl behavior make (yes you) and other people a lot of money yet they get to cash the checks and walk away while you have to live with stigma and the stain of those years of “becoming”…..