What happened to the sexual themes in rock music?

When grunge music hit, rock music became asexual. What the hell happened? I don't need blatant lyrics like those cheesy metal songs I loved (and still do) from the 80's but where did all the fun go?
Meanwhile there's a lot of sexual themes in rap & r&b music and those albums are flying off the shelves. What happened to fun & sexy rock music a la Bad Company, Led Zeppelin, INXS, etc?

 

One answer, in two words: Political Correctness. I'm sure there are other answers, though, which I'll leave to the other experts. . . .

 

no, it's that 99% of all music is now marketed directly to 13 year old girls.

plus, there's so much sex available in real life (for the attractive/popular teens) and on the net (for the unpopular/unattractive teens) that just hearing about it (usually in clumsy double-entendres) just seems kinda stale and old-fashioned.

 

I think some of what happened is it went over the top. What was once considered taboo became low cal. Subtle inuendo doesn't seem so cool after hearing blatant reference over and over.

 

LOL.

 

too many Sensitive New Age Guys?

 

Prince stole them all, put them in a song and called it "Peach".

 

Michael Powell

 

Bands like Radiohead want to be taken seriously, so they view guys like David Lee Roth as anathema to their artistic vision. Me, I like knowing that my favorite rocks stars are getting laid every once in awhile. As good as Rush are, do they ever take time out to sing about a groupie or two? Thought not.

 

It's alive and well if you get outside the mainstream. One of my favorites: "Wiggle Stick" by Rev. Horton Heat.

 

That market segment is already spoken for now. Rap/Hip-Hop music moved in and became the main vehicle for expression of sexuality by males in music culture-- if you are looking for songs about b*tches and h*s, that's where you go. Rap is now the music that speaks to sexually frustrated suburban teenage boys out there looking for exaggerated male caricatures to represent them and to ape. That left rock 'n roll free to move on to other topics. For me, it may be a bit neutered, but at least it's not full of nauseating, cringe-inducing juvenalia.

That's my theory anyway...

 

Tipper AIDS What Markl said...

 

...politically correct liberals, conservatives, Michael Powell's FCC, network executives scared of the...(repeat)

 

There was a time when The Lemon Song and Eat a Peach seemed kind of racy and leading edge, but they now seem almost quaint in comparison to the lyrics of some of the current musical forms. The only way to keep up would be to have extremely explicit lyrics, which frankly aren't very much fun.

 

Do we really want rock lyrics to be about the same things they were 30 years ago?

 

Here's another idea in addition to my above post:

Rock music became respectable when the generation that claimed it as their own became part of what they used to call in the 60s and early 70s the "establishment". From that point on, when the great baby-boom generation started having children and got into power at corporate and government levels, they became sensitive to all the negative forces that they percieved might harm their children and get in the way of their making higher profits. They became bed-mates with the very groups of people who have always opposed what they stood for in the past. Together, these two groups teamed up together to battle what has always been viewed as the enemies of traditional American culture, like blacks, gays, what they percieve to be liberalism, humanists, non-christians, the poor, and the list goes on.

 

Well, ask yourself why we still buy and LISTEN to the same music that was made 30 years ago.

 

I don't want rock music to be about B*tches and h*s. I'm talking about, for example, "Fire And Water" and I don't know..."Suicide Blonde" - those songs are about sex and lust but they aren't blatant or cheesy. I'm not talking about songs like "On Your Knees" by WASP or anything.
Everything is so neutered and serious now.

 

Yep! And 40 and 50 years ago too!

 

Damn, what's that awful popular song out right now where some whinyass twentysomething cries about how sorry he is for being born and sensitive? Gawd! I hate it.

Where are those songs about having sex with hoes...oops! I mean groupies. like "We're An American Band", or how about that song by the Rolling Stones called "Bitch" or "Some Girls", or the Lou Reed song about "not losing her head even she was giving head", or any Frank Zappa song...

 

Have you really paid attention to the lyrics in Elton John's song "Amy" (Honky Château)? Quite a flirt number there.

Anyway, I think its a case of political correctness, living in the age of AIDS and that there would be no suggestive words to say, today it's all more straightforward given the readily available material on the Net (thus the wh*r* and the b*tches terms used in rap), which is a way makes for less intelligent sexual lyrics. IMHO in order to come up with a suggestive (and usually more effective line) you have to think with something at least 4 fingers above your navel and hold the heat for enough time to come up with the words.

As far as old rockers are concerned: they have been there and back and/or as ex-heroin addicts (many not all) they must have something left in their blood that does away with the effects of Viagra.

 

I don't know about that...lots of hip-hop...and R Kelly songs are geared toward 13-year old girls, ESPECIALLY R Kelly stuff...

Good point, man! They're JADED! THE THRILL IS GONE. Listening to Prince recording himself masturbating in the studio with some chick is boring to teens today when they prefer having sex parties at their friends house after school.

 

Take the song "Remedy" by Black Crowes. That's a great lust/sex song w/o having it to be edited and over the top.
I really don't think music calmed down because of AIDS I think rockers take themselves way to seriously and think tyhey would be made fun of if they sing about sex- they keave it to the rappers. It's sad.

I think Black Crowes Remedy is the last great sex rock song out there.

 

In any case, much of the subtlety that tends to define art has been lost to crasness. I agree that oftentimes to be candidly romantic or evocative nowadays is considered soft and old fashioned, even if us human beings continue to have the same fellings and needs behind the 'public facade'.

 

I think there is a purely glandular response to music during the "rutting years" that fades over time. Those songs heard in that state burn into your memory, whether or not the music really justifies taking up that much space. Lemon Song, or Two Tickets to Paradise, they always sounded sleasy to me anyway. I didn't hear nasty songs done right till I heard Howlin' Wolf, Dinah Washington and Sonny Boy Williamson do it. My favorite musical expression of the pure biological force of raw lust comes from Mozart: Cheribino's Aria from The Marriage of Figero, where the young boy (usually played by a female mezzo) bemoans these uncontrolable urges while running towards those urges. Anyway, it still works for me which is a lot more than I can say for "Shoop".