Being patriotic is a good thing, but when it can go a little too far, it can sound very selfish, stupid, and unwise.Bonnie McKee hasn't released any music since 2004. Though she has been co-writing with Katy Perry, no original music has come out of her, until recently. This June, 'American Girl' was released. McKee isn't exactly patriotic in this song, but it does bring up our free country.
In her summer tune, McKee sings about who she is... in a I'm-my-own-boss manner. "I feel in love 7/11 in the parking lot," she begins. Quickly, she brings alcohol into the mix "Sat on the curb drinking slurpees we mixed with alcohol."
That's just the beginning. At the first verse, I get that she has ambitions to conquer the world as her tells her beau, "I got a plan and I'm going to dominate." Though she isn't interest in getting serious, she's interested in getting physical. "I don't need a man getting in my way/But if you talk with your hands/Then we can negotiate."
Coming right after, the catchy hook says who she is, and what's she her for. "I'll just keep moving my body/I'm always ready to party/I'll never listen to Mommy/and I'll never say I'm sorry."
"I'm an American girl!" she shouts. "I'm loving taking over the world/I'm hot blooded/I was raised by a television/Every day is a competition."
In the second verse, McKee talks about buying love. "I want to a new heart out of a vending machine/Cuz baby it's a free country/So we can do anything."
There's not much more to the song than that. When I first heard this on the radio, I thought,
'Wow, this is so catchy." But when I listened to the lyrics of the upbeat hook, I released not only is this very wrong, but it isn't very smart either, like this whole song.
Some songs have a feminist edge to them that just ruins the mood. Unfortunately, the part about ruling the world isn't my main concern. By the lyrics, and the music video, I can tell that she did rule the world, it would not be pretty.
But she probably can't help it. After she, she admits she was raised by a television, (as stupid as that seems). Sometimes I get caught up in the pop culture. Sometimes I feel like our generation is raised by a television or a screen. Because that's what entertains us. Because there's not much more in life. Well, that's what we think. But look what happens when someone is raised by a television or an iPod, or the internet.
The music video has even more junk than the song itself. In it, she goes into a store, gets stuff, and convinces the guy to let her off the hook when she forgets her money. It looked as she never meant to pay him in the first place. She and her friends also steal a convertible from a shirtless guy with a lot of tattoos. She changes shirts in this car too. Just her backside is shown for a second or two.
Well, though she defends herself by saying this is a free country. But while we might be free to act like we want, it doesn't mean we're always right. I think we all can agree there is a long list that our country has made legal that isn't right. Since McKee co-wrote songs like 'Roar and 'Teenage Dream', we can be sure her view of living isn't a godly view.
If this song defines what a American girl is, I certainly don't want to be one. But I know this isn't what defines our American girls. Sure, we might be all American, but the American girls we can look up to, are woman like Clara Barton, Abail Adams, and Harriet Tubman. Not the girls described in this 'patriotic' song.
I'm sorry, Miss McKee, but you can't buy love and just because our country is free doesn't give you the right to do what you want do if its wrong.
So just like slurpee described in the song (like you would get at a gas station or Burger King), it might look good, but inside it has alcohol. Just like this song might be catchy, but inside is a message that can eat you alive.
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