Alicia Keyes.....help me out here.....

[PaulDA]

I just picked up a bunch of used DCs for $1 each ata flea market for resale and one of them was Alicia Keyes,' Songs in A Minor'.
I decided to keep it and listen to it and see if I would like her songs.

I have come to the conclusion that she is IMMENSELY talented, probably has more talent in her pinky than 99% of any five these no talented sexed up female singers that permeate the music world at the moment.
Which brings me to this dilema:
Why would a person with such talent have to use the 'N' word, and 's***' on at least three of her songs???
I don't even care if it's a sin or not....it's vulgar and demeaning, and adds NOTHING to the songs except to show she is a bit ignorant.
She seems so sophistated and educated, why does she have to lower herself to act like some of these low class rappers and use such language?
Can someone please explain this to me??

[Vlad!]

Being a bit ignorant is sadly too prevalent today. I note at least 5 spelling or grammar errors in your first 'paragraph' alone, for instance

Maybe she doesn't consider it to be lowering herself at all, and that's actually the way she talks? Not everybody grew up in the same environment surrounded by the same mores as you did.

[bloop]

Can someone please explain this to me??

Probably not - it seems you've made up your mind on it.  On these kinds of things, I generally ask "why not?" rather than "why?".  Whether it's a sin or not (master key:  not) plays very strongly into my attitude about the naughty word thing.

[Silvah]

Honestly, I didn't feel her usage of the words added anything to the songs, to me, they took something away. It seemed like she took an easy way out in her songwriting. That's just my opinion...

[Silvah]

[bloop]

Honestly, I didn't feel her usage of the words added anything to the songs, to me, they took something away. It seemed like she took an easy way out in her songwriting. That's just my opinion...

That's an artistic judgment rather than misplaced moralizing, so I can respect that.

[PaulDA]

Being a bit ignorant is sadly too prevalent today. I note at least 5 spelling or grammar errors in your first 'paragraph' alone, for instance
 

I type fast. I know how to spell.  

[PaulDA]

Honestly, I didn't feel her usage of the words added anything to the songs, to me, they took something away. It seemed like she took an easy way out in her songwriting. That's just my opinion...

That's the way I felt.
It seemed like she was trying to hard to say:
"Look at me. I'm hip, I'm down witcha."

[PaulDA]

That's an artistic judgment rather than misplaced moralizing, so I can respect that.

I'll make a 'misplaced moral' judgement then:
Whether cussing is sin or not, there is NEVER a reason for it, ever.
It adds nothing to a conversation, and it just makes the user look ignorant and like a jerk.
Yes, I have cussed and still slip sometimes, and when I do I feel ignorant and like a jerk, especially when I hear others use the same language in the same situations I occasionally do. Then I really see how asinine it looks and sounds.
Also, when a female cusses it looks doubly ignorant, like she wants to be 'one of the boys'.

[PaulDA]

^And yes, I realize some people may have wives that cuss or some females on here may cuss and take exception to my last sentence in the above post. Hey, my wife cusses sometimes too, but I still think a woman looks even more foolish than a man when she cusses.
A lady should act like a lady. Follow the men in areas that are beneficial, not in areas that make them look tacky.

[bloop]

I'll make a 'misplaced moral' judgement then:
Whether cussing is sin or not, there is NEVER a reason for it, ever.
It adds nothing to a conversation, and it just makes the user look ignorant and like a jerk.
Yes, I have cussed and still slip sometimes, and when I do I feel ignorant and like a jerk, especially when I hear others use the same language in the same situations I occasionally do. Then I really see how asine it looks and sounds.
Also, when a female cusses it looks doubly ignorant, like she wants to be 'one of the boys'.

If it isn't a sin, there's no particularly good reason to bitch about it (unless, perhaps, you are their English teacher).  Either it's a sin, and a moral judgment is properly placed, or it's not and this kind of attitude has no real place at all.  At any rate, you're just making it all about Paul's perception of what makes someone look smart, or whatever - and you've called us here elitists.  

No, man.  Sorry.  Vocabulary plays, and sometimes those words do cover some poor ones, but context and use plays in making one's words sound intelligent to perhaps an even greater degree.  

Finally, things are not morally wrong because they're meaningless.  I mean, look at that other board - they aren't exceeding sinners for typing nonsense, but rather we all are for sinning.

[PaulDA]

Well, it turns out that Elton John and I think alike.  

When I heard Alicia's song 'Fallin'', I immediately thought it was basically James Brown's 1966 smash 'It's a Man's Man's Man's World' with different lyrics and slightly different music. Well, today I was in Border's Book Store and saw a book called
IN OTHER WORDS, which had interviews and sayings from famous singers.
I looked up 'James Brown' in the index and found a page with two people talking, one was 'E. J.' and the other was 'B. J.'. Turns out, after I went to the beginning of the chapter, it was Elton John and Billy Joel and this is what they said:

Elton John:
"The great song that Alicia Keyes did ["Fallin'"], it's James Brown's 'It's A Man's Man's Man's World'. But I do think she has incredible potential. The girl knows a melody."

Billy Joel
"She does. She could have longevity."

That Elton John sure is a smart guy.