In music industry, there exists stiff competition among the musicians. This is because the number of singers has risen day by day and this keeps the stars on the track, ready to compete and attract massive following since desire of every musician to attract as much following and fame as possible. This has a direct impact on the overall returns in terms of monetary gains from their music as well as fame and future prospects of the musicians. There are those who reveal their private parts by dressing in very short skirts or pants and at times transparent clothes. This is both unethical and immoral, hence has to be discouraged.
There exist very few literatures on the ethical obligations of musicians to both the audience and their music composers/producers. It is worth noting that, musician ought to have a target population while composing and performing their music in consideration. One crucial aspect they ought to adhere to is the fact that in the advent of technology, music is fluid and can be accessed by all people regardless of their age, culture, and race. This means that young children who have not fully developed to the level of full comprehension should be considered. Consider, for example, Miley Cyrus who dresses in very revealing manners. This is not sensitive to the world culture and target population that is of all ages.
Her methods of dancing during video shooting and live performances are also questionable. The method of dancing has a direct connection to some deep rooted moral aspects. The dry humping and extreme sexual like performance may influence the developing children to the extent that they develop with inclinations towards such behaviors. The performances need to be moderated to avoid such foreseeable problems.
It is expected that any singer for whatever reason has to seek not to offend the audience. However, it is worth noting that at time music made for different reasons can be specifically made to offend a particular group. The reason for targeting a group may vary from culture to culture and singer to singer. For example, a musician may compose music highlighting some negative aspects of a group. Therefore, it would be expected that the group targeted may be offended. That notwithstanding, the other group that may not be part of the target group may not be treated to extreme scenes that are detrimental to their young adults.
Although most singers target the current population, a good singer has to target both current and future audience of his or her music. This means that the music has to have a culture basis so that it remains relevant over a long period of time. Some music performance may offend the cultures that do not adhere or agree to the singer’s extremities. There are the consevatist cultures that do not allow open expression of affection like in most African states and the Asian parts. Although this culture is dying out, this does not mean that the singers and the performances should break the cultural aspects. Pop stars in particular have been notorious in these scandals that are not a direct reflection of the power and economic prowess they have, but rather end up been viewed as morally loose and consequently not been a good moral references to the teenagers. A good example is Miley Cyrus.
Jeanette Bicknell on the reflections of “John Henry”: Ethical Issues in Singing and Performance (2009) asserts that “To sing a song in a morally appropriate manner requires moral deference. The idea behind moral deference is both simple and reasonable: the morally significant experiences of others will sometimes be opaque to us. There is no perspective from which any and every person will always be able to grasp the experiences of another.” This can be taken as the basic principle that drives the pop stars to perform in the manner they do. However, there has to be a relative limit of some of the activities (Jeanette Bicknell, 2009 pg. 2).
Many teenagers in the world associate themselves with superstars who they admire for one reason or the other. Therefore, the behaviors these pop stars show while performing are just copied by these teenagers without any screening. The superstar mentality of the teenagers copied from the pop stars can lead to delinquent tendencies. A delinquent teenager due to influence from a pop star can be very difficult to handle due to the continued reinforcement readily available. Such aped tendencies can as well affect other social aspect and even lead to abuse of drugs for the teenagers to feel high and powerful as the pop stars.
A close analysis of Miley Cyrus behavior reveals that she has been one of the most influential pop stars of the current generation. She however, dresses in a very revealing manner and hence may influence young teenager by aping her behavior. Her dancing technique, the famous of them all being the tweaking has gone viral all over the world. These shows how dangerous the behavior of the pop star can be if it is in the extreme. It thus very important for the pop stars to keep their music moderated and perform in more appropriate way to ensure that they send the right message of power, fame and influence that can be of benefit to the young generation.
Work cited
Jeanette Bicknell. Reflections on “John Henry”: Ethical Issues in Singing Performance. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. 2009.
