As I sit on my plush new couch and take a brief moment away from work to relax and watch television, I browse channels---NFL Football, Bridezillas, The 70's show, Nascar Racing-- I stop at BET to watch a video that, as sad as it may sound, actually caught my attention. The bling was blinding me. In fact, I became fascinated by the amount of gold, platinum, and diamonds that adorned (almost strangled) the neck of Soulja Boy. In the video called, "Turn My Swag On," Soulja Boy puts on an obnoxious amount of jewels, while the following lyrics spew out of his mouth.
Hopped out the bed turn my swag on
Took a look in the mirror said what's up?
Yeah, I'm gettin' money...
I ain't did nothin but count this money...and make my whole crew stunny.
At this point, I am cracking up (ROTFL--well, maybe not on the floor--but I am laughing out loud) because not only does having that amount of jewelry around your neck make no sense, but the lyrics also have ZERO substance. Is this what we have come to--excessive flaunting of material goods and music that doesn't inspire? So, I began to think--does this video (and the millions of others like it) represent American values? Has excessive materialism become so excessive that the material items no longer hold any value? So then, I'm thinking, maybe the accumulation of valuable items is more like the Anglo-Saxons who believed that the more material items you were able to accumulate--the more meaning your life had.
Realizing that I might be thinking entirely to deeply about this video--I snap back and simply ask myself--why? Why are material things so important to Americans?
I actually think the lyrics to this song are ridciculous. The whole song is about flaunting his money and how many valubles he has when those things really aren't really that important too life. It seems that all people care about these days is money.
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