Another Hang-Up

Scott Hardie | October 16, 2004
This topic is probably far too mundane to be worthy of discussion, but three similar songs played in sequence in my CD changer just now, and it got me wondering. Why do rock bands like to include a monologue by a woman on the phone in some songs? More to the point, why do male rock bands with almost entirely male fan bases like to include sound samples of a woman calling the listener to put him down, or putting down the band's singer over the phone? What is the psychology of this inferiority complex over women callers?

(The songs that drove me into perplexity: Megadeth's "1000 Times Goodbye," Galactic Cowboys' "Where Are You Now?" and Blitzspeer's "Mother Superior." Other titles are welcome.)

Denise Sawicki | October 16, 2004
Well, Everclear's "Unemployed Boyfriend" has a woman leaving an answering message on the phone to a friend but it appears to be a flattering message saying how the woman met the singer and thinks he could be "the one" for her. Which I guess tells you that Everclear have a superiority complex.

Anna Gregoline | October 16, 2004
What I want to know is why so many dance songs have to have a woman simulating an orgasm (usually VERY poorly) in the background?

Kris Weberg | October 16, 2004
Scott -- Never noticed that tend at all; I'd note that it seems to be limited to "hard" or "metal" bands -- I hate thsoe labels, though -- and speculate that ity has to do witha similar effect observed in the horror and teen sex comedy films that also appeal to such young men. The theory I've heard is that the bands and movies in question target pubescent adolescent males, who are sexually inexperienced, acutely self-conscious, and hence are at once attracted to and mystified by, even somewhat threatened by, women. Hence, you get a surprising number of "confirmations" of the fear of sexual rejection, a kind of cathartic 'whistling in the dark" that lets young men acknoweldge and express these fears without having to personally confront them.

Or, you know, maybe a lot of guys in bands have had nasty breakups, and put that kind of stuff in their songs as either revenge or a more personal cathartic dealie-o.

Anna -- I have two linked theories: 1) The kind of guys who hang out in clubs think that it's sexy, and that it turns women on; and 2) They think both of these things because they have little to no knowledge of good femal orgasms. As such, they request and buy tracs with badly faked orgasm sounds on them.

But the real question for me is, do the women making such noises on these tracks have a similar problem? I really wonder about in the case of people like Gwen Stefani, who includes something like this effect on the song "Hella Good." Is she just playing to the standards of dance tracks, or is she just not having a very good time of it?

Anna Gregoline | October 16, 2004
Hmm, hearing another woman have an orgasm doesn't turn me on. And yes to number two. It's just so lame sounding.

Gwen Stefani's motives are not ones I'd like the question. Her entire image is striving for this femme fatale sexpot - unfortunaetly, without any class, and I find her intensely irritating.

Kris Weberg | October 16, 2004
Well, basically Gwen is imitating Madonna.

Very, very badly.

And Madonna -- heresy alert -- was never all that much to begin with.