Cool it, Maybe?

For the record: I am a 23 year-old, college educated female who often worries immensely about the state of the world, and the people in it. I read books--real ones, by serious authors, I have listened to a variety of music all my life, I have traveled to foreign countries...I'm not a total idiot.

That being said, I'm about to defend pop singers like I'm a 13 year-old girl. 

Here goes:

I really think it's time to lay off Justin Bieber, Carly Rae Jepsen, and other famous singers who are constantly under fire for producing chart topping hits. 

A. I'm just going to get this out of the way now. Justin Bieber is currently 18 years old. So for those of you who are waiting for "his voice to change and THEN what will he sound like?!" I ask you to recall  how old you were when you went through puberty. Everyone talks about this kid like he's 12. "OMG HOWWW IS HE DRIVING THAT CAR?" Because he is a freaking legal adult. Kids grow up, people!! Adjust!

B. Carly Rae Jepsen (famous for singing "Call Me Maybe") did not put that song at the top of the Billboard Charts herself. Ok? You did. I did. The completely over-rated video by the Harvard Baseball team did. So can we stop blaming her for being ridiculously successful?

C. I love when people feel the need to all but self-mutilate on Facebook for liking "Call Me Maybe" 

"OK I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M SAYING THIS BUT I TOTALLY HAD A DANCE PARTY TO CALL ME MAYBE TODAY IN THE CAR"

"Don't judge me but I think I'm finally coming around to Call Me Maybe"

"I JUST FOUND MYSELF ACCIDENTALLY SINGING ALONG TO CALL ME MAYBE!!"

It's the number 1 song in the country. It is not revolutionary, weird, or interesting in any way that YOU are now singing along to it. 

D. To those of you who only listen to like, Led Zeplin and Pink Floyd and still maintain that "Stairway to Heaven" is the last great song ever written....relax.

By all means, panic when Carly Rae Jepsen wins the Nobel prize. But as of right now...it's just a song. It's entertainment. It's music.

Let me bring you back to 1964 where the number 1 hit in the United States was a song called "Love Me Do" by a little band named The Beatles.

Here are the lyrics:

Love, love me do
You know I love you
I'll always be true
So please, love me do
Whoa, love me do

Love, love me do
You know I love you
I'll always be true
So please, love me do
Whoa, love me do

Someone to love
Somebody new
Someone to love
Someone like you

Love, love me do
You know I love you
I'll always be true
So please, love me do
Whoa, love me do

Love, love me do
You know I love you
I'll always be true
So please, love me do
Whoa, love me do
Yeah, love me do
Whoa, oh, love me do

Those aren't exactly the most brilliant lyrics ever written. 

(Snooty music people want to kill me right about now...and I LOVE it. How was that DMB concert? Oh yeah? Goin' to see Oasis next time they decide to not be a**holes? Radical.)

Look, I'm not trying to diss The Beatles here...I'm not trying to argue that their music wasn't good, or that today's music is better. I'm just trying to defend my girl Carly Rae. She wasn't trying to write a Shakespearean sonnet. So can we all just loosen up a bit? I think maybe The Beatles would have condoned that.

"Life is very short, and there's no time 

For fussing and fighting, my friend."

-The Beatles, "We Can Work it Out"