Fat Bottomed Girls

 

A question I've been often asked in the last 20 years or so is "Why do you still buy CDs?". 

First we had the download era where you no longer needed a physical product clogging up your room and could have all the music you needed at the click of a button. You could even get it all for free if you knew where to look. Then for well over a decade we've been in an era where we can legally stream a music library much bigger than anyone's CD collection for free if we're happy to hear a few adverts, or for a small fee each month without adverts.

One big advantage of my big CD collection though is that it's guaranteed not to be altered by anyone in the name of "progression".

This is exactly what has happened to Queens greatest hits. The track "Fat Bottomed Girls" has now been removed because it's deemed too offensive for the 21st century.

When I was a kid I was a Queen fan. I had their greatest hits and remember being amused by "Fat Bottomed Girls". Never in a million years did I ever think it would be considered to be offensive though. What ultimately made me go off Queen in the end was when I started seeing it as uncool and music for old people. As I entered my teenage years I wanted to listen to music that offended old people. Now it seems to be the old people that are doing the offending whether they intended to or not.

I watched someone who backed the removal of the track give their point of view. They pointed out it was from the 70s, an era of Jimmy Savile and Gary Glitter and we're now in the 21st century where its inappropriate for the kids to listen to material like this.

First of all what the hell has Jimmy Savile and Gary Glitter got to do with any Queen song? Secondly, is music of the 21st century so bad that we need to worry about them listening to music that came out even before some of their parents were born?

It's the latter point where the real issue lies. Yes I'm old enough to hate anything modern, but if anything needs changing it's the music that's coming out today.

There's a Disney actress turned cheesy pop singer called Olivia Rodrigo. I guess you could say she's the modern equivalent of someone like David Cassidy. Should be perfect for the kids of today to listen to.

I can't say I know an awful lot about her, but any song of hers that I've heard has a significant amount of swearing in it. I'm not offended by swearing, I listened to my fair share of music with swearing in as a youngster. I even wrote songs with swearing in them. I'm talking about bands like Guns n Roses and Rage Against the Machine, aggressive rock music not some Disney singer.

That's the point, it's these modern pop singers who make music that isn't appropriate for the kids of today to listen to, not a rock band from 45 years ago.