As I surf around the internet looking at sites a question came to me, how many people listen to the music for entertainment or are they looking for messages in the lyrics? I have seen more debates about how degrading a certain songs lyrics are or how a songs lyrics go too far when talking about social issues. The Dixie Chicks faced it with their song So Long Earl and now Trace Adkins is going thru the debate with his song Honky Tonk Badonkadonk. How far is too far when you are talking about entertainment and music?

Trace is coming under fire for both his song and his video for Honky Tonk Badonkadonk. The song is under fire on message boards because of a few lines in the song “shaking her moneymaker” and “slap your Grandma”. Does this mean that Trace doesn’t respect women or Grandparents in general? Somehow I highly doubt that, he lives in a house full of women, why can’t it just be a song about watching things that happen in a honky-tonk? Why does the song have to be taken so seriously? Anyone that has ever been to a roadhouse, a dance club or a honky-tonk knows that there are women that will get up and line dance to their favorite songs and some of the line dances that are around today call for hip shaking and such. As for the video with it’s scantily clad women dancing to the song, it’s entertainment and isn’t meant to taken as more than that in this viewers opinion. I have seen worse on MTV and BET when checking out videos with my teenager. It’s human nature to check out the opposite sex, that’s what I take the video to come across as, nothing more, nothing less.

Let’s face it, even if you look deeper and want to make a case for the song being inappropriate, it’s getting airplay, it’s making money, it’s getting people up and dancing in the clubs. Isn’t that the whole point of music, to entertain, to get the artist out there and people talking about him or her?

Stop by the forum and let us know what you think.