Violence, misogyny and pop music

(Originally posted at BlogHer)

I was a little taken aback when I first heard Florence + the Machine much-hyped single, "A Kiss With a Fist." Not so much the subject matter -- you'd be naive to deny the history of violence in popular song (more on that latter) -- but the messages left in the band's Last.fm shoutbox:

"First time listen........great!!!"

"LOVE this."

"Love the energy of this song. And Florence looks hawt rocking out in the video."

"I wanna dance and sing and just be happy."

Hardly a mention of the song's provocative lyrics. Florence herself on the song (via the band's MySpace page):

"Kiss with a Fist" is NOT a song about domestic violence. It is about two people pushing each other to psychological extremes because they love each other. The song is not about one person being attacked, or any actual physical violence, there are no victims in this song. Sometimes the love two people have for each other is a destructive force. But they can't have it any other way, because it's what holds them together, they enjoy the drama and pushing each other's buttons. The only way to express these extreme emotions is with extreme imagery, all of which is fantasism and nothing in the song is based on reality. Leona Lewis's "Bleeding Love" isn't actually about her bleeding and this song isn't actually about punching someone in the face.

Maybe not, but it's all too easy to make that conclusion, especially since the Chris Brown/Rihanna scandal. It also comes on the heels of Deborah Finding's recently completed PhD thesis, "Give Me Myself Again – Sexual Violence Narratives in Popular Music," the title taken from a song by Tori Amos, herself no stranger to violent song narrative. Says Finding in a interview with The Guardian:

"I knew that I wanted to do a PhD that would contribute something to the overall understanding of the way sexual and domestic violence was represented in our wider culture and how that influenced the way people think about the issues personally and politically."

But just as words have the power to hurt, they also bring about discussion, and have the power to heal. Latoya Peterson from Jezebel:

Ultimately, Finding's work is amazing because it illuminates the role of narrative in healing from assault or abuse by speaking these stories into existence. And if they happen to live on in the popular consciousness because they were attached to a song lyric, then so much the better. As is stated in her piece, many of us use music "as a means of emotional support."