In 1961, Robert A. Heinlein brought to the masses “Stranger in a Strange Land,” a book about a man raised by Martians who comes to earth applying lessons of Martian culture to that of earth. Perhaps the most prominent of his teachings was a communal sexual relationship, with sex raised to the level of truly getting to know someone, and thus the breakdown of previous conceptions of such a relationship restricted to only that of a dating or married couple. The book was a success, being the first science-fiction book to break the New York Times best-seller list, in large part because of the ideas expressed in the book.
Fast forward to the summer of 2015. SONY released Rude by Magic the previous year, but I heard the song for the first time at the rate of a near constant airplay on local New Jersey radio stations. As a fan of reggae style music, I was immediately hooked, being an avid fan of the similar sounding Vampire Weekend band who had a similar fusion when they released their self-titled album in 2008 (but I’m not here to talk about my musical preferences.) Instead, there is something that, after listening to the song a few times, I found very strange. I was always under the impression that we had become a lot more forward-thinking over time, but then I realize that the message of Rude is more traditional. Being a song about wanting to marry a girl against her father’s disapproval, it had the hook of “Marry that girl!” in fact; and through such language, it romanticized the importance of marriage in its lyrics. I would call it a fluke, except it isn’t
Fast forward to the end of the summer, and a very similar song, “Cheerleader” by OMI, reached my radio station. The song, in a similar reggae style, was directed to hypothetical lovers who seek to steal him away from his one true love, his “Cheerleader.” Then I started hearing Andy Grammer’s “Honey I’m Good,” which talks about not staying up late at a bar in order to spend time with his true love and to avoid cheating. I had thought being the era of Nikki Minaj shaking her butt in “Anaconda” that we had reached a newfound height of sexual expression in American culture; but with the prominence of the songs I’ve mentioned that have been released in the past two years to the airwaves one wonders, has there been a regression in terms of our renewed interest in traditional marital values?
Here’s the thing—according to the New York Times article “How We Know the Divorce Rate Is Falling,” the divorce rate has actually decreased over the years. The highest rate, according to the article, was “5.3 divorces per thousand people in 1981;” and in 2011, it became 3.6 per thousand people (which is the latest we have details from census data). More marriages are lasting and, considering such, shouldn’t our media reflect this? Will the past generation tell their grandchildren of the “terrible times” where “beautiful” marriages were so hard to come by?
In closing, think of family film Hotel Transylvania 2. The 375.3 Million Dollar box office giant, according to Box Office Mojo, is a sequel whose predecessor had this to say about marriages: “For a zing [true love] only happens once in your life.” This may very be the anthem of coming generations.
(Image from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcge47yeCgo)