Chaging the gender in lyrics
NathanScott
Posts: 743 Forum Member
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I find it quite problematic to be honest.
This is been going on for some years from what I understand (i'm "new" to the UK show) so this must have been discussed before but I'm curious to hear your opinions about it.
I don't wanna use big words like homophobia but it's at least dangerously heteronormative. We are talking about contestants whom we barely now and who haven't spoke about their sexual orientations (nor have to), so changing the lyrics to every song to always fit an heterosexual viewpoint is not very healthy is it? I mean the neutral thing to do would be just to leave the songs as they are.
I guess we are coming to a point when if an act uses the lyics to adress his own gender that would count as a coming out?
This rant doesn't make sense if it is always the contestant choice to change the lyrics of course, that would be ok, but to me this feels like part of the "family friendly" package ITV wants to offer? I don't know, at least here in Portugal I never saw anyone do this in talent shows.
This is been going on for some years from what I understand (i'm "new" to the UK show) so this must have been discussed before but I'm curious to hear your opinions about it.
I don't wanna use big words like homophobia but it's at least dangerously heteronormative. We are talking about contestants whom we barely now and who haven't spoke about their sexual orientations (nor have to), so changing the lyrics to every song to always fit an heterosexual viewpoint is not very healthy is it? I mean the neutral thing to do would be just to leave the songs as they are.
I guess we are coming to a point when if an act uses the lyics to adress his own gender that would count as a coming out?
This rant doesn't make sense if it is always the contestant choice to change the lyrics of course, that would be ok, but to me this feels like part of the "family friendly" package ITV wants to offer? I don't know, at least here in Portugal I never saw anyone do this in talent shows.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fovsRcL8caY
Something is and all time classic and everyone and his/her dog know that the lyric is:
"Something in the way SHE moves"
It grates and detracts from the song when the words are changed.
I mean come on there are millions of songs for both males and females and non-gender ones as well, so why deliberately pick one that isn't suitable for the singers sex?
If a gay person wishes to sing a song that was originally for the opposite sex, than that is fine as they won't be changing the words and they will be identifying with it. EG A gay man singing "Mad about the boy" or a lesbian woman singing "She, maybe the face I can't forget", are all fine as the song remains the same and is unchanged.
It's not just on talent shows though, artists away from that world also do it, although not always, such as in Amy Winehouse's cover of Valerie. But then she would have had to change the song title as well really!
Because it was a song that got so much airplay and because they changed the second verse, it's sounded off to me, it was too obvious. And they really didn't needed to do it, if it's to "save" their acts image (ugh), because that verse wasn't directly related to "him".
They changed to "I hope that you're settled down, that you found a boy". So they don't even allowed an ex-girlfriend to be bisexual.
Or maybe they don't allow his ex-boyfriend to be bisexual
"A New England" by Kirsty MacColl was originally a Billy Bragg song and the lyrics were changed for a female singer. He originally sang "I'm not looking for a New England, just looking for another girl". She changed it to something like "Are you looking for another girl".
"Substitute" by Clout. Song was actually originally by the Righteous Brothers. I don't think the name "Sam" even appears in the original. I think it's just "Girl". There is a line where Clout sing: "I'll wait until my chances occur, 'cos you can't keep relying on her". The original couplet was something like "I realise that my chances are slim, but you can't keep relying on him".
I can probably find several others.
It could also be about 'owning the song' or 'making it your own'. Louis missed a trick there with both Sam and Nicholas.
Not quite true. 'Something' was not actually a hit until George Harrison let Shirley Bassey take her version up the charts with the lyric changed for her to HE. It was one of her biggest successes and considered a comeback at the time.
It went to no.4 in 1970 and spent 22 weeks in the charts. The album Something went to no. 5 and spent 28 weeks in the charts.
She is the only artiste to outsell the Beatles with a cover version of one of their songs. She has been singing her version ever since in her concerts for over 40 years and it's considered a classic. So I think we have to accept, as the song's writer did, that it can be changed!
It's more interesting if they don't do it for whatever reason - when Lloyd Daniels did "I kissed a girl", they obviously couldn't change it to "I kissed a boy" without fuelling the gay rumours, so they left the original text, which then didn't make any sense at all...
Oh dear :rolleyes:
Iconic X Factor moment :cool: