Segway in Rap-Music Video

[FotoPlasma]

You want to know what I think is bad for kids? People who think that they know everything about what is and is not good for kids.

I thought this video was hilarious, and very good publicity for Segway. Yes, good publicity. I think that there is, in fact, bad publicity. When a company's product scrapes some pavement, causing sparks which ignite some storage tank of volatile chemicals, instantly causing an explosion killing a nice suburban family and their dog, who were on their way to grandmother's house, and the company whose product this was is found to be criminally negligent in the production and quality and safety assurance of the product, that, my friend, is bad publicity. (A gross overdramatization of something like the Firestone / Bridgestone fiasco of a few years ago. That was really bad publicity for them.)

Someone oughta call General Motors and tell them that their vehicles (the world famous Hummer H2s and Chevy Suburbans) are being used in immoral and offensive rap videos. We need to get these Evil-Doers corporate sponsorships and transportation taken away!

/me cuts through the sarcasm with a knife.

On the other hand, I'm just as evil because I listen to rap music. Don't listen to me.

<edit>
After listening to that song again, I'd like to quote it:
"We like to party. Don't cause trouble, and we don't bother nobody."
"Get on the floor, shake something shorty, and back it up. Don't hurt nobody."

Those are some of the most inoffensive lyrics I could possibly think of. I don't think this video promotes anything immoral, unless you consider hanging out with friends and having fun immoral. And honestly, who hasn't had torrid fantasies about meter maids?
</edit>

[Joshua May]

Originally Posted by FotoPlasma

I don't think this video promotes anything immoral, unless you consider hanging out with friends and having fun immoral.

<sarcasm>
That is immoral, they should be out being productive and leading perfectly ideal lives for the betterment of society.
</sarcasm>

[MattK]

I might not agree with that kind of lifestyle but for someone to call a lifestyle "Bad" is a bit out of line in my opinion.

Its all a matter of perspective

Originally Posted by David Kelly

Yes, because the behavior touted in those kinds of music video's and gangsta rap is bad for kids and teaches them a bad lifestyle.


/me wonders where everyone's morals have gone...

[Bharat Nain]

This world is so filled with fantasies. This is truly immoral. Why? When a kid is born, the brain is neutral, neither negative nor positive. It's what they see, hear and feel, which builds them up, and they act on what they have now been built on.

David Kelly has a very strong point here, let's assume you are the kid watching the video, coming from a not-so good background. What would he/she do? Obviously think that the video says the right things, and start following it. Society has changed, and we need to go along with it, but know the right ethics at the same time, because what you do today, might continue for a many generations to come. If some of you wonder how some families continue to be wealthy and honored for many generations, its because they have a continuing tradition, which has been kept going, and is hard to break.

At the same time, lets assume the kid learnt the right things, from the right people, learnt to be a hard-worker, learnt to get involved in FIRST and become JVN, or Andy Baker, or Woodie Flowers, or Dean Kamen, or Jessica Boucher, or Amanda Morrison, or Ken Leung, or David Kelly, or some good person like them.. Isn't that a much better life to live? This is life, choose what you really want?


At the same time, I am not saying I don't like rap or anything, I listen to rap, and act ghetto at times, but I come from strong roots and never get lost in some of the fantasies of this world

-Bharat

[Joshua May]

Originally Posted by TeknoBramha

This world is so filled with fantasies. This is truly immoral. Why? When a kid is born, the brain is neutral, neither negative nor positive. It's what they see, hear and feel, which builds them up, and they act on what they have now been built on.

David Kelly has a very strong point here, let's assume you are the kid watching the video, coming from a not-so good background. What would he/she do? Obviously think that the video says the right things, and start following it. Society has changed, and we need to go along with it, but know the right ethics at the same time, because what you do today, might continue for a many generations to come. If some of you wonder how some families continue to be wealthy and honored for many generations, its because they have a continuing tradition, which has been kept going, and is hard to break.

At the same time, lets assume the kid learnt the right things, from the right people, learnt to be a hard-worker, learnt to get involved in FIRST and become JVN, or Andy Baker, or Woodie Flowers, or Dean Kamen, or Jessica Boucher, or Amanda Morrison, or Ken Leung, or David Kelly, or some good person like them.. Isn't that a much better life to live? This is life, choose what you really want?


At the same time, I am not saying I don't like rap or anything, I listen to rap, and act ghetto at times, but I come from strong roots and never get lost in some of the fantasies of this world

-Bharat

Really for the sake of argument, this leads us to what is truly right and what is wrong? (See Billfred's post)

[Bharat Nain]

Originally Posted by HHSJosh

Really for the sake of argument, this leads us to what is truly right and what is wrong? (See Billfred's post)

I do see what you're saying, it's a matter or perspective...

[Madison]

Originally Posted by MattK

I might not agree with that kind of lifestyle but for someone to call a lifestyle "Bad" is a bit out of line in my opinion.

Its all a matter of perspective

What are the good parts of the lifestyle that you disagree with?

[Bill Gold]

This is stream of consciousness at 2am. I’ll re-read this when I wake up tomorrow and edit it if I see fit.

Ugh. Some of the posts in this thread (and to be honest a few other threads) make me cringe. Whether it’s people overcomplicating what should be a non-issue, people thinking they have a right to dictate how others live their lives, or people attempting to back up a weak standpoint with an even weaker corollary. Another thing I want to say with regard to this thread and other applicable threads… Give the “but the kids…” or “for the protection of the kids…” stuff a rest. Yeah there are kids who are screwed up or abused or who abuse others, but it’s sure as hell not because of the video games they play, the music they listen to, the movies they watch, or the television they watch. There are many kids whose parents let them listen to rap, watch gory movies, or even watch movies with nudity in them (you heard me) at young ages who end up being productive members of society. There (thankfully) isn’t one government mandated set of morals (unless you start reaching and find laws like don’t kill, steal, rape, etc. which are good rules, not morals). As long as I don’t break a law, you don’t have any right to tell me how I should live my life, or raise my (hypothetical) child. If you want to raise your kid differently than I raise mine, that’d your right as well. This whole “OMG why don’t you people have morals?!?” debate is a waste of time. I’m going to do my thing, David’s going to do his thing, Maddie’s going to do her thing (not that she was involved in the morality issue), Bharat will do his thing, etc. My guess is that morality was brought up tangentially because of religious reasons. Everyone has the right to worship whatever God or Gods they want to worship in whatever way they want as long as they don’t break a law. This also means people are free to not worship a God and be free from religion. Therefore, they shouldn’t be obligated to adhere to the strict morality of some religions. As long as we nonbelievers don’t break a law, we shouldn’t have to go to a church, pray, bow towards Mecca, do whatever it is people do with holy water, be forced to avoid premarital sex, read the bible, read the 10 commandments, pledge or swear not to lie in front of someone else's God, be forced to stay in a marriage that is or already has crumbled, or other things that certain religions require above the letter of the law. In (my frustrated, tired, and possibly incoherent) conclusion, keep your morals to yourself and live your life however you want to live it, but as long as I don’t break a law don’t tell me how I should live mine. I can decide for myself.

Btw, the Segway in the video was amusing, but it wasn't that big a deal to me.

Jim,
I agree with you about the meter maids

[Lisa Perez]

Sorry to interrupt the argument, everyone, but I still can't see the video for some reason or other. I open up the page, and it says "Downloading.." and such and such at the bottom, but then it goes straight to "Done" and I get nothing. Anyone know what to do?

[MattK]

Lisa PM me and I'll help you out

Originally Posted by Lisa Perez

Sorry to interrupt the argument, everyone, but I still can't see the video for some reason or other. I open up the page, and it says "Downloading.." and such and such at the bottom, but then it goes straight to "Done" and I get nothing. Anyone know what to do?

[Lisa Perez]

Ok, now that I've seen the video, I see where the debate is coming from.. Still, "That's pimp!"

It seems that this video is geared for audiences who are used to seeing the kind of behavior that is conveyed here because it is conveyed in other videos that they like (the kind that some people find offensive, I guess..).

Anyways, you know what would be awesome? If they made videos for every music genre, not just rap, with Segways in them. I'm talkin' Barney singing "I Love You" on a Segway for the kids, Jessica Simpson on a Segway for the pop fans, Trapt on a Segway for the alternative fans, etc. Hehe. Now that'd be some MAJOR exposure for the Segway.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by TeknoBramha

David Kelly has a very strong point here, let's assume you are the kid watching the video, coming from a not-so good background. What would he/she do?

Well, it's obvious that they'd immediately drop out of school and start breakdancing to make ends meet. This video sends an unambiguous message to the impressionable youth that watch it that says, unequivocally, breakdancing is both acceptable and laudable in this society.

I completely agree that breakdancing such as that shown in this video is both immoral and reprehensible, and further, is responsible for a tear in the fabric of our society. This behavior cannot go on unchallenged. It is of vital importance that we continue to take steps in ensuring that our youth do nothing whatsoever to think for themselves, to examine different ideas, or to know different cultures. I applaud David Kelly and yourself, and those like you, for taking a stand against the indecency and immorality sweeping this nation like a plague -- standing up together to ensure that any human beatbox caught dropping beats be jailed, any child carrying even the smallest piece of cardboard be saved, and the gigantic corporations orchestrating all of this be punished. Congratulations and godspeed.

Seriously, are you kidding? Maybe I missed the boat altogether and it's not the breakdancing that you found offensive or immoral. I thought, for a moment, that it might be the woman wearing a bikini and massaging herself. After all, mainstream media and music wouldn't dare dream of objectifying women in the way that rap music does, right?

If some of you wonder how some families continue to be wealthy and honored for many generations, its because they have a continuing tradition, which has been kept going, and is hard to break.

I've always wondered why we equate wealthy with honorable. All along, that's what I thought FIRST was trying to change, but what do I know?

The moral of the story, kids, is that in no universe is Park Slope "gangsta rap," nor are any of the real "gangsta rappers" any more dangerous to the health and well-being of our children and our society than any of the myriad of really screwed up messages people from a "better-than-average" background send out daily. Really, what's more damaging than bombarding people with messages of moral superiority, anyway?

[Adam Y.]

Heheh I saw the video again thinking it was gangsta rap but it wasn't. This was a horrible horrible time to make any type of arguement against it. It was fairly tame. Personally I think gangsta rap is pretty dangerous though I really don't want to get into an arguement. It's just too ambigious. Some journalist said today that if you give mixed signals to adults they will cross the line. He was talking about the prision scandal. If adults can't cope with moral ambiguity then imagine how hard it would be for kids.

You want to know what I think is bad for kids? People who think that they know everything about what is and is not good for kids.

You mean parents??? Parents aren't good for their kids. Face it. Adults make force decisions upon us based on what is right and wrong all the time.

Morals are a sticky thing, mainly because man seems to have used the phrase to death to cover everything from whether or not I should swipe my next pack of gum to whether or not two men or two women should be married. Since everyone (in a generic, the whole world sense) seems to back their personal argument by saying it's morally right or wrong, I'm going to create a new phrase: Beneficial to Society.

There is no such thing that is solely beneficial to society. There is an economic term for it but I don't remeber it.

[Bharat Nain]

When I was watching this video I had my friends little brother around me, ofcourse I didnt notice. Then he comes up to me and asks me "What was that?"(pointing to a girl dancing). I said "It was nothing, don't worry about it". Today he comes up to me and starts acting all ghetto and stuff, in front of my parents and his parents. It was embarassing to me because I was the one who showed him the video, and his parents weren't to happy about it. Is that the influence that should be going around? Agreed, this is not a hardcore gangsta rap video, but still... this is not for kids. I am pretty sure that there are many kids around in the CD forum who have watched that video. I don't think its right, if you want to argue go ahead, I got my 5 minutes, you can have yours!!!

-Bharat

[Ryan Dognaux]

The above is an example of how much music, TV and the media in general influences young people today. Obviously, this doesn't apply to all people, but what does?

So I watched the video, and I do agree that there are parts of it that I would not like my little cousins watching... I don't see how people can think that if they let their daughters and sons watch these videos of girls with barely no clothes on at all that their views of women won't be skewed. I think that's one horrible thing that music videos are doing today.. mostly rap videos, but not entirely.

But if it sells more segways... I guess that's a good thing - because you know rap artists having their hunnies rub down a segway makes me wanna buy one even more

My $.02