Pulling the "train" of thoughtlessness
By Todd Foltz

Whoever said that music soothes the savage breast obviously never had a chance to watch MTV.

Lucky dog.

It is easy for those of us today to see just how untrue that quotation is. That's not to say that modern music is terrible or evil. As part owner of a record store that specializes in underground music, I sell CDs that often are too explicit, too discordant or just plain too weird to appeal to a mainstream market. And that's OK. It's music I like, and it's music my customers like.

But there is an increasing trend in music today that is terribly disturbing, even to a tattooed 26-year-old with long hair and a penchant for leather jackets, black clothes and dog collars. That trend is one of disrespect for others. And not only disrespect, but ignorance, as well. Too often, music today is not so much the lifting of voices in song as it is the raising of voices in anger and hatred and senseless vulgarity.

Forgive them, Mother/Father, for they know not what they do. In the Bible, "they" were throwing stones; today, "they" are throwing out rhymes and busting moves without regard or even recognition of the consequences. I fear that our words today are indeed as hurtful as the Old Testament's stones.

The latest in a Russian bread line of examples comes from an under-talented dance group known as the Quad City DJs. The members of this group are all healthy in body and eager to sing about the exercise that keeps them that way. And we're not talking weightlifting, either. Nope, the DJs delightedly "sing" of sex with all the enthusiasm (and creativity) of a gaggle of third grade boys in the bathroom.

Only, instead of getting their mouths washed out with soap, the Quad City DJs are getting lots of money. The video for the song, "C'mon 'n Ride It (the Train)" was in the top five on MTV last week.

And that's OK, if you like bad music, juvenile (delinquent) lyrics and pointless grinding in a video. After all, music is an expression of the human experience, and sex is part of that experience. Apparently some of us experience it more than others.

But if Francis Scott Key can pay homage to the American flag in song and Michael W. Smith can praise the Lord with a Casio, then songs about sex should be OK, too. The Song of Solomon is about sex, after all, and if the talented musicians of the Quad City DJs think they can top it, I say go for it.

But "C'mon 'n Ride It" doesn't celebrate loving sex, as does its biblical counterpart. Instead, it's about something that gets a bunch of frat boys thrown off one or another of our nation's campuses every year or two. The song is not about what happens between a woman and a man, or a man and a man, or a woman and a woman. "C'mon 'n Ride It" is about what happens between a woman and a man and a man and a man and a man ... ad infinitum.

Is this paying homage to Eros? No, the Quad City DJs are paying tribute to gang rape.

"Pulling a train," which is what the Quad DJs would have you think is fun, healthy and exciting, is a slang term for gang rape. "Trains" typically happen at parties where the liquor has flowed too freely and one unfortunate woman has passed out or been rendered incoherent. Then men who are of such a mind join the "train," taking turns at stealing the victim's soul.

Horrific, isn't it?

It happens. And it happens all too often. And it almost always happens to women, not men. I know several people who've survived such attacks and are still rebuilding their lives years later.

In the Quad City DJ video, both men and women join the "train," singing and grinding their hips together and grinning like Martha Raye with a new box of Polydent. Do the DJs know of what they sing? Undoubtedly. After all, they're hip, they're down, they're from the street. They've got it goin' on, know what I mean? Do they care that they're telling women to lay back and enjoy being repeatedly violated?

That answer's obvious, too. But why should they? The Quad City DJs aren't saying anything now that a certain former Texas gubernatorial candidate didn't say a few years back.

But would the Quad City DJs be singing this song if women routinely gang raped men? Would they laugh and gyrate and grin for the camera if they thought the same thing might happen to them later that night if they went to a party alone? What if it wasn't women who would "pull a train" on them, but other men?

Horrific thought, isn't it?

But then, in pop culture today, men raping men is one of the most discomfiting ideas around. What is the one scene from "Pulp Fiction" that nearly everyone spoke about in hushed tones before discussing the rest of the movie? The rape of a man, by a man. And what scene from "Deliverance" has characterized a generation's view of the South and the word "sooey?"

Same thing.

But how many rape scenes of women have flashed before our eyes in blockbusters over the past few years that made us go into the parking lot whispering and tittering nervously? In recent years, there seems to have been an effort on the part of movie makers to stop glorifying rape, to show it only when it is germane and only as the crime of violence that it is. And the premium cable channels have added rape to the list of objectionables that run before a movie starts.

And that's good. But just when we start making progress toward ending rape ­ of females and males both ­ along come our fine friends from the Quad City. And they'll probably say it's all in the name of art.

Artistic freedom is one thing that should be defended at all costs. But there is nothing artistic about rape.

Todd Foltz swears he is still a member in good standing of the "Tipper Gore is a whiny so-and-so Club", comments here to the contrary.

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