"I see the whole world turn into a war zone"

Even though it switches off pretty frequently (you can't just have ONE favorite song by an incredible artist), I'd have to say right now my favorite song by Wyclef is "Slow Down". Its one of those things where you wake up in the morning with it stuck in your head and it stays ALL DAY. Sometimes its obnoxious, but its a good song, so generally I don't mind. 

I was originally drawn to the song by its catchy tune, but then as I listened to the lyrics, I realized I agreed and could relate with many of his points. In this song, Wyclef reflects on recent events, such as nuclear testing, the war in Iraq, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and poverty in America, and their extreme impact. In the chorus, he sings "I see the whole world turn into a war zone", and given the fact that there is SO much tension between the U.S. and the Middle East, Wyclef's lyrics don't seem too far-fetched. Even though Wyclef simply addresses various problems in this song and doesn't provide any advice on how to deal with them, he seems to be trying to advocate for his listeners to take action and do whatever they can to improve the situation. As the song is titled "Slow Down", I can definitely relate to the feeling that the world is moving too fast, and the anxiety that our country will be forced into an even bigger and more nonsensical war than the one we got ourselves into a few short years ago. Hopefully as Americans we can try to graduate from the 2nd grade and realize that with problem-solving, violence usually only creates more animosity. I'm not overly confident. For the sole purpose of not going on a rant, we'll relate it back to Wyclef. Wyclef backs this idea up with the first line of the chorus that reads "Where'd the hope go, where'd the hope go?", which is a genuinely a great question. All in all, "Slow Down" is a song worth listening to.

Lyrics: Slow Down ( feat. T.I.) - Wyclef Jean

Wyclef

Since his debut in the music world in the 1980s with the hip-hop group "The Fugees", Wyclef Jean has been an influential force in the hip-hop world. Though he has his fair share of songs that talk about strip-clubs, money-making, and living the good life (but honestly, in terms of hip-hop/rap, there's not an artist out there who DOESNT have songs like that), he chooses to focus mainly on real-life issues in his lyrics, whether its dealing with the war in Iraq, the election, or the struggles of living in poverty. Though our generation embraces MTV over the news (its okay, i do the same thing) and for the most part is ignorant of just about anything outside the little bubble of their neighborhood, Wyclef has found a way to get through: music. Through his songs he advocates peace and helping others, and outside of his music business, he works to help the improvement of his home country of Haiti, with his organization appropriately called "Yele Haiti".
While I feel like the majority of people in my generation are the type of people who see horrible things going on and say " wow, thats awful, I should really do something about it...", and proceed to do nothing, I feel like there's an increasing number of kids working toward the goal of various improvements in the world. For example, our school's fundraisers for Habitat for Humanity just goes to show that people who would normally sit back and do nothing to help others, are getting involved and putting their time and effort into a meaningful project.
Though we are a VERY materialistic generation (but in America, let's be honest, who isn't?), I feel that Wyclef's songs promoting the betterment of society are becoming increasingly more characteristic of teenagers' attitudes.

those wild and crazy teenagers...

While watching the film on Elvis, a memorable point brought up was the fact that teenagers' desire to rebel against their parents helped bring about Elvis' popularity. Since parents across America were shocked by Elvis' new sound, terrified by his integration of black culture into mainstream music, and disgusted by his dancing (uh oh... those hip movements...), Elvis became immediately appealing to the teenage population. That's not to say that everything parents dislike teenagers automatically love, but... sometimes... yes. 

In 7th and 8th grade I suddenly decided I was sick of letting my parents have it easy by being responsible, and (looking back) started to be extremely obnoxious. I was the typical moody early teen who was REALLY into bad screamy music with indiscernible lyrics (enough to blast out your eardrums several times over), with a few good bands thrown in there occasionally. I decided that just about anything on the radio was wayyy too mainstream for me, and anything that would make my parents cringe and want to angrily shut off the music in the car was genuinely great stuff. 

My point to all this? It makes a lot of sense that Elvis was so popular when parents weren't so fond of him. Obviously thats not the only reason he went down in history, but seeing as how teenagers tend to be an extremely influential age group (in terms of marketing), its funny that the same principle had the exact same effect over 50 years ago.