In her column “Rapper’s ‘baby banter’ lyrics lack content” (April 20), Rhiannon McClatchey demonstrates her own lack of understanding regarding the essence of pop music. 

Lady Gaga’s now-Facebook-infamous nonsense syllables from “Bad Romance” may be catchier to most than Ke$ha’s “blah blah blah,” but to exalt the one and disparage the other seems rather pretentious. 

Both instances of nonsense reinforce the respective messages of the songs, regardless of whether she agrees with either message. 

Pop music has been laced with nonsense syllables for centuries. 

The English madrigals of the early 1600s are famous for “fa la la la la” (a la Deck the Halls) and pop from the late 1950s was so connected with nonsense syllables that “Doo Wop” describes both that genre and the chord progressions used exclusively by it. 

In 1980, Sting wrote “De Do Do Do De Da Da Da” to symbolize the meaningless words and promises of politicians.

Really, for somebody who espouses respect of those able to express well their ideas in words, McClatchey’s disregard of established pop lyric rhetoric seems to me little more than an attempt to fill an article quota. 

Though it may not be her cup of tea, to dismiss Ke$ha’s use of this technique is a hypocritically unsubstantiated attack on expression.

Kent Kercher

Sophomore, Duluth

Music composition

Coverage of crime serves no purpose

Dear The Red & Black,

It must be fun collecting all the “dirt” from the previous weekend. I’m talking about the crime notebook column, which is especially juicy on Mondays and Tuesdays. 

However, why is this column important to the student body? Do we really need to know who/what/when/where got arrested yesterday?

All this column accomplishes is tarnishing students’ reputations who are featured in the column. After embarrassing events in their lives, the last thing they want is for the whole school to know. 

It is understood that the “criminals” are responsible for their actions, but why capitalize on their misfortune? 

We should be supportive of our fellow students and not tear them down with articles that are disgraceful and discourteous. 

If I wanted to read about the daily dirt on people, I would pick up Star or Us Weekly, not The Red & Black. 

This isn’t Gossip Girl, and I think we should be respectful of our classmates.

Amy Oltman

Sophomore, Buckhead

Food sciences and German