Bawdy songs make it big

Have you seen this commercial?



I sometimes have the same feelings, as those evoked by this language school advertisement, when I turn the Polish radio on. I listen to Radio Złote Przeboje (100,1 FM in Warsaw) and they fall into delights over one new song (below).



It starts: It’s the first of May / I don’t feel the same, so one would infer it’s a song about nothing, like almost all released these days, but when the song reaches its climax, the refrain goes:

I give you all my lala
But don't you tell my mama
'Coz I don't need no drama
In my life

And now a hint to radio comperes and EN->PL translators – “lala” is not a doll, nor carefree singing along, but it translates (retaining the meaning and flow, but not literally) into Polish as:

Więc zróbmy bara-bara
Niech nie wie moja stara
Bo jeszcze jedna kara
Na nic mi

This is going to be a hit in Poland and across Europe this late winter. Catchy tune accentuating the advantages of going to bed… But it’s not the first time, a few months ago one of the most popular songs was the one below.



It was played in commercial and state (the one with a mission) radio quite frequently, but I was really baffled when someone played it in Sunday morning Catholic broadcast and then enlightened listeners (mostly pensioners) called the radio and said they had enjoy its “smooth flow” (po polsku – gładko im ta piosenka płynęła).

(…) Make you want to touch it, make you want to taste it / Have you lusting for her, go crazy face it / She's so much more than you're used to / She knows just how to move to seduce you / She gone do the right thing and touch the right spot / Dance in you're lap till you're ready to pop
She’s always ready, when you want it she want it / Like a nympho, the info / I show you where to meet her / On the late night, till daylight the club jumping / If you want a good time, she’s gonna give you what you want
Baby it’s a new age, / You’re like my new craze / Let's get it together / Maybe we can start a new phase
(…)
Why don't you sit down on top of me
(…)
When she ready to ride, I'm ready to roll / I'll be in this bitch till the club close
What should I do, one thing on all fours / Now that that shit should be against the law / Different style, different move / Damn I like the way you move / Girl you got me thinking about / All the things I do to you / Let's get it poppin shorty / We can switch positions / From the couch to the counters in my kitchen

Now I won’t dare to translate, but don’t you try to tell my the lyrics are not suggestive (dwuznaczne). By the way, it does flow smoothly, love these beats.

I’m not ranting about the existence of such songs. In Polish we have some “bara-bara-bara, riki-tiki-tak / jeśli masz ochotę daj mi jakiś znak”, such as Doda’s “Party song” (below),



or the infamous Polish kitschy disco polo song “Cztery razy po dwa razy”, which symbolises the downfall of popular culture, but is disturbingly popular in Podlasie and played during almost every rural wedding party.



Perhaps there is a demand for a song which plays up benefits of sleeping around and tells that everyone deserves a good f*ck in strange places. At the end it takes a piss out of healthy students, like me. Hey, why haven’t I been to any rural wedding and why haven’t I tasted all those forms of entertainment like jolly good shag on haystack in a barn? I’ve never been and, oddly enough, I don’t regret!

Those songs exist in every language, but I’m sure no Polish radio station would let the Polish ones be played, but they blithely play the English-language ones. I somehow feel treated like an idiot. Is it their hypocrisy or ineptitude?