By all means, check out the lyrics of some popular rock songs from the late 80s. I think you’ll find the pedophila vastly underrepresented.
Now, that’s not to say songwriters like Steven Tyler didn’t exist, but a large part of the lyricism you’re talking about is from around a decade or more earlier.
On the age of consent, I’ll give you this: they’re definitely weird in Georgia. Georgia’s age of consent was 14 until 1995.
However, the kids in the Losers Club were 11 in the first part of IT, which is still below even that threshold. With the exception of Georgia, the age of consent in America has been at least 16 since 1920. Plus, 23 states actually set their age of consent at 18 back then as well.
Maybe it was a little less weird in 1986 than it is now, but it was still far from the cultural norm. That’s all.
Motörhead – Jailbait (1980): Lemmy’s vocals directly reference wanting an underage fan, with explicit references to ignoring her age
Aerosmith – Jailbait (1982): Aerosmith released their own song titled “Jailbait” exploring a similar theme
KISS – Christine Sixteen (1977, still popular into the 1980s): Focuses on a fascination with a sixteen-year-old girl, and gets repeated mention for its controversial spoken section
Winger – Seventeen (1988): Describes a romantic obsession with a seventeen-year-old girl
The Police – Don’t Stand So Close to Me (1980): Explores forbidden attraction between a teacher and his student
Benny Mardones – Into the Night (1980): The lyrics reference a young girl separated from the singer by age
Let’s check out the lyrics of some popular rock songs from that time period…
Or what the age of consent was…
By all means, check out the lyrics of some popular rock songs from the late 80s. I think you’ll find the pedophila vastly underrepresented.
Now, that’s not to say songwriters like Steven Tyler didn’t exist, but a large part of the lyricism you’re talking about is from around a decade or more earlier.
On the age of consent, I’ll give you this: they’re definitely weird in Georgia. Georgia’s age of consent was 14 until 1995.
However, the kids in the Losers Club were 11 in the first part of IT, which is still below even that threshold. With the exception of Georgia, the age of consent in America has been at least 16 since 1920. Plus, 23 states actually set their age of consent at 18 back then as well.
Maybe it was a little less weird in 1986 than it is now, but it was still far from the cultural norm. That’s all.
Motörhead – Jailbait (1980): Lemmy’s vocals directly reference wanting an underage fan, with explicit references to ignoring her age
Aerosmith – Jailbait (1982): Aerosmith released their own song titled “Jailbait” exploring a similar theme
KISS – Christine Sixteen (1977, still popular into the 1980s): Focuses on a fascination with a sixteen-year-old girl, and gets repeated mention for its controversial spoken section
Winger – Seventeen (1988): Describes a romantic obsession with a seventeen-year-old girl
The Police – Don’t Stand So Close to Me (1980): Explores forbidden attraction between a teacher and his student
Benny Mardones – Into the Night (1980): The lyrics reference a young girl separated from the singer by age