My Childhood's Future

This series is entitled "My Childhood's Future." In it, I took four pop culture songs that were released around my teenage years and depicted what the future of the artist of each song might look like if he/she kept living life with the mindset expressed in said song. All of these are charcoal drawings, approximately three feet by four feet in size.


This first one in this series is entitled "Demi Lovato; Delaying the Heart Attack." It's based off of Demi Lovato's song "Heart Attack", which was released in 2013. In this song, the artist sings about playing guys to get what she wants, but when a good one comes along, she puts her defenses up in order not to fall in love. She never gives a reason for this, but rather seems to voluntarily close herself off for no reason. This song encourages the glamorization of girls being emotionally broken. If you prevent yourself from loving without legitimate reason, you'll only end up shutting people out, and one day end up old, alone, and regretful.


This second one in the series is entitled "Katy Perry; When Your Teenage Dream Turns Twenty." It is based off of Katy Perry's song "Teenage Dream", released in 2010. While Katy was not herself a teen when she performed this song, she glamorizes and encourages sex amongst teenagers as if it is only a lighthearted, fun thing to do at that age. But in reality, most teenagers are not ready for serious relationships, yet it is a time in life where girls mostly just want love and attention and boys mostly just want sex. This makes it dangerous to be encouraging sex at such a young age, as most teenage girls are not mentally prepared for the damage that can be caused by being left by someone you gave yourself to.


This third drawing in the series is entitled "Soulja Boy; After He Cranked That." It is based off of Soulja Boy's hit song "Crank That," which was released in 2007. While this song won many awards, including the BET Hip Hop Award for Best Dance, BET Award for Viewer's Choice, and Grammy Award for Best Rap Song, the lyrics in the chorus "Superman that hoe" actually refer to a very vulgar for of sexual assault in which a guy will ejaculate onto a girl's back while she is sleeping, then throws a blanket on her so that when she wakes up it will be stuck to her like Superman's cape. This is usually done when a guy is mad at a girl for not having sex with him. So in this image, I depicted what the girl might look like after having been assaulted in such a way.


The last image in this series, "Miley Cyrus; When You Finally Stop" is based off of Miley Cyrus's 2013 song "Can't Stop." This song makes several hard drug references, including those to ecstasy and cocaine. While little drug experimentation may not always be exceedingly harmful, mixing hard drugs, or even doing them under the irresponsible mindset of "we can't stop and we won't stop," as expressed in the song, is dangerous, and in some cases can be fatal. That is why in this image, I depicted the artist mourning over the loss of an anonymous overdosed friend, in order to depict the consequences of the behavior this song encourages.