Pop Culture Experience - Essay Example

Marriage is a rite of passage but the way Johnny is portrayed in this song is completely opposite to what young men go through during the initiation period (Alade, 2013). A young man is not allowed even to touch a lady before marriage as it is believed it can bring bad omen to the family and embarrass the community at large. Johnny is accurately portrayed in this song due to civilization that is being experienced in the African continent. Western civilization and the unstoppable wave of globalization have introduced many practices that were not there in the African culture including dating that was never heard of in the yesteryears.

Kenny Rogers hit song “Coward Of The County” was out in 1979 single in the album Triple Platinum Kenny (Roland, 1991). The song is about Kenny Rogers’s nephew, Tommy, whom everyone in his County regarded a coward and nicknamed him yellow because he never stood up for himself to show the County what he was made of. His dad had died in prison ten years before this song and he had forbidden him to do the things he had done that got him jailed (Roland, 1991). From the lyrics, Tommy’s dad advised him that ‘turning the other cheek’ is not a sign of weakness and that in confrontations he should ‘walk away’; until this one day when Tommy’s girlfriend was raped by The Gatlin Brothers and he had to break his father’s promise by beating all the three brothers leaving them unconscious in the barroom (Roland, 1991).

The three brothers in this song, The Gatlin, who are the minority, do not re-present the dominant culture in any society. They felt strong in the County that they could hurt anyone and get away with it. They dared this ‘coward’ by raping his girlfriend in turns to show their might and went to the bar to celebrate. It turned out that their days were numbered when they were all beaten by Tommy single-handed and left unconscious (Roland, 1991). The brothers were portrayed as strong which turns out to be a stereotype in the County when they were beaten up by Tommy.