cooking by the book

I am all for doing things by the book. Specially cooking, which is a rather precise undertaking. So I happily started watching this video, fully expecting an entertaining if not informative take on the topic.

So you can imagine my jaw dropping when I saw this:

Keep watching, don’t stop at the first few frames.

Now before you start calling me old, or old-fashioned, or a ninny, please understand that I like swearing as much as the next guy. In some instances, like when someone cuts you off dangerously in traffic -- or takes your email party invitation sent to your daughter's new class, and, instead of RSVPing for it as any normal being would, replaces each detail with their own party's, like time, place, RSVP date, while keeping all of the verbiage, design, and even the fonts, then sends it back to the whole class, including you, without ever acknowledging your original invitation, and fully expects you to RSVP for their party--, a little "idiot" or "imbecile" doesn't suffice. Supplementing them with the expletive fucking or even its milder version freaking, simply expresses the sentiment better. You don’t know them and they don’t know you but it’s safe to say that, at this point of the exchange, you know enough to justify the expression, 'ya know what I mean? 

But there is something about this video, the blatant avalanche of gratuitous swearage, which just rubbed me the wrong way. Like you extended your hand to shake someone else's and they in turn punched you in the mouth, nose, eyes, and then, just for effect, spat on you and walked away.

I must confess that the underlying message of this music video was completely lost on me. Because I couldn't really hear any of the lyrics that weren't "motherfucker". Because the suggestive juxtaposition of a belligerent male to a pink haired little girl sweetly singing about being good, to me, bordered on verbal pedophilia. Because by the time I picked up my jaw off the floor, the clip was over. And I don't care to watch it again.

I'm not impervious to the changing of times, the changing of cultural conventions, or the changing of the music scene itself. I get it: each generation has to push the musical boundaries of its predecessors to reclaim it as its own. My parents' generation gave us rock 'n roll, and Elvis, and the Beatles, and Johnny Carson. My generation's contribution was the grunge genre, and Kurt Cobain, and Alanis Morissette, and Queen Latifah. But I guess I dropped the ball at Eminem and the whole gang rap movement, the gateway apparently to where we now seem to be, herein exhibited. Was I subconsciously suppressing and/or avoiding this (whatever kind of music this is) altogether? Has this become our new normal while I was busy replaying my favorites? Is this what the future holds, musically, for my daughter, or will it (gasp) get even worse?

When did we turn the sharp corner from entertainment to verbal assault?