When one opens iTunes, Pandora or any music hosting site, dozens of artists burst from advertisements and panels with neon colors and profuse popularity: Taylor Swift, Iggy Azalea, Maroon 5, all the rest. Everyone’s heard of them, and their songs are identifiable within seconds.

Their immediate fame is bewildering, but becomes almost reasonable when one considers the artist’s music: it’s catchy. “Shake it Off” forces dancing whilst contagious love encompasses Azalea’s “Fancy” because it’s a fun, loose song.

I won’t deny they sound great.

I won’t deny that’s one reason to buy a song.

But I will proclaim that auditory-pleasing songs should never permit ignorance.

What defines this “ignorance?”

Let’s compare two songs: “Fancy,” mentioned above, and “Meant to Live” by Switchfoot.

Iggy Azalea, “Fancy”

Verse 3:

Still stuntin’, how you love that?

Got the whole world asking how I does that

Hot girl, hands off, don’t touch that

Look at it I bet you wishing you could clutch that

It’s just the way you like it, huh?

You’re so good, he’s just wishing he could bite it, huh?

Never turn down nothing,

Slaying these hoes, gold trigger on the gun like

Chorus:

I’m so fancy

You already know

I’m in the fast lane

From L.A. to Tokyo

Switchfoot, “Meant to Live”

Verse 1:

Fumbling his confidence

And wondering why the world has passed him by

Hoping that he’s bent for more than arguments

And failed attempts to fly, fly

Chorus:

We were meant to live for so much more

Have we lost ourselves?

Somewhere we live inside

Somewhere we live inside

We were meant to live for so much more

Have we lost ourselves?

Somewhere we live inside

Dreaming about Providence

And whether mice or men have second tries

Maybe we’ve been livin with our eyes half open

Maybe we’re bent and broken, broken

So, “Fancy” is a story about being awesome. And going to parties. Because that’s what famous people do. Oh, and make sure you have a hot body all the guys want to clutch before doing any of those things.

Switchfoot’s “Meant to Live” speaks of confusion in life, referencing social despair but instilling hope. It questions discrimination and what is right and wrong while focusing on a type of compassion-revolution to raise love amongst other humans.

The two songs compared provide blinding contrast between an unintelligent song and an educated one. A monologue on clubbing and being ornamental teaches nothing, but “Meant to Live” offers hope in a world of darkness.

Furthermore, many pop songs glorify objectification and idolization of women, things most humans proclaim to hate. Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass” says “every bit of us perfect,” but then says guys like “a little more booty to hold.”

While adolescents male and female face varied and similar trials, most teenage girls confront nightmarish, warped themes of body image and what actions will make others like them. A gargantuan measure of popular songs instruct girls to have a perfect* physique, then offer it to any, instilling the already horrid expectations of women.

Self-image affects men, too; and these songs define what the role of a woman and man is. If a guy isn’t attending parties and having sex with every girl he meets, he is living incorrectly. Nothing teaches courtesy — perhaps that is why holding doors open or pulling chairs out for women is becoming nonexistent.

Music like this is a hazard to avoid. Sophomore Grant Weber has similar thoughts on this dilemma. “I like [popular music] every now and then, but after a while it just gets annoying because the meaning just isn’t there,” Weber said. “There just doesn’t seem to be any meaning to it; it’s just whatever the artist feels like at the moment. It’s not anything that will make you think anything profound.

While songs subjugating women and chanting vows of questionable morals have diffused and spread across miles of media, Weber has found his selection of alternatives.

“As far as lyrics are concerned, I definitely like a lot of the harder rock Christian bands like Nine Lashes, Thousand Foot Crutch, um, Love and Death,” he said. “As far as the beat, I like a lot of stuff from Monstercat like Tristam.”

The amount of bad music is astounding, but the quality of healthy songs overrides it. Within the digital tempests of the craft, boundless havens of brilliant and intelligent compositions defend listeners from the toxic messages of popular music.

* Ladies. You are beautiful. I’ve seen the effects of debilitating music amid other dangerous things and seeing gorgeous girls think they’re ugly kills me.

You are brilliant and lovely and kind.