The 500 - #414 - Beauty and the Beat - The Go-Go's

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 414

Album Title: Beauty and the Beat
Artist: The Go-Go's
Genre: New Wave, Pop Rock, Post Punk
Recorded: Penny Lane, Record Plant & Power Mixer Studios, New York City
Released: July, 1981
My age at release: 15
How familiar was I with it before this week: Quite
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: We Got the Beat

Several years ago, an eleven-year old girl returned to my Grade six classroom in tears. She was devastated by the news she had heard on the school yard. It seemed a former "best-friend" had hosted a sleepover during the weekend, attended by several classmates. At the sleepover, rumours had circulated so awful that she was unable to share them with me.

I felt absolutely helpless. My simple reassurances had little impact and, as the rest of the girls filed into the room, I felt equally paralyzed. I couldn't chastise any students without all the facts -- I didn't know who had said what. I just watched the "bullies" walk to their desks, some even had an air of smugness...or was I reading into that? 

Then, like a tiny angel, one of my kindest students arrived. I knew she would never be involved in such a tawdry situation. Quietly, I asked her to escort her tearful peer to the main office to chat with our vice-principal, a female who was kind and adept in a crisis. Hurriedly, I scribbled a few details on a note. During the next hour, students (including the main antagonist) were called to the office. The vice-principal stemmed the tears and found a tentative resolution to the problem, yet, the damage was done and I continued to wonder what I could have done (or in the future, do) to ameliorate situations like these. Little did I realize that the band, The Go-Go's, would soon provide me with an answer.

The Go-Go's were an all-female, new-wave band from California  who incorporated a sound that, at first blush, seemed a modern take on the girl-groups of the past. However, The Go-Go's were different. Unlike their predecessors, the doo-wop vocal groups of the late 50s and early 60s, The Go-Go's played their own instruments and wrote their own music. Additionally, they drew inspiration from the Los Angeles punk scene of the late 70s. Lead singer Belinda Carlisle had been a member of the band The Germs, using the pseudonym Dottie Danger, prior to forming The Go-Go's with guitarist and singer Jane Weidlin. 

Beauty and the Beat Album Cover

The opening track from the Go Go's debut record, Beauty and the Beat, is an uptempo, pop-number called Our Lips are Sealed. I was in high school at the time of its release and it quickly shot up the billboard charts, where it remained for 30 weeks. The video, which was in regular rotation on Canadian television, was a playful romp. It featured the five members piled into a 1960s Buick convertible for a cruise around Beverly Hills. It seemed an intentional throw-back to "Beach Party Films" from 20 years earlier.

A "screen-grab" from the 1981 Go-Go's video

They stop at a lingerie store and then at a public fountain where they frolic in the knee-deep water. Throughout the video, the band is shown performing on-stage at a small club. In many ways, the video presented the band poorly. It certainly led me, and many of my friends, to dismiss them as a novelty act playing "bubblegum pop" -- highly contrived and easily disposable.

Years later, after the incident with the bullied eleven-year-old, I was preparing lessons on strategies to deal with bullying. Anti-bullying education is an important part of the elementary educator's curriculum. Plenty of resources are available and, over the years, I have curated a good collection of songs, videos and activities with the goal of helping my students to choose kindness, support the bullied and have strategies to help themselves. I share stories from my youth, including a shameful memory of a time when I mercilessly bullied a girl from my school in order to fit in with a group of boys from my hockey team. I consider the annual retelling of that dreadful story penance for what I did.

It was during my preparations that I stumbled on an acoustic version of Our Lips Are Sealed performed by its songwriter Jane Weidlin. I realized I'd underestimated this music. This stripped-down, demo-version highlighted the subtle magnificence of the song's structure. There was so much going on -- the infectious melody, the clever chord shifts and the gorgeous harmonies, (particularly in the haunting bridge section). But, most importantly, there were the empowering lyrics, brilliantly providing the listener with a strategy to combat the toxicity of elementary school gossip and social bullying.

Discussing the song Our Lips Are Sealed is ideal for addressing a different kind of bullying -- gossip and social exclusion. I am generalizing, but my conclusions are based 24 years of teaching. 

Boys bully directly. They intimidate physically and their taunts and barbs are often levelled directly at their targets. As an educator, boy bullies are far more easy to spot. Additionally, they are often socialized to embrace a "boy code" -- a set of rules that define what it means to be a boy. These include being macho, independent, athletic and dominant. Those who do not embrace this code are considered weak or wimpy. Additionally, the boy code dictates that a certain amount of verbal bullying is acceptable between friends. Making a mistake and having your friend ridicule you or bust your chops* (among other variants) is part of male relationships and, typically, a two-way street.

Girls often bully indirectly and don't tend to engage in the playful, verbal sparring of their male counterparts. This has been dubbed Mean Girl behaviour and, like the antagonists in the film of the same name, they ostracize their victims, often spreading false rumours or malicious gossip.   

It is often more difficult for me to recognize Girl Bullying because it can be silent and more passive in its aggression. However, it cuts its victim deeply...arguably more deeply than a punch or kick. I was, as I mentioned at the outset, at a loss for a strategy to help girls cope with bullying. Now, we cover the song as a class and I present the strategy.

When you look at them

Look right through them

That's when they'll disappear

That's when you'll be feared.

It seems hokey...but, it works. I add the song to our classroom playlist and words are displayed on the wall. Admittedly, it's not a panacea...but it is a strategy against an elusive form of villainy.