Dear Dumplin,
Explicit lyrics do not belong in a kid’s playlist. Period. Why is this so hard for people to understand? I’ve been going back and forth with the streaming service Tidal since September 2018 and I’m not winning the battle. It is so frustrating because I just don’t understand what they don’t understand. It’s clearly an error! As time passed, I began to wonder. Maybe this isn’t a mistake to them. Maybe they don’t see anything wrong with explicit lyrics in music that children listen to. Perhaps, I am barking up the wrong tree… But let me start at the beginning…
We started listing to the “Kids Corner” playlist early last year. It was great because I didn’t have to create a playlist of my own. I had been subscribing to Tidal for sometime because I love Beyoncé (shout out to the Bey Hive) and Tidal is the only place where I can get ALL of her music. Now Tidal served another purpose. I got to listen to Beyoncé, and you got entertained while I drove you to school. Some songs that you loved are Let it Go, Shake it Off, Get Back Up Again, The Kidz Bop Kids version of Look What You Made Me Do, and of course the Mickey Mouse Hot Dog Song. All of these songs were conveniently located in the Kids’ Corner playlist on Tidal.
Then around September 2018, I noticed the playlist was updated. Great! I pressed play and drove away. First, we get to a song “Me” by Laura Marano. The songs starts:
“I think how good you would look on my body (mhm)
I daydream about all the shit you tell me (yeah)
Unzip all the logic like no one’s watching (mhm)
And do all of the things that I’ve been wanting (yeah)”
Ummm. Excuse me???!!!! When I get home, I checked the playlist. Yup. I’m still in the Kids’ Corner playlist. Yup, there’s a song clearly marked with an “E” for explicit in the playlist. Oh, but wait. There’s more. Next up is “Friends” by Marshmello and Anne-Marie:
“Ooh ooh, ooh ooh
Ooh ooh, ooh ooh
You say you love me, I say you crazy
We’re nothing more than friends
You’re not my lover, more like a brother
I known you since we were like ten, yeah
Don’t mess it up, talking that shit
Only gonna push me away, that’s it
When you say you love me, that make me crazy
Here we go again”
PARDON ME???? My 5-year does not need to hear anything about being lovers or any profanity. I DON’T CARE HOW MILD. But wait, there’s more. Now, I like Bruno Mars. Do the unedited versions of his songs belong in a kid’s playlist? No. Again, no profanity or sexually suggestive or explicit lyrics belong in a kid’s playlist.
“Ooh, don’t we look good together?
There’s a reason why they watch all night long
Yeah, know we’ll turn heads forever
So tonight I’m gonna show you off
When I’m walkin’ with you
I watch the whole room change
Baby, that’s what you do
No, my baby, don’t play
Blame it on my confidence
Oh, blame it on your measurements
Shut that shit down on sight
That’s right”
Well this must be an innocent mistake right?! Let me contact customer service. Little did I know that was just the beginning of a 6-month and counting battle. On September 27, 2018 I emailed customer service. I gave them the name of the playlist and told them it has explicit lyrics. Their response contained a lot of nothing.
“While I cannot provide an immediate response confirming the status of your request, please know that feedback like yours is truly appreciated and helps us shape TIDAL to fit the wants and needs of our members.”
Afterwards, my ticket was promptly closed. Tidal then sent me an email to rate my customer service experience. When I tried to rate it, they told me I cannot rate an experience if the ticket is closed. Huh? I decide to be patient. Every few days, I check the playlist to see if the songs had been removed. Nothing happened. I emailed them again in October. Their response:
“We apologize for this inconvenience.
While I cannot provide an immediate response confirming the status of your request, please know that feedback like yours is truly appreciated and helps us shape TIDAL to fit the wants and needs of our members.”
Afterwards, they proceeded to send me another email to submit feedback.
The feedback is to remove the inappropriate songs! I give it a little more time. Meanwhile, you and I discover a great children’s podcasts to listen to instead (Hey
Stories Podcast!). But it keeps bugging me. I’m paying for this service. Why can’t they just fix it? What is the hold up? It can’t be that hard! So I email them again in November. The response?
“Thank you for reaching out.
We apologize for the inconvenience. It is never our intention to disappoint our beloved clients.
Unfortunately our teams have to respond to thousands of requests from clients all over the world and this takes time. We do appreciate your patience and understanding, and we hope that you continue to stay in our TIDAL family.”
So two months later the answer is, “We have a lot of subscribers.” This can’t make sense! I complained to friends and family about it. They suggested I cancel my membership. But what does that do? How does it get fixed? Are other people’s children listening to this? And it hits me, I do not take parenthood lightly. I strongly believe that children’s entertainment should be appropriate for kids. It should not simply be adult entertainment with the profanity bleeped out. Children are too important and we have to do better. Adulthood is long. Childhood is short. We should do our best to get it right because kids grow up fast! They’ll have lots of time to hear all of the profanity in the world! But now, let them be kids. So I couldn’t let it go. In fact, I sent a rather rude email to customer service this month to tell them exactly how disgusted I am. And do you know what? I had to resend the playlist, a link the playlist, and links to EACH INDIVIDUAL song in order for them to help me. All of this and I was still communicating with the same customer service representative who responded to my initial complaint! And now? As of February 26, 2019, the playlist has still not been corrected.
So, I write this as a last ditch attempt to get someone to pay attention. The adultification of children is real. If you have a child like mine that listens to every word, who loves information, who wants to learn and understand everything, STAY VIGILANT. Even if they don’t ask, kids notice. They absorb. They slurp up everything around them like a smoothie on a hot day. Let them be kids while they can. Our children are the mirrors to who we are as adults, parents, and a society. Shouldn’t they reflect something wonderful and thoughtful?
As for me, I’ve amassed 4 customer support request numbers (609772, 614397, 647364, 707497) and have painstakingly copied my playlists over to Apple Music. I even made you a Kids’ Corner playlist with no curses! If you want me to add new songs to it, just let me know. I promise I’ll make sure everything is appropriate and catered especially for you. Lastly, my Tidal subscription was cancelled this morning.
Love,
Mama
