Taboos and Popular Culture

Your heart is closed and in my hand I’ve got so many keys.
Which secret key will ever let me open your heart?
Once I open your heart, tell me, will you accept me?
I can’t stop this TABOO, that undeniable TABOO.


Those words were written by the Japanese lyricist and artist Koda Kumi that simply shows how some of our instincts are incontrollable or to vulgar that the society can’t accept. TABOO, reaching number one in the Japanese Oricon Charts, is also the strictest and most highly regulated norm of all the norms. In this case, Koda Kumi lyrics clearly states that even though there are a lot of unaccepted sub-cultures in one’s society, there mighty still be some part that will open the society’s “heart by a key.” That is not true to all cultures because it’s affected by the history, the religious beliefs and other factors. With popular music, movies and culture, other cultures around the world start to accept these forms of taboo and might have an influence on the today’s and future generations.

Photo on the right: CD single of the #1 song TABOO by Koda Kumi.

Some of these cultures include people who believe they’re vampires; groups of homosexuals; groups of drug dealers; or groups that enjoy an unusual form of pleasure, like Rihanna likes to say it “but chains and whips excite me.” There’s a strong message in that song. It became popular and Rihanna has a huge fan base ranging from adults to teenagers to kids. The reason this is shown to the society now without having a lot of conflict or controversy is because it’s already accepted. How? By the over exposure of music videos and movies that contain such themes.
Picture on the left: Rihanna on the Cover of a 2010 G.O. Magazine issue promoting sexual images and themes.



The Simpsons, Ugly Betty, Family Guy, Six Feet Under; these are just a list of popular TV shows and top rated that shows either hidden or exposed themes of sexual jokes and humor, drugs, drinking and homosexuality. People become more addicted to this and keep watching while their subliminal mind starts to slowly accept taboos.

So, back to Koda Kumi’s song, TABOO, the media holds a lot of keys that slowly unlocks the “closed-minded” society’s heart. Not all societies are accepting yet, and some are still strict and reject but not as 3o years ago. More promotion happens and generations are affected. So the question is, how far will this acceptance go? Until when will this norm breaking habit continue? We don’t know but we can observe and witness the spread of acceptance and tolerance thanks to popular culture and popular media.

PS. TABOO is capitalized because that’s the official way of writing the song through its official profile on the website.

The video below is the music video of TABOO, where the general story shows Koda Kumi's interest in a man who later on disappears and she finds him with, not much of an interest to the opposite sex. But, unexpectedly, she smiles and accepts it. This message makes her fans accept this along with her as well.