Brief thoughts on music

(I apologize in advance, my posts will be haphazard this month. I'm writing a novel for National Novel Writing Month and that is keeping me pretty busy.)

I was listening to the radio the other day and it occured to me that sometimes it's difficult to determine whether a given song is sexist, an example of a dysfunctional relationship, or both.

Some songs are blatantly anti-woman: treating us like we're objects or inferior. Some songs are just really big examples of dysfunctional relationships: relationships in which one or both of the people involved are in it for Completely Wrong Reasons (some of them even admit this). Some songs are both: the relationship is dysfunctional because the man thinks the woman is his property, or the woman thinks she has to follow traditional gender roles in order to keep the man she loves.

Ick. Ick, ick, ick. I understand that a lot of songs are about strong emotional impacts and dysfunctional relationships certainly bring out the angst. But, really, do we have to have so many songs equating "love" with sexism and passive-aggressiveness and selfishness?