Or maybe you still love it, but now you have a different perspective.

  • _NetNomad@fedia.io
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    2 hours ago

    the two Who rock operas are chock full of stuff that went over my head because i heard them when i was younger than i probably should have been. in this case the songs are written from character POVs so i wouldn’t say they make me think less of the band because of the content, but jeez, 10 year old me never would’ve figured Love Reign O’er Me for example was about a suicide attempt as opposed to, you know, feeling loved

  • Sludgeyy@lemmy.world
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    50 minutes ago

    Stinkfist - Tool

    You think from the title it would be obvious. Never thought why it was named like that until after I realized what the song was about.

  • d00phy@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    I’m surprised at the number of people who don’t know Weezer’s “Hashpipe” is about male prostitution.

  • Chip_Rat@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Richmen North of Richmond.

    I love the sound, and at first it sounds like a pro worker union song (and it kinda is).

    But there’s way too much dog whistle… An old soul in a new world… Dude the south lost and slavery is bad. I’m sorry

    And then he slips in some super disappointing language about fat people on welfare.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      Dude the south lost and slavery is bad. I’m sorry

      WTF? Don’t be sorry about that!

      I know it’s just sort of a reflexive idiomatic politeness, but still, it is really important to make it absolutely crystal clear how irredeemably contemptible the “lost cause” shit take is, at every opportunity. Never, ever be polite about it!

      • Chip_Rat@lemmy.world
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        1 minute ago

        Thank you.

        “The south lost and slavery is bad, kindly get fucked.”

        Sorry as a Canadian and a woman I just can’t not be polite…

  • pastermil
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    4 hours ago

    Pretty much all Linkin Park songs.

    Listened to it since elementary.

    Around high school, I figured the lyrics were kinda dark.

    Then the vocalist hung himself.

  • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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    4 hours ago

    This song is cute and happy but the lyrics are absolutely devastating and make me cry. https://open.spotify.com/track/2E3hdMguyNDQswLXyUotYR

    https://genius.com/Bloc-party-signs-lyrics


    [Verse 1]
    Two ravens in the old oak tree
    And one for you and one for me
    And bluebells in the late December
    I see signs now all the time
    The last time we slept together
    There was something that was not there
    You never wanted to alarm me
    But I’m the one that’s drowning now

    [Verse 2]
    I can sleep forever these days
    Cause in my dreams I see you again
    But this time-fleshed out fuller face
    In your confirmation dress
    It was so like you to visit me
    To let me know you were okay
    It was so like you to visit me
    You’re always worried about someone else

    [Bridge]
    At your funeral I was so upset
    So, so upset
    In your life you were larger than this
    Statue statuesque

    [Chorus] (x2)
    I see signs now all the time
    That you’re not dead, you’re sleeping
    I believe in anything
    That brings you back home to me


    I hate this song. Literally sobbing at the fear of the state my mental health would be in if my wife suddenly passed.

    • Classy
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      2 hours ago

      Harper Road from Sun Kil Moon is similar, super beautiful song but tragic fucking lyrics

      My blood runs through my lonely daughter
      Her eyes are mine, so wild with wonder
      Be my voice, my light, my power
      Be with me in my leaving hour

  • Schal330@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    Mr Brightside by the Killers. The tune was good and felt energetic when it came about, but it’s about a guy being cheated on. Having had someone cheat on me around the time it came out it hit really close to home and I just don’t enjoy listening to the song.

    The problem with being in the UK is that it’s so overplayed and I just have to tune it out.

    • Classy
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      2 hours ago

      I second one of the other commenters who says that the song is about the perception of being cheated on. It’s funny, after the first day I ever went on with my partner that song played and for a little while we considered it our song, then eventually kind of faded as they both realized the song didn’t relate to us very well. Now I can look back years later, after going through a lot of therapy and self enrichment and I can realize that those kind of paranoia really did plague our early relationship. I’m glad that we were able to move on from it

    • zaph
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      5 hours ago

      It’s not. It’s about a guy who can’t beat jealousy and believes he’s being cheated on “except it’s all in [his] head”

        • zaph
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          30 seconds ago

          From the article “The lyric is about a man who is obsessed with a girl that is seeing another man… and the thoughts that go through his head, imagining what they’re doing behind closed doors…” I guess I was wrong, it’s envy not jealousy.

    • pastermil
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      5 hours ago

      No, it’s a song about a nice guy not getting his crush.

    • Susaga
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      4 hours ago

      Dang. Just looked it up. It’s a song about a girl he met once and was dating someone else, but he still wrote a damn ballad and sent her a copy. Then she had to live her life surrounded by a song about a stranger’s feelings for her.

      And looking at the lyrics, they’re sweet if said about a long-distance partner, but really weird to sing to a vague acquaintence.

  • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    Pretty much everything that’s EDM. Lots of Deadmau5 songs sound like they’re meaningful when you only catch a few words here and there, then you read the lyrics and find out they’re all about sex. Pomegranate is a good example. I still like them, but I don’t think they’re meaningful now.

  • nowherelord@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    Semi-Charmed Life, by Third Eye Blind. Basically, it’s a song about doing meth… Spent almost twenty years just singing the chorus with absolutely no idea what the rest of the lyrics were. Now, it kinda feels weird, ngl.

    • zaph
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      5 hours ago

      Not so much a song about doing meth as it’s a song about the ramifications of doing meth. “Doing crystal meth will lift you up until you break” it mentions lockjaw at the end and even talks about watching the love of his life die to an od.

    • undercrust@lemmy.ca
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      7 hours ago

      I, as a child, did a music class presentation on “my favourite song of the year” on this little ditty.

      Whoops!

      Edit: To clarify, then, much like now, I listened to the music and not the lyrics. I don’t know if that’s common at all, but the singing is basically another instrument to me, and I hardly ever pay attention to the actual words.

      • nowherelord@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        I think it’s fairly common to not always pay close attention to the lyrics. Most of the time, you hear a song on the radio, and you can’t always make out what it’s saying, but you’re still able to enjoy the music and the singing melody. Until you pay more attention or you seek out the lyrics, then you’re often surprised about what it’s saying, cause the lyrics weren’t the point when you used to listen to the song. It doesn’t mean that it’s world-changing or anything, but it just takes you by surprise.

      • Lookorex@lemm.ee
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        7 hours ago

        Much of the time I can’t even make out the lyrics, so I listen to music the same way

      • Subtracty@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        I listen to music the exact same way. I will maybe pay attention to the chorus or catchy line, but a lot of lyrics are lost on me.

    • WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      But it’s about how the excitement of meth, like that of a new relationship, fades and leaves the speaker wanting something more substantial while still fondly reminiscing about the good times.

      The speaker thinks of the girl as a “sunburn” he “would like to save.” He describes meth as something that “will lift you up until you break.” I think these characterizations point very strongly toward nostalgic longing and away from the glorification of addiction or even that of drug use. So no reason to feel weird I think.

      • everett@lemmy.ml
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        7 hours ago

        I think these characterizations point very strongly toward nostalgic longing and away from the glorification of addiction or even that of drug use.

        There’s also an extra verse, which wasn’t in the radio edit, that I think further supports what you’re saying.

      • nowherelord@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        I guess you’re right, I just never gave the song much thought. It’s just that it kinda felt like some happy song and I never paid attention to what it was saying, then I looked them up one day, out of curiosity, and I guess it juat felt unexpected to me, and that’s why it felt weird. Thinking about what you said makes me want to give the song another listen with an open mind, I guess.

  • Zarxrax@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    Well, one that maybe went full circle for me is “bring the pain” by mindless self indulgence. At first, it just seemed like a really fun song that I loved. Then one day, a black dude was in my car listening with me, and he was like “wtf is this song about?”. That’s when it hit me that the song actually sounds REALLY racist. I looked up the lyrics and that just confirmed it for me. And then years later, I found out it was actually a cover of a method man song, and not really racist at all, I guess. But thats a weird one, maybe best not for white guys to be singing it…

    • i_dont_want_to@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      7 hours ago

      Yeah I used to love MSI and never really listened to the lyrics closely. Dude covers songs by black artists and straight up sings the N word.

      See also his cover of “Big Poppa”

      The more I looked into Jimmy Urine, the more problematic it got, like grooming a teenage girl.

    • MrFappy@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      The cover definitely goes hard though. I’m legitimately stunned to see MSI mentioned at all, especially at the top of a thread. I’ve been a huge fan of theirs for decades, and rarely if ever see anyone mention them.

  • sbv
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    5 hours ago

    I’m learning so much from these comments…

  • felixwhynot@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    “All that she wants” by Ace of Base. I read a deep dive into the band and it seems like they may have been formed after a neo-nazi group and that song might be about Jews trying to dilute the bloodline… so yeah kinda weird now.

    • snooggums@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      Oh fuck, no way.

      Ok, I read thenlink and the bassist was an opely total piece of shit before joining the band but I didn’t see anyhing about the AoB songs being hidden propaganda or the rest of the band’s history. Where does the speculation come from?

    • criitz@reddthat.com
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      7 hours ago

      Scott Weiland was compelled to write the lyrics after an incident in which a girl he was dating was raped by three high school football players after a party. Thus, Weiland has stated the song is an anti-rape statement, not a song simply about sex, saying: “This song is really not about sex at all. It’s about control, violence and abuse of power.”

      Weiland found himself in the position of defending “Sex Type Thing” to individuals who took the first-person approach he used in the song (“I am a man, a man/I’ll give ya something that ya won’t forget/I said ya shouldn’t have worn that dress”) literally. "It was, ‘All right, the “Cop Killer” controversy’s dead, let’s try to find something else,’ " says Weiland, who has been outspoken in the press about women’s rights and contends that he wrote the song in the mind-set of what he has called “the typical American macho jerk” because he didn’t want to sound peachy. “I never thought that people would ever seriously think that I was an advocate of date rape.”

    • cranakis@reddthat.com
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      7 hours ago

      I got that back when it came out and always wondered why folks treated it like alternative pop. It’s seems like a dark mirror on rape to me.

      • snooggums@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        That is what it was.

        It was criticizing something from the first person perspective like Nirvana’a Polly, or The Police’s Every Breath You Take.

  • xmunk
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    7 hours ago

    The period between hearing and knowing what the song was about was nearly instantaneous but “Smack my bitch up” has an incredibly catchy tune.

    It’d be really nice if they released an instrumental version one day.

    • Jay@lemmy.ca
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      4 hours ago

      When I first heard it my brain convinced me that the lyrics were “Snap my Picture” for some reason.

      Then I saw the video.

      • xmunk
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        7 hours ago

        Honestly, that’s worth a fair bit to me.

        • everett@lemmy.ml
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          7 hours ago

          Yeah, I feel like what that insight “means” is in the eye of the beholder. It’s definitely not great in the context of the original song either, but it’s a bit less in-your-face.