7 songs from the 80s which are offensive according to today's standards
Some of them were major successes, but they would have been received very differently now.
It is a difficult fact to treat, but the 80s started over 40 years ago. And in the decades that have passed since then, some entertainment that did not think at the time are considered inappropriate today, because people have become more educated and aware of different points of view and experiences. These reconsidered media include everything, quotes of politically incorrect films with obsolete scenarios in television shows. And while offensive moments of the past are lost in time, with regard to most popular songs Among the 80s, many uncomfortable people lived like classics.
Some songs from the past are clearly inappropriate today, but others have become so anchored in pop culture that you may not have realized exactly what you sang. Read the rest for seven songs from the 80s which are offensive according to the standards of 2023.
Read this then: 8 '90s have struck offensive songs according to today's standards .
1 "Do not stay so close to me" by the police (1980)
"Don't stay so close to me" is a lasting success for the police, but have you ever really stopped to take advantage of the words? They tell the story of a teacher who wants a student.
The first lines are "Young Teacher, the subject / of the fancy school" and the song will refer to the way in which "this girl is half of her age". The also verifiable words of verification Vladimir Nabokov , who wrote Lolita , a novel about a teacher who sexually abuses his young daughter-in-law.
In May 2023, the singer and singer-songwriter Sting Looked back on the song in a People interview. The artist was a teacher before being big as a musician, but he assured the magazine that "does not remain so close to me" does not concern him.
"It is certainly not biographical, but people with relationships with teachers certainly happen," he said. "And in the defense of the song, nothing happens. It's just the danger of, something happens and the professor is aware of it, that's why he says:" Don't hold so close to me. ""
Sting added that the song could be interpreted "a lot, many different ways", but said that he had decided not to play it live. "[In] the current climate, I do not sing it live. People with a kind of childish sensitivity will say:" Oh, it's about you. "And of course, this is not the case, but it is an interesting situation," he explained.
2 "Dude (looks like a lady)" by Aerosmith (1987)
Songwriter Desmond Child said in a 2012 interview with Songfacts that "guy (looks like a lady)" Inspired by Aerosmith Lead Singer Steven Tyler rooting Vince Neil From Mötley Crüe for a woman when he saw him in a bar because of long hair of Neil. The lyrics and the clip, however, take the song in transphobic territory. The two contain confused representations of a transgender woman or a cross-dress. Anyway, a person is described as encouraging someone to believe that he is a sex she is not, which perpetuates stereotypes on trans people.
The words include: "So never judge a book by his cover / or who you are going to love with your lover / say, love put me wise to her love in disguise / she had the body of a Venus / Lord , imagine my surprise. "
Child explained to songs that Aerosmith Joe Perry was concerned about the insult of the gay community. "I said," Okay, I'm gay, and I'm not insulted. Let's write this song. "So I spoke to them in the whole scenario of a guy who enters a band joint and falls in love with the stripper on stage, goes behind the scenes and discover that he is a guy. But apart from That, he's going to go with it. He says, "My funky lady, I like it, like that, like that like that. And so there is no shortage of there, it remains. It's funny because they used this song Mrs Doubtfire , And then it was as if a four or five -year -old child in America was able to sing this song. It was like; Do you realize that it is a [term of obsolete slang for a transgender person]? "The child added that he believed" guy (looks like a lady) "is" a very accepted song "with" a moral that ever says a book of his cover. ""
3 "Money for Nothing" by saying Straits (1985)
"Money for Nothing" was a great success to say Straits, but the reason why you are unlikely that you can hear it in the unpublished world is clear: the words include three uses of the F-Slur.
The song describes the type of music and the musicians who succeeded on MTV. Words referring to an anonymous pop star, "See the little [Expletif] with the earring and makeup? / This little [explanive], it is a millionaire. "
The Guardian reported that the singer and the singer-songwriter Mark Knopfler reflected in hearing criticism Words when the song came out. He declared in an interview that he had received "an objection from the editor -in -chief of a gay newspaper in London". In the performance of the song, the group replaced the Slur with other words, including "Queenie".
By connecting this terrible song to Straits to another offensive song from our list, Vince Neil once said to Las Vegas Journal This This song also talks about him , Also.
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4 "One over one million" by Guns n 'Roses (1988)
Appropriately, there are about a million ways including "one over a million" per Guns n 'roses is offensive. The song includes the word f, the n-word and several xenophobic insults on immigrants, which makes it not only offensive compared to today's standards, but shocking when it was released in 1988. The difference is that It would be published even more reactions on a scale today.
The lyrics include: "Police and [n-word], it's true / Get out in my own way / I don't need to buy any of your golden chains today" and "immigrants and [f- Word] / They make no sense for me / they come to our country / and think they will do what they like / like to start a mini-Iran / or spread a disease [explained]. "
"I used a word that was taboo. And I used this word because it was taboo", a "singer AXL ROSE said Rolling stone In 1992. "I was annoyed by blacks who were trying to fly. I wanted to insult these black blacks. I did not want to support racism. When I used the [word f], I was not t Descending on the gays. I went down to an element of gays ... I had my share of relations with aggressive gays. "Rose also stressed that the illustrations of the album contained apologies for the song addressed to "Those who can take offense."
5 "Japanese turning" by vapors (1980)
"Japanese turning" by vapors is a complicated case, because the song was interpreted in different ways. On the one hand, it was largely said that the song concerns masturbation and that "Japanese turning" refers to a facial expression. The group has discredited this theory.
"I wrote 'Turning Japanese' in my apartment, but I could not understand the choir", singer and songwriter David Fenton said The Guardian In 2023. "One night, I woke up at 4 am with the words" becoming Japanese, I think I shoot Japanese "in my head. I wrote them, then I fell asleep, and the lines have always Work for me the following day. " Fenton added: "I was interested in Japanese culture and we had a song entitled" Letter from Hiro ", named after a photographer we met in Japan. But the words and the title of the song did not mean Really great. A love song. The protagonist is seated in his room, which has become like a prison cell, spiring in a photo of his ex-girlfriend. "
According to Songfacts, Fenton said to VH1 , "'Japanese turning' is all the clichés on anxiety and young people and turn into something you did not expect."
"No sex, no drugs, no wine, no women / no pleasure, no sin, no you, no wonder it's dark," says the lyrics. "Everyone around me is a total unknown / everyone avoids me as a solitary psyche ranger / everyone / that's why I turn Japanese". AE0FCC31AE342FD3A1346EBB1F342FCB
Even if the song does not laugh at Japanese facial features, it was always a metaphor for disillusionment and abroad written by a white man. The clip is also offensive, with fenton pulling his eyelids on the side while standing next to a woman wearing traditional Japanese clothes.
6 "Do they know it's Christmas?" by Band Aid (1984)
"Do they know it's Christmas?" was recorded for a good cause, but his words are harmful. The song is by Band Aid, a supergroup comprising Bono ,, George Michael ,, Phil Collins , And Sting , among many more famous musicians. The song was supposed to help famine in Ethiopia. Unfortunately, the words of the songs characterize the whole of Africa as an entirely negative place.
"There will be no snow in Africa this Christmas time / The biggest gift they will get this year is life," sing the group. "Where does nothing grow / no rain or rivers flow / know it's Christmas time at all?" Another line that stands out is: "Well, tonight, thank God, it's them instead of you."
Since the release of the original song, four other versions have been published which have collected each of the funds for charities. The most recent was in 2014 to help the Ebola crisis. Ghanaian-English musician Fuse ODG wrote an article for The Guardian in regards to Why he chose not to participate in recording.
"Over the past four years, I have gone to Ghana at Christmas for peace and joy," wrote Fuse ODG. "So for me to sing these words would simply be a lie." He continued: "In truth, my objection to the project goes beyond offensive words. Me, like many others, I have enough of the whole concept of Africa - a continent rich in resources with potential Uncommon - Always considered sick, infested and poverty. "
7 "Seventeen" by Winger (1988)
Any song on an adult man who was pursuing a 17 -year -old girl would be questionable today, but Winger is particularly the rise in eyebrows, with lyrics like: "She's only 17 years old / dad says she is too young but it is old enough for me "and" yes, such a bad girl, likes to make me overtime / feels well dancin 'near the limit. "
Singer and singer-songwriter, Kip winger , was 27 at the time "Seventeen" was released. In 2014, He defended the words of Songfacts . "And look, 17 was legal in Colorado [his country of origin], so I didn't even have a joke, guy," he said. "I didn't understand it. And then he struck and every 17-year-old daughter in the United States thought that the song was talking about her. So I did well. [Laughing]".
Winger also shared that he was inspired by the 1963 Beatles song "I saw him standing".
"When I wrote this song, I didn't even know that 17 was a minor," The winger said Metal sludge. "I just reached myself on this line of the Beatles", she was only 17 years old and you know what I mean. "I was completely unconscious!"