00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for those rock
00:13tunes that caused a controversy at the time of their release and often still
00:18ruffle feathers today.
00:32Number 10 Closer – Nine Inch Nails
00:44Maybe the world wasn't ready back in 1994 for a music video experience celebrating dominance,
00:51submission, and deviancy.
00:53This hypothesis could go a little ways in explaining why Closer by Nine Inch Nails received so much
00:59media coverage back in the day.
01:08The song is actually more of an internal narrative rather than an outward projection of sexual
01:13desire.
01:14Never underestimate the power of a memorable chorus, however, because most criticisms
01:19of Closer focused solely on the song's visual aesthetic and profanity.
01:24The clip was initially relegated to late-night slots on MTV, but the power of Closer soon
01:30became strong enough that it helped Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails become household names for
01:36industrial rock.
01:43Number 9 Angel of Death – Slayer The realms of fantasy were always a fertile
01:56playing ground for early heavy metal bands, but the thrash scene that rose to prominence
02:01during the 1980s had some other ideas about lyrical content.
02:05Politics and real-life historical events began to creep their way into thrash anthems like Angel
02:11of Death by Slayer.
02:13This latter tune from the group's landmark Rain In Blood LP was even more extreme, however,
02:19thanks to its subject matter of Nazi Germany.
02:23Angel of Death specifically references the horrific medical procedures and war crimes of Josef Mengele,
02:33whose work at the Auschwitz concentration camp would draft him into the most infamous annals of history.
02:40It was a grim choice of subject matter that raised the eyebrows of just about everyone.
02:47Angel of Death!
02:48Angel of Death!
02:50Angel of Death!
02:53It's honestly kind of baffling that the progressive rock pioneers in Genesis even recorded this one,
03:12never mind releasing it as a single.
03:15The legal alien possesses good intentions, at least, with regards to its lyrical content.
03:21After all, the song is actually written about the real-life struggles many face when attempting
03:25to source out visas and immigration paperwork for countries like the United States.
03:30The controversy then unfolds, with Phil Collins' decision to place an affectation on his voice
03:37that almost sounds parodic.
03:38Additionally, the music video for Illegal Alien indulges in stereotypical imagery that honestly
03:51hurts the message at play.
03:53It may not have been intentional, but this otherwise innocuous song is aged like milk in
03:59the modern day.
04:00We could honestly populate this entire list with all of the various Maryland Manson
04:30moments that got the singer-songwriter in hot water over the years.
04:34We prefer, however, to focus on the world that, at the time, anyway, was still awaiting
04:40Manson's cultural impact.
04:42It's difficult for those that weren't there to appreciate just how much songs like Get
04:47Your Gun freaked out parents during the early 90s.
04:50The song was also blamed for influencing the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado.
05:07This was despite Get Your Gun actually being about the murder of an abortion provider, David
05:122001, back in 1993.
05:14Get your gun, get your gun, get your gun.
05:20Yeah.
05:21Number 6.
05:22He hit me, and it felt like a kiss.
05:25The crystals.
05:26He hit me, but it's if he hurts me.
05:34We often fall back on the phrase, it was a different time, when attempting to defend cultural divides.
05:41Make no mistake, however, folks were PO'd and offended about He Hit Me, and it felt like a kiss by the Crystals, even back in 62.
05:50He hit me, and it felt like a kiss.
05:59Everyone involved with the song has an opinion about why it does or doesn't work.
06:04From the shame of the songwriter Carole King, to the spacious and malevolent production job of Phil Spector.
06:11This latter point is important because the atmosphere of He Hit Me feels dark, and in line with the song's subject matters of gaslighting, abuse, and even Stockholm Syndrome.
06:22As a pop song, it remains one of the music industry's darkest curiosities.
06:27And when he kissed me, he made me go.
06:37Number 5. Sex Type Thing, Stone Temple Pilots.
06:42Composing a song from the perspective of a dark or deviant character can sometimes come back to bite the performer in the butt.
07:00Scott Weiland found this out firsthand when Backlash, to Sex Type Thing by Stone Temple Pilots, began making the rounds back in 1993.
07:08It's perhaps easier to understand today how this song is clearly written outside of Weiland's personal views on sex, dating, and assault.
07:24Yet that didn't stop many journalists and fans from taking umbrage against a song that they felt glorified and glamorized in decent assaults.
07:33Weiland even told Rolling Stone, during a 1993 interview, that he never thought that people would connect him to the protagonist of Sex Type Thing.
07:51Number 4. Money for Nothing. Uncensored. Dire Straits.
07:56You never hear this version of Dire Straits' Money for Nothing on the radio, nor is it performed live.
08:09The album version of this smash hit is a different story, however, containing an extra verse that got Dire Straits in some seriously hot water.
08:18This is one that's familiar to Stone Temple Pilots and Sex Type Thing in that Mark Knopfler is singing Money for Nothing from an outside perspective.
08:27Specifically, it doesn't really feel out of character for the working-class protagonist of Money for Nothing to utilize the slurs he does during this verse.
08:36We've got some movies, refrigerators. We've got some movies, color TV.
08:43Knopfler semi-defended his decision in a 1985 Rolling Stone interview, but continued to sing the verse on tour,
08:55substituting the word Queenie for one that we can't repeat.
08:59We've got a queenie, but you're in it as a baby. I'll tell you what, that's a baby.
09:06Number 3. One in a Million. Guns N' Roses.
09:10Yes, I need it.
09:12Sometime I get away.
09:16These legends courted controversy basically from Jump Street, not only with the band cover art for their debut album,
09:24Appetite for Destruction, but again for LP number 2.
09:28One in a Million was taken from the group's Lies album, a track that earned Axl Rose and company a whole lot of grief,
09:35thanks to the content of its lyrics.
09:36One in a Million was accused of basically every ism and phobia in the book,
09:41from the racial and social variety to Rose's inflammatory words against the LGBTQIA plus community.
09:49They make no sense to me.
09:53They come to our country and think they'll do as they please.
10:00The end results aren't any prettier in hindsight either, and the tune rightfully earned Guns N' Roses some heavy criticism.
10:08Even today, One in a Million is still seen as one of the band's most confusing creative decisions.
10:14Don't point your finger at me.
10:18I'm a small town white boy.
10:22Just trying to make it meet.
10:24Number 2.
10:26God Save the Queen.
10:27Sex Pistols.
10:29God Save the Queen.
10:31The fascist regime.
10:33Don't mess with the monarchy.
10:37Or at least don't release a scathing and satirical single titled God Save the Queen unless you're prepared to deal with the fallout.
10:45The Sex Pistols and their manager Malcolm McLaren seemed pleased when they released this two-fingered salute to their home nation.
10:53This was a knowing riff on the United Kingdom's national anthem,
10:57a defining anthem of the 70s punk era that didn't really care who would offend it.
11:02God Save the Queen was banned from radio, and many British retail shops wouldn't carry physical copies of the single, despite its popularity.
11:16Basically, God Save the Queen pioneered that punk spirit of pissing people off, and did so in absolutely fabulous style.
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11:47We're seriously impressed that one of hip-hop's elder statesmen, Ice-T,
12:05even considered branching off into heavy metal when he formed Body Counts back in 1990.
12:10This lyrical provocateur continued to stir the societal pot with the band's debut album, containing the infamous track titled Cop Killer.
12:28Just about everyone had an opinion on Cop Killer back in the early 90s,
12:33from U.S. President George H.W. Bush to conservative-leaning actor Charlton Heston.
12:39The latter famously pontificated in anger about the song's anti-cop content,
12:44and it was Heston's words, along with pressure from various police, that got Body Count pulled from store shelves.
12:51A newly censored version arrived in its place, now with a replacement song that was knowingly titled Freedom of Speech.
12:58Freedom of Speech, yeah, just watch what you say. Freedom of Speech, yeah, boy, just watch what you say.
13:07Is life too short to be offended, or are there lines of good taste that simply shouldn't be crossed?
13:14Let us know in the comments.
13:15Love, good job. Love, good job. Love, good job all day.
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