00:00Hit me with a surprise laugh!
00:03Welcome to WatchMojo! And today, we're looking at some of the most talked about songs of all
00:09time that became famous for the wrong reasons. Owing to their explicit or upsetting content,
00:15these releases were heavily censored, if not banned entirely.
00:19It is common to misunderstand this upbeat song at first. Pumped Up Kicks is obviously not about
00:34shoes. It addresses mental health struggles among young people through a character named Robert,
00:47who imagines threatening his peers. An interpretation that the song might be
00:51romanticizing such a crime led to it being denounced.
01:00Parts of the lyrics were also censored. However, the band's former bass player,
01:05Cubby Fink's connection to the Columbine High School incident, of which his cousin was a survivor,
01:11proved that the track had a personal dimension. Foster himself had been taunted at school,
01:17and hoped to bring attention to the cause of youth violence.
01:25However, following the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary School attack,
01:29a few radio stations understandably banned the song.
01:32Dear God, XTC. An atheist's take on God ruffled more than a few feathers.
01:43Dear God, hope you got the letter M. I pray you can make it better down here.
01:50In the lyrics of Dear God, XTC frontman Andy Partridge, the atheist in question, explored concepts like
01:58suffering, questioning why such a painful thing should exist if the almighty is truly omnibenevolent.
02:08It drew the ire of religious fanatics, who resorted to extreme measures like sending harmful
02:15messages to Partridge and threatening to destroy a radio station, airing the song.
02:20At the same time, the record also inspired a student to hold a staff member hostage at a school,
02:26forcing the institution to play it on the speaker system. The song was eventually taken off the
02:31air and widely banned, both in the U.S. and the U.K.
02:39Killing in the Name, Rage Against the Machine. Rather than being particularly alarming in terms of
02:46content, this song had listeners clutching their pearls due to its profanity.
02:51Killing in the Name has curse words scattered throughout the lyrics. These serve to amplify
03:02the song's firm stand against mindless violence by law enforcement officials.
03:12Such unchecked aggression against an African American individual named Rodney King sparked the 1992 Los
03:19Angeles riots. Rage used their platform to express their disappointment in the police,
03:25but their explicit language led to censorship.
03:33Even the music video was banned by MTV in the U.S. Across the pond, BBC Radio 1 accidentally played
03:40the explicit version to countless listeners and was hit with much backlash. Even so, the track certainly
03:47succeeded in getting its message across.
03:53Die MF Die. Dope. Subtlety isn't exactly a defining characteristic of industrial metal music.
04:05If it's not already evident from the title of the song, Die MF Die is an unapologetically contentious record.
04:13The anti-authoritarianism ringing clear at its core is almost eclipsed by the raging chorus. It's not
04:25exactly the type of tune you'd want to listen to on your way to work. Instead, it apparently found
04:31unexpected popularity in the military. According to the band's lead singer, Edsel Dope, Die MF Die
04:40boosted soldiers' morale. It's not surprising that such a song had limited promotion aimed at the general
04:46public via broadcast. One of the strangest things in music history is the unironic success of this
05:03song. It was banned by the BBC and censored or completely removed from airplay by most radio
05:12stations for promoting misogyny. Its music video, which doubled down on the mistreatment of women
05:18portrayed in lyrics, earned heavy criticism. Still, it won several awards, performed decently on charts,
05:28and is even celebrated for being scandalous. Although the band claimed that they never meant to encourage
05:35gender-based violence through the song, critics were far from convinced. After all,
05:41with a title like that, it's hard to see any other intention.
05:44Cop Killer, Body Counts. Written by Ice-T as a protest record against police brutality,
05:58this song had a massive impact on pop culture in the 90s.
06:08The lyrics, which blatantly depict the narrator on a deadly revenge hunt against cops,
06:13did not sit well with the US government at the time, let alone broadcasters.
06:22It was condemned by the then-President George H.W. Bush and angered the police,
06:28who in turn pressured Warner Bros. to withdraw the song entirely.
06:35However, the mark it left on the hip-hop landscape remains indelible to this day.
06:40The king of rap has a reputation for going hard, so when he came out with a diss track
06:55about his ex-wife Kim, not many were shocked that it was brimming with hatred.
07:00The lyrics, in which he spits brutal bars about taking Kim's life, were vehemently criticized.
07:13You really did a number on me! Never knew me cheating on you would come back to haunt me!
07:19What's even more baffling is that he even played the song for her, passing it off as proof that he
07:25cares. While some music experts lauded the artistry of the song, others saw little more
07:31than a cruel fantasy painted by a scorned husband. As its popularity was undeniable,
07:40a clean version was adopted for radio, but airing the original was out of the question.
07:45A station even faced a penalty for doing so.
07:56Jeremy Pearl Jam
07:58This song was based on the story of a troubled teen, Jeremy Wade Dell,
08:03who took his own life in front of his classmates.
08:06At home, drawing pictures of mountain tops with him on top.
08:14Another tragedy that informed it involved a boy named Brian, who allegedly opened fire at a San
08:20Diego school attended by Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder.
08:23Clearly I remember picking on the boy.
08:27The track was a mega-hit, but the graphic music video, which recreates Jeremy harming himself,
08:34crossed the line.
08:35It had to be edited according to the rules of censorship at the time. But even then,
08:42it was rarely broadcast since what happened at Columbine High School. The video also reportedly
08:48influenced the perpetrator of a similar crime at a Washington academy. Contrary to Vedder's hopes
08:53of curbing gun violence, the song seemingly had an adverse effect.
09:05Blank Me, Nirvana. If you look beyond the shocking title, this record has much substance.
09:12This isn't unexpected, though, given that this is Nirvana we're talking about.
09:24Kurt Cobain's lyrics may appear disturbing, but they are meant to slam sexual offenders
09:30without softening the blow.
09:31It is also a commentary on the invasive nature of fame and how it affected Cobain's own life,
09:42especially his relationship with Courtney Love.
09:48However,
09:49MTV had no plans of examining the deeper meaning of the track, not with the name it had.
09:55Nirvana was promptly banned from playing it live at the 1992 VMAs. However,
10:01the band managed to sneak in a bit of the track into their performance of Lithium that night anyway.
10:07We just know fans had a hard time defending this one.
10:37We just know fans, and we just know fans, and we just know fans.
10:42Angel of Death, from Slayer's seminal album Rain in Blood, was inspired by the Nazi doctor
10:48Josef Mengele during the Holocaust, hearing the nickname Angel of Death for his cruel human experiments.
10:56Thus, the song was deemed too repulsive by Columbia Records, which barred the release of the album.
11:02It eventually came out thanks to Geffen Records, but without much fanfare.
11:12Soon after, Slayer had been labeled as Nazi sympathizers for being
11:17insensitive to Holocaust survivors. Although guitarist Jeff Hanneman, who wrote the song,
11:22denied he glorified Mengele, he wasn't able to get rid of suspicions suggesting otherwise.
11:28Naturally, with all this controversy, radio stations weren't keen on playing it either.
11:45Do you think these songs would be received better if they were released now?
11:49Tell us your thoughts in the comments down below.
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