marriedSo much of history is being looked at and studied and we're realizing... we really let A LOT of "artistic" crap slide over the decades.
There are some especially egregious issues in music. Some songs and lyrics can just give us all a little cringe.
Some cringe may be because of the artist, which begs the question... "can we separate the art from the artist?"
And some songs are foreshadowing that can be too cruel to take.
Redditor promisedjoy wanted to discuss music of the past that has really left us with some problems, so they asked:
"What song lyric didn’t age well?"
Let's begin with our National Anthem.
Oof, there are lyrics people don't know enough about that really need some editing or complete deletion.
That's gonna be a battle.
Numbers Matter
"Age ain’t nothing but a number." ~ Lovingnature412
"Background for those who aren't aware, but 'Age Ain't Nothing but a Number' was written for Aaliyah (the singer) by someone called... R. Kelly. And yes, that's the same R. Kelly that was all over the news a few months back due to his trial for various sexual offences (including those involving minors) a few months back and has now been convicted."
"But did you know that Kelly was not only in a relationship with Aaliyah herself, but illegally married her when she was still just fifteen? (The marriage was later annulled). So yeah. 'Did not age well,' indeed." ~ IllegalTree
Yeah, anything R. Kelly needs a scrap.
Who even thought that was a good idea?
Did nobody really... nevermind.
What a mess.
She & Him...
"In October 2016 the group She & Him released a Christmas album that features a cover of a song called 'Must Be Santa.' In the song they list the names of several US Presidents. Since the album came out before the election they made an assumption that Hillary Clinton would win (like most everyone else) so she was included in the list. Obviously that didn’t pan out." ~ stickingitout_al
Ruuuuunnnn!!!
"Young girl, get out of my mind. My love for you is way out of line. Better ruuuuun girl, you're much too young girl!" ~ chicagowago
"Back in the 60's, pop songwriters were aiming flatly and squarely at the teen market and were writing songs that would appeal to them. In hindsight they got some of them badly wrong, but at the time nobody thought anything about it at all." ~ Scallywagstv2
Sad
"'To everyone to sell me drugs, don't mix it with that bullcrap I hopin' not to join the twenty seven club' Mac Miller. Painful to listen to." ~ SmackMymelons
GiphyDisgusting!
"I' don't care if you're just 13, you look too good to be true. I just know that you're probably clean. There's one lil thing I've got to do to you."
"Followed later by: Wait a minute officer, don't put the cuffs on me. Put them on her, and I'll share her with you.'" ~ BraveLittleToaster77
“'Jailbait' byTed Nugent." ~ BraveLittleToaster77
Not so Fresh
"I believe 'dark skin aunt Viv love' is referring to the original actress for Aunt Viv, in Fresh Prince of Bel-air. To continue the reference, Cole says 'that Jada and that Will love' referring to Jada Pinkett and Will Smith being (at the time) happily married with 3 kids."
"The aging like milk part of it is that Jada cheated on Will, and I don't believe they're together anymore. I also heard that Will also cheated, but I barely heard that compared to the admittance of guilt from Jada. This is also where the image of Will crying in the chair is from, the interview where they both talked about it all." ~ TeddyR3X
'Storming through'
"I was at a college party a few years ago and live in California. A girl asked me how I was doing: 'I'm storming through this party like my name is El Niño.' She said 'thats not funny, we're in a drought' and walked away." ~ MikeyTMNTGOAT
"Took me a long time to remember that El Nino and La Nina have the opposite effects in the US than they do here. El Nino basically means no rain in Australia, so 'Storming through' would be appropriate for La Nina, not El Nino." ~ BadBoyJH
Nirvana
"'And I swear that I don't have a gun.' Kurt Cobain, Nirvana." ~ ggapsfface
"That was the thing about grunge - all these artists writing songs about suicide and drug abuse because… they were suicidal and abusing drugs. So sad that almost all the grunge icons are all dead." ~ Vegetable-Double
GiphyKurt.
Thank you for the art.
Sometimes it's all too much.
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