The Evolution Of Female Revenge Songs
Music has always given scorned women a way to exact revenge on the men who wronged them. But the stakes have sure gotten higher in the last few decades.
Nancy Sinatra pretty much created the music sub-genre of woman-scorned songs with “These Boots Were Made For Walking.”
Revenge on the man: Leaving him for good, or at least threatening to.
Revenge Level: 1
Carly Simon came next, and was feeling so scorned she spawned one of the greatest musical mysteries of all time: who is the song “You’re So Vain” about?
Revenge on the man: Public (anonymous) shaming in the form of the song and the mystery.
Revenge Level: 3
Years later, Alanis Morissette would take the woman-scorned song to a whole new level of angry with “You Oughta Know.”
Revenge on the man: Public (semi-anonymous) shaming in the form of the song.
Revenge Level: 5
Kelly Clarkson had a pretty big woman-scorned hit early in her career with “Low.”
Revenge on the man: Pushing his car into a ravine.
Revenge Level: 7
Beyonce must have been scorned at some point in her life to have so masterfully pulled off “Irreplaceable.”
Revenge on the man: Classy public (anonymous) shaming.
Revenge Level: 4
Carrie Underwood was scorned before she met husband, Mike Fisher, and told us all about it in “Before He Cheats.”
Revenge on the man: Trashing his car & warning other women
Revenge Level: 7
Rihanna released “Man Down” about 4 months after the Chris Brown abuse scandal hit, causing many an eyebrow to be raised.
Revenge on the man: Implied murder
Revenge Level: 9
It’s not too big a leap from implied murder to outright murder. And our final, most recent example of a woman scorned song is “FU,” from up-and-coming R&B artist, Yani Simone.
Revenge on the man: Straight up murder.
Revenge Level: 10
What will the next evolution in woman-scorned revenge songs look like?
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