15 Problematic Songs I Honestly Can't Believe Were Ever "Okayed"

"I loved dancing to it, but then I actually listened to the lyrics and realized it's a song about a school shooting told from the school shooter's point of view."

—bg_terrebonne

"I loved the song when I was young, but then I grew up and listened to the lyrics. It's basically about a guy trying to talk a young woman into sleeping with him by saying creepy things thinly veiled by nice words. Maybe even an older dude trying to trick a newly legal woman."

—hallamichellem

"When I finally caught the Pitbull lyric: 'She say she won’t, but I bet she will' I couldn’t listen to the song ever again. It just felt so horrible to make light of sexual assault like that."

—rebeccaw4e0b815bb

"He calls a girl a 'ho' because she doesn’t want to be with him. As we know in the song, she already has a boyfriend, so she obviously doesn’t want to be with you, ya jerk! Also, the 'Do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips' lyric?!?! No! Fuck that! Helen Keller used sign language — I’m sure if this woman wanted to talk like Helen Keller, she’d give you a very specific finger."

—dracomalfoyandhamilton

"This is one of the worst songs in recent years."

—pauloyanagi

"This song has a ton of disgusting, misogynistic lyrics, and the music video literally has women in cages!!!! They disrespect women on a truly horrible level in this song."

—jeremyu799

"'More Than Words' by Extreme is not a love song. It's about a guy trying to manipulate a woman into having sex with him to show how much she loves him. They basically sing: 'Shut your yapper and put out.'"

—keelaurow

"'Christine Sixteen' by Kiss is just another pedophile anthem with really disgusting lyrics. It's hard to listen to."

—christinesi

"I have so much hatred for 'Centerfold.' Umm...you saw a girl and admired her from afar when you were in school together, so now you’re going to slap her with your whore complex and deny she has the right to show her body however she wants to? No, sir. No slut-shaming up in here."

—melc40e454224

"A fun song to dance to...until you realize that it's actually about a stalker."

—immabanana

"I nearly crashed my car the first time the radio played 'The Ballad of Chasey Lain' as I was driving my 8-year-old son to school. A song about a gross fan stalking a female artist and writing demeaning letters to her? No, thank you."

—polly265

"The whole concept of the song is that people are telling him to stop preying on a young, teenage girl and he’s all, 'but they don’t understand our love!!!!' 🙄."

—karint41079a87f

"Yeah, this one should be #1. The song was so popular that he rerecorded it almost a decade later and it hit the Billboard charts AGAIN. Awful."

—kngreyh

"'Turning Japanese' by The Vapors reeks of racism, with the song allegedly being about the 'squinting face' one makes while climaxing — the fact that they sing these lyrics with 'oriental riffs' playing in the background is awful. The line: 'No sex, no drugs, no wine, no women' sounds to me like the singer is trying to imitate a Japanese accent, but I could be wrong."

—buddleia

"'Under My Thumb' by the Rolling Stones is about a guy bragging to everyone how he controls his girlfriend by emotionally abusing her: 'Under my thumb/Her eyes are just kept to herself/While I, I can still look at someone else.'"

—timward

"'Do Me!' by Bell Biv DeVoe is disgusting. The lyrics: 'Backstage, underage, adolescent...action took place' just grosses me out 🤮."

—ashleymorley

"It sounds like a catchy love song, but in Dave's VH1 Storytellers episode, he explained that it's the story of a creepy guy who's stalking a woman who's unaware he's there. Damn."

—s42bb9c35d