EVEN MORE of the Most MISUNDERSTOOD Songs in Music History
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Link to Middle 8's video on MGMT: • What Happened to MGMT?
Hey everybody! Thanks for watching this video on "EVEN MORE of the Most MISUNDERSTOOD Songs in Music History". Again, I've been into this format lately when I list a bunch of quickfire examples of something. It's a cool concept to put out a video with some quality information --- while still covering a wide array of stories. Hope you enjoyed it! In this video, we're talking about songs that are misunderstood. Whether people think they have one meaning but it means something else, or there's a hidden meaning when people didn't expect one, these are even more of the most famous examples ever. Let me know if you have any examples in the comments down below.
Fun fact / Misunderstood / Meaning / Hidden / Message / Messages / Wrong / Favorite / Hey Ya / OutKast / Can't Feel My Face / The Weeknd / Rednecks / Randy Newman / Lips of An Angel / Hinder / White Wedding / Billy Idol / Bitter Sweet Symphony / The Verve / Possession / Sarah McLachlan / No Woman No Cry / Bob Marley / Love Song / Sara Bareilles / Kids / Electric Feel / Time to Pretend / MGMT / Electric Avenue / Eddy Grant / Feel Good Inc / Gorillaz / 99 Luftballoons / Nena / Vamos a la Playa / Righeira / Don't You Want Me / The Human League / Isn't She Lovely / Stevie Wonder / Take Me to Church / Hozier / Last Christmas / Wham / Careless Whisper / George Michael / Everybody Hurts / REM / Pumped Up Kicks / Foster the People / Wake Me Up When September Ends / Green Day
The biggest irony of "Hey Ya!" is that it was a popular song at weddings.
After all this time,you'd think people would've noticed this when singing along to the song.
Also,it's nice see a fellow South African here.
@@tervinnyengwa1250 Same to you. In fairness English first language speakers barely pay attention to the lyrics so it would be harder for bilinguals.
How about the irony that the meaning is misunderstood by a video on misunderstood songs? The "people staying in unhappy relationships" part is only a verse and a half or so and the _premise_ of the song. The _theme_ of the song is stated in the line, "We get together, oh we get together, but separate's always better when there's feelings involved." This is reiterated by, "[I] don't want to be your daddy, just want you in my Caddy," etc., to the end in which he is encouraging "all the Beyone's and Lucy Liu's and baby dolls" to "get on the floor," so they can "shake it like a Polaroid picture"
Would be funny, if they used the song as some sort of forshadowing tool.
It was banned from my wedding playlist, along with Loslappie, for obvious reasons (I married into an Afrikaans family, for context)
The fact that Stevie Wonder wrote a song about how proud he is of his daughter and that he became a dad is really sweet to me.
I always loved that song because of it. I remember listening to Top 40 countdown when I was a kid (on the radio) and Kasey Kasem telling the story. I liked it so much, I saved up my little allowance till I could buy the LP. It’s so cute when you hear the baby in it.
You ever seen Stevie's wife?
@@brandongrayson456 Even Stevie never did
@@Ervalo LMAO
My dad always used to play that song for me when I was little 😅
As a German I have to add: we still dance to 99 Luftballons. Yes It was a protest song for peace and de escalation during the cold war. And ist took the nation by storm because of this. But the cold war is over, the 80s generation is now a bit older. And the song has a good melody to sing along and move your body to
And why not? If they wanted you to sit around moping, a lot of NDW wouldn’t have sounded the way it did.
@@petertrudelljr No. In that case I trust in the greed of russian kleptocracy. They will never start a nuclear war, life‘s just too good for them to fuck it all up. And they can toot the propaganda horn all they want, in the end it’s up to them to decide to push the button or not. If you are really scared of nuclear war though, I‘d suggest you take a look at the media you consume.
Honestly the song is a bop just likeany grehat protest songs of that same era
It's a bop. And I like that it is a protest song. Especially a egalitarian protest for anti-war, right up my avenue. 💖 Although my German is rusty, I do love to sing along but with the English Version instead. 😁
It's a banger
Don't You Want Me by Human League: Yes, I got the controlling right away, but you didn't talk about HER lyrics. She's basically saying, "I did it on my own, I don't need you, you have no power over me." This is one of the most powerful, self-enabling songs I've heard.
You need to listen to better songs
yea, a lot of people don't seem to see that she used him to get to the top, and once she was there just throw him away.
@@marckfabyancic4287 That's a great song
@@Lakillikano, you really didn’t get it…
@@thefirm4606 Yes,
yes I did,
very apparent that you did not.
pumped up kicks isnt misunderstood at this point its impossible now to search for the song without seeing hundreds of thousands of people saying what the meaning of it is
In 2011 when it came out people didn’t realize
That and every unofficial music video somehow involving a shooting.
@@Awesomesufff I remember first hearing the song, then laughing as I'm like, "what? Did I just hear that right?" A bunch of school shootings were happening at the time, or at least that was whats popular in the news. And the radio is just blasting that song everywhere lol
fun fact: i accidentally sang this song in front of a survivor at a birthday party and didn’t find out until the next day
@@itznani1509 nice
Wait, there are people who don’t know that Last Christmas is a breakup song??
Many People think its only about Christmas
Weird!!!!!!
It literally says, "Last Christmas I gave you my heart, but the very next day you gave it away". How can people misunderstand that??
@@TheMrMe1 it even goes on “This year, to keep me from tears, I gave it to someone special.”
So many people didn't understand, when I tried to tell them that the story repeats every Christmas.
One of my favourite weird facts about The Office US is that for all her ditziness and lack of awareness at times, Arin actually understands what the song No Woman, No Cry means, which is a hilarious level of irony when you consider its likely a joke that shows writers have no idea what the song means but have their fictional character get it right
Or the writers do know what the conveyed message is and there is no irony?? It's pretty funny considering all the click bait these channels do, they're never actually correct about their claims
It's weird how an english speaking country like the US got that song so wrong. For us non-english speakers, it's pretty obvious this song is about consoling a woman. 😂
@@DrClownPhD nope, multiple writers have said in interviews its a happy accident that she gets it right, because her whole thing is miss using quotes, like Michael, thats the entire joke, thus ironic that she used it correctly
You put way too much trust into your lack of proof assumption. Good for you, it's nice to have confidence even if you're potentially wrong@@Tribleman247
I live in Brazil. My aunt dances and sings to a song whose lyrics are literally: "I get my weed from California", but she doesn't know that.
Feel Good Inc. is a good example of a very misunderstood album. Every song on Demon Dayz tackles a serious issue; addiction, depression, capitalism, war and so on
Please explain some of’ em cuz I dont like genius and im curious
ua-cam.com/video/684iRJgiwjk/v-deo.html
They sell 300 dollar shirts now.
@@mrrselfdestruction1077 AND nfts...
@@laura-vq6zc wait what‽
Bob Marley actually credited his childhood friend who ran a soup kitchen with writing No Woman No Cry. So that his friend would get the royalty checks every time someone would listen to it he could keep the soup kitchen afloat.
Dang
I first thought it was about Jamaican independence from England and the Queen!
I was really shocked that people were misinterpreting this song like that. Have they never listened to the lyrics at all?
@@heathermorrison1674 A lot of people mindlessly listen to a song solely because of the music even if the lyrics would be talking about incest or the like. Just people being morons I guess.
@@heathermorrison1674 IKR! "Here little darling, don't shed no tear... (RIGHT BEFORE the fucking idiotic appropriated slogan of:) ...No woman, no cry" But yeh I wasn't shocked as I KNOW people that thought it was that lol No woman? No cry! No hassle! Be single!
I found it quite ironic that "Everybody Hurts" was chosen as "the confusing" REM song where the vast majority of their songs have a hidden message, such as "The One I Love", "Man on the Moon", "Shiny Happy People" and "Drive" that are harder to decipher. Michael Stipe has been quite honest about how cryptic their songs were but it's still something that trips people up
Stipe often made up words in his early songs. A great example is 9-9, I think it's from Murmur. It seems deliberately incomprehensible, except for two words that conclude the chorus: "conversation fear."
@@Solenya1111it is deliberately incomprehensible at points, some of it is honest to god gibberish. Shout outs to Exhuming McCarthy for one of their best “hidden” meaning songs
Another good one is Somebody To Love by Queen. This song was Freddie and Freddie's mum's favourite and he even thought that it was better to Bohemian Rhapsody. Everybody thinks that the song is about someone finding him someone else for him to love; "Can anybody find me somebody to love?" But actually it's about Freddie wondering if anybody can ever love *him*. Essentially, can anybody find me as *their* somebody to love? Am I deemed lovable by anyone else? This stemmed from the amount of one night stands that Freddie was having as part of his rock star lifestyle but he didn't feel fulfilled after doing this for years.
I genuinely don’t believe for a second anyone thinks Take me to Church is a religious song.
People actually think it’s a religious song 😭
What is it?
What's the app you made your pfp with?
A friend of mine told me he didnt like the song bc he didnt relate to the lyrics, i laughed and said well im gay so i relate and he looked at me in shock and said “wait so the song is not about christianity and going to church?” This was 6 months ago. In the year 2021.
Story time: I’m a very tiny person, like, people will ask if I want a kids menu at restaurants tiny, and one day my family was trying out a new church and I got shoved into the second grade group. While this was slightly demoralizing, I used this opportunity to my advantage. They do karaoke in that class, but only religious songs. So, I suggest Take Me To Church. The pastor clearly wasn’t paying attention to the lyrics and absolutely loved the song. Two weeks later I bunch of children got up in front of the church singing a song that basically means ‘fuck the church’. It was a very proud day when I saw the look on the parents’ faces.
MGMT did a really good job of making bangers as a joke. A lot of musicians can’t make music that good while trying.
@@benro6564 ween what?
@@benro6564 She's turned the weens against us
@@benro6564 nerd rock
Leagues above the stuff they made when "trying" too lmao
I mean just because they we're satirising the genre doesn't mean they didn't put any effort into it
If you ever make another, "All These Things That I've Done" by The Killers is a "Blackbird" style example where the meaning is pretty obvious, but the context is often left out:
Yes, it is a song about hopelessness and wanting to get your life back into gear, but almost all of the lyrics are direct quotes (or adapted from direct quotes) from a man that the lead singer met in a bar who worked as a therapist for people who were coming back from war. So its not just a song about angst, its about PTSD and feeling abandoned by society at large. It also gives a new meaning to the line "I've got soul but I'm not a soldier" and the title itself.
I remember the song by Pat Benitar Hell Is For Children.
This is actually a song about child abuse and it is against it. It was very controversial when it was released because some people thought she hated kids and wanted them to go to hell.
It was bad enough that they quit playing it. It was against child abuse. She was not for it...but people thought she was the devil and for it.
I used to love this song and her, and always took it as a song AGAINST child abuse.
Her record label didn’t wanna release it because of child abuse being depressing, which she said was the point.
Are there ANY songs that are genuinely pro-child abuse?
@@Solenya1111 I mean I haven’t actively looked into it, but there might be, at least ones that are darkly comedic…
It was only controversial among the religious right who didn't bother to read the lyrics.
I really have no idea how anyone would get "Take me to church" confused with proreligion. "I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies" should be enough of a tip off.
First time I heard that song was at a catholic churchs father daughter dance...I still have no idea how no one noticed
Certainly better than people not knowing that Last Christmas is about a breakup especially with how the chorus makes it so obvious unless there's another meaning to "Last Christmas, I gave you my heart , but the very next day you gave it away."
It’s very obviously about an lgbtq+ teen being brainwashed by their church, thinking that it’s a sin to be themself
@@zsbacskai7331 The character wasn’t racist because of what he heard. He was racist because he was raised by white supremacists.
Though I also didn’t know that white supremacists like that skit. I guess it stands to reason they would; any subtext would be lost on them.
@@zsbacskai7331 if the messages are this simple and are still misunderstood, I think it’s time to blame the audience instead of the artists.
Many years ago, at the church I used to go to, an elderly lady bounded up to me and announced, "There's a Christian song in the charts!" It was news to me, so she went on, "Oh, yes! I don't know what it's called, but they keep singing 'Hallelujah' and 'Amen'!" The song turned out to be "It's Raining Men".
😅
Omg 😂 I would've loved to be the fly on the wall to see her face, when someone actually explained to her what the song was
Did she see the video?
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
That's like when in the late 1960s/early-1970s, the song _One Toke Over The Line_ by Brewer & Shipley was covered live on some Southern Christian Fundamentalist televisionne programme and praised as a hip new Christian gospel song evangelizing the youths of the day (now the olds of today) literally just because the song goes "One toke o'er the line, *sweet Jesus* / One toke o'er the line / Shittin' downtown in a railway station / One toke o'er the line / Waitin' for a train to take me home, *Sweet Mary* / hoping that the train is on time / Shittin downtown in railway station / One toke o'er the line / etc / etc / etc" and the old farts in charge had no clue what "toke" meant, lololol.
Lesson: If you want to make an ironically peppy-sounding song with a somber message, it won't actually get your message out.
I feel like one artist who avoided the confusion around doing this is twenty one pilots. Their songs are upbeat but about heavy topics
@@whatcanidooolike what songs?
It's like playing a game of "play stupid games, win stupid prizes" if you ask me.
@@Tere999 there's a lot actually, for example their newest song talks about the lead singers attempt.
@@lukaskowaleski5772 Which song was that one? Chlorine
There's this one song my dad told me my mom used to love (both dad and mom loved it), but one day my dad explained what the lyrics actually were, and from then on my mom didn't enjoy the song as much...she said it was tragic after understanding it.
The song is called "Dancing with tears in my eyes", and it's a disoc song, which has a quite upbeat feeling to it.
The lyrics are good, but the meaning is dark.
The singer is telling the story of how he works at a nuclear plant, and how one day something goes wrong there. The plant will explode, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. You can't run away quickly enough, and everyone in the town living next to the plant are going to die. He sings how he drives home, watching other people going insane on the street, living their final moments. He drives home to his wife and kid, and they have their child go to bed and tell him goodnight, hiding the fact none of them will wake up. Him and his wife then go downstairs, pour some wine (I think) and put on their favorite music. They then listen to that song on repeat, dancing with each other, with tears in their eyes...
It's a great song, you should listen to it.
Yeah, and those of us who work or ever worked in nuclear power absolutely hated how the song was a whole hock of fear mongering about nuclear power in general. Let's be real, power plants (not just nuclear) are never that close to densely populated areas to begin with and there are far more dangerous light commercial and light industrial factories near neighborhoods that have, until recent strict federal regulation, routinely had accidents that harmed or killed more people than Chernobyl (31 confirmed, 4000 estimated from long term effects) or even Three Mile Island (0 confirmed, less than 1000 potentially affected) did when that video was produced. If you include Fukushima in retrospect (1 confirmed, less than 1000 potentially affected), you're still an order of magnitude below the Union Carbide Bophal numbers (3500 confirmed, an estimated 15000 long term injured).
When The Weekend sings, we don't really know if it's about a girl or cocaine.
Its usually both. Heck, Blinding Lights is actually a cocaine binge and the user wanting to rape his ex while coming down. Man was clever saying it was PSA about driving under the influence.
@@queboy2 I knew it
I don’t think he knows either
@@queboy2 WHAT?! I thought blinding lights was a typical love song
Normaly cocaine
In regards to the Green Day one, the most touching part, is Billie Joe Armstrong changes the lyrics in concerts from the "20 years has gone so fast" to whatever amount of time has actually passed. At this point I think it's been 38 years
Well, I’m pretty sure 2020 counts for at least a decade, so…
it's not as misunderstood as the sarcasm of good riddance
@@neonwired4978 no way people don’t get that you’re joking
@@fuzi5303 watch AlfoMedia's last video on this topic, you'll see why.
@@fuzi5303 they really don't get it
Bitter Sweet Symphony is the song I listen too often since my son took his own life. The words resonate so much 😢
about a week my grandfather died, Wake me up when September ends started playing on the radio and i remember my mother just started crying and we pulled over and cried and it hurts to see it played as a meme because it really is a good song.
Don't worry, us Germans are also dancing to 99 Luftballons and don't care about the lyrics at all
Tbf it seems to be one of those "Hey we might as well be happy in the face of this constant dread" songs.
@@name8731 yeah, it's about going to a balloon shop, and releasing all of them just for fun. Which was a metaphor for many things, like the abysmal state that Germany was in after world war 2, ofcourse its actual state being in a fair bit of disarray aswell as the immense amount of guilt and hatred from other countries. Germany was ofcourse still seen as the grand villain of the world back then, but the country was always left in a horrible state after both wars
"That's Nena's anti-balloon protest song!"- 30 Rock
Some of us Americans are listening to Goldfingers cover called 99 Red Balloons which roughly translates it into English
@@jstafys8073 just thought I’d let you know nena released a English version
I can't believe Take Me to Church needed to be mentioned. It literally says "I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies. I'll tell you my sins so you can sharpen your knife."
I heard that one on the church bus back in the day, you'd be surprised how many people hear some religious keywords and just don't listen any further lol
Same thing with _"He is"_ by Ghost. It also has such a catchy guitar melody that you can't NOT like it.
Its almost as apparent as "I'll pray for you" lol
@Gi Gi I always loved the super overtly critical bit "that's a fine looking high horse that you've got in the stable, you've a lot of starving faithful, that looks tasty it looks plenty" rly helped a baby gay out lol
People don't pay attention to lyrics.
Love Song is probably one of my favorite examples. It's just so amazing how passive aggressive the song is.
Bro there's no way MGMT didn't stop and think like "this is actually fire" while recording Electric Feel
I feel like "Wake Me Up When September Ends" is the saddest one here. Holy fuck, I can't imagine writing a song about my father dying and people just keep _laughing_ about it.
Yeah it’s really messed up. I watched an interview with Armstrong a while ago where he said every September he slips into a deep depression. He feels numb and so overcome with sadness that he locks himself away from friends and family for that period of time.
The song is literally about him desperate for the month to end, because he cant bare the grief and loss of his father.
So its really sad that he poured his heart out on this song, only to get mocked.
that's the emotional danger you face as an artist. people are pigs and will always say stupid and hurtful shit about your art.
I honestly never understood what this song was about, but damn. My dads not dead yet, but I always associated the Highwaymen version of Desperado with him.
Major tf. Just stick to the damn rickman
Strange - I always thought about that song about how I saw the video - a kid throws his home life away to serve his country, goes overseas and gets K.I.A.
Summing up the 99 Luft Ballons for those still confused: The lyrics are about how a guy buys 99 red balloons and sends them up in the sky to show his girlfriend he loves her. The military radar systems mistake this for a foreign attack, all the politicians panic and run away and the generals hide in bunkers, and the world ends in nuclear fire.
makes you wonder how many german/ french songs have deeper meanings that are nothing alike what people make of them, hidden behind the language barrier...
such lovely lyrics
@@manorid For those who are confused by Vamos a la Playa: it's about mass medias not caring at all about possible nuke explosions
i actually like that more than just generic lyrics about the threat of nuclear war, it’s like a (kinda messed-up) story
wow
This reminded me of a wedding I was asked to sing at with my guitarist, and so arranged the first couple of dances in advance with the couple. About 2 minutes before we were starting, the bridegroom asked if I could change the song to Most Beautiful Girl In The World by Charlie Rich, so we agreed as it was a song we had done before anyway.
I have never re-written a song LINE BY LINE before... as I sang it.... having realised when the music started that it was a song about a couple breaking up. It was a great success, and no-one noticed the improvisation, but I never changed my on-stage plans again without rehearsal... lol.
“Lips of an Angel,” was the first song I ever realized how you can misinterpret a song when it was played so often, even as a teenager, I realized what it was about. It then became hilarious because Bluetooth and custom ringtones were all the rage at the time, and girlfriends were setting theirs and their boyfriends phones to that song for ringtones.
I thought he was gonna say “you’ve got a friend in me” was misunderstood. Almost got concerned there.
Just read this as i got to that part and i was like what the hell did i miss lol
Same
Maybe it was originally for alien, who knows...
@@snappingshrimp235 lmao
With every other one of his songs being satirical, I'm still iffy on that one. This video's gonna make me overanalyze every song...again lol.
I mean in "Last christsmas" He litteraly says "Last Christmas I gave you my heart, but the very next day you gave it away" How could you not know it's about a breakup ???
It’s pretty fucking clear, even when I was a kid I understood the songs meaning.
wham is generally a VERY misunderstood band
I mean I always thought it was pretty clear that Last Christmas is a breakup song
I thought it was about unrequited love.
Oh my god I’m stupid.
Fun fact: The Weeknd also criticized being nominated for the KCA’s with can’t feel my face. In his song “reminder” on his 2016 album Starboy he said:
“I just won a new award for a kids show
Talkin' 'bout a face numbin' off a bag of blow”
"Don't You Want Me" is probably based on the 1931 movie "Svengali" starring John Barrymore (itself based on a George du Maurier novel); the plot of an evil mentor exploiting a young female singer is the same, and many of the shots in the video mimic the movie.
The fact that Isn't She Lovely is not about romantic feelings for a woman, but about how he loves his daughter makes it even better
I like how there's a song in a completely different genre, in a completely different language, that also, at first glance, appears like it's the singer singing about how his loved one can make or break many aspects of his life, can help him cope with pain and hardship, can make him enjoy life, basically.
But in reality who he is talking about is his daughter and, with that knowledge, almost every line in the lyrics change meaning.
It still works if you dedicate it to your partner but it holds a lot more weight if dedicated to your daughter. Song's "La Quiero a Morir" in case you're interested.
Yeah, the song starts with his daughter crying as a baby. It's meant to be a lullaby
@@GabrielShitposting That song was originally in French. Francis Cabrel wrote one song about his wife (Petite Marie), and 2 or 3 about his daughters, Je l'aime à mourir being one of them.
Hotel California is fucking terrifying when you really listen to it
Which is why it's funny when my retail job plays it and I feel like they know.
I remember listening to it the first time and i never trusted hotels or motels ever again
Bloody love it though
god it is
Hells yeah it scary
I feel “Wake Me Up When September Ends” because I lost my father, too. And just so happens his birthday and my parents’ wedding anniversary are in September.
I would never think of it as anything other than a song dedicated to his father.
Wake Me Up When September Ends makes me tear up when I hear any individual second of it. It is a masterpiece, and Billy Joe strikes such a chord with me.
When you realize Dirty Harry isnt a happy go lucky ragtime song, but actually a song about a South African war and the kids being the only survivors (from the crashed plane in the background of the music video)
Gorillaz Clint Eastwood?
There is a line in the song that states “The war is over so says the speaker with the flight suit on”. I am certain that was a reference to George W Bush in a flight suit having landed a plane on the deck of an aircraft carrier, telling everyone “mission accomplished” with respect to the Iraq War.
I thought Dirty Harry was about untreated war time trauma and or the drafting system. But it seems I was wrong
@@aobrainstem9208 MaByEtOhImImJuStApAwN
I’m sorry
Thought that was kinda obvious
Afroman "Because I got high".
Everyone always plays at parties and while smoking weed, but the lyrics talk about how smoking weed ruined his life.
Everyone knows it's a song about blaming your problems on weed.
....132 people liked this because they are high
Hey also did a remake of it talking about how smoking weed made his life better
@@DeionJohnson95 facts
He just couldn't take accountability for his laziness so blames weed
I love recontextualizing songs from the fan-based surface-level we're exposed to, back into their original intentions, cause when you relisten with the intended meaning or tone, it kinda makes the music itself feel different too!
Funny thing, even when I didn't know Take Me To Church was about the horrors of organized religion, especially for LGBT+, it always evoked this horrified traumatic response from me. A kind of hollow, gaping, grasping, and begging bloodied on my knees for mercy kind of feeling. I grew up horrifically bullied in a small bible belt town and was raised by one of those crazy christians who is one unholy sermon away from joining Westboro BC. When that song played, it felt like it was coming from a place of yearning, trauma, and hurt beyond repair. I cannot believe anyone would assume it would be in support of the fcked up "religion" they use to hide their bigotry, but then again I never believed anyone would vote for a rotten orange to be the president, so I guess surprises come to us every day.
We need More videos of this!!!
I mean, I feel like pitbull existing is enough proof that people don't actuall pay attention to song lyrics.
That's a good enough reason incase one gets curious and ends up bewildered
Yeah his are all creeeeeepy
Summer Girls by LFO is proof of that too. The lyrics make no sense.
Pitbull is trolling everyone with those lyrics and i love him. He is like if The lonely island became mainstream. Beautiful
dw. he's been there. done that.
“Isn’t She Lovely” was the biggest surprise.
With the societal expectation for dads to prefer sons and moms to prefer daughters, seeing a dad love his daughter so much that he writes and records a song for her makes me want to cry. Knowing there is a different version with audio of them interacting makes my heart melt; it’s so rare for dads to openly show love for their daughters.
This is why I always try to pay attention to the lyrics, all of these songs have a message.just because they sound good doesn't mean you should ignore the meaning.
another fun fact, the Smash Mouth All Star song isn't about onions having layers, but in fact about an ... all star
It's about a dude really fucking down on his luck, but just rolling with the punches. Lyrics are actually pretty cool when you listen.
Also a little bit about global warming
and golden showers. the irony of "all that glitters is gold"
Yes shrek is the all star.
Fits well shreks character that plebis describes...
But.... Onions have layers....
I can't believe people would use "Every Breath You Take" for their wedding. It's creepy.
How about Turn Around Look At Me by the Vogues. I envision a chick walking down a dark street with some wacky guy stalking her with a butcher knife. When she does turn around he plunges it into her gut while she’s screaming bloody murder.
The psycho got someone to marry....take a bow .
🧎♂️🙇♂️
Legit hate I’ll be watching you, It actually makes me super uncomfortable
The guy on the radio who played the song said that and then I realized
I keep laughing at a wedding reception when they blasted "Someone Like You" by Adele or "Bang Bang" by Ariana Grande during a kid's birthday party.
I Don't Like Modays by The Boomtown Rats is not a song about not liking mondays, but a school shooting and Valentine's Day by David Bowie is also about a school shooting
You did a great job. I already knew some of the meanings of these songs, but there were also songs about which I had no idea. Cheerful sounds and song titles can be very misleading. The biggest shock for me was when I once read a comment that "Last Christmas" is not a Christmas song. I think that the radio also plays a large part in the reception of this song, as it plays this song a million times every year before and during Christmas. This video is a great appeal to people to pay more attention to song lyrics. Greetings from Poland. :-)
I work as a wedding caterer and I’ve heard Kanye’s Gold Digger, Outkast’s Hey Ya, and Hozier’s Cherry Wine and I died laughing all 3 times
Gold Digger I can kind of understand, like that Chris Rock bit about that Lil John song. Not sure I can type it out without the AI deleting it 🤭
Interesting job........
I've heard cherry wine at a wedding it started making me laugh so hard people were asking me why I'm laughing
I would definitely play gold digger at my wedding but mine and my husbands sense of humor is like that
I am in a similar line. Last week I saw a wedding DJ throw on "I Write Sins Not Tragedies", and 200 people screaming along "It's too bad the poor bride is a whore". Though what the song is actually about might have been a dig at some family members they didn't want around. Still funny.
That's why the Weeknd said in another song "god damn bitch I am not a teen choice", and in the same song "every time you try to forget who I am I'll be right there to remind you again".
I can respect that 😁
Either way teens choose him
The song is called Reminder from the Starboy album for anyone wanting to look for it!
And the line before is "I just won a new award for a kids show
, talking 'bout a face numbing off a bag of blow.." then again, its the weeknd lol
I remember talking with a friend, was not the biggest "Musci" fan, she was mostyl fan of "Just put some cool background music or pop hits" and when we managed to talk about the lyrics she flipped out. But she concluded that if it sounds good, it's good enough to listen to it wihtout learning the lyrics.
I am still thinking about it while I listen to this video. I love music, but then I realized that sometimes people just want to listen to catchy stuff... but it's a good conversation topic, like the whole "When you happy you listen the tune, when you sad you listen the lyrics" meme.
Great video !
I waited tables at a wedding where the first dance was an acoustic rendition "We Found Love In A Hopeless Place"... Unironically
I’m pretty sure *”All Star”* by Smash Mouth is actually about growing up. This is clear from lines like: “The years start coming and they don’t stop coming” showing the inevitability of ageing, “It didn’t make sense not to live for fun” showing how as a child, the singer lived a more fun and relaxed lifestyle and the line “You’re brain gets smart but your head gets dumb” commenting on how the “living for fun” mentality is a better lifestyle that the singer has abandoned as they’ve grown up and how many adults don’t realise this even though they become academically smarter.
That song is a bit of a meme these days but you're right. It has much more depth than people give it credit.
I genuinely hope you’ve just recently heard that song for the first time and/or you’re a ten year old.
Could also be about the growing awareness in global issues like global warming and whatnot that comes with maturity.
I always understood the lyrics but their gravity hasn't set in until I read your comment. I remember being in third grade when that song debuted. It was stuck in my head for weeks lol. After reading that I remembered how I used to feel as I sang it aloud, that one day I'll know what it means to be an adult, and whether or not my responsibilities would weigh me down, or if I'd carelessly drift through life with ease. Regardless life was definitely about living for fun, and back then, that's all that ever made sense. It's still one of my favorites.
And there was a bit about climate change and how we deal with serious topics that threaten our lives like children I think? “It’s a cool place, and they say it gets colder… but the meteor men beg to differ, judging by the hole in the satellite picture. The ice we skate is getting pretty thin, the water’s getting warm so you might as well swim.”
Never Gonna Give You Up is actually about a really, really persistent meme
Yep if you ever find yourself rickrolled.
Yeah it's actually about having am affair
This is the longest standing meme ever and i want it to stay that way. Never gonna give up alright
so meme`s started in the 80s?
Thought it was a song about relations.
Omg, I'm so happy somebody stops to think about the lyrics. stay awesome.
im sure you mentioned it in the last video, but weddings where "every breath you take" was their first dance song or whatever always had me side eyeing
James Blunt actually stated in an interview that "Beautiiful" was about a stalker watching a victim and hilariously most people thought he was joking. He wasn't.
rewatched the mv and why was he stripping-
I aaallllllwwwways said that song was super creepy. My ex was like, "No, dude, it's totally romantic." Um, next ...
@@TheSlipperFitsMe exaaactly
He definitely wasn’t joking because he was, in fact, the stalker in question
@@rakoon6351 The song is about him falling apart and not getting the things he wants because he's a complete mess. He "saw her on a subway - she was with another man, but that didn't matter, cause he had a plan", but you see, then "she caught his eye as he walked on by and she could see on his face that he was fucking high" then later he saw her again and she didn't give him the time of day and "he doesn't know what he'll do, cause he'll never be with (her)"
MGMT’s story’s gotta be the best one. They’re making fun of how dumb it is to be successful off of dumb music and they become mega famous off of the same music that was made for a joke.
The lyrics in “Time to pretend” say everything you need to know about their feelings for mainstream BS.
Though I have to say “Congratulations” was their best GFY towards the industry as a whole.
they became the joke
There’s a fantastic podcast called Song Exploder, with an episode with MGMT talking about Time To Pretend
i love them sm
@@gerradfoster8777 Sing about doing heroin then close out the song with "We'll choke on our vomit, and that will be the end, we were fated to pretend" yup, just a happy fun pop song.
The Weeknd has never been vague with his lyrics & he addressed Can't feel my face being nominated for a kid's choice with a hilarious line on 'Reminder'
"Just won an award for a kid's show, talking bout my face coming off a bag of blow"
im honestly not sure if you put this song in the video but copacabana ( at the copa) by Barry Manilow tells the story of a dancer , Lola, who is in love with Tony , the bartender. A rich guy named Ricky invites Lola over and Ricky "goes to far". Tony comes to save Lola causing a fight with blood, gunshots and broken chairs. In the last verse it talks about Lola thirty years from this event. she is still in the dress, drinking heavily.Tony got killed in the fight and it broke her. that is my understanding of the lyrics and I don't know how well known this is but I told this to a friend and he didn't believe me.
Blinding Lights has multiple dark meanings behind it and one of them is literally hallucinating while being carried in an ambulance...
How do you know?
@@nunomaianhi3891The hallucination part is true, you can tell throughout the entirety of the song it basically points out during the beginning sequence and the ending.
@@nunomaianhi3891 I recommend watching D’Angelo Wallace’s video on After Hours as a whole. He does a very good job explaining the meanings behind the songs in detail :)
@@nunomaianhi3891 basicly the song on the album before blinding lights called "Faith" is about him basicly overdosing on drugs and he ends this song with the words "I ended up in the back of a flashing car, with the city shining on my face, the lights are blinding me again"
wait, people HAVEN'T been noticing last christmas' tone? god, i actually feel smart for the 2rd time in ly life
Aaaaaand I completely didn't notice you typed "ly" instead of "my", reminding me that I should probably get my eyes checked.
honestly it's so obvious, they must be deaf or something
@@CrazyQuilman157 he also said 2rd
@@404_VipersBite *eldritch noises*
The first time I heard it was the Taylor Swift version ( I worked in a grocery store). I was like, "Of course Taylor would make a break up song around Christmas." That's when someone told me it was a George Michael song, more accurately a Wham! song.
And who thought Careless Whisper was a love song?
For those of us who grew up in the 80s, we also heard the English version of 99 Luftballoons (99 Red Balloons) and the Cold War theme was not lost on us. The song was intended (as I understand it; so said Casey Kasem, so you know it had to be true) to be released in the US as the English version but the single (on vinyl) had both versions so it was easy for DJs to get mixed up and play it in German instead. But there were a lot of such songs around that time, so missing this one wouldn't have been the end of the world. (HA!)
It's probably because it's more depressing once you know what the lyrics are actually saying, that the German version charted higher in the US than the English one did. Ignorance truly is bliss. "Despacito" is another song that is a lot less innocent once you know what the lyrics mean.
@@troodon1096 Yeah, I can see that.
My name is Luca…. That is one of the most terribly misunderstood lyrics I can think of
Oh yes, that's too painful
PEOPLE THINK LAST CHRISTMAS IS A FUN CHRISTMAS SONG?!?! DID THEY NOT HEAR “last Christmas, I gave you my heart, and the very next day, you gave it away.”
It's a hopeful break up song though because this year they'll give it to someone special.
" 'Happy christmas' i wrapped it up and sent it with a note saying 'i love you', now i know what a fool i've been"
do they not hear that?
"I'm hiding from you with your soul of ice"
do they not hear that???
"my god, i thought you were someone to rely on. me? i guess i was a shoulder to cry on"
DO THEY NOT HEAR THAT??? 😭
What's really disturbing about "Don't You Want Me" is that it hit it big on the charts around the same time that actress Dorothy Stratten was murdered in an incident eerily similar to the song's lyrics.
You don't say...
will: It was on the radio a lot when it came out. The lyrics were very easy to understand. I didn't think about it too much, but you really didn't have to. I liked to sing it to my then-wife because she was working in a cocktail bar. She was mildly annoyed, as was my intention.
@@Shush959 Of course it is. The songwriter stated that he'd been inspired by the movie "A Star is Born" - whether the 1937 version, or the 1954 one, I've forgotten - rather than on any actual incident, but it's still a creepy coincidence.
...Jesus...
Oh.... oh no. Also, I swear some of these songs were taken and played on the radio (or in commercials) just because it has an upbeat feel. Apparently no one ever listens to the entire song or the lyrics.
It's not bad that they're hits, but the fact some of these (like "Don't You Want Me") are played so often on the radio (where some channels are even considered family friendly to my understanding - no swearing and all that), it's really off-putting.
It seriously does baffle me that there are people that didn't understand these. It feels so incredibly obvious to me, to the point I was shocked to hear there were people that didn't get the message. But maybe that's just due to the fact my taking things literally and directly as stated helped me there.
Finally someone brings Vamos A La Playa to the table. Here in Mexico, even while we speak spanish it became used in TV as a sketchy song for beach scenes and stuff, and there were even a car horn used mainly by bus drivers with that tune 😂
Not sure if people get confused about its intentions, but Ready to Die by Andrew C.K is just a giant, creepy death threat that happens to sound like one of the happiest rock anthems in the world. I love it.
*Andrew W.K
...literally ALL of the lyrics are about killing and violence, the title is THAT, and people miss that??? Andrew W.K is known for his major-key chords and songs, this is one of my favorite songs ever, but it very much is an "i am going to F&@% YOUR $H*T UP" song
yeah a guy with a song called "ready to die" is the perfect person to send out into the desert with a bunch of kids, heavy equipment, explosives and minimal supervision
I just listened to this. Hilarious.
@@dragonfire101g ISN'T IT GREAT
Paper Planes by M.I.A.
On the surface everyone thinks its just some fun song about hustling but in reality she was rapping about how immigrants are treated in the U.K. and her experiences as one in the nation.
I am stating my personal opinion but i've known this song for a long time before I learned english and it always had this very melancholic, kind of sarcastic feel to it. Paper planes is such a great song, in my opinion best female rap song ever.
"If you catch me at the border, I got visas in my name". How clear could she be? What a song.
Why does everyone have anime profile pic
Thanks for sharing these stories.
The one I'm most glad that you shared here is 99 Luftballoons. I'm learning German now, but back when the song came out, I only knew a few words, and I never knew what the song was about. I'm glad that I do now.
Don't You Want Me? I had my suspicions about that song, as it was obvious to me a long time ago that there was something creepy about it.
I knew about Electric Avenue, but it's good to have a reminder about it.
I didn't know about Feel Good Inc., although it makes sense to me.
Have you talked about another song by The Gorillaz, Cracker Island? From what I read somewhere, it has something to do with one of the band members being in a cult, in the song. Not in real life.
Thanks for explaining No Woman, No Cry. I've felt for a while that it was a misunderstood song.
I first remember hearing Last Christmas when I was like 7 and I got that it was a breakup straight away. I genuinely have no idea how people might miss that
Billie Armstrong simply said, “wake me up when September ends” to his mother when she checked on him after he ran home from his dad’s funeral. His dad passed away on September 10th 1982 when Billie was 10. September is a very hard month for Billie and his family.
I always thought it followed the music video and was the last month of deployment for a solider.
@@williambigbills-9665 it’s kind of both, but the main inspiration is his father. He talked about the song in a documentary they did about Green Day’s Broadway musical. It’s really interesting to see their thought processes on their songs
@@williambigbills-9665 it’s kind of both, but the main inspiration is his father. He talked about the song in a documentary they did about Green Day’s Broadway musical. It’s really interesting to see their thought processes on their songs
He actually died on September 10th. The song is also inspired by post 9/11 grief and his anti-war sentiments.
Yea but Billie kinda sucks.
In the “don’t you want me baby” lyrics, when it switches to her POV she says “I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar, *that much is true* “which implies he has been lying.
The guys at work would sing it, exaggerating it wonderfully. There's nothing like a deep-voiced man trying to falsetto "I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar..."
I always thought the male in this song was a controlling creep. Good job kicking him to the curb, girl!
@rod scarborough I agree
Yeah, the author of this video completely glosses over the woman's verse where she basically tells him to f* off.
Let's not be politically correct, the song is actually a sick relation on both sides.
She's not pissed for something and she doesn't imply that he's been lying she just disagree that she needed him to be successful and the time they had together were good and she loves him yet she wants to move on to live on her own for appearently no reason. I don't know about you but to me this sounds like a girl I hope I'll never have to deal with.
This doesn't excuse the male part but it doesn't mean she's less troubled.
There’s this medieval music inspired Belgian pop song called ‘t smidje by Laïs that for some reason got popular at weddings in Poland, Ukraine and India. Probably because someone came up with a nice dance to it.
The song is about regretting getting married, and in Laïs’ version, somewhat hints at domestic violence.
Also, the original song is from the late 18th century (i.e not medieval) and possibly from Amsterdam. Laïs version is based on one written down in Antwerp ~1900.
The wife is called a bitch and he complains she won’t shut up. Great wedding material 😂
Great part 2. Looking forward to hearing more curious, yet hidden facts about songs.
Alternate Title: Songs that prove Reading Comprehension is an untaught language to many people
It's songs that prove that the first lines of blues travelers song the hook are very accurate
This is the wankiest comment I’ve ever seen
@@str4yk1dsw0rldd0minati0n and yet its true
@@TheEscapePlan01 Yeah but the way they wrote it is wanky, they seem like they put their IQ in their bio
@@str4yk1dsw0rldd0minati0n thats fair
How do people NOT know about Last Christmas? The song explicitly says that "Last Christmas I gave you my heart and the very next day you gave it away."
It’s even a slower song, with a clear voice. HOW
@@Joshdoingthings1 my friends think it’s about the holidays, cause English isn’t our first language, and we’re 15
@@RK-ig8gc ah, understandable
Literally
Another case of people not even listening to the first two lines of the chorus!
Just like Take Me To Church where the second line says: "I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies", yet people - native speakers, even - still somehow manage to miss the sarcasm and think it was a Christian song!
How do these people exist? And how are there so many of them?
I'm not a native speaker, but I've known what Last Christmas really is about since I was like ten or eleven years old. The lyrics are very simple both in concept and language!
The one that annoys me the most is The Night We Met. A lot of people see it either as a love song where the singer wishes he could fall in love with his partner all over again after the relationship goes south, when really it’s about a woman wishing she never met the man that got her hooked on the drugs that killed her. It really gets me cause it’s the band’s most popular song… it’s hard to escape the pretty lyric edits of happy couples to it… :’)
"and then I could tell myself not to ride along with you" is what got me for the longest time bc I could feel the regret in that part.
Now the entire song just reminds me of my dead cat so I hate it
The fact that some people thinks that Pumped Up Kicks is a song about shoes, they're completly out of their minds.
I'll never get that, like. The chorus is literally "Better outrun my gun" how do people not realise that??
I think my absolute favorite example of "song in foreign language that sounds happy" to me is Stay With Me from Miki Matsubara. Realizing that the entire song is about Miki begging her husband not to leave her kinda changes the whole feel of the song
So my ex once dedicated a "love" song to me, it was japanese and I don't know it's title but it said something along the lines of "love me or I will *kill* you" "hug me until my ribs break" and such, the main chorus said Suki Suki Daisuki so that may help.
Yes, he was that kinda ex boyfriend and I too was that kind of boyfriend. I kinda moved on from that but just wanted to share a similar experience
@Elias Salinas the song is Suki Suki Daisuki by Jun Tagawa, it's about a girl falling in love with an older man or something like that. Jun was famous for making controversial songs and subverting what lyrics written by women are supposed to be and she wanted to express her actual thoughts and feelings to inspire other women songwriters to write what they actually want to rather than what's acceptable. At least that's how I understand it but it doesn't matter because the song is a banger regardless.
@@user-bx8sj6qm3w it really is a banger, and thank you for the backstory of the singer/writer of the song and what it was about, thank you! Really ^^
ironically i always listened to that song when i was in an abusive relationship back then LOL
Gives me "Lovefool" by the Cardigans vibes. That whole song is literally "I know you don't love me anymore but please don't leave me because I need you". Like major dependency disorder. It's hidden behind a poppy beat and I don't think the band had much lore background for the song so it just got lost in 90's upbeat playlist.
Melt With You by Modern English is about dying with your lover in a nuclear war and it’s in chocolate commercials
And a Ritz cracker commercial.
the chocolate company's are ready for the nukes.
Disney also did a terrible rendition of it in their superhero school movie "sky high," a movie about teenage superheroes dealing with teenager drama. No clue why. I'm assuming it had something to do with one kid's superpower being that he could melt.
@@bennitori4 Now I'm remembering that weird show on Nick for a while. "Meltman, with the power to... melt."
Based pfp
@06:00 😪 MGMT(So great) The greatest song for me, to jump start me from a sad mood to just want to go do everything fun I can till my last moment 😷
3:13 I'm not the only one that the sound cuts off here right?
the song was cut off to prevent a copyright claim
Every breath you take by the police, I feel like that's the stalker anthem but I can't believe how many people have it either as a wedding song or as a couple song
it's actually about his(Sting's) daughter
@@nothanks7263 bro I had to look it up because the lyrics where already creepy, and if it was about his daughter it would have been even more but it says that sting wrote it after his divorce to his first wife (he cheated on her with her "best friend"), and then this is what he said about it.
"I woke up in the middle of the night with that line in my head, sat down at the piano and had written it in half an hour. The tune itself is generic, an aggregate of hundreds of others, but the words are interesting. It sounds like a comforting love song. I didn't realise at the time how sinister it is. I think I was thinking of Big Brother, surveillance and control."
And heres me thinking it was about the papparazzi because they follow him about all the time
@@nothanks7263 No, it's about having an intense one way relationship with someone.
He said people come up to him and tell him how romantic it is, and he has stopped trying to tell them otherwise.
good to know im not the only one that thinks the lyrics have this meaning
I refuse to believe people weren't trolling you with "Pumped up Kicks". I mean, it literally sings about finding a gun, and them running faster than a bullet.
The thing is your right it feels like a troll, but at the same time it is still being played in schools as a fun pep song for student gatherings. Never underestimate human stupidly if people can use Born in the USA and Fortunate Son as patriotic songs, For what it's worth as a protest song. Then we know school administrators are dumb enough to play Pumped up kicks. Hell I've experienced from middle school through college in the case of Pumped up kicks.
The whole point of the video is that people *don't* listen to the lyrics...
My kids pointed out to me what the lyrics meant! I missed that one.
Decades ago, I used to play in an R&B band, and one of our most beloved covers was If Loving You Is Wrong, I Don't Wanna Be Right. We were preparing for a wedding reception, and it was my job to prepare the setlist. I left the song off the list, and when asked why, I responded, “You do know that song is about committing adultery?” 😂😂😂
Christmas Kids. The part that’s like “You’ll change your name, and change your mind, and leave this messed up place behind, but I’ll know I’ll know, I’ll know, I’ll know” had gotten popular on TikTok for edits that are about friendship, but the song is really actually pretty dark.
"Two trucks" by Lemon Demon isnt a wacky song about trucks having sex, its a metaphor for vehicular manslauhter
I can't tell if you're joking but this is kinda bogus ngl
I love this
I took it more as a satire of American jingoism and how it can destroy things, but this makes just as much sense
@@megan1387 average twittard
@@paccie9689 to each their own i guess
Escape (the piña colada song) is another one that people just don’t get but the lyrics are very clear. It’s about a husband and wife who are dissatisfied with their marriage and take out a personal ad to cheat, but end up answering each other’s ads by coincidence.
THANK YOU!!! The fact that it has a perceived happy ending always pisses me off. Although, I explained what it meant and a friend tried to spin it as being about a woman trying to save her marriage and that she had placed the ad specifically for him to find. Which, to me, makes the song even more worse than it is.
Actually, the ending IS hopeful, as the husband and wife realize there are avenues to explore, and they get to enjoy their pina coladas too.
@@chamonix2602 I mean, it kinda isn't tbh, realistically they just go back to being in a toxic relationship with eachother, the ending sounds hopeful, but its just miscommunication and deceit from both parties.
unrelated but i hated those kids in middle school with inflated sense of self who would explain the meaning behind that song at random
No one is confused about that song lol it's pretty clear my dude
I rarely misinterpreted any of these. 99 red balloons... I was around for some of the Cold War. We really were terrified that might be the last day, before that final flash. The 99 red ballons were mistaken for an ICBM. Great song, damned scary, catchy tune.
I have always been surprised at people and how little they pay attention to the lyrics of songs. Most of these I was aware of, because I literally can't listen to music without knowing the lyrics. I have to know what the song mean to be able to decide if I like it or not. And to want to dance to it. Great video. Glad I found your channel.
honestly I feel like pumped up kicks is kinda the total opposite of this, back in high school i'd constantly hear kids saying "bro this song is so deep you think it's like a normal song but it's about like a bad thing" what wonderwall is to guitar players pumped up kids is to music discussion
In our school that song was: " hey did ya know, every breath you take" is about a stalker...
@Dreyarde It was pretty misunderstood around the time it came out until more and more people made music videos depicting school shootings using it as well as the popularity of the quiet kid memes made it so pretty much everyone knows what the song means.
Thank you for mentioning Wake Me Up When September Ends. I think it's horrible how people make jokes about such a beautiful, sad song.
Especially how the song is about for the singer of greenday’s dad died as a child
Yeah, it's a beautiful song, but like Billie said, the internet is the internet, it will make fun of anything or everything. Not in those exact words but an oversimplification of it.
lmao
"I'ts gonna be called shut the f*** up when october comes"- Bille Joe Armstrong
@@amiablanket lol that's actually pretty funny.
it’s interesting to see how knowing the meaning to a song changes the lyrics in its entirety, when i listened to hansel by sodikken the only thing i knew about it was that the last lines “a whole garden of flowers and my name etched on a rock” were referring to a funeral. when i dug deeper i learnt it was about a kid harming themselves to get attention from their parents, who were neglecting them
If you ever make a third one of these: I love that both Reagan AND McCain used John Mellencamp's "Pink Houses" as a campaign song without listening to the lyrics.
Oh my god, did he actually listen to my White Wedding comment? Even is it isn't the case, thank you Alfo.
I thought the same about my Hey Ya! comment... but it has 1 like
Its a nice day to start again 🙄
If
You weren't the only one to leave a comment about white wedding
Who plays that at their wedding tho, wtf