Dodgy morals in pop songs

[Gahhhhereheisagain]

I'll start...
Escape (the pina colada song)
I'd be leaving that Irish bar without him. What a tit.

I’ve been thinking about this recently. I’ve been listening to some cheesy pop tracks from about 4 decades and I was quite struck by how women are portrayed and treated as sex objects, even in songs (sung if not written) by women about women. If you want really dodgy morals though, you need folk songs.

It was the Macarena that got me started thinking.

@MontezumasPuma oh I see, just looked up the lyrics

‘Blurred Lines’ is an obvious one.

You're gorgeous is deeply dodgy. Great tune, but....

Mungo Jerry, In the Summer Time.

Lyrics:-
If her daddy's rich take her out for a meal.
If her daddy's poor just do what you feel.

Love the tune but hate those lyrics.

Also that awful Justin Bieber one about 'what do you mean?' which is very 'if you say no does that mean yes?'

Beat Again by JLS is a guy basically emotionally blackmailing and manipulating some poor woman for breaking up with him, a sample of the lyrics:

If I died
Yeah would you come
To my funeral
Would you cry

Would you feel some regret
That we didn't try
Or would you fall apart
The same as I, I, I, I

Oh and would it always
Haunt you baby?
That you missed your chance
To save me

Cause you know it's not
Too late
Hey, hey, hey

Saving All my Love for You - Whitney Houston
Secret Lovers - Atlantic Starr

Also Britney 'I was born to make you happy' made me barf at the time

@FionnulaTheCooler jeez, did not know those were the lyrics

Always loved this song until I thought harder about this lyric:

Give me a second I
I need to get my story straight
My friends are in the bathroom getting higher than the Empire State
My lover she's waiting for me just across the bar
My seat's been taken by some sunglasses asking 'bout a scar, and
I know I gave it to you months ago
I know you're trying to forget
But between the drinks and subtle things
The holes in my apologies, you know
I'm trying hard to take it back

Oh god yes In theSummertime

Get out of my dreams and into my car. Although I heard about Billy Ocean being really lovely to a fan with learning disabilities so I might let him off.

The Knack - My Sharona.

Written by the 23 year old lead singer about a 16 year old girl he fancied.

The creepy lyrics include:-

Ooh, you make my motor run, my motor run
Gun it coming off of the line, Sharona

Never gonna stop, give it up, such a dirty mind
I always get it up for the touch of the younger kind.

Wrong on every level.

Break up with your girlfriend, I'm bored.

My Sharona
Walk this way
Brown sugar

Hurt so good by Susan Cadogan.

There are so many from the era I grew up in (70s) that have really dodgy lyrics, it's a wonder I had any normal relationships.

Shape up at the disco and I think I've got a pull
I ask her lots of questions and she hangs on to the wall
I kiss her for the first time and then I take her home
I'm invited in for coffee and I give the dog a bone
She likes to go to discos but she's never on her own
I said I'll see you later and give her some old chat
But it's not like that on the TV when it's cool for cats
It's cool for cats

It makes me laugh though because he just sounds like some wide boy telling lies about his exploits.

What do ya wanna make those eyes at me for
If they don't mean what they say
They make me sad
They make me mad
They make me want a lot of things that I've never had

You're fooling around with me know
You lead me on and then you run away
Well that's alright, I'll get you alone tonight
And baby you'll find, you're messing with dynamite

Urgh, so rapey

… You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar
When I met you
I picked you out, I shook you up
And turned you around
Turned you into someone new
Now five years later on you've got the world at your feet
Success has been so easy for you
But don't forget it's me who put you where you are now
And I can put you back down too.

I hate the lyrics of You're Gorgeous

Justin Timberlake 'like I love you' is a bit dodgy now I think.

"Ain't nobody love you, like I love you
You're a good girl and that's what makes me trust you
Late at night, I talk to you
You will know the difference when I touch you"

I've always hated One Direction 'you don't know you're beautiful'. Heaven forbid they should like 'em confident.

Weezer….

You are
Eighteen year-old girl
Who live in small city of Japan
You heard me on the radio
About one year ago
And you wanted to know
All about me
And my hobbies
My favorite food
And my birthday
Why are you so far away from me?
I need help
And you're way across the sea
I could never touch you
I think it would be wrong
I've got your letter
You've got my song
They don't make stationery like this where I'm from
So fragile, so refined
So I sniff and I lick your envelope
And fall to little pieces every time
I wonder what clothes you wear to school
I wonder how you decorate your room
I wonder how you touch yourself
And curse myself for being across the sea
Why are you so far away from me?
I need help
And you're way across the sea
I could never touch you
I think it would be wrong
I've got your letter
You've got my song

Let's not even get into Gary Pluckett's Young Girl.

Kissing In The Back Row of the Movies by the Drifters (older man dates teen and no one bats an eyelid);
Come Live With Me by Heaven 17 (ditto);
Tonight's the Night by Rod Stewart (aka the one where Rod charmingly urges his 'sweet virgin child' to 'spread her wings(?!) and let him come inside';
To Be Or Not to Be by Mel Brooks ('amusing'(??) rap about World War 2 in the persona of Hitler);
Just the Way You Are by Billy Joel ('you're not allowed to evolve because I can't be arsed to make an effort');
Every Breath You Take by the Police (say no more).

And that's just off the top of my head. Ahh, the seventies and eighties... 🤔