Is violence, drugs, & sex in music really new? *Warning, lyrical content may be offensive*

DuranDuran

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Many people today seem to think that songs about sex, drinking, drugs & violence were invented by rappers or modern acts, but it has always been there. Here's a few examples.

1973
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1935
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1958 - The song itself is much older, but this cover is the 1st hit version.
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1956

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How about Stagger Lee. That is pretty violent.


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There was another song, I can't think of now that I dodnot know was so violent until I got older. It was about a mobster and the man and women he killed and how he made their bodies disappear. maybe you know what I am talking about? Boy, now this is going to bug me.
 
Hey I just remembered it. It was Mack the Knife.

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This track by Jackie Wilson & LaVern Baker is from 1965
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1969
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1968

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This is a song about suicide released in 1971.
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Ofcorse it wasn't its been present for years, but now they just go too far about it, now most hip-hop/RnB songs are all about how rich they are and how many "bitches" they have (I'd love to how many they had without the money !!)
 
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Ofcorse it wasn't its been present for years, but noe they just go too far about it, now most hip-hop/RnB songs are all about how rich they are and how many "bitches" they have (I'd love to how many they had without the money !!)

exactly...and it is not usually classy girls they attract..it is unusably the trashy ones.,
 
Ofcorse it wasn't its been present for years, but now they just go too far about it, now most hip-hop/RnB songs are all about how rich they are and how many "bitches" they have (I'd love to how many they had without the money !!)
Bragging songs have been around since recorded music began also. Check out some Jelly Roll Morton songs from the early 1900s. Little Richard's Tutti Frutti is talking about the different women he has and what they do to him. Brown Sugar by the Rolling Stones is about raping a woman that just came off a slave ship.
 
I honestly think it's in how they sang them. How cute and interesting can a writer get when talking about sex, money, and/or violence. Most don't know WTH they're hearing when they hear Little Richard sing Tutti Frutti, or any of the other explicit songs. They just heard the killer melody and wanted to dance to it. I don't even think I know all the words.

Having said that, this Third Eye Blind song was a favorite of mine when I was a kid. Little did I know it was a very explicit song to which I never learned the words to. I just knew the chorus. It was also a major hit. Goes to show that many don't pay attention to lyrics as long as it has a good beat and chorus line.

 
This song which was released in 1927 is a traditional song originally sung by slaves about runaway slaves going to freedom.
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