Top 10 Songs That Caused Massive Backlash

The Shamen To the innocent mind, this fun track by British electronic group ‘the Shamen’ will likely come across as inoffensive. However, it’s quite apparent that its lyrics are actually linked to substance use and the like. This left a lot of the more conservative members of the British public and media irate after the song’s commercial success which led it to hit the number one spot on the charts. As such, at the peak of its popularity, the song was promptly banned by the BBC. While this seems absurd by today’s standards, as this list will later inform you, that was quite the norm back in the day!

The Prodigy With a name like that what do you expect? Prodigy blew up when they hit the mainstream back in the 90s. But when they weren’t causing panic for media outlets with “firestarter”, which they believed could influence arsonists, they were shaking them to their core with this electronic banger. The BBC labeled the track as sexist and potentially inciting violence against women. The song was never allowed to appear on radio one or even Top of the Pops despite its chart-topping success.

XTC Have you ever heard the old saying “Never talk about money, politics or religion?” XTC’s Andy Partridge learned why in the aftermath of this 1986 tune. The otherwise melodic and successful arrangement of “Dear God” belies some pretty scathing and venomous critiques about divine injustice. The song’s lyrics demand answers from a God who seems not to listen, a creator content with war, famine, disease and death upon his world. Not everybody wanted to hear Partridge’s opinions on this matter, however, particularly in the United States. One radio city in Panama City, Florida even received a bomb threat, after playing “Dear God” on the air.

Goldie Lookin Chain In the mid-2000s, the heyday of Welsh hip-hop group Goldie Lookin Chain, they loved to satire as much as possible. But still, sometimes, they crossed a line that wouldn’t work today. In fact, this song was often called “Your Mother” on the radio rather than its full name to avoid mentioning certain organs. There are many ways to interpret the lyrics of this song, with some suggesting it's transphobic. Either way, the crude manner in which our rapping narrator describes the target of their ire is seldom heard on radios in this day and age. Just have a listen for yourself and you’ll guess why it wasn’t allowed on certain stations.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood It’s a rare occurrence when the corporation that banned a song is responsible for its popularity. Before Frankie Goes to Hollywood performed Relax on Top of the Pops, it was nowhere near the megahit it would become. This was before the execs at the BBC suddenly realized that the song was overtly erotic and decided to ban it from all their stations and tv shows. Though, some actually got the memo way too late. DJ Mike Reid once had to cut the track live on the air after being alerted by the higher ups that it was on the ban list!

The Cure They may be lauded as musical visionaries today, but this doesn’t mean that The Cure was always able to escape criticism. The gothic rock legends actually released “Killing an Arab” as their debut single, featuring lyrics that were based upon a work of fiction: “The Stranger,” by Albert Camus. Yet, the decision of songwriter Robert Smith to choose this title over something perhaps more innocuous resulted in accusations that “Killing an Arab” was racist and promoted violence. This legacy never truly went away, either, with this proverbial albatross existing as something of a curse within a Cure discography that’s otherwise chock-full of classics.

The Beatles Yes that’s right, even the most prolific band in British history saw itself on the receiving end of some massive controversy. 6 words, that’s all it took for this song to be banned from play on BBC radio one when it was first released. The line in question was “I'd love to turn you on”, and no it wasn’t deemed inappropriate for being sexual. Instead, this line was in reference to drugs - which Paul McCartney would later confirm. Though it apparently hurt the beeb execs at the time, they felt they had no other choice but to keep it off their stations as glorifying drug use was seen largely frowned upon.

Judas Priest On one hand, parents out there might find a way to sympathize with the family of James Vance, who died some years after a self-inflicted gunshot wound. However, they were ultimately pointing fingers in the wrong direction when they accused Judas Priest of including subliminal messaging within their cover of Spooky Tooth’s “Better by You, Better than Me.” The Vances claimed that the song inspired James to attempt self-destruction, while the band countered that they would never intentionally want any of their fans to head down this road. The case was ultimately dismissed, and Judas Priest was exonerated, but the trial made headlines nationwide back in 1990.

Ozzy Osbourne The world of heavy metal possesses a long history of being used as a scapegoat for everything from generational devil worship to unthinkable personal tragedy. The parents of John Daniel McCollum claimed that this track from Ozzy Osbourne’s “Blizzard of Ozz” album was what pushed their son over the breaking point. McCollum took his own life in 1984, and his parents took Osbourne to court over lyrical content. The plaintiffs claimed that a sequence in the song featured Ozzy telling the listener to “get the gun and shoot!” This is despite the fact that the word “solution” in the song is referring to alcohol, and not the means to McCollum’s tragic end. Osbourne was eventually found not to be at fault in the case.

Sex Pistols Malcolm McLaren and The Sex Pistols certainly seemed to know what they were doing when they released this two-fingered salute to their home nation back in 1977. “God Save the Queen” was a knowing riff on the U.K.’s national anthem, while at the same time serving as a defining anthem of the ‘70s punk era. The tune was banned from radio, and many retail shops wouldn’t carry physical copies of the single, despite brisk sales from outlets that did decide to stock the record. In essence, “God Save the Queen” did what all good punk rock should do: it made people PO’d. It also made the Sex Pistols famous. Which of these controversies do you think are overblown? Let us know in the comments below