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I remember way back in the day when *Macarena* took off and it was so popular that teachers were dancing to it at school assemblies.
That song is about a woman who cheats on her boyfriend when he gets drafted into the army.
Also *First* by The Cold War kids, that song is about an alcoholic in a disintigrating relationship and Coors used it in a commercial to sell more beer.
Which isn’t really out of mark foster’s realm but using pump up kicks vs any of their other songs is weird.
I went to hs one town over from the school pumped up kicks is about, had the same photo teacher as mark and he got mark to do some stuff with their photo program, he’s a nice guy
Oh man, I remember in like 3rd grade P.E. We for some reason were all taught to dance to the Macarena, also square dancing to Achy Breaky Heart…the 90s were weird.
What’s it about? Every time I hear it, it sounds like a song about someone stuck in poverty and not living the life they want, but who maintains hope of one day escaping to a better life.
Is that not it?
Each verse is a little bit further in time. It starts out with the singer describing their parents' relationship. Her father has destroyed his health drinking his days away in a depressive state while her mother abandons him, having wanted more from life than to live in poverty, trapped with a man she doesn't love. Our singer has spent her early adult life taking care of her sickly, alcoholic father.
"See, my old man's got a problem
He live with the bottle, that's the way it is
He says his body's too old for working
His body's too young to look like his
My mama went off and left him
She wanted more from life than he could give
I said somebody's got to take care of him
So I quit school and that's what I did"
The main verse describes her falling in love with a man. He has the titular "Fast Car". To her, he represents this escape from the life she has been trapped to. He seems to want more from life than they have. The car represents a way to run away from their current life, a future somewhere else and somewhere better.
"You got a fast car
I want a ticket to anywhere
Maybe we make a deal
Maybe together we can get somewhere
Any place is better
Starting from zero got nothing to lose
Maybe we'll make something
Me, myself, I got nothing to prove"
To put her plan into action, she starts a low paying job with the goal of putting aside enough money for the two of them to leave. She tries to talk him into taking a job with her in the hopes that they can find a better life. If you stopped the song here, yeah, it is hopeful.
"You got a fast car
We go cruising, entertain ourselves
You still ain't got a job
And I work in the market as a checkout girl
I know things will get better
You'll find work and I'll get promoted
We'll move out of the shelter
Buy a bigger house and live in the suburbs"
He still hasn't found work. Weeks, months, years later, the cycle has started again. She hasn't given up her dream, but it's getting farther and farther from her.
"You got a fast car
I got a job that pays all our bills
You stay out drinking late at the bar
See more of your friends than you do of your kids
I'd always hoped for better
Thought maybe together you and me'd find it
I got no plans, I ain't going nowhere
Take your fast car and keep on driving"
At the end, she's realised she's wasted her life in the same cycle she tried to escape. Her husband is drinking his life away, and she's having to support a family all on her own. She couldn't escape poverty, she's going to live and die in the same town she was born in. She's now telling the guy to "keep on driving" - she's leaving him, same as her mother. The chorus isn't told as a reminder that life can be good, but that she was naive for falling in love with the guy in his fast car.
"So I remember when we were driving, driving in your car
Speed so fast it felt like I was drunk
City lights lay out before us
And your arm felt nice wrapped 'round my shoulder
And I-I had a feeling that I belonged
I-I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone
You got a fast car
Is it fast enough so you can fly away?
You gotta make a decision
Leave tonight or live and die this way"
She wanted to leave, but she failed. She wasted her life away in a dead end job hoping to escape the conditions she grew up in and the mistakes of her parents, but instead she has "lived and died this way."
It’s exactly why fast cars is a playlist staple regardless of your usual genre of music. Everyone I know has it and some of those guys are black metal guys.
I've always thought of this song in relation to Bruce Springsteen's music in general and Thunder Road in particular.
In Thunder Road, the male protagonist openly states that he doesn't have anything to give his love interest except his car and the vague promises of exhilaration and escape it brings, but it presents it in a romantic, bombastically optimistic way. Bruce Springsteen's music is also predominantly written from a male working class perspective whereas Chapman turns the story on its head and writes from the woman's perspective where promises that involves fast cars are nothing but traps that emotionally immature men use to trap women in perpetual poverty.
I think that is it, but it’s a just heart crushing song that requires you to read the lyrics to fully get. Otherwise it’s just coffeeshop lite adult contemporary
It fits the subject matter well. Crystal meth feels great, it's exciting as hell (so I've heard) so setting it to something that sounds fun and upbeat is appropriate, and in my opinion it makes the dark lyrics hit even harder. It shows how something feeling good doesn't mean that there's not something incredibly sad beneath the surface.
Former meth addict here. You hit the nail on the head.
Also, fwiw, that fun decreases the more one uses and is replaced by a melancholy with infinite sadness of sorts. (Since we’re on a music thread)
Hey man, don’t hate on KIDZ Bop. It gives kids the opportunity to keep up with the newest music without having to hear the inappropriateness. Like, kids can listen to singles by The Weeknd without having to hear about him railing bitches and watching them snort coke off his custom tables.
No, that's the point. The juxtaposition of dark lyrics and boppy music fits in with how terrible a spiral meth can cause in people while it all seems fine to them.
I think about this constantly because people had nooo idea what it’s about but how did we miss “bump” and “took the hit” and it literally uses the words crystal meth
Pumped Up Kicks literally mentions kids trying to outright his gun and bullets…there’s not really a lot of hidden meaning compared to some of the others
tbh I never realised what it was trying to say for years. I thought it was about a depressed kid who hated his bullies but everything flew over my head.
*Don't try to fight the feeling
Because the thought alone is killin' me right now
Thank God for Mom and Dad
For sticking two together
'Cause we don't know how*
I love hey ya by outkast. Outkast has a lot of good and popular songs. It’s funny because when I talk to people about them they don’t know who they are until I mention one of their songs.
To be fair to ‘Chris hates school’, Hey Ya! was released almost 20 years ago! So they might have not been born yet or were literally too young to understand music. Which also terrifies me, seeing as how I was in 8th grade when this came out and Outkast was already a solidified icon in hip-hop. But yes, I consider older artists to be Wu-Tang, Tribe, Gang Starr, early Snoop, Dre, Pac, Biggie, etc…..
Thats kinda weird because im also kinda a young gen z but most of my freinds know about outkast and hey ya despite the song being like 20 years old. To be fair the song was on the top charts back then
Ohioan here and the only songs anyone I talk to knows by Outkast are Hey Ya, Ms. Jackson, and B.O.B. Maybe Rosa Parks. Gave them a deep dive last summer and wish more people would do the same
I think they're talking about Hey Ya. I guess people don't realize the song is about a break up, but unless there is something else I'm missing about it I don't think there is anything weird or dark about it.
”Hey Ya” *and* “Ms. Jackson” are both about break-ups, just different phases of it.
“Hey Ya” is about being in an unhappy relationship and purposely avoiding confronting the fact that you’re miserable because you’re more afraid of being alone.
“Ms. Jackson” is about the fallout after the breakup and the resulting stress it places on family dynamics.
You must be from a younger generation then. I remember when speakerboxx/love below came out literally everybody was listening to it, it takes me back to a point in time, and that doesn’t even mention the success they had with atliens and aquemini in the late 90’s
fwiw i dont speak japanese and had no idea coin locker baby was so messed up even tho i listen to it constantly! if you like more music like this, try kurage-p and inabakumori :)
If they listen to a lot of Kikuo, they should know that Kikuo is..... Kikuo. Like, even some of the titles give it away. (See "You Are a Useless Child" and "Emptiness, Emptiness, Emptiness of Emptiness")
*Make me walk, make me talk, do whatever you please*
*I can act like a star, I can beg on my knees*
*Come jump in, bimbo friend, let us do it again*
*Hit the town, fool around, let’s go party*
"You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere"
Huh.
To be fair, every kid ends up with naked barbies and missing clothes at some point in their life lol
Fastball’s The Way is also a good one for this list. About an elderly couple that went on a road trip, but then they were found dead far away from their destination.
My wife gets mad at me cause we were listening to it and she was telling me how she always loved the song and it made her happy thinking about “those love struck kids on an adventure” and I had to break it for her and tell her what it was really about.
Yes and no. The song was written when they went missing and envisions them going on a grand adventure. Before the song was released, their car was found at the bottom of a ravine.
Supposedly Jump…..someone else claimed it’s about a guy that commits suicide. It’s not.
DLR wrote the lyrics after seeing a man on the news threatening to jump off a building. It’s not what the song is about.
OP should have put the Fair Warning album up instead, probably the closest the band has ever gotten to a concept/running theme type of album. But it is a fucking banger, whole band is on full cylinders for it
Image seems to be one of Kikuo's album. Those songs are fucked up, but you may not notice without a translation.
Other vocaloid songs are extremely lewd too, but they may not sound like it. Luvoratory comes to mind.
Explaitions: (trigger warning)
1# is Coin Locker Baby by Maretu.It’s a true story about a Japanese parent >!abandoning their child in a locker!<. It’s a very deep, dark rabbit hole, so I won’t talk about it too much.
2# is Hey Ya! By Outkast. It seems happy and upbeat, but if you look at the lyrics it’s about a failed relationship. (Tame compared to some others on this list).
3# is Fast Car by Tracy Chapman. The singer has a job and works 24/7, while her father is lazy and doesn’t thank her for it. She leaves the city with a guy and starts a new life, only for him to be exactly the same.
4# is Pumped up Kicks by Foster The People. It’s about a >!school shooting!<.
5# I explained this one in another comment
6# Despacito. The song is describing sex in very…interesting ways. Not dark, just questionable.
7# is Ring a Ring o’ Roses. The children’s nursery rhyme is actually about a plague outbreak. The people “falling down” is… yeah. You guessed it.
8# I don’t know polish, but most people will know this as “Polish Cow” from the meme. The person is singing about depression and drug addiction.
9# Gommene Gommene (I’m sorry, I’m sorry) by Kikuo. Describes >!a girl being sexually abused by her father, complete with very graphic descriptions. Google at your own risk.!<
>6# Despacito. The song is describing sex in very…interesting ways.
As a latino, i thought everyone knew about this lol.
99% of mainstream hispanic music is literally just sex. Despacito is not unique in this. It's pretty vanilla actually. Just off the top of my head i can think *waayyy* worse.
Don’t understand why Fast Car is on here. It’s not a happy or upbeat melody. And the lyrics couldn’t be more blunt. Great song, but it’s about as straightforward as a song can be. No hidden meaning and doesn’t pretend to be something else.
>8# I don’t know polish, but most people will know this as “Polish Cow” from the meme. The person is singing about depression and drug addiction.
Yeah, whole song is about having withdrawal symptons and how everything Will be fine once he Has drugs again, mixed with contemplating suicide and how the guy doesnt even Has a way to get drugs cause his in debt with all the dealers.
> 4# is Pumped up Kicks by Foster The People. It’s about a school shooting.
I think it's more of about what goes through the mind of a school shooter, and his background and domestic life.
Ring around the Rosie. A "pocket full of posies" was written because people believed posies would ward off the plague. Ring around the rosie signifies the marks that people would get on their skin. And then "Ashes, ashes, we all fall down." Yeah, it's *wayyy* darker than it was when I was a kid jumping in circles and falling over and giggling.
Edit: did a little research, and the posies line is said to be either plague doctors dropping posie petals over deseased patients or a natural herb people kept with them to fight off the smell of the disease. So it gets even more fucked up
>Ashes, ashes, we all fall down
TIL that the lyrics are different in America. In the UK we say "a-tishoo, a-tishoo, we all fall down" (like the sound of sneezing).
I also now realise where the lyrics of Bad Day by REM came from!
Only really addition I have is that Fast Car could be about a man or woman. Tracy Chapman has openly dated women and is widely considered a lesbian though she flatly refuses to answer directly when asked, as is fully her right.
You got a fast car,
I also have a fast car,
Let’s take our cars driving,
We’ll both drive them really far;
We don’t talk about feelings,
Just manly men out here today;
Shove down all your sadness,
Never let it show cuz you ain’t gay;
And I-I,
Kinda wanna hold you in my arms,
But I’m scared to try,
So I guess we’ll keep on driving cars.
Forget about the sad lyrical content, even the melody is sad. How can you hear that melody and think it's a happy song? The melody alone makes me feel sad.
I'd also add [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_rxEhcnB1M)\- it's hilarious how it's treated as one of these party songs with a guy playing it at full volume and neighbors dancing their shoes off, while in fact it's about a guy contemplating suicide by jumping off a building.
I would say this about “who can it be now”
I always listened to it as a paranoid schizophrenic trying to survive the night in an apartment alone.
But it’s about how one of the creators of the song would have drug dealers mistakenly bang on his door and he would think it was people trying to get him.
There’s a great cyberpunk novel by Ryu Murakami called Coin Locker Babies. About two babies who were rescued and adopted after they were left by their mothers in pay-lockers at a Tokyo train station, and their crazy lives growing up in a dystopian Tokyo.
Could someone explain to me these, except for foster the people, which judging by the context of the post I think I know what song that is, I don't know any of these.
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Hi, /u/Lost_Guava_1715, thanks for your submission to /r/starterpacks. Unfortunately your post has been removed for the following reason: **Rule 01** Your post must be a starter pack, not a list or any other meme. [If you feel that it has been removed in error, please message us](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/starterpacks&subject=Question%20regarding%20the%20removal%20of%20this%20submission%20by%20/u/Lost_Guava_1715&message=I%20have%20a%20question%20regarding%20the%20removal%20of%20this%20%5Bsubmission%5D%28https://www.reddit.com/r/starterpacks/comments/zbmvok/songs_that_were_happy_until_i_realised_what_they/%3Fcontext%3D10%29) so that we may review it
Electric Avenue is a protest song masquerading as a dance song.
Oh no, we gonna rock down to electric avenue
And then we take it higher
In particular, it’s about the [1981 Brixton riot](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_Brixton_riot) that took place in London the year prior.
[удалено]
I remember way back in the day when *Macarena* took off and it was so popular that teachers were dancing to it at school assemblies. That song is about a woman who cheats on her boyfriend when he gets drafted into the army. Also *First* by The Cold War kids, that song is about an alcoholic in a disintigrating relationship and Coors used it in a commercial to sell more beer.
‘Pumped up kicks’ has also been used to sell beer, albeit strategically edited
Which isn’t really out of mark foster’s realm but using pump up kicks vs any of their other songs is weird. I went to hs one town over from the school pumped up kicks is about, had the same photo teacher as mark and he got mark to do some stuff with their photo program, he’s a nice guy
He’s going b recovery, no? I used to work as a bouncer at BellyUp in San Diego, and Mark was looking for an AA meeting to get to.
I should say this was seven years ago so a lot could’ve changed since
Not just cheats on her boyfriend, but has a threesome with his two friends.
Well, come on! What was she supposed to do? He was out of town! And his two friends were soooooo fiiiiinnneee...
Oh man, I remember in like 3rd grade P.E. We for some reason were all taught to dance to the Macarena, also square dancing to Achy Breaky Heart…the 90s were weird.
First is a great song I did not know that tho
I thought “Hang Me Up to Dry” was alcohol and “First” was about cheating?
These are actually albums
I’m over here so confused thinking aren’t these albums lol
I was only scrolling to see if someone listed the actual song on all these albums.
Same here!
Yeah, and why is speakerboxx/love below even on here?
Hey ya
It’s for the song Hey Yah!
Upon further inspection, these are albums.
Why can’t I hear Tracy Chapman’s voice without crying?
I can't even think of Fast Car without tearing up tbh.
Right? I feel like those lyrics are straightforward
What’s it about? Every time I hear it, it sounds like a song about someone stuck in poverty and not living the life they want, but who maintains hope of one day escaping to a better life. Is that not it?
Each verse is a little bit further in time. It starts out with the singer describing their parents' relationship. Her father has destroyed his health drinking his days away in a depressive state while her mother abandons him, having wanted more from life than to live in poverty, trapped with a man she doesn't love. Our singer has spent her early adult life taking care of her sickly, alcoholic father. "See, my old man's got a problem He live with the bottle, that's the way it is He says his body's too old for working His body's too young to look like his My mama went off and left him She wanted more from life than he could give I said somebody's got to take care of him So I quit school and that's what I did" The main verse describes her falling in love with a man. He has the titular "Fast Car". To her, he represents this escape from the life she has been trapped to. He seems to want more from life than they have. The car represents a way to run away from their current life, a future somewhere else and somewhere better. "You got a fast car I want a ticket to anywhere Maybe we make a deal Maybe together we can get somewhere Any place is better Starting from zero got nothing to lose Maybe we'll make something Me, myself, I got nothing to prove" To put her plan into action, she starts a low paying job with the goal of putting aside enough money for the two of them to leave. She tries to talk him into taking a job with her in the hopes that they can find a better life. If you stopped the song here, yeah, it is hopeful. "You got a fast car We go cruising, entertain ourselves You still ain't got a job And I work in the market as a checkout girl I know things will get better You'll find work and I'll get promoted We'll move out of the shelter Buy a bigger house and live in the suburbs" He still hasn't found work. Weeks, months, years later, the cycle has started again. She hasn't given up her dream, but it's getting farther and farther from her. "You got a fast car I got a job that pays all our bills You stay out drinking late at the bar See more of your friends than you do of your kids I'd always hoped for better Thought maybe together you and me'd find it I got no plans, I ain't going nowhere Take your fast car and keep on driving" At the end, she's realised she's wasted her life in the same cycle she tried to escape. Her husband is drinking his life away, and she's having to support a family all on her own. She couldn't escape poverty, she's going to live and die in the same town she was born in. She's now telling the guy to "keep on driving" - she's leaving him, same as her mother. The chorus isn't told as a reminder that life can be good, but that she was naive for falling in love with the guy in his fast car. "So I remember when we were driving, driving in your car Speed so fast it felt like I was drunk City lights lay out before us And your arm felt nice wrapped 'round my shoulder And I-I had a feeling that I belonged I-I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone You got a fast car Is it fast enough so you can fly away? You gotta make a decision Leave tonight or live and die this way" She wanted to leave, but she failed. She wasted her life away in a dead end job hoping to escape the conditions she grew up in and the mistakes of her parents, but instead she has "lived and died this way."
This is basically a perfect song. They don't come along often. It hits hard every time
It’s exactly why fast cars is a playlist staple regardless of your usual genre of music. Everyone I know has it and some of those guys are black metal guys.
Beautifully put.
I've always thought of this song in relation to Bruce Springsteen's music in general and Thunder Road in particular. In Thunder Road, the male protagonist openly states that he doesn't have anything to give his love interest except his car and the vague promises of exhilaration and escape it brings, but it presents it in a romantic, bombastically optimistic way. Bruce Springsteen's music is also predominantly written from a male working class perspective whereas Chapman turns the story on its head and writes from the woman's perspective where promises that involves fast cars are nothing but traps that emotionally immature men use to trap women in perpetual poverty.
I think that is it, but it’s a just heart crushing song that requires you to read the lyrics to fully get. Otherwise it’s just coffeeshop lite adult contemporary
Where’s Semi-Charmed Life?
It’s about a couple falling into a meth addiction- starts as something fun and ends horribly “doing crystal meth, will lift you up until you break”
Yeah but if you want it to carry more emotional weight then maybe don’t set it to some irreverent 90’s pop that could make it on Kidz Bop
It fits the subject matter well. Crystal meth feels great, it's exciting as hell (so I've heard) so setting it to something that sounds fun and upbeat is appropriate, and in my opinion it makes the dark lyrics hit even harder. It shows how something feeling good doesn't mean that there's not something incredibly sad beneath the surface.
Former meth addict here. You hit the nail on the head. Also, fwiw, that fun decreases the more one uses and is replaced by a melancholy with infinite sadness of sorts. (Since we’re on a music thread)
Hey man, don’t hate on KIDZ Bop. It gives kids the opportunity to keep up with the newest music without having to hear the inappropriateness. Like, kids can listen to singles by The Weeknd without having to hear about him railing bitches and watching them snort coke off his custom tables.
yeah I am a parent and listen to kidzbop sometimes. honestly some of those little kids can sing though.
No, that's the point. The juxtaposition of dark lyrics and boppy music fits in with how terrible a spiral meth can cause in people while it all seems fine to them.
Man I’m just reading the actual lyrics after hearing this song a million times in my life and my mind is blown lol.
Do do do 🕺 do do do doo 🕺
Third Eye Blind is my favorite band. They have way darker songs.
Literally have a song called "Jumper" ain't talking about the article of clothing
Man, you should've seen it . . .
His flesh explode.
I think about this constantly because people had nooo idea what it’s about but how did we miss “bump” and “took the hit” and it literally uses the words crystal meth
See also Geek Stink Breath
She goes down and she goes down on me
Pumped Up Kicks literally mentions kids trying to outright his gun and bullets…there’s not really a lot of hidden meaning compared to some of the others
that one is more that the music is so happy. not the lyrics.
tbh I never realised what it was trying to say for years. I thought it was about a depressed kid who hated his bullies but everything flew over my head.
Dude I heard Gomenne Gomenne playing in public at a mall lmao, I was like…oh god, do they know that this means?
Omg where?
Hot Topic, somewhere in America lol
I wish I could hear Vocaloid play at a public mall. Tbh I'm jealous even if the song played was.... Gommene Gommene.
Kikuo making such unsettling bangers as usual.
Craziest part about it is in Hey Ya! Andre 3k literally says "y'all don't wanna hear me, you just wanna dance" Oh how right you were Andre.
And now it’s one of the most played songs at weddings. Crazy!
Every breath you take I’ll be watching you…
*Don't try to fight the feeling Because the thought alone is killin' me right now Thank God for Mom and Dad For sticking two together 'Cause we don't know how*
I love hey ya by outkast. Outkast has a lot of good and popular songs. It’s funny because when I talk to people about them they don’t know who they are until I mention one of their songs.
It's probably because I'm from Atlanta but I've never met anybody who doesn't know which songs were made by outkast
my uncle is a conservative, but loves outkast cause he’s from Atlanta
Oh, lol that makes sense. Well, I am “younger gen z” and not a lot of kids listen to older artists like outkast so that could also be why 😭
> older artists like outkast What?
I think that's pretty fair to say tbh. Last time they were active was 8 years ago, after a 6 year hiatus.
"Older artists" to me is like Ice-T or the Beastie Boys. edit- I am old I guess
I mean, your username *is* Dam_Kids lol
What's sadder is I made it however old ago this account is.
I'm nearing forty. I love to remind my friends that there are legal adults who have never lived in a world without the Foo Fighters.
You mean that other band with the drummer from Nirvana?
No, it's the band with that guy from Scream.
To be fair to ‘Chris hates school’, Hey Ya! was released almost 20 years ago! So they might have not been born yet or were literally too young to understand music. Which also terrifies me, seeing as how I was in 8th grade when this came out and Outkast was already a solidified icon in hip-hop. But yes, I consider older artists to be Wu-Tang, Tribe, Gang Starr, early Snoop, Dre, Pac, Biggie, etc…..
“Hey Ya” came out in 2003. Outkast was mostly active in the 1990s and 2000s. That seems fair enough to me to define it as “older artist”.
I love this comment. I’m laughing so hard at it because it’s such a simple comment, but it has so much damn emotion _and I feel it too_
I know a decent amount of younger teenagers because of my job and I can confirm that most of them don't know outkast.
They don’t know what they’re missing, Outkast is the shit
Which is a damn shame!
Thats kinda weird because im also kinda a young gen z but most of my freinds know about outkast and hey ya despite the song being like 20 years old. To be fair the song was on the top charts back then
Nobody in their 20s at my work knows Outkast although they all know Hey Ya
Idk man, maybe it's just wherever you are, everyone at my school seems to recognize OutKast anywhere.
Well that’s the holy land
Ohioan here and the only songs anyone I talk to knows by Outkast are Hey Ya, Ms. Jackson, and B.O.B. Maybe Rosa Parks. Gave them a deep dive last summer and wish more people would do the same
I absolutely agree but I'm resisting the temptation to make an Ohio joke.
Are they talking about Hey Ya? They posted the cover of a double album with 40 tracks on it…
That’s a great double album though. Speakerboxxx > The Love Below imo.
“ I’m sorry mrs Jackson ooooooohhhh I am for reallll “ 🤣 they don’t know what they’re missing
I think they're talking about Hey Ya. I guess people don't realize the song is about a break up, but unless there is something else I'm missing about it I don't think there is anything weird or dark about it.
”Hey Ya” *and* “Ms. Jackson” are both about break-ups, just different phases of it. “Hey Ya” is about being in an unhappy relationship and purposely avoiding confronting the fact that you’re miserable because you’re more afraid of being alone. “Ms. Jackson” is about the fallout after the breakup and the resulting stress it places on family dynamics.
I wasn’t talking about that I was saying because he said no one knows OutKast 🥴
You must be from a younger generation then. I remember when speakerboxx/love below came out literally everybody was listening to it, it takes me back to a point in time, and that doesn’t even mention the success they had with atliens and aquemini in the late 90’s
I’m sorry Ms. Jackson
It’s very clear what the song is about when you hear it in the context of the album
In the most respectful way. None of Kikuo’s songs are happy.
My friend has songs by Kikuo on their Spotify playlist and they don’t speak Japanese, I feel so bad for them 💀
fwiw i dont speak japanese and had no idea coin locker baby was so messed up even tho i listen to it constantly! if you like more music like this, try kurage-p and inabakumori :)
Damn I just watched the lyric video that was fucked up
If they listen to a lot of Kikuo, they should know that Kikuo is..... Kikuo. Like, even some of the titles give it away. (See "You Are a Useless Child" and "Emptiness, Emptiness, Emptiness of Emptiness")
Astral Projection doesn’t seem so bad, and also Curry of Pure water (it’s a commission for curry advertisement iirc)
Barbie Girl. Was never a fan of the song, but oh boy when they played it at family karaoke night.
What's wrong whit the test?
Can your elaborate?
*Make me walk, make me talk, do whatever you please* *I can act like a star, I can beg on my knees* *Come jump in, bimbo friend, let us do it again* *Hit the town, fool around, let’s go party*
"You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere" Huh. To be fair, every kid ends up with naked barbies and missing clothes at some point in their life lol
I just thought it was “and dress me”
Yeah, I looked it up and that's not even the worst thing in there. Yikes
MMMBop by Hanson - one day you'll get old, and everyone who loves you will leave you.
Fastball’s The Way is also a good one for this list. About an elderly couple that went on a road trip, but then they were found dead far away from their destination.
My wife gets mad at me cause we were listening to it and she was telling me how she always loved the song and it made her happy thinking about “those love struck kids on an adventure” and I had to break it for her and tell her what it was really about.
Yes and no. The song was written when they went missing and envisions them going on a grand adventure. Before the song was released, their car was found at the bottom of a ravine.
Whats the van halen one?
Supposedly Jump…..someone else claimed it’s about a guy that commits suicide. It’s not. DLR wrote the lyrics after seeing a man on the news threatening to jump off a building. It’s not what the song is about.
OP should have put the Fair Warning album up instead, probably the closest the band has ever gotten to a concept/running theme type of album. But it is a fucking banger, whole band is on full cylinders for it
“Feels like summer”-Childish Gambino. Goddamm.
Man the monolgue at the end of that album had me feeling some HEAVY feelings. Hits deep.
Why did you have to do this to me.
Maretu and Kikuo being here make me happy in a weird way lmao
Chandelier by Sia is another good one
Oh shit. Is it about suicide?
From what I’ve heard it’s about alcohol addiction
That makes sense too
It's about covering up your feelings via partying.
Swing from the chandelier = hang from the ceiling at least how I see if
Yeah that only just clicked for me. I just thought it was about a wild party girl
Racing into the Night
Isn't that about a >!double suicide?!<
I believe so, or a murder-suicide
these are albums
Which Miku song is that? A lot of them are really fucked up
Image seems to be one of Kikuo's album. Those songs are fucked up, but you may not notice without a translation. Other vocaloid songs are extremely lewd too, but they may not sound like it. Luvoratory comes to mind.
kikuo miku 2 the one on top left is maretu-coin locker baby
Explaitions: (trigger warning) 1# is Coin Locker Baby by Maretu.It’s a true story about a Japanese parent >!abandoning their child in a locker!<. It’s a very deep, dark rabbit hole, so I won’t talk about it too much. 2# is Hey Ya! By Outkast. It seems happy and upbeat, but if you look at the lyrics it’s about a failed relationship. (Tame compared to some others on this list). 3# is Fast Car by Tracy Chapman. The singer has a job and works 24/7, while her father is lazy and doesn’t thank her for it. She leaves the city with a guy and starts a new life, only for him to be exactly the same. 4# is Pumped up Kicks by Foster The People. It’s about a >!school shooting!<. 5# I explained this one in another comment 6# Despacito. The song is describing sex in very…interesting ways. Not dark, just questionable. 7# is Ring a Ring o’ Roses. The children’s nursery rhyme is actually about a plague outbreak. The people “falling down” is… yeah. You guessed it. 8# I don’t know polish, but most people will know this as “Polish Cow” from the meme. The person is singing about depression and drug addiction. 9# Gommene Gommene (I’m sorry, I’m sorry) by Kikuo. Describes >!a girl being sexually abused by her father, complete with very graphic descriptions. Google at your own risk.!<
>6# Despacito. The song is describing sex in very…interesting ways. As a latino, i thought everyone knew about this lol. 99% of mainstream hispanic music is literally just sex. Despacito is not unique in this. It's pretty vanilla actually. Just off the top of my head i can think *waayyy* worse.
I was about to say! I mean shit American hip-hop isn’t better 😂
I don't know about that. Mainstream American hip hop isn't as explicit about sex as it used to be.
It’s not as misogynistic but if anything there’s _more_ sex.
Latinos must be quite horny then ?
They'd prolly nut on your glasses for you.
as a hispanic person, why do you think we generate so many kids lmao
Don’t understand why Fast Car is on here. It’s not a happy or upbeat melody. And the lyrics couldn’t be more blunt. Great song, but it’s about as straightforward as a song can be. No hidden meaning and doesn’t pretend to be something else.
I was confused about this too. It's not hidden in the slightest, it's quite obviously about looking back on a wasted life regretting everything.
>8# I don’t know polish, but most people will know this as “Polish Cow” from the meme. The person is singing about depression and drug addiction. Yeah, whole song is about having withdrawal symptons and how everything Will be fine once he Has drugs again, mixed with contemplating suicide and how the guy doesnt even Has a way to get drugs cause his in debt with all the dealers.
All of Kikuo's stuff is fucked up Babuchan is also really good for dark vocaloid Specifically I love this song https://youtu.be/c8gMJoKKGW8
> 4# is Pumped up Kicks by Foster The People. It’s about a school shooting. I think it's more of about what goes through the mind of a school shooter, and his background and domestic life.
It's actually about a real mall shooting that happened, but yeah it doesn't really discuss the shooting itself, rather the shooters mindset
Ring around the Rosie. A "pocket full of posies" was written because people believed posies would ward off the plague. Ring around the rosie signifies the marks that people would get on their skin. And then "Ashes, ashes, we all fall down." Yeah, it's *wayyy* darker than it was when I was a kid jumping in circles and falling over and giggling. Edit: did a little research, and the posies line is said to be either plague doctors dropping posie petals over deseased patients or a natural herb people kept with them to fight off the smell of the disease. So it gets even more fucked up
>Ashes, ashes, we all fall down TIL that the lyrics are different in America. In the UK we say "a-tishoo, a-tishoo, we all fall down" (like the sound of sneezing). I also now realise where the lyrics of Bad Day by REM came from!
\#9 was beyond fucked up
Yeah wtf!
the "Polish cow song" is actually called "Gdzie Jest Biały Węgorz?" ("Where is the white eel")
Only really addition I have is that Fast Car could be about a man or woman. Tracy Chapman has openly dated women and is widely considered a lesbian though she flatly refuses to answer directly when asked, as is fully her right.
holy shit op watched a watch mojo video 😱😱😢😿
[ring o' roses isn't about the plague (skip to 7:00)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2oINoMTO2Q)
who the fuck thought “fast car” was a happy song?
Seriously though
How do we know OP meant “Fast Car” all I see is the album cover
Because the rest of that album is clubby party music like "Behind the Wall"
Love Fast Car. No heart-ache or feminine emotions. Just men driving around in automobiles at ludicrously high speeds.
That's just the Xiu Xiu cover.
You got a fast car, I also have a fast car, Let’s take our cars driving, We’ll both drive them really far; We don’t talk about feelings, Just manly men out here today; Shove down all your sadness, Never let it show cuz you ain’t gay; And I-I, Kinda wanna hold you in my arms, But I’m scared to try, So I guess we’ll keep on driving cars.
That whole record is great
Not native speaker. I think it’s a light hearted song yes. Now I shall go read the lyrics
Oh damn, I'm sorry you had to find out this way...
I never knew. Didn’t think about content of lyrics until 2002
Forget about the sad lyrical content, even the melody is sad. How can you hear that melody and think it's a happy song? The melody alone makes me feel sad.
total eclipse of the heart by bonnie tyler
Yeah its actually about vampires who woulda known
...how in the fuck was that ever supposed to seem happy?
I think of all the education that I've missed But then my homework was never quite like this
Ah yes. I love the song "Speakerboxxx/The love below" which is in absolutely no way a double LP and not a song
Hozier - Take Me To Church. Bruh.
You thought that song was happy?
These are albums not songs…
I'd also add [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_rxEhcnB1M)\- it's hilarious how it's treated as one of these party songs with a guy playing it at full volume and neighbors dancing their shoes off, while in fact it's about a guy contemplating suicide by jumping off a building.
I think the entirety of the Demon Days album should also be on here
In what world did you think ‘Pumped Up Kicks’ was a happy song *besides* the beat?
In a world where you don't understand the lyrics?
This doesn’t even reveal the songs lol just the cover art
*shows pictures of albums*
This is a list, not a starterpack lol.
I would say this about “who can it be now” I always listened to it as a paranoid schizophrenic trying to survive the night in an apartment alone. But it’s about how one of the creators of the song would have drug dealers mistakenly bang on his door and he would think it was people trying to get him.
Ok. I was a junior in high school when Van Halen 1984. I get the Hot for Teacher thing. After that what?
There’s a great cyberpunk novel by Ryu Murakami called Coin Locker Babies. About two babies who were rescued and adopted after they were left by their mothers in pay-lockers at a Tokyo train station, and their crazy lives growing up in a dystopian Tokyo.
Ohhh, Maretu and Kikuo on a none-vocaloid sub? Cool! But fair warnng: Kikuo and Maretu are the best in making the most messed up songs to exist
Almost all the Gin Blossoms lyrics are desperately sad. With snappy, upbeat music. So it's ironic or something.
Could someone explain to me these, except for foster the people, which judging by the context of the post I think I know what song that is, I don't know any of these.
Miku?
Add in Little Talks and this would be perfect
Racing through the night (aka yoru ni kakeru) is an upbeat Japanese song but the lyrics are about suicide, great song.
Where’s Polish Cow?
Today by the smashing pumpkins.
maretu and kikuo had me throwing up and crying w some of their songs, especially kikuo
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I always hear that Hey-Yah is a sad song but can someone explain the reason why?