So, last night I was driving along in my car in which I had recently removed the stereo. Thus, I had no music to listen to. After a few moments, I realized that I had Ice T/Body Count’s Cop Killer stuck in my head. This got me thinking back to when the song first came out, and how much controversy surrounded it. Turns out, there were some folks around who weren’t too crazy about rappers making music about murdering law enforcement for some reason.
At any rate, I started wondering if there were other songs out there that had generated such a great stir because of its content, and I knew that the Doper crowd was the right place to turn. I’m not just looking for violent content – any old reason for controversy will do.
So, I’ve started it off with “Cop Killer.” I remember that NWA’s Fuck Tha Police was also very controversial, as much for the language as for the attitude, but I don’t think it rose to the same level as “Cop Killer” did.
I’m not old enough to remember, but I wonder if Marvin Gaye’s Sexual Healing generated a lot of news in its day.
Well, it was for more than just one song, but The 2 Live Crew generated a lot of controversy when they were arrested for publicly performing songs that the powers-that-be weren’t very fond of at the time.
“Justify My Love” and “Like a Prayer” were mostly controversial because of their videos. The songs themselves got a fair amount of radio play when they were new.
The Cure’s “Killing an Arab” was controversial, but only because Casey Kasem took offense to it, not realizing it was a reference to Camus’ The Stranger.
I’m showing my age here, but Barry Maguire’s Eve of Destruction and Janis Ian’s Society’s Child were controversial in the 60s. Banned in some places, if I recall correctly.
I confess to having been pretty darned shocked by Sheena Easton’s Sugar Walls . :eek: :eek: It’s my understanding that it has since been almost universally banned.
Those Madonna songs in themselves weren’t very objectionable, but the videos sure set off alarms. CNN’s CROSSFIRE even did an ep on the “Justify…” video
uproar- which caused Mark Russell to later challenge them “Justify that show!”
I’ve heard it on the radio plenty of times. Maybe it was banned for a bit back in the day, but not anymore. They play “Darling Nikki” all the time too, and that was the song that startd the whole hoopdeedoo that ended with naughty albums being labeled with the Parental Advisory sticker, which was a helpful device in letting kids know which albums they really wanted to buy.
