NVM, I thought the OP said “earliest,” not “oddest.”
Was there not a controversy or incident involving “Jeremy” by Pear Jam? Can’t remember well, but a boy went on a shooting rampage, or committed suicide after being inspired by that song? Maybe I am imagining it.
It was even more awkward than that, because…the girlfriend (Quinn) wasn’t actually having his baby. The Cory Monteith character (Finn) believed he was the father, but Quinn had become pregnant after a one-night stand with Finn’s best friend.
Prosecutors in the 1996 Frontier Middle School shooting case argued that the shooter, Barry Loukaitis, had deliberately planned his crimes and had drawn inspiration from the video for “Jeremy” as well as other violent media. Loukaitis had plead not guilty by reason of insanity, and I don’t know that he ever claimed “Jeremy” had any influence on his crimes.
I was (and remain) a big Pearl Jam fan and I remember hearing about this case, but it’s not my recollection that there was much in the way of public controversy over the song/video after the Frontier Middle School shooting. The video had been released in 1992 and even before the shooting was rarely seen on MTV anymore. As for the song itself, the suicide of the title character is only implied by the lyrics and there’s no reference to guns or shooting at all.
I’m not aware of any suicides inspired by the music video – perhaps a few, but anonymous suicides never make the news in the way killing sprees do. The video was extremely popular in the year it came out – it swept the MTv Awards, and was nominated for a couple Grammys. Those sort of accolades, especially critics and pundits praising how it addressed the issue of school bullying, made the song somewhat immune to controversy in a way that Marilyn Manson was not. (It’s also true that school shootings – or Marilyn Manson, for that matter – wouldn’t become a common, everyday thing until years later.)
Please it was a typo. Thanks for setting the record straight regarding the song everyone.
Noone’s mentioned Lake Shore Drive by Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah yet? I’m surprised.
The song got banned from the airwaves in a few places, due to the lyrics “slippin on by on LSD”.
“Relax” Frankie Goes To Hollywood?
I remember some more:
Madonna: “Like A Prayer”