The Most MISUNDERSTOOD Songs in Music History

Hey everybody! Thanks for watching this video on "The Most MISUNDERSTOOD Songs in Music History". I've been into this format lately when I list a bunch of quickfire examples of something. I think it's a cool concept to put out a video with quality information --- while still covering a wide array of stories. Hope you liked it. Within this video, we're talking about songs that are misunderstood. Whether people think they have one meaning but it means something else, or there's a hidden meaning when people didn't expect one, these are some of the most famous examples ever. Let me know if you have any examples in the comments down below.

Fun fact / Misunderstood / Meaning / Hidden / Message / Messages / Wrong / Favorite / Fortunate Son / CCR / Born in the USA / Bruce Springsteen / This Land Is Your Land / Woody Guthrie / John Lennon / Imagine / Closing Time / Semisonic / In the Air Tonight / Phil Collins / Total Eclipse of the Heart / Bonnie Tyler / Royals / Lorde / Who Let the Dogs Out / Baha Men / Good Riddance Time of Your Life / Green Day / Summer of 69 / Bryan Adams / Macarena / Los Del Rio / Gangnam Style / Psy / Every Breath You Take / The Police / You're Beautiful / James Blunt / Semi Charmed Life / Third Eye Blind / Forever Young / Alphaville / Blackbird / The Beatles / I Will Always Love You / Dolly Parton / Swimming Pools / Kendrick Lamar / Fight For Your Right / Beastie Boys / Song 2 / Blur / Hook / Blues Traveler

[kenshin]

“Who let the dogs out is a feminist anthem” is one of those sentences I would have never thought could exist in life, but here I am.

[pickeliebaba]

"Hey Ya!" by Outkast has literally the line "y'all don't want to hear me, ya just want to dance"

[Lernrnrbebenehrhrnrn]

I literally remember singing "This Land Is Your Land." In kindergarten in front of a bunch of parents and grandparents with my whole class that year.

[STOPGREENSCREENKIDS]

I don't think Dolly singing "I Will Always Love You" to Porter Wagoner in any way negates it being a love song. Love can take more forms than the romantic and sexual kind, they probably had a great working partnership and she loved him as a friend and colleague. Or, she just wanted to sing him this new love song she had written.

[procurion]

"Fortunate Son" more specifically was about how the sons of important people were not sent to the Vietnam War. They were given easy positions stateside and not exposed to the "horrors of war" and were celebrated for their "Bravery".

[dalwand]

"I like big butts" is often misunderstood as a critique to nepotism in society, but it is actually about the singer's appreciation of female behinds.

[mrfalcon]

“I don’t like Mondays” by The Boomtown Rats, Was about the Cleveland Elementary School shooting in 1979 and people still think it’s about not liking Mondays …

[finnainsley]

Took me a long time to realize that the song ‘One Way or Another’ by Blondie was about a time when the singer was being stalked by her ex-boyfriend.

Most people think it’s a cite song about a someone who’s determined to to find a lover.

[ram]

I wrote poetry for a creative writing class in college and quickly discovered that an artist loses control of the meaning of his work the moment it’s experienced by another person.

[yadiaag]

Psy’s song was about how everyone wants to be the 1% in Korea in which the rich live in Gangnam.
He was very confused why people liked the song because it was about South Koreas Economic social pyramid.
He’s written other songs about this issue and all being loved by the South Korean public.

[cowinjapanese]

Just like Amerika by Rammstein. I love how people often ignore the "This is not a love song" part.

[harrycushing]

A great one in my mind is Hey Ya! by Outkast, a song about the difficulties of a relationship, and staying in a relationship where neither partner is happy ("My baby don't mess around because she loves me so, and this I know for sure - But does she really wanna, but can't stand to see me walk out the door" "If what they say is 'Nothing lasts forever', then what makes... love the exception - so why oh (x5) are we so in denial when we know where not happy here?"). This is then directly followed by a recognition that the message of the song wont come across, similarly to Hook as was mentioned in the video ("Ya'll dont want to hear me you just wanna dance").

[thomashodgkins]

John Lennon gave "I Am the Walrus" the most random lyrics because he was mad that everyone was over-analyzing all of his lyrics at the time.

[HeroQuestFans]

good rule of thumb for pop rock: everything you think is about drugs and/or sex is actually not, and everything you didn't think is about drugs/sex actually is about that.

[SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

A hugely misunderstood song is Enola Gay by the British electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark that was released in 1980. With many people describing it as "joyous" and "infinitely danceable" simply because it's a 1980s electronic band song without realizing what the lyrics are actually about unless you're American or know your history. Enola Gay is the name of the USAAF B-29 Superfortress bomber that dropped the atomic blast on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. You can actually see the Enola Gay on display as it is located at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center next to Dulles International.

The lyric to the song reflects on the decision to use the bomb and asks the listener to consider whether the bombings were necessary ("It shouldn't ever have to end this way"). The phrase "Is mother proud of little boy today?", is an allusion to both the nickname of the uranium bomb Little Boy and pilot Paul Tibbets naming the aircraft after his mother. The phrase, "It's 8:15, and that's the time that it's always been", refers to the time of detonation over Hiroshima at 8:15 am JST as many timepieces were "frozen" by the effects of the blast, it becomes "the time that it's always been".

[one_Racing]

As someone who "built" wedding sets (yes, theres a person who does that) I would often be around to dismantle of we had back to back weddings.
The amount of songs about death, break-ups, cheating, and stalking that are played at weddings for first dances is actually quite shocking.
Mr Bightside featured a lot, actually.

[frankfromalbuquerque]

“Barbie Girl” is just too deep to comprehend for us mortals on this plane of existence.

[abrahamlincolnstophat]

Alfo could make me believe that the Barney theme song is about the prison industrial complex

[thethumper]

Jimmy Buffet - Margaritaville

If you actually listen to the lyrics, it's a really sad song about a guy who gets piss drunk as he comes to terms with a break-up, but it's always played as a good time vacation tune.

[PenneySounds]

Ever since 2017, basically every song by Linkin Park falls into this category, because people now read all their lyrics as being about Chester Bennington's suicidal depression, even though the majority of the lyrics he sang were written by Mike Shinoda and were about completely different things.