History ValuesDissonance / Music

* Music/{{Queen|Band}}'s video for [[Music/TheWorks "I Want to Break Free"]] was beloved in the UK, but was met with significant backlash in the US when it first premiered in 1984, as it features the entire band in drag. While that is a common trope in British comedy, in the US in the '80s, drag was mostly seen as promoting homosexuality or cross-dressing, not helped by the huge backslide in LGBT+ acceptance in the wake of the AIDS crisis. It also didn't help that the video was a spoof of ''Series/CoronationStreet'', a show that most Americans at the time were unfamiliar with. In the UK, the song reached the top 3 on the Billboards, but only reached 45th place in the US. Four decades later, the song was used in US commercials for a cruise line. The difference in reception between countries is commented on in ''Film/BohemianRhapsody'', where Music/FreddieMercury (acknowledged as bisexual in the film) notes that the homophobic response to the video in America turned a lot of people there against him specifically.

** Speaking of Sting, back in his days with Music/ThePolice they recorded "On Any Other Day" for ''Regatta de Blanc''. In it, the singer details all the horrible things that had happened to him on that day, i.e., his wife burned the scrambled eggs and let him know she was having multiple affairs. One of them is his discovery that "my fine young son has turned out gay". In 1979 that was a generally unremarkable sentiment; in 2020 it is decidedly at odds with large portions of society.
* Also from his Police days, "Roxanne", a song about wanting to "save" a prostitute from having to work in the industry, hasn't aged very well. While significant issues remain for women who work in the sex industry, the idea that what they need is a man to come along and "rescue" them from what for many is a chosen career comes across as incredibly chauvinist and patronising.

* "Stay away from my man/woman" songs like "Jolene" by Music/DollyParton, "The Boy is Mine" by Music/{{Brandy}} and Music/{{Monica}}, "Gettin' in the Way" by Music/JillScott, and so on, had been a staple of popular music for decades, but they've fallen out of favor since the 2010's. Nowadays it's widely agreed that if your partner's affections are wandering elsewhere, ''they'' are the one you should confront, not the other person who isn't stealing what's being freely offered. Perhaps the best example of this change of perspective is the 2022 song "You Can Have Him Jolene" by country trio Music/ChapelHart.

* "Stay away from my man/woman" songs like "Jolene" by Music/DollyParton, "The Boy is Mine" by Music/{{Brandy}} and Music/{{Monica}}, "Gettin' in the Way" by Music/JillScott, and so on, had been a staple of popular music for decades, but they've fallen out of favor since the 2010's. Nowadays it's widely agreed that if your partner is unfaithful, it's ''your partner'' you should be holding accountable. The other person isn't stealing what's being freely offered to them. Perhaps the best example of this change of perspective is the 2022 song "You Can Have Him Jolene" by country trio Music/ChapelHart.

* "Stay away from my man/woman" songs like "Jolene" by Music/DollyParton, "The Boy is Mine" by Music/{{Brandy}} and Music/{{Monica}}, "Gettin' in the Way" by Music/JillScott, and so on, had been a staple of popular music for decades, but they've fallen out of favor since the 2010's. Nowadays it's widely agreed that if your partner is unfaithful, it's ''your partner'' you need to confront; the other person isn't stealing what's being freely given. Perhaps the best example of this change of perspective is the 2022 song "You Can Have Him Jolene" by country trio Music/ChapelHart.

* "Stay away from my man/woman" songs like "Jolene" by Music/DollyParton, "The Boy is Mine" by Music/{{Brandy}} and Music/{{Monica}}, "Gettin' in the Way" by Music/JillScott, and so on, had been a staple of popular music for decades, but they've fallen out of favor since the 2010's, such as when Music/TaylorSwift released "Better Than Revenge" in 2010 but later admitted [[CreatorBacklash it's one of her least favorite songs]]. Nowadays it's widely agreed that if your partner is unfaithful, it's ''your partner'' you need to confront; the other person isn't stealing what's being freely given.

* "Stay away from my man/woman" songs like "Jolene" by Music/DollyParton, "The Boy is Mine" by Music/{{Brandy}} and Music/{{Monica}}, "Gettin' in the Way" by Music/JillScott, and so on, have been a staple of popular music for decades, but they've fallen out of favor since the 2010's, such as when Music/TaylorSwift released "Better Than Revenge" in 2010 but later admitted [[CreatorBacklash it's one of her least favorite songs]]. Nowadays it's widely agreed that if your partner's affections drift elsewhere, it's ''your partner'' you need to confront for being unfaithful, not the other person who isn't "stealing" what's being freely given.

* "Stay away from my man/woman" songs like "Jolene" by Music/DollyParton, "The Boy is Mine" by Music/{{Brandy}} and Music/{{Monica}}, "Gettin' in the Way" by Music/JillScott, and so on, have fallen out of favor since the 2010's. Nowadays it's widely agreed that if your partner can be so easily swayed by another, it's ''your partner'' you need to confront for being unfaithful.

* "Stay away from my man/woman" songs like "Jolene" by Music/DollyParton, "The Boy is Mine" by Music/{{Brandy}} and Music/{{Monica}}, "Gettin' in the Way" by Music/JillScott, and so on, have fallen out of favor since the 2010's. Nowadays it's widely agreed that if your partner is unfaithful, it's ''your partner'' you should hold accountable, not your rival who isn't stealing what's being freely given.

* "Stay away from my man/woman" songs like "Jolene" by Music/DollyParton, "The Boy is Mine" by Music/{{Brandy}} and Music/{{Monica}}, "Gettin' in the Way" by Music/JillScott, and so on, have fallen out of favor since the 2010's. Nowadays it's widely agreed that if your partner is being unfaithful, it's ''your partner'' that you need to hold accountable, not your rival who isn't stealing what's being freely offered.

* "Stay away from my man/woman" songs like "Jolene" by Music/DollyParton, "The Boy is Mine" by Music/{{Brandy}} and Music/{{Monica}}, "Gettin' in the Way" by Music/JillScott, and so on, have fallen out of favor since the 2010's. Nowadays it's widely agreed that if your partner is being unfaithful, it's ''your partner'' that you need to hold accountable, since your rival isn't stealing what's being freely offered.

* "Stay away from my man/woman" songs like "Jolene" by Music/DollyParton, "The Boy is Mine" by Music/{{Brandy}} and Music/{{Monica}}, "Gettin' in the Way" by Music/JillScott, and so on, have fallen out of favor since the 2010's. Nowadays it's widely accepted that if your partner is being unfaithful, it's ''your partner'' that you need to hold accountable, since your rival isn't stealing what's being freely offered.

* "Stay away from my man/woman" songs like "Jolene" by Music/DollyParton, "The Boy is Mine" by Music/{{Brandy}} and Music/{{Monica}}, "Gettin' in the Way" by Music/JillScott, and so on, have fallen out of favor since the 2010's. Nowadays it's widely accepted that if your partner is getting a little too flirty with someone, it's ''your partner'' that you need to hold accountable, since your rival isn't stealing what's being freely offered.

* "Stay away from my man/woman" songs like "Jolene" by Music/Dollyparton, "The Boy is Mine" by Music/{{Brandy}} and Music/{{Monica}}, "Gettin' in the Way" by Music/JillScott, and so on, have fallen out of favor since the 2010's. Nowadays it's widely accepted that if your partner is getting a little too flirty with someone, it's ''your partner'' that you need to hold accountable, since your rival isn't stealing what's being freely offered.

* "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" gets this reaction from more than a few people who actually bother to focus on the lyrics. Sure, the underlying message is that the father is dressed as Santa, which the mother finds cute enough to kiss him over, and the child just so happens to catch them in the act and find it comical. However, the song leaves a number of things open to interpretation, such as infidelity, and a Broken Home situation, and the implication that the child singing it knows what would have happened if the father walked in on them.
* "Kung Fu Fighting" was a big hit for Carl Douglas in 1974 and is still commonly heard on the radio in the United States, but it's been banned from airplay in Canada and a man was arrested for "racial harassment" in 2011 for covering it with his band in the UK. (This, it should be pointed out, is not the typical reaction to the song in the UK, where it's not generally considered offensive, just very ''very'' cheesy. The charge was dropped, and the singer in question ended up releasing a cover version.) Like the "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" example above, this also seems to depend on how close you're paying attention to the lyrics. While some of it can be interpreted as racist by today's standards, and "Chinamen" is no longer the [[Film/TheBigLebowski preferred nomenclature]], it's pretty obvious that the song is a reference to {{Wuxia}} movies, rather than Chinese people in and of themselves.

* Music/{{Squeeze}}'s 1978 song "Cool for Cats" has the protagonist picking up a girl at a disco for sex and asking her "lots of questions as she hangs on to the wall", implying she's so intoxicated she can't stand up without support. Par for the course in TheSeventies but these days having sex with someone too drunk to properly consent is rightly classified as rape.

** And that's nothing compared to the attempted animal abuse in Harry S. Miller's "The Cat Came Back" and its many variants. While milder versions aimed at children merely have the unwilling cat-owner attempt to give the animal away, the original song featured such delights as a neighbor's attempt to kill it with a ''nail and explosive-loaded shotgun''.

* Similarly, the remake of '70s feelgood summer hit "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QQW4twgWts I'm Going To Barbados]]" by [[OneHitWonder long-forgotten band]] Typically Tropical, when it was reworked in the early 2000s as "We're Going to Ibiza," omitted the introduction by the pilot, spoken in a thick West Indian accent, and the [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy cod-West Indian singing voice]] used for the song....