Random Popular Songs That Aren't About What You Think They A (14 items)

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  (#1) Total Eclipse of the Heart

  • Bonnie Tyler

  "Total Eclipse of the Heart" is an iconic '80s love song, but did you know that the love it speaks of is a little more... supernatural in flavor? That's right - the song's original title was "Vampires in Love," according to songwriter John Steinman. Steinman dished on his original intentions for the track to Playbill:  

  "With 'Total Eclipse of the Heart', I was trying to come up with a love song and I remembered I actually wrote that to be a vampire love song. Its original title was 'Vampires in Love,' because I was working on a musical of Nosferatu, the other great vampire story. If anyone listens to the lyrics, they're really like vampire lines. It's all about the darkness, the power of darkness and love's place in the dark." 
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  (#2) Slide

  • Goo Goo Dolls

  "Slide" sounds like the perfect soundtrack to a trailer for a '90s romance movie about two twenty-somethings falling in love in a big city. Turns out... that's not really the most fitting visuals to accompany this track. Goo Goo Dolls frontman Johnny Rzeznik explained during an episode of VH1 Storytellers that "Slide" is actually about a teenage girl raised in a strict Catholic household being abandoned by her family after getting an abortion. Just take a look at these lyrics:  

  "Don't you love the life you killed? 

  The priest is on the phone 

  Your father hit the wall 

  Your ma disowned you." 

  How did that go over our heads?
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  (#3) 'Macarena' Is About Cheating On Your Boyfriend

  Who'd have thought "The Macarena," a song that remains the quintessential end of the night pick for 'most likely to get everyone on the floor, regardless of dance ability,' was about anything more than touching your shoulders and hips? This school disco and wedding staple should be totally innocent, right? Wrong! "The Macarena" is actually about a woman whose boyfriend goes out of town, so she hooks up with his two friends. Take a look at these lyrics:   

  "Now come on, what was I supposed to do? 

  He was out of town and his two friends were so fine." 

  Get it, Macarena. 
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  (#4) Paper Planes

  • M.I.A.

  You'd be totally forgiven for thinking that "Paper Planes" was about getting high and shooting guns and getting money. And as much fun as it is to mime the gun action along with the chorus's shots, it turns out that there's a far deeper and more interesting meaning behind M.I.A.'s hit. M.I.A. herself has said that the song is about the trouble she experienced with the US government during her attempts to enter the country:  

  "People don’t really feel like immigrants or refugees contribute to culture in any way. That they’re just leeches that suck from whatever, America is so obsessed with money. […] Yeah, they’re always giving me a hard time. When I wrote it, I’d just gotten in to New York after waiting a long time and that’s why I wrote it, just to have a dig." 
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  (#5) Poker Face

  • Lady GaGa

  Surely there's nothing deeper behind the lyrics "Puh-puh-puh-puh poker face," right? Wrong once again! Lady Gage's iconic pop hit is not actually about playing card games, but is, in actuality, about her bisexuality. Gaga revealed that the song is about fantasizing about being with a woman, while being with a man, and so the guy she's with has to read her "poker face."
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  (#6) 'The A Team' Is About A Crack Addict

  You probably associate Ed Sheeran with earnest acoustic songs about loving you forever, or why won't you love me, Taylor Swift? But one of Sheeran's tracks has a pretty dark subject matter, despite the soft acoustic strains that would normally prep you for an oral love in.  

  "The A Team" is about the not-so-romantic realities of being a crack addict in the streets of London. Sheeran explained that the inspiration for the song came from his time volunteering at homeless shelters, and that the song is specifically based on a woman named Angel.  
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  (#7) 'Sabotage' Is About The Beastie Boys' Impatient Producer

  To many fans of Beastie Boys, Sabotage feels like a big middle finger to someone, and 24 years after its release, the rappers finally revealed who the intended recipient was. In their 2018 book, aptly titled Beastie Boys Book, the musicians said the song started as a more traditional rap song and morphed into a tongue-in-cheek "F you" to their engineer and producer, Mario Caldato Jr:

  We were totally indecisive about what, when, why and how to complete songs. Mario was getting frustrated. That’s a really calm way of saying that he would blow a fuse and get pissed off at us and scream that we just needed to finish something, anything, a song. He would push awful instrumental tracks we made just to have something moving toward completion.

  Adam Horowitz, who spits the song's signature opener, "I can't stand it, I know you planned it," elaborated, saying he decided "it would be funny to write a song about how Mario was holding us all down, how he was trying to mess it all up, sabotaging our great works of art."
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  (#8) 'Love Myself' (Hailee Steinfeld) Is About Self-Pleasure

  Who would have thought that the little girl from True Grit would produce the definitive wank anthem for the ages? And it’s not just everyone having dirty minds and reading into the lyrics; Steinfeld herself admits that the song is all about taking care of yourself. During an interview with Noisey, during which she was asked if fans can feel free to view the song as a solo-romp bop, Steinfeld answered “Yes, of course!”. Take a look at some of the lyrics: 

  "Pictures in my mind on replay

  I'm gonna touch the pain away

  I know how to scream my own name

  I'll take it nice and slow

  Feeling good on my own without you, yeah

  Got me speaking in tongues

  The beautiful, it comes without you, yeah."
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  (#9) Semi-Charmed Life

  • Third Eye Blind

  Most people probably don't look beyond the "doo-doo-doo doo-do-doo-doo" opening of this song by Third Eye Blind and just assume it's a fun bop with a catchy intro. In reality, "Semi-Charmed Life" is filled to the brim with drug references. The lyrical content is about a person's addiction to crystal meth getting the better of them. Lead singer Stephen Jenkins told Billboard that the song is about "snorting speed and getting bl*w jobs." 
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  (#10) Pumped Up Kicks

  • Foster the People

  Who would have thought that "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster the People was about anything but being a teenager with cool shoes? As it transpires, the song is about a school shooting. Lead singer Mark Foster wrote the song after reading about the rise in mental illness among teenagers:  

  "I kind of wrote the song to bring awareness to the issue. That sort of thing keeps happening more and more in our country; it’s kind of turning into an epidemic. To me the epidemic isn’t gun violence; the epidemic is lack of family, lack of love, and isolation - kids who don’t have anywhere to go or anyone to talk to and that’s what makes them snap." 

  And the chorus does contain the lyrics "all the other kids with the pumped up kicks/you better run, better run, outrun my gun" so...
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  (#11) Turning Japanese

  • The Vapors

  There's been a rumor circulating around "Turning Japanese" and the meaning behind the lyrics; many people think this refers to the face people make when they're climaxing which, if true, would mean "Turning Japanese" is problematic as hell! Lead singer Dave Fenton laid that rumor to rest during an episode of VH1's True Spin, saying that it's actually about someone losing their mind after their girlfriend breaks up with them. Though who's to say he didn't make that up as a cover once he started getting heat for the OG racist meaning?  
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  (#12) Waterfalls

  • TLC

  TLC wanted to do more than let you know they don't want no scrubs; they also wanted to raise awareness about HIV and AIDs. The second verse of "Waterfalls" is all about a man whose vice is casual sex. He's cheating on his significant other because he has a “natural obsession for temptation” but “three letters took him to his final resting place," meaning he gets AIDs and dies. The first verse is about a mother worrying about her son “chasing waterfalls”, which in this case means he’s after cash from dealing drugs, so the subject matter is pretty bleak all round. 
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  (#13) Love Song Is About Sara Bareilles's Relationship With Her Record Label

  As the song seemed to describe uncertainty in a romantic relationship, Sara Bareilles fans always assumed her breakout hit "Love Song" was about a man. However, in April 2018, Bareilles revealed in a Tweet the song was not about a "he." While some initially assumed Bareilles was coming out as lesbian or bisexual, it didn't take long for Internet sleuths to fill in the gaps and discover the song's true meaning had nothing to do with love or romance. In a 2008 interview, Bareilles revealed she wrote "Love Song" for herself in response to her record label pressuring her to write more conventional songs. 
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  (#14) Barbie Girl

  • Aqua

  Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” is actually a little more sinister and insidious than the cheery, bubblegum pop beat would have us believe. It’s not just a fun song about dolls and parties; it’s actually about the objectification of women. Whether or not this was Aqua’s intention upon releasing the song, the lyrics kind of paint a picture of a submissive woman allowing her “Ken” to reduce her to nothing but an object: 

  “Make me walk

  make me talk

  do whatever you please

  I can act like a star

  I can beg on my knees.”

  The lyrical content even promoted some think pieces and a thesis on the theory. 

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