Ranker

Anime Underground

Button Mash

Graveyard Shift

Total Nerd

Unspeakable Times

Weird History

Weird Nature

Weirdly Interesting

Sports

Music

Entertainment

Living

Culture

Food

Makeup

Halloween

Thanksgiving

Holidays

Watchworthy

HBO Max

Are you the "music guy" on your trivia team? Read up for some fun facts and little-known info that will score you maj points.

Interesting

When it comes to pop songs that are diss tracks, ingenious subtlety is often just as good as ... or perhaps even better than ... full-on mockery. While the world will always welcome blatant parodies&nbsp;like Frank Zappa&#39;s&nbsp;&quot;Bobby Brown&quot; and the like,&nbsp;there&nbsp;really is something to be said for brilliantly passive-aggressive treatments of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/celebrity-twitter-feuds/jacob-shelton" target="_blank">celebrity feuds</a> in song.

Take Tori Amos&#39;s &quot;Professional Widow,&quot; for instance - could it be about Courtney Love? The Foo Fighters&#39; &quot;Let It Die&quot; might be about her, too. And is Radiohead&#39;s &quot;Punch Up at a Wedding&quot; really a response to a bad review? Either way, the lyrics are deliciously scathing.

Some artists, of course, choose to keep their double meanings eternally cryptic, but it&#39;s still always fascinating to see private issues played out in the public arena of art. These secretly insulting pop songs managed to hit their mark perfectly, all while maintaining a facade that&#39;s just innocent enough. Perhaps&nbsp;more <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/celebrity-fights/jacob-shelton" target="_blank">celebrity fights</a> should be settled with music.

Some songs were quite obviously written as part of a well-publicized celebrity feud (Taylor Swift&#39;s &ldquo;Bad Blood&rdquo; almost certainly calls out Katy Perry, for instance). But then there are songs that are secretly about other stars. It&#39;s not surprising that there are so many - musicians hang out with other famous people&nbsp;and write songs about what they know. But once you learn who the lyrics are really about, the songs about other celebrities take on a whole new meaning.

A number of these songs about famous people are not-so-subtle <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/songs-you-never-really-realized-are-diss-tracks/lisa-a-flowers" target="_blank">diss tracks</a>, like &quot;Cry Me a River&quot; by&nbsp;Justin Timberlake&nbsp;or &quot;Obsessed&quot; by Mariah Carey, which is a musical eye roll directed at Eminem. Others are tender love songs &ndash; try to listen to Coldplay&#39;s &quot;Fix You&quot; without tearing up after you learn its real message. Just don&#39;t expect to see any <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/songs-about-taylor-swift/alex-welch" target="_blank">songs about Taylor Swift</a> here. She&#39;s had enough to earn her own list.

Songs

Pop music is meant to make us feel good; the Top 40&nbsp;industry thrives on the happy vibes that propel&nbsp;audiences to listen to a song over and over. The feel-good formula for radio-friendly hits definitely requires upbeat music -&nbsp;but lyrics are another story.

Happy-sounding songs with secret dark meanings have been tearing up the charts for years. Have you ever realized just how dark/creepy/sad/weird these&nbsp;dark pop songs actually are? 
&nbsp;

True Stories

Third Eye Blind - 'Semi-Charmed Life'

Sometimes a song can be uptempo and peppy while also being somewhat sad. However, sometimes a song is just.... sad. Many are based purely on the writer&#39;s imagination, but for these songs, real life proved far more depressing than anything a musician could come up with. These famous songs and memorable tracks might be upbeat or seem like a lot of fun, but they all have super sad and depressing backstories (in fact, you might end up rethinking the inclusion of&nbsp;Van Halen&#39;s &quot;Jump&quot; on your pump up playlist).

Some are obvious - for instance, you likely know <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-eric-clapton-songs/voteable" target="_blank">Eric Clapton</a> wrote &quot;Tears in Heaven&quot; about the passing&nbsp;of his son. But,&nbsp;what about Clapton&#39;s song &quot;Circus&quot;?&nbsp;

Moreover, plenty of upbeat songs like &quot;99 Red Balloons&quot; and &quot;Semi-Charmed Life&quot; are actually about pretty dark subjects, like Cold War tensions&nbsp;and <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-songs-about-addiction/reference" target="_blank">addiction</a>. A number of the songs with sad meanings on this list were <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-songs-released-posthumously/ranker-music" target="_blank">released posthumously</a>, after the artist passed on,&nbsp;usually from reasons related directly to their sad song lyrics.

Here are songs that are all&nbsp;based on really terrible things that actually happened. They might not seem like sad songs, but if you listen closely, you may shed a tear. Upvote the tracks and singles with the saddest true backstories below... but be sure to grab a box of tissues first.

Most of us just sing songs and pay no mind to the meaning or even really think about the lyrics. Songs you didn't realize were inappropriate as a kid include everything from rap tunes to upbeat, cheery pop singles – or even these 11&nbsp;songs you shouldn't have been singing in childhood.It may seem&nbsp;really obvious now that &quot;December, '63 (Oh, What a Night)&quot; is about a dude having a one night stand and popping his cherry, but, as a kid, maybe it's not. We hear the upbeat, funky song at a party or a wedding and dance around to it without really paying attention.&nbsp;What exactly does Neil Diamond mean when he sings, “reaching out, touching you, touching me?” Did anyone ever stop and ask, “What is the English translation to the Macarena?”And those are just a few&nbsp;of the secretly scandalous songs that may ruin the innocence of your childhood. Read on to discover more, and vote up your favorite songs that&nbsp;you also didn't know were wildly inappropriate as a kid.&nbsp;

poll

Rage Against the Machine

Complete <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/pop-rock-bands-and-musicians/reference?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">list of bands</a> named after songs performed by other musicians (or, in some cases, bands named after their own songs). Looking at <a href="/list/best-band-name-origins-stories/ranker-music">where rock groups get their names </a>can be fun because band name etymology reveals a lot about how the musicians see themselves and who their early influences were.The most famous band named after other performers' songs is Radiohead, named after Talking Heads song &quot;Radio Head.&quot; Some of the <a href="/crowdranked-list/the-best-rock-bands-of-all-time">best rock groups/performers of all time</a>&nbsp;that have huge name recognition now--like the Rolling Stones and Boyz II Men--borrowed their names from song titles or lyrics that were written by other performers. In some cases, bands used titles from their own songs to help them name their bands. Rage Against the Machine&nbsp;is named after an earlier song that Zack de la Rocha performed with his old band and The Chemical Brothers also named their band after their own song.Test yourself to see how many of these name etymologies you know, vote on your favorites and feel free to add any to the list that may not be on there yet.&nbsp;

There is absolutely no doubt that Afroman’s &quot;Because I Got High&quot; and Eric Clapton’s&nbsp;&quot;Cocaine&quot;&nbsp;are about drugs; it says so right there in the title. However, not every artist is so on the nose, and there are a slew of songs you didn't know are about drugs. Here are 14 secret drug songs that may surprise you.Some of the songs on this list are certainly up to interpretation. Not every artist is just going to come out and say, &quot;This is a song about an illegal substance.&quot; True, David Byrne often tells a live audience that his song &quot;And She Was&quot; is about LSD. But it’s only obvious once you know that. And remember the hit song &quot;Semi-Charmed Life&quot;? It's almost definitely among songs you never noticed are about drug use. But listen closer, and you'll notice the&nbsp;crystal meth references all over the lytics. It’s just so upbeat and catchy that it’s hard to make out the brutally <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/fun-songs-with-secret-dark-meanings/jessica-defino" target="_blank">dark meaning</a>.From Ed Sheeran to U2, plenty of not-so-<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/the-druggiest-rock-stars-of-all-time/robert-wabash" target="_blank">druggy rock stars</a>&nbsp;have penned surprising odes to drug abuse.&nbsp;Take a listen and get ready to have your eyes opened.

You know those songs you're familiar with but can't place?&nbsp;The ones you hear&nbsp;everywhere, the ones that feel like they've always existed? The circus song that's played when the clowns come out. The haunted house organ song. That racist &quot;Asian&quot; riff. The one that played on Looney Tunes during all the chase scenes. What are those songs, anyway?It turns out there are a ton of famous songs you don't know the names of. What they all have in common is an uncanny ability, thanks to pop culture, to evoke bizarrely specific feelings. Because of that, they're all go-to tracks for filmmakers and TV producers (meaning many have since become cliches). Read on to learn what the heck all those songs are even called (and be sure to listen, too: your mind will be blown at least once).&nbsp;

While certain songs serve to enhance&nbsp;a movie scene, there also exist innocent songs ruined by creepy movies. Though plenty of <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/songs-about-murder/ranker-music" target="_blank">songs about murder</a> exist for movies to take advantage of, thrillers and horror films alike love to use cutesy, benign songs in juxtaposition with a movie&#39;s own macabre scenarios. Scary movies that ruined your favorite songs forever know exactly what they&#39;re doing when they play show tunes during a home invasion or <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-horror-movie-songs/ranker-music" target="_blank">new wave anthems during an </a><a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-horror-movie-songs/ranker-music" target="_blank">axe</a><a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-horror-movie-songs/ranker-music" target="_blank"> murder</a>. On one hand, yes, the songs provide a feeling of uneasiness which enhances a scene&#39;s dramatic tension, the sign of a good film. However, films often&nbsp;do so at the expense of songs you would rather turn to for positivity.

Movies that made popular songs creepy like the ones below managed to turn&nbsp;these guiltless tracks into accomplices just as responsible for scaring you as the film itself. Sure, some of these <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/13-songs-that-don_t-mean-what-you-think-they-do/molly-mahan" target="_blank">songs mean something different than you expect</a>, but the large majority of them never asked to soundtrack scenes of murder or torture.

LGBTQ+

Sex and sexuality have always been <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/13-songs-that-don_t-mean-what-you-think-they-do/molly-mahan" target="_blank">central themes in pop music</a>, but it's only recently that songs about being anywhere on the sexuality spectrum&nbsp;have come to be accepted as part of the lexicon.Before the 2000s, although alternative lifestyles were becoming more and more accepted in everyday life, the music business and audiences still had a long way to go in embracing LGBTQ+ motifs. For most, coming out in the public eye was not easy and could mean the difference between platinum records and crickets.&nbsp;A hit song like Katy Perry's &quot;I Kissed A Girl&quot; is pretty&nbsp;flagrant in its meaning, but you may not realize just how many other&nbsp;musicians&nbsp;were also breaking down doors -&nbsp;some more subversively than others -&nbsp;before Perry walked through&nbsp;with ease. While subliminal messaging is still somewhat the art of the song, there's relatively more freedom to express bisexuality through music that wasn't acceptable even a decade ago.&nbsp;When you listen closely to these songs, you may be surprised at the&nbsp;not-always-so-subtle lyrics&nbsp;you never realized were about bisexuality.&nbsp;You'll be surprised at some of <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/the-best-songs-about-art/reference?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">songs and artists</a> listed, but even&nbsp;if you don't love them all, you'll respect each and every one for having the courage to share themselves&nbsp;with&nbsp;the world. After all, the&nbsp;more vulnerable an&nbsp;artist is with their work, the more authentic the art, and these songs speak to the soul.

Songs about sex are just about as old as music itself, and songs about losing your virginity are as important a part of the pop canon as any other. While the hidden messages in some of the songs on this list are pretty obvious, others are pretty clock and dagger, and are songs you probably hear on a daily basis and have not given much thought to otherwise. Until now.Sex sells, and the music industry has always been aware of this, even if the messages are sometimes&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/13-songs-that-don_t-mean-what-you-think-they-do/molly-mahan" target="_blank">hidden</a>—or presented more subtly—in an attempt to get around media&nbsp;censoring. Sometimes it works, and sometimes the songwriter still manages to court controversy. Nevertheless, the losing of one's virginity is a relatable fact of life for many people, and that is what pop music is all about—describing an experience shared by the masses and presenting it as art. Do any of these conjure up memories of YOUR first time?

These songs with the filthiest lyrics are so down and dirty that they should make you blush - and if you <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/13-songs-that-don_t-mean-what-you-think-they-do/molly-mahan" target="_blank">didn&#39;t know what they were about</a>, well, you will soon.&nbsp;Now you get to decide which of these are the dirtiest songs of all time (it&#39;s a stiff competition).

It shouldn&rsquo;t come as a surprise to see that most of these are rap songs. The hip hop community has a long and storied history of writing <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/songs-about-begging-someone-for-sex/rebecca-shortall" target="_blank">explicit tunes</a> matched with throbbing bass lines that go into graphic&nbsp;detail. These are songs that you don&rsquo;t want to hear if you&rsquo;re riding in the car with your mom and certainly don&rsquo;t <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/getting-caught-cheating-at-casinos/donn-saylor?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">want to get caught</a> humming in the middle of math class.

Rappers are not the only ones represented on this list, though -&nbsp;rock and grunge can get pretty downright lewd as well. Make your voice heard. Vote up the songs you think are&nbsp;the filthiest.

Satanism

It's a recording trick known as backmasking, whereby words and phrases are reversed and inserted into songs, so that&nbsp;when played backwards the secret messages with hidden meanings can be heard. Backmasking was &quot;exposed&quot; by right-wing Christian groups in the '60s, '70s, and '80s as an attempt by major recording artists to convert unwitting people to the Devil, insisting that the reversed lyrics seeped into a person's subconscious and altered their minds (also known as subliminal messaging, which doesn't at all work like that). Here are notable examples of music with backwards lyrics, most of which are purely imagined, though some are real and intentionally inserted into the songs.

Pop music's great! It's all uplifting bangers about partying all night, or falling in love, or both, right? <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/13-songs-that-don_t-mean-what-you-think-they-do/molly-mahan" target="_blank">Well... not&nbsp;necessarily</a>. There are a lot of&nbsp;popular songs with secret meanings out there, ones that seem innocent but are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/fun-songs-with-secret-dark-meanings/jessica-defino" target="_blank">actually&nbsp;kind of dark</a>. Maybe a song you previously thought was&nbsp;innocent&nbsp;is about drug abuse, or abortion, or infidelity.&nbsp;&nbsp;The&nbsp;surprising meanings behind popular songs could cause you to never listen to them in quite the same way again. Maybe you won't be able to hear one of your&nbsp;favorite&nbsp;pop tracks without thinking of the singer&nbsp;doing the dirty or something else. Check out the&nbsp;real meanings of songs below and see which one blows your mind the most.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Le Lauréat: Mrs. Robinson

The top theme songs to our favorite films are all ranked here and ready for your votes. Whether the song makes you &quot;Happy&quot; like Pharrell or &quot;Lose Yourself&quot; like Eminem, these songs are forever ingrained in the history of both music and film as a result of their popularity and greatness. Which songs that were written for movies are the best? &nbsp; &quot;Let It Go,&quot; made Idina Menzel (or Adele Dazeem, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4cKvfJ3KJY">according to John Travolta</a>), is now one of the most popular songs in the world. These best songs written for movies not only won Grammys, but also Academy Awards and Golden Globes. From the Oscar-winning Three 6 Mafia song &quot;Hard Out Here for a Pimp&quot; to Will Smith's &quot;Men in Black&quot; theme song, these songs will take you back to the movies from which they came. Vote up all of your favorite <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/greatest-movie-themes?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">movie theme songs</a>, and if you don't see your favorite on here, be sure to add it.&nbsp;

The Rembrandts

Believe it or not, some major rock bands have taken the plunge into the world of television - and we're not just talking about music videos from the days when MTV actually played those. Sure, you've probably seen some big rock stars make cameos on TV shows, but others have gone even further to lend their sounds to the shows themselves.&nbsp; These are the rockers who have written original songs for TV shows.You've probably heard a lot of these tunes, but you may have had no idea they were written by some of the biggest names in rock music. With your votes, we'll find out which musician wrote the best original TV theme song.From Ozzman's ferocious theme for Dog the Bounty Hunter to They Might Be Giants's&nbsp;<a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-malcolm-in-the-middle-episodes/reference?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">Malcolm in the Middle</a> ditty, which original TV song by rockers do you think is best?

There's always tons of gossip to go around when a celebrity couple splits up, but that gets compounded when the split&nbsp;results in a breakup song. Musicians specialize in channeling&nbsp;their emotions into their craft, and if a musician spends their romantic life in the public eye, they may well contribute&nbsp;to the catalog&nbsp;of sad <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/songs-about-other-celebrities/matt-manser" target="_blank">songs about famous people</a>.The music industry has a long history of producing&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/songs-you-never-really-realized-are-diss-tracks/lisa-a-flowers" target="_blank">secret diss tracks</a>,&nbsp;but when the diss is aimed at an equally&nbsp;famous significant other, the songs become&nbsp;that much juicier. That additional impact&nbsp;helps explain the ongoing success&nbsp;of&nbsp;Taylor Swift&nbsp;and the enduring reputation of&nbsp;Fleetwood Mac's&nbsp;Rumours. There's something irresistible about <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/fun-songs-with-secret-dark-meanings/jessica-defino" target="_blank">songs with dark meanings</a>, although a breakup song can also be sweet and uplifting (see: “I Will Always Love You”). In any case, if you're a fan of music ripped from the tabloids, you'll want to give a listen to the tracks on this list.

True Crime

Plenty of musicians stick to uplifting topics when it comes to writing a new song – what better way&nbsp;to ensure it'll get picked up by mainstream radio? Sometimes, though, things get a little dark. Some top tunes slip in references to shocking violence, and there are so many songs you didn't know are about murder.True, most people don't really listen closely to lyrics. But once you know the actual meaning behind these songs that are about murder, you'll never hear them the same way again. Songs about killing are all over the charts. You've probably hummed along to these tunes with no inkling of their homicidal undertones. It just goes to show you never know which songs have <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/fun-songs-with-secret-dark-meanings/jessica-defino" target="_blank">surprisingly dark meanings</a>.

Sometimes, it’s hard to tell if a song is going to <a href="http://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/best-songs-of-all-time-ranked" target="_blank">be a hit</a>,&nbsp;especially in an industry where songs are regularly written in the hopes that a major musician will want to sing them.&nbsp;It can be a real gamble. Songs intended for other artists are often passed up and taken to the next willing singer. For a few of these singers who passed up hit songs, it's sad to consider just how very different <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/grammy-wins-that-boosted-a-career/ranker-music" target="_blank">their careers</a> would have been if they'd had those mega hits on their resumes.Some of these popular songs written for different singers were penned by other popular artists. Ed Sheeran&nbsp;has done this, as has <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/songs-secretly-written-by-prince/ginny_isaad" target="_blank">Prince</a>, though sometimes a songwriter realizes they have a hit on their hands and keeps it for themselves instead. A few times a song was passed on to singers in an entirely&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/pop-stars-who-switched-genres/jessica-defino" target="_blank">different</a><a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/pop-stars-who-switched-genres/jessica-defino" target="_blank"> genre</a> of music, which may account for why it ended up working so well.&nbsp;Some of these hit songs intended musicians just sound like a crazy mismatch. Imagine Celine Dion singing Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing&quot; or&nbsp;Shawnna singing Kayne West’s “Gold Digger.” Here are even more hit songs originally written for other artists that are guaranteed to boggle your mind.

Music History

Ever&nbsp;sing along to a love song? Of course you have – they all seem so&nbsp;super sweet or achingly sad in a way that is totally beautiful and relatable.&nbsp;Well, you may want to rethink your feelings about some of those tunes after you see this list of love songs you never realized are creepy. Hits by artists like Adele, the Beatles, and more seem innocent on the surface, but when you really <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/the-best-songs-with-listen-in-the-title/ranker-music?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">listen to the lyrics</a>, you realize these are actually love songs with dark messages. Who knew so many songs about love were actually about stalking an ex or being attracted to people who are underage?That's not to say these songs aren't great; many of them are classics for a reason. But there are lots of fun&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/fun-songs-with-secret-dark-meanings/jessica-defino" target="_blank">pop songs with dark meanings</a>, when you think about it These secretly creepy love&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/13-songs-that-don_t-mean-what-you-think-they-do/molly-mahan" target="_blank">songs don't mean what you think</a>&nbsp;they do. Take a listen, but you've been warned – this list might just ruin slow dances for you forever.

Name That Song

pageType

safe_grapeshot

X_AMP

top_search_2-3

ticker_exclude

site_wide_RL_exclude

temp_ab_tag

sonos_test_list

cb_name-that-song

scale_cleanup

srch

Have you ever thought about how many songs with dress in the title have been written? This list ranks the best songs with dress in the name, regardless of genre. Most of the tracks listed here are songs about dresses, but almost all of them have different lyrical interpretations, despite the commonality of having the word dress in the title. This ranked poll includes songs like &quot;Dress You Up&quot; by Madonna, and &quot;Blue Dress&quot; by Depeche Mode. If you think a good song with dress in the title is missing from this list, go ahead and add it so others can vote for it too. Songs with dress in the lyrics are only allowed if that word is in the song's name as well.

List of 30+ Songs With Dress in the Title

The Best Songs With Dress in the Title

Song

Top Music List: Top 10 Music Lists and Entertaining Rankings

music

Ranker Music

Gender

Women

Region

American

West Coast US

Us States

Gen Zs

Millenials

Gen Xers

Baby Boomers

Mountain US

Midwest US

Southern US

Northeastern US

International

AMAZON

Blue Dress

Dress You Up

Little Black Dress

Dress On

Red Dress

New Dress

Freakum Dress

Bedouin Dress

The Dress Looks Nice on You

Dress Me Up as a Robber

Dress Blues

Your Gold Dress

Lose the Dress (Keep the Shoes)

Devil With a Blue Dress on & Good Golly Miss

Why Must You Always Dress in Black

Best Dress

Black Dress

hnoory07

If You Wear That Velvet Dress

Dress Like Shit

Dress

A Man in a Purple Dress

Best Dress On

The Girl in the Magnesium Dress

Have you ever thought about how many songs with dress in the title have been written? This list ranks the best songs with dress in the name, regardless of ...