Every once and awhile a song will come up on my iTunes that makes me take a second and say “huh.” I don’t mean because the lyrics don’t make sense or anything like that (although that also happens), but because I had no idea what the songs were about when I first heard them. Usually the songs have to do with sex. Similarly is Dirty Dancing, I watched that movie every weekend when I was 7 or 8 and when I saw it when I was older I couldn’t believe my parents let me watch the movie at such a young age. Dirty Dancing is all about sex, y’all.
But, I kinda get what my parents were doing. I remember the first time I really realized what Ginuwine’s Pony was about. I was in the car with my dad when it came on and surprisingly the song went on for about a minute before he switched stations (usually he’d switch right away if it wasn’t Classic Rock). Once we got to the chorus he quickly changed stations and said that it’s not an appropriate song. Next time I heard it, I listened to the lyrics and got what he was talking about. So there’s a tip to you parents… don’t react and your kids won’t even know there’s something wrong with what they’re watching/listening to.
So I thought I’d share some of the songs that I heard when I was younger, that I had no idea what they were about. I’m not including Blister in the Sun, we all knew that was about masturbation. Same goes with Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, even a 5 year old knows that’s about sex.
Here you go:
Rush Rush by Paula Abdul. This is the song that came on my iTunes today that made me go hmmmm. With lyrics like “hurry, hurry lover come to me… I can feel it, I can feel you all through me” it was obvious what that was all about. I was 9 when this came out, so that’s either an excuse or I feel like I should’ve known better. I’m including the video below because you need to enjoy 90s Keanu Reeves and this Rebel Without a Cause remake.
Also, remember pre-crazy Paula Abdul!?!
After Paula comes the entire janet album by Janet Jackson.
First off, the fact that this came up when I Google image searched janet makes me lose faith in humanity and the internet:
What I mean is, this album:
This album came out and I knew it was dirty, but I didn’t know how dirty. I took a hip-hop class at the time and our teacher was one of the male dancers in the If video and he tried to teach us some moves. He suddenly left after week two, I imagine it may have had to do with some of the scandalous dance moves as well as the lyrics:
It took a few years before I realized just exactly what she was singing. The song Anytime, Anyplace (timeless, still one of my faves) was apparent even to my young mind what it was about. I used to listen to this album in my room like it was some dirty little secret, I wasn’t sure why but I knew it was “adult.”
(Please take a moment or two to watch the If video, I miss dancing in music videos so much. If there was one thing that Janet and Michael brought us it was dance sequences choreographed to a T and I will forever be grateful to them)
Looking back, janet was kinda quaint next to The Velvet Rope or All For You, where I seem to remember her faking (?) an orgasm at the end of one song.
Next up, Aaliyah’s Rock the Boat. Again, this is one I knew was about sex but wasn’t aware of how much it was about sex.
Moving on… SUMMER OF 69! I’ve made it my life mission to let everyone know that the unofficial Canadian National Anthem is about sex, Bryan Adams was 10 in 1969. Read the Wiki article, he says it’s all about the sex.
And finally, TLC’s Red Light Special. Looking at this list, I may have been sheltered. This is so obvious, but I never thought of red light as being something other than a traffic symbol. Or I think I also thought the red light special was similar to the blue light special they had at KMart.
This song is amazing and totally about sex. TLC were feminists before we knew what feminists were or how cool it was to be one (and by we I mean us youngin’s who weren’t around to usher it in the 70s). I think the best part is that I totally used to sing and gesticulate when Chilli would sing the bridge, I totally related to the line “I’m a woman, a real woman. I know just what I want, I know just who I am.”
I was like, 12.
This is actually true of most of the TLC album Crazy Sexy Cool, which holds up btw. Also, does anyone want to do the Creep video’s pyjamas as a Halloween costume with me next year?
Looking back, we had so many feminist icons to look up to in the 90s. We had Girl Power before The Spice Girls made it a thing.
I’m sure I’m missing a bunch from this list. But share in the comments what songs you had no idea were about sex until you heard them later on.
The Rill Girls 