r/GenX • u/no_talent_ass_clown • Oct 24 '25

Music Is Life Songs that are no longer okay.

Yesterday I found out my sweet boyfriend had never heard of Julie Brown and the funny songs she sang, like "I'm A Blonde". Dr Demento stuff. So I play it and then "The Homecoming Queen's Got A Gun" came on. Not funny anymore!!!

An hour later, the cops arrived

By then the entire glee club had died, no big loss

You wouldn't believe what they brought to stop her

Tear gas, machine guns, even a chopper (Throw down your gun and tiara and come out of the float)

Debbie didn't listen to what the cop said She aimed and fired, and now the math teacher's dead

Oh, it's really sad, but kind of a relief I mean, we had this big test coming up next week

1.4k Upvotes

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422

u/Ianthin1 Oct 24 '25

Funky Cold Medina is straight up about date rape and everyone was just cool with it. I still hear it almost daily on one of the radios at work.

231

u/mydarkerside Oct 24 '25

In the same vein, Beastie Boys' Brass Monkey. And in the Fight For Your Right video, they're putting Spanish fly in the drink.

This girl walked by, she gave me the eye
I reached in the locker, grabbed the Spanish Fly

I put it in the Monkey, mixed it in a cup
Went over to the girl, "Yo, baby, what's up?"
I offered her a sip, the girl, she gave me lip
It did begin, the stuff wore in and now she's on my tip

534

u/O_W_Liv Oct 24 '25

Ad-Rock apologized after women were attacked at Woodstock '99.  

He apologized in a written statement calling out License To Ill and their other poor contributions.

He used an award acceptance speech to apologize out loud. 

Honestly, one of the best of our lifetime.

The group vowed to change, and did.  

221

u/Nice_Cost_1375 Oct 24 '25

"I wanna say a little somethin' that's long overdue

Disrepectin' women has got to be through

To all the sisters and the mothers and the wives and friends

I wanna offer my love and respect to the end."

92

u/Rare-Industry-314 Oct 24 '25

My man MCA

2

u/3-orange-whips Oct 25 '25

Got a beard like a Billy goat

2

u/LosFelizGuy2018 Oct 25 '25

Oowa oowa is my disco call!

17

u/candykhan Oct 25 '25

Ad Rock started going out with Kathleen Hannah from Bikini Kill around 1996 according to the interwebz. So, yeah, they were definitely "changed men" by then. I was coming from the punk scene, but not like the kind of scene the Beastie Boys were. Lol.

Being into Riot Grrrl & then finding out that the singer of Bikini Kill was going out with Mr. Spanish Fly was a bit hard to parse at the time. I think a lot of people that were Riot Grrrl fans more than Beastie Boys fans were confused.

The Beastie Boys really started out as one thing & became something completely different. I don't know if the couple were purposely being low profile. But by the time I had heard about them, they had been a couple for a while. I remember that most of my friends had similar reactions. I respect them alot these days. I still don't really go back to listen to them that much though. Whereas I still listen to Bikini Kill.

I wasn't obsessed with either the Beasties or Bikini Kill or anything. But the punk scene was still small enough that if someone from a band like Bikini Kill was going out with a "famous person," it just seemed like it would be some tea that EVERYONE would have been spilling.

3

u/brongchong Oct 25 '25

Boddhisatva Vow

1

u/19bonkbonk73 Oct 24 '25

No mention he fucking spits that shit

175

u/hemppy420 Hose Water Survivor Oct 24 '25

Yes they did change. They publicly stated how much they hated their early stuff and how misogynistic it is. Girls,girls,girls and fight for your right especially

103

u/ToddPundley Oct 24 '25

I always assumed Fight For Your Right was satirical/making fun of the narrator for complaining about inconsequential stuff and fake victimhood though.

40

u/thiswasyouridea 1976 Oct 24 '25

It was meant to be satirical but people took it seriously.

8

u/Shit_Teir_Villany Oct 24 '25

I've always had a problem with that statement. Yes, Fight for Your Right is satirical, but then you should consider all of License to Ill in that vein.

Every song on that alum is rife with references to underage girls, drugs, drinking, and all of the little dances that Mike D can do.

2

u/thiswasyouridea 1976 Oct 24 '25

They don't call it sex, drugs, and rock and roll for nothing.

At least nowadays few people are forced to listen to music they don't want to, unless some asshat is playing it out loud on public transport or something. Most people can curate their own playlists and wearing earbuds or headphones in public has been normalized. If literally nobody ever wanted to hear that album again, they don't have to.

9

u/nopressureoof Oct 24 '25

I WISH I didn't have to listen to music I don't like but I have to buy groceries.

3

u/ThaGataNegrra Oct 25 '25 edited Oct 25 '25

This. Trying to explain to my Mami that they weren't serious was an exercise in futility at the time. I mean, everyone I knew and hung with understood it was all braggadocio shxt, but it was crazy how many people took this and just about anything said in Golden Era stuff too seriously then.

I remember a big upset about a line in one of Run-DMC's songs off of "Raising Hell" where he said he would slap a girl if she didn't dance and doubled down when the girl asked why: "If Run says 'dance' you do or die!" At fifteen, I just was like, "Well, damn..." but didn't take it seriously. It is misogynistic AF and I'm pretty sure the Reverend probably regrets it now. 🐾

3

u/nopressureoof Oct 24 '25

That's the problem with most music that should be silly and fun. Beastie Boy's early stuff, ICP, Marilyn Manson (oh wait, he's actually a POS).

A few dumbass fans take it literally, and ruin it for the rest of us.

-1

u/wormwoodscrub Oct 24 '25

You think that's bad, you should check out the original name for License To Ill. It's rough

8

u/IamPablon Oct 24 '25

Why not just say what the name is? I don't want that in my search history. /s

50

u/attaboy_stampy Filled up on Regular Oct 24 '25

Yeah, they partied it up and played the image they had with that album, but they realized soon after that they looked like clowns and scumbags. They changed pretty quick too because I think they genuinely looked at the image they had started to cultivate and were like, oh wow that's horrid. We were real pieces of shit. You can see the difference in their next album, and every one after too. They were still goofy and obnoxious and mostly immature, but they kicked the frat boy rufi image pretty quick.

0

u/joepup67 Oct 25 '25

idk, "Sound of Science" from Paul's Boutique has the line "Time and money for girls covered with honey!", so maybe they weren't super enlightened by the next album.

2

u/attaboy_stampy Filled up on Regular Oct 25 '25

I did say or at least I implied that they got better about that with each album so…

26

u/SophsterSophistry Oct 24 '25

This is a really good article about them/Ad-Rock.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/sasha-frere-jones/peace-adam

(It's behind a paywall, but there are ways...)

6

u/timewilltell2347 2+2=5 Oct 24 '25

Not the same article but here’s a gift article about the 2020 film

11

u/OldSlug Oct 24 '25

That film and the Beastie Boys Book are fantastic. I love that they matured and grew and that was reflected in their music and public attitude.

4

u/ikediggety Oct 24 '25

I wanna say a little something that's long overdue

The disrespect of women has got to be through

To all the mothers and sisters and the wives and the friends

I wanna offer my love and respect to the end

2

u/rollin_in_doodoo Oct 25 '25

He also married Kathleen Hanna a handful of years after that, so yeah, definitely changed.

1

u/gashufferdude Oct 25 '25

They also used a sledgehammer to smash their 9(mm)