Some of the hits we sang along as teenagers or at parties are actually about sex. Sometimes you have to hear something between the lines.
It’s always about one thing, often in music too. Some musicians openly sing about sex in their songs, sometimes even in German – although that is supposedly not possible. Others are more cautious: They hide all kinds of ambiguous allusions in their texts, which many listeners do not even notice – but which still have it in them.
We picked ten songs that are more or less obviously about sex, although that is not so clearly stated.
1. “Summer of 69” (Bryan Adams)
In the summer of 1969, Bryan Adams was nine years old – he probably didn’t start his first band then. Instead, the song, released in 1984, is about the sex position. Adams himself later confirmed this in interviews. There is one restriction, however: The first line is not – as many think – “I got my first real sex dream”, but: “I got my first real six-string”.
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2. “Right Round” (Flo Rida)
A huge hit by the US rapper in co-production with singer Kesha from 2009. At all the parties at which the song is played, hardly anyone paid any attention to the barely concealed allusions: “You spin my head right round, right round / When you go down, when you go down down”.
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3. “If this is then” (Muff Potter)
The song can be seen as an homage to great friendships and fond memories. Many fans of the German rock band do that too. Singer Thorsten Nagelschmidt regularly explains at concerts that the song is actually about sex. Then you also understand why there are lines like “You nibble, bite and suck”.
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4. “Watermelon Sugar” (Harry Styles)
“It’s about the first euphoria when you meet someone, sleep with someone or just like to be with someone,” said Harry Styles about his song. The singer likes to play with ambiguities – if you read a little between the lines in the lyrics, you’ll soon realize that it’s actually about oral sex. Even if Harry Styles would probably never admit it in public.
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5. “Candy Shop” (50 cents)
The text of 50 Cent is bursting with allusions and metaphors: Behind the candy there are a lot of sexual suggestions. What is meant by the rapper’s “magic stick” or why the woman should lick the lollipop – it doesn’t take a lot of imagination. Especially not when you see the accompanying video.
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6. “If U Seek Amy” (Britney Spears)
Actually a completely innocent song title. And even the pure lyrics won’t make you sit up and take notice. Nevertheless, the song caused a little scandal in 2009: The chorus sounds like Britney is singing “F * ck Me” there – at least that’s how many understood it. Some radio stations boycotted the song or played a version that only featured “If U See Amy”.
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7. “Ticket to Ride” (The Beatles)
“She’s got a ticket to ride / But she don’t care”: The ticket in this song refers to prostitutes’ health cards, John Lennon once explained. And the ride is of course synonymous with sex. The idea for this came to the Beatles in Hamburg, where they played many concerts around the Reeperbahn in the early stages of their careers.
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8. “Macarena” (Los Del Rio)
Stretch out your arms, turn them, put them on your shoulders, then behind your head and on your hips – “Macarena” even has its own dance moves. But the summer hit has a slippery content. In the song, a young woman dances with different men and ends up bragging about cheating on her boyfriend, who is out of town, with two of his friends.
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9. “Barbie Girl” (Aqua)
All the girls were singing the song in the 90s, and it still plays at all 90s parties today. The text, however, is quite ambiguous: “You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere”it says there – or: “Kiss me here, touch me there, hanky panky”. Whether all this really only relates to a doll … In any case, this is how the Barbie went from being an innocent toy to a sex symbol.
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10. “The Bad Touch” (Bloodhound Gang)
The songs of the Bloodhound Gang have it all: The band doesn’t hold back with crude sayings. Nevertheless, many listeners hardly notice it. Here are lines like “So put your hands down my pants and I’ll bet you’ll feel nuts” actually really not to be misunderstood. The whole thing culminates in the request: “So let’s do it like they do on the Discovery Channel”.
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“The Bad Touch” isn’t the band’s only song with sexual content: “The Ballad of Chasey Lane” tells quite explicitly about a fan writing letters to a porn star.
This article originally appeared on stern.de.
epp / star
