Jump to content

Popular songs not about sex/love/romance


RoseGoesToYale

Recommended Posts

RoseGoesToYale

I've learned it's not easy to find popular music that isn't about sex, love, or romance. Every time I turn on the radio, no matter the station, it's alway a song about one of these three things. I'm cool with it sometimes, but other times I just want to listen to songs about something else. I also usually have venture outside of English to find other subject matter.

 

Do you have any favorite songs about topics other than love and sex? All years/genres/languages welcome!

Link to post
Share on other sites
Aroace_bookworm

Penny lane by the Beatles.... ish

We built this city by starship

Also, try looking at musicals. They do have love songs, but there are also other non-love/sex/romance related songs in certain ones, such as newsies, or Shrek the musical.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Duke Memphis

"We Will Rock You" by Queen, "We Are the Champions" by Queen, "The Miracle" by Queen, "The Invisible Man" by Queen, "Mr. Blue Sky" by Electric Light Orchestra, "Bicycle Race" by Queen, "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen, "Civilization" by Danny Kate and the Andrews Sisters, "Johnny B. Goode" by Chuck Berry, and "Stone Cold Crazy" by Queen, just to name a few.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Bronztrooper

Linkin Park generally doesn't make songs about that.

 

Mixed bag with Bowling For Soup, but most of their songs are pretty humorous.

 

There's also Black Parade, some songs by Panic! At The Disco (haven't really listened to many of them, so I can't vouch for them all), Handlebars by the Flobots- the list kind of goes on.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I dunno about popular but a lot of stuff by Motionless In White, Dead Animal Assembly Plant, the Butcher Babies, Faun, and Danheim are sex/romance free.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Frank Zappa's music was always infused with a sort of gleeful dementia which made it hilarious. My guitar wants to kill your mamma is the Zappa equivalent of a love song. Acid rock bands like Yes may have had love songs but one never really was sure exactly what they were singing about. Moody Blues love songs were completely spiritual and addressed the fact we all used to be a single consciousness in love with itself before we became individuals.  The Beatles indeed had a lot of material that wasn't about love, but it was mostly their later work. Happiness is a warm gun isn't much of a love song except perhaps in the sense of romancing firearms. Pink Floyd was so consumed in their dark existentialism it left little room for something as positive as romance. The Police could be this way too but they seemed to have an even mix of love songs and other material. After the Beatles split up, Paul McCartney continued to write music as though nothing had happened. He continued to write a lot of love songs but Medicine Jar was a song about drug abuse.  Jet and Martha my Dear were love songs he wrote for his dogs. I can't recall a single love song Ringo Starr ever did. Yellow Submarine and Octopus's garden weren't love songs but instead children's songs. His collaboration with George Harrison on It Don't Come Easy was more a song about either music or maturity.  

Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Fireflies by Owl City yet 😄

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
InsaneHarpy

Electronic: Junk by M38

Christian Rock: DC Talk. I like their album Jesus Freak

Alternative: Act V: Hyms with the Devil in Confessional by the Dear Hunter

                     The Second Law both songs by Muse. They have a lot of stuff if you like them.

                     The old stuff from Owl City. Check out Ocean Eyes the song Dental Care is amazing if you're a punster.

Rock: Foo Fighters

           Steely Dan; Deacon Blues  is a classic

           Switchfoot song New Way to Be Human I imagine you can find more on the album of the same name.

Country/Ballade: Gordon Lightfoot. Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is famous. I like his album If You Could Read my Mind but some songs there are very much probably about love.

Jazz: Lady Gaga did a jazz album... Fun fact. I love the way she does New York New York by Sinatra.

 

I can also recommend a lot of classical music.... #musicmajor4life

 

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

I mainly listen to music from video games so I rarely have to deal with it being sex/romance related. I find myself always listening to songs from series like the Legend of Zelda and Fire Emblem a lot 😅. You can’t have sex/romance-related lyrics if the songs don’t have lyrics to begin with 😏. And most VGM with lyrics don’t really reference that stuff anyways.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Bronztrooper

There is the RWBY soundtrack, which, on the whole, isn't really geared towards romance (though, a couple focus on crushes and a couple more on familial love, but most are action-based).  But then, you'll never hear those songs on the radio, so...

Link to post
Share on other sites

God, I don't know where to start haha. There's loads of music not about sex and romance. Despite being romantic and sexual myself, I've actually never been a huge fan of those themes except when I'm in the throes of infatuation with someone. Otherwise I find 'em a bit tedious. I grew up in a household where we listened to lots of classical, jazz, blues and folk (which is to say, I was an incredibly nerdy kid), and the themes there are a lot more varied than, say, a lot of pop music.

 

Seriously though, I don't know where to start.

 

Have some Tracy Chapman.

 

 

 

And Van Morrison.

 

 

 

And Peter Gabriel.

 

 

I could go on, but those are three of my favourite songs in the universe, so I'll leave you with just them for now.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Ohhh wait, and a favourite from Pink's new album. I'm not much into current pop music, but I love the shit out of this woman. I saw her in Toronto in March. She's phenomenal. This is a song about female empowerment, not love.

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
Fantastic Name

Relevant love song:

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
12 hours ago, Duke Memphis said:

"Bicycle Race" by Queen,

lolwhut?  The entire meaning of this song is to do with sexuality!  I'm not even talking about the "fat bottomed girls" lyric.

 

I really like the work of Eivor Palsdottir, some of her tracks centre on romance, but many do not.  

Link to post
Share on other sites
Duke Memphis
1 hour ago, Andy Roo said:

The entire meaning of this song is to do with sexuality!

Every time I hear it, I always perceive it as a tongue-in-cheek song about bicycles and a bunch of random nonsense, like income tax, Star Wars, and Frankenstein.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I tend to listen to game music and EDM, so not much to be said about popular music from me, but I really like the street performer songs from the Dishonored 2 Soundtrack. Mother Mother has some good ones. Sleep Awake strikes me as being about paranoia, and there are some that are about putting your past behind you. Their song Wrecking Ball is about destructive tendencies. I couldn't say for sure, but Timber Timbre is also pretty good, though I haven't really listened to much from them. Grifting was good though.

Link to post
Share on other sites
PirateGirl6423

The non-love songs of Disney and other animated films. Sure a love song is often present in each film, but it's usually just one or two. Also a bunch of feel-good Broadway tunes that don't focus on love.

Link to post
Share on other sites
CaptainMarvel

Anything song by a Bad Lip Reading except Bushes of Love but I warn you they’re super catchy I listened to the Christmas is Here one in December and it’s still stuck in my head.

Link to post
Share on other sites
verymelancholic

Piano Man by Billy Joel is a perfect example. Aaaaaand now I’m sad.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I haven't double checked but at one point I remember thinking that a good number of songs on Marina and The Diamonds album "Family Jewels" was about something other than sex/love/romance. Either that, or I'm missing something and clueless XD

 

As far as I remember lot of it is about self-confidence, fame and family... "Are You Satisfied" and "Oh No!" were two of my faves. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

This might be the asexuality theme song. "Don't need a whore, don't need no booze, don't need a virgin priest But I need some one I can cry to"

Link to post
Share on other sites
ExquisiteMystery

@gaogao Also Froot had "Savages" which is straight social commentary. Mentions marraige, but as an institution.

* Nothing But Thieves has "Broken Machine" and "Wake Up Call".

*Morrisey, "Spent the Day in Bed" explicitly says, "I'm not my type, but I love my bed".

*Muse has a bunch. But "Assasin", "Ruled by Secrecy", "Butterflies and Hurricanes" are some examples. Again, mostly social commentary.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Going Underground by The Jam

 

 

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

I didn't realise it at the time, but I think that's why I was drawn to music from Disney and DreamWorks and their movies too. There's nothing sexual in many of them and most aren't overly romantic. Many are songs that you wouldn't even know are from Disney or DreamWorks films, they sound very mainstream. I also love the songs from The Greatest Showman and some from Dear Evan Hansen. Imagine Dragons and Linkin Park do lots of nonsexual songs. I also listen to lots of song covers on YouTube from people like Peter Hollens, BYU Vocal Point, and Jonathan Young. Finally there are also many film, TV and game scores that I love.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...