Songs You Loved As A Kid, But Your Parents Loathed

I can’t deny that I’m growing up. The signs are all there: I find myself spending more and more money on candles, I'm starting to like the taste of black coffee, and I'm suddenly all about planning ahead. The worst part about becoming a grown up, though, is hearing the songs you loved as a child again and being horrified by their vulgarity. My parents would often complain about the music I listened to but I just figured they were overreacting. That is, until I recently re-heard "My Neck, My Back" by Khia and cringed at the thought of my jelly sandals-clad 13-year-old self singing the explicit version of the song with fervor. Let's face it: Everyone had those songs that they loved but their parents loathed.

What our silly parents didn’t know, though, was that by hating those songs, they made sure we loved them even more. One nod of disproval from my mother and I’d be skipping off, feeling like a badass as I listened to loads of parentally-banned songs.

If you’re anything like me, you are slowly starting to realize that you’re turning into your parents more every day. You also can admit that your parents were usually right about stuff, even if you disagreed with them in the heat of the moment.

When I take an aural stroll down my musical memory lane, I’m often confronted with songs that are just downright nasty or inappropriate and I think about how strange it was that I listened to these songs when I was younger.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I will still yell out all the words to “Get Low” when it comes on at a party. But I'm starting to understand where my parents were coming from. Here are a few songs that I, and I would bet quite a few others, loved but our parents loathed.

"Get Low"- Lil Jon

This was the song that has come to represent my entire middle school experience. This was our party jam, the song you clumsily danced to at house parties in someone's basement in 8th grade. My parents were none too fond of this one; the addition of "awww skeet skeet" to my vernacular was vehemently frowned upon my mother.

"Baby Got Back"- Sir-Mix-a-Lot

I have a vivid memory of my friends and I warily approaching my mom to ask her what a prostitute was. We were eight. My mom was a bit taken aback and, upon finding out that we'd learned the word prostitute from the beginning of "Baby Got Back," swiftly put this song on the list of songs I was not allowed to listen to (but secretly did anyways because #yolo).

Anything by Eminem

I think Eminem was the worst nightmare of all late '90s/early '00s parents. Much to my mother's chagrin, my best friend and I set out to learn every word to Eminem's "Mockingbird." It took hours of dial-up Internet time to look up the lyrics and listen to the song on repeat. When we performed our epic rap for my mother, she was none too pleased. However, it was a worthwhile endeavor as it has stayed with me to this very day. I could finish a handle of tequila in 20 minutes and still be able to perform a breathtaking karaoke performance of "Mockingbird."

"Digital Get Down"- *NSYNC

According to my mother, this song was a no-go. As a militant *NSYNC fan from an early age, I was infuriated by this transgression by my mother. I obviously went to every extent to listen to this song as often as possible. About ten years later, at the age of 23, I realized that this song was essentially about Skype sex and now I feel a little betrayed by *NSYNC for trying to corrupt my young ears like that.

"Genie In A Bottle"- Christina Aguilera

Just what every parent wants: Their 13-year-old daughter watching a teenage pop star crooning, "I'm a genie in a bottle baby... gotta rub me the right way, honey... come, come, come on in and let me out."

"Butterfly" - Crazytown

My response to my mother when she told me not to listen to this song was, "Geez, mom, chill... they're just talking about dancing."

In retrospect, I don't think they were talking about dancing.

Anything "Emo"

A pretty ubiquitous trend I've noticed amongst twentysomethings is that most of us, regardless of geographical location or socioeconomic status, went through that wonderful "emo" phase in late middle school/early high school. Give me poorly-applied black eyeliner and Three Days Grace or give me death.

"Crazy Rap"- Afroman

Possibly one of the most amazing songs of all time, "Crazy Rap" was, and always has been, my jam and I only just realized how woefully inappropriate (and gross) this song is. This song was so bad that I even got scolded for singing the radio version of it.

"What Would You Do?"- City High

I remember belting the lyrics to this song with glee, blissfully unaware that the soulful voices of City High were uniting to sing about a woman who is a hooker to make money to be able to feed her baby. I still don't understand why this song sounds so uplifting when it's preeeetty depressing. The tone is so misleading.