Not a year goes by without some music controversy—in fact, 2025 has already delivered a few contentious tracks. In some cases, the pushback is minor, as with "How Bad Do U Want Me" from Lady Gaga's March 2025 album "Mayhem," which was accused of ripping off a Taylor Swift track. Some controversies run deeper, like the ongoing debate over hit country artist Morgan Wallen, whose music is tainted for some thanks to his use of a racial slur in a 2021 video and his more recent abrupt departure from the "SNL" stage. Then some kerfuffles aren't about the music at all. Just ask Sabrina Carpenter, who found herself at the center of controversy for her album cover in June 2025.
These are hardly the first artists to come under scrutiny. For more than a century, the evolution of popular music has delivered stark parallels to Western society's progression. Popular songs and styles partake in a tangible feedback loop, simultaneously responding to and informing cultural shifts. In turn, the best tunes make purposeful or inadvertent statements about the era in which they're being recorded and released. Some of those statements, meanwhile, never lose their ability to resonate. Perhaps this is why songs like "We Shall Overcome" continue to be used as a rallying cry against oppressive forces.
Because music has the unique ability to go with and shape the cultural tide, history's most groundbreaking works are often its most controversial. From the 1920s to the 1940s, songs of poverty, racism, and hard labor threatened to undermine various institutions of authority. That was followed by genres such as rock 'n' roll and funk, which enhanced the growing divide between young and older generations. Decades later, popular music still influences fashion, attitudes, and perspectives, just as political and social forces also shape creative expression, as seen in the new wave of protest music generated by the Black Lives Matter movement.
With that, Stacker celebrates history's most boundary-pushing—and thereby controversial—songs. Taking a broad approach to the concept, Stacker selected musical milestones that either explored controversial subject matter or literally sparked controversy. To compile the list, Stacker scoured Billboard charts, music and album reviews, news articles, and primary documents found online. The resulting compilation includes protest songs, sociopolitical commentaries, scandalous music videos, and tunes that just rubbed people the wrong way. Each example provides a sonic document of society's past, while a few go to show just how little certain things have changed since the time they were recorded.
A brief disclaimer: Old music can be slippery; some of the songs listed were recorded or released well before they rendered any impact. Similarly, one artist wrote and performed many protest songs and then passed them down to others in the folk tradition, hitting the mainstream somewhere along the way. Consequently, some entries might be best described as approximations about when the song caused a stir or tackled a specific theme.
Without further delay, here are controversial songs from the year you were born.
