Ever heard a song and thought, “Wow, that didn’t age well”? So have a few of your favorite artists … about their own music.
There’s Hayley Williams, who’s long been vocal about her aversion to Paramore‘s own “Misery Business,” even choosing to temporarily retire the track from the band’s live shows in spite of it being one of their most successful songs to date, peaking at No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100. There’s Taylor Swift, who back in the day toed the line on her debut album’s single “Picture to Burn,” which included a since-updated lyric (now infamous among Swifties who enjoy digging up old copies of the album just to see whether it includes the original words) joking about spreading rumors your ex-boyfriend is gay to get revenge.
Swift also recently updated another lyric, this time the Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) album cut “Better Than Revenge.” In the years since the original Speak Now was released in October 2010, critics accused Swift of “slut-shaming” her romantic rival in the lyrics, when she sings: “She’s not a saint and she’s not what you think, she’s an actress, whoa/ She’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress, whoa.” In the re-recorded version, Swift keeps the first line the same but changes the latter line to: “He was a moth to the flame, she was holding the matches, whoa.”
Then there’s Lizzo, who rectified the use of a controversial word on her song “Grrrls” in less than three days time. The second single off of her album Special was quickly met with criticism over its use of the ableist term “spaz” — something the “Rumors” star didn’t take lightly. “It’s been brought to my attention that there is a harmful word in my new song,” she said in a statement. “Let me make one thing clear: I never want to promote derogatory language. As a fat black woman in America, I’ve had many hurtful words used against me so I overstand the power words can have (whether intentionally or in my case, unintentionally).
“I’m proud to say there’s a new version of GRRRLS with a lyric change,” she continued. “This is a result of me listening and taking action. As an influential artist I’m dedicated to being part of the change I’ve been waiting to see in the world.”
Weeks later, Beyonce faced the same criticism for using the same word in her Renaissance song “Heated.” Days later, her spokesperson told Billboard that the term would be “replaced.”
From sexism to homophobia, ableism to racial prejudice, there are songs containing wording that simply doesn’t jive with the world’s modern perspectives. See how 10 artists — from the above mentioned to the Black Eyed Peas, Michael Jackson and beyond — have taken steps to move their music forward by changing offensive language.
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Taylor Swift, “Better Than Revenge” & “Picture to Burn”
“Better Than Revenge” original lyric: “She’s not a saint and she’s not what you think, she’s an actress / She’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress.”
“Better Than Revenge” tweaked lyric: Swift keeps the first line the same, but changes the latter line to: “He was a moth to the flame, she was holding the matches.”
On the original song — an album cut from the 2010 project rumored to be inspired by ex-boyfriend Joe Jonas and his post-Taylor girlfriend Camilla Belle — Swift was accused of “slut-shaming,” and changed the lyric in the re-recorded version.
When asked about the controversy swirling around the song by The Guardian in 2014, four years after the song’s release, Swift said, “I was 18 when I wrote that. That’s the age you are when you think someone can actually take your boyfriend. Then you grow up and realize no one take someone from you if they don’t want to leave.”
Listen to “Better Than Revenge” here.
“Picture to Burn” original lyric: “So go and tell your friends that I’m obsessive and crazy/ That’s fine, I’ll tell mine you’re gay, by the way”
“Picture to Burn” tweaked lyric: “That’s fine, you won’t mind if I say, by the way”
Though it’s been decades since the lyrics to “Picture to Burn” — one of Taylor Swift’s most beloved tracks from her 2006 debut album — were updated with less inflammatory language, there was once a time when the single was criticized for being homophobic in its inclusion of the word “gay” in a negative context. In 2011, the pop star told MTV about the song: “Now, the way that I would say that and the way that I would feel that kind of pain is a lot different.”
Listen to “Picture to Burn” here.
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Lizzo, “Grrrls”
Original lyric: “Hold my bag/ Do you see this s–t? I’ma spaz”
Tweaked lyric: “Hold my bag/ Do you see this s–? Hold me back”
Just three days after Lizzo released her single “Grrrls,” the pop star responded to criticism over her use of “spaz” — a word that’s considered an ableist slur — by announcing that she replaced the track with new version that excludes the term. “Let me make one thing clear: I never want to promote derogatory language,” she wrote in a statement shared to her social media accounts. “As a fat black woman in America, I’ve had many hurtful words used against me so I overstand the power words can have (whether intentionally or in my case, unintentionally).”
Listen to “Grrrls” here.
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Beyoncé, “Heated”
Original lyric: “Spazzin’ on that a–/ Spaz on that a–/ Fan me quick, girl, I need my glass.”
Tweaked lyric: TBD
A month and a half after Lizzo removed the same word from “Grrrls,” Beyoncé came under fire for using “spaz” in a track on her highly anticipated seventh studio album Renaissance. Days after the record dropped on July 29, 2022, a representative for the star told Billboard that the word was “not used intentionally in a harmful way,” and confirmed it will be replaced.
Listen to “Heated” here.
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Paramore, “Misery Business”
Original lyric: “Once a whore, you’re nothing more”
Tweaked lyric: “Once a — you’re nothing more”
For years, Paramore’s Hayley Williams outright refused to perform the wildly popular 2007 track during the band’s live sets upon realizing that the lyrics — which she wrote at age 17 — included derogatory, anti-feminist language such as the term “whore.” “We wrote a song that now, as a 29-year-old woman, I don’t know that I’d use the same language,” she explained in a 2018 announcement that “Misery Business” would no longer be included in Paramore’s concerts. “Calling someone a whore isn’t very cool.”
That changed, however, in 2022, when Williams made a guest appearance during Billie Eilish’s Coachella set. The pair sang the track together, with Eilish taking on the second verse as a solo and skipping over the offensive word.
Listen to “Misery Business” here.
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Black Eyed Peas, “Let’s Get It Started”
Original lyric: “Let’s get retarded”
Tweaked lyric: “Let’s get it started”
Not only was the line “Let’s get retarded” an original lyric used in the Black Eyed Peas’ 2003 Elephunk track, it was also the song’s original title. That changed when the track was rerecorded in 2004 with new, more appropriate lyrics for use in NBA Playoff advertisements, this time under the title “Let’s Get It Started.” After the updated version — sans derogatory slur against folks with mental disabilities — was received more positively by audiences, it was released as a single.
Listen to “Let’s Get It Started” here.
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Orville Peck, “Born This Way (The Country Road Version)”
Original lyrics: “No matter Black, white or beige, chola, or Orient’ made/ I’m on the right track, baby, I was born to be brave”
Tweaked lyrics: “No matter Black, white or beige, Asian or Latinx made/ I’m on the right track, baby, I was born to be brave”
When Lady Gaga’s third studio record Born This Way celebrated its 10 year anniversary in 2021, the pop pioneer enlisted a handful of artists who represent and advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community to record new versions of some of the album’s most loved songs. Among them was Orville Peck, who put his spin on the title track. But in his interpretation, he added a few updates to lyrics that didn’t age so gracefully over those 10 years — namely where Gaga identifies racial groups with offensive titles.
Listen to Orville Peck’s cover of “Born This Way” here.
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Dire Straits, “Money for Nothing”
Original lyric: “See the little f—-t with the earring and the makeup?/ Yeah buddy, that’s his own hair/ That little f—-t got his own jet airplane/ That little f—-t, he’s a millionaire”
Tweaked lyric: “See that little queenie with the earring and the makeup … That little boy got his own jet airplane/ That little boy, he’s a millionaire”
1985’s “Money for Nothing” has been the subject of much controversy for its use of a homophobic slur, so much so that it was deemed unacceptable for airplay on Canadian radio stations until the decision was reversed in 2011. The song’s lyrics were recorded by Sting as a guest artist on the track, but when former Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler performs it in concert, he substitutes the slur.
Listen to “Money for Nothing” here.
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Michael Jackson, “They Don’t Care About Us”
Original lyric: “Jew me, sue me/ Everybody, do me/ Kick me, k–e me/ Don’t you black or white me”
Tweaked lyric: “Do me, sue me/ Everybody, do me/ Kick me, [censored] me/ Don’t you black or white me”
The King of Pop did not seem to understand at first the backlash against his 1996 single “They Don’t Care About Us,” in which he uses anti-Semitic slurs as a means of conveying his stance against discrimination and racial violence. At one point, he even responded to the criticism by telling Diane Sawyer in an interview, “It’s not anti-Semitic because I’m not a racist person.”
He changed his mind later, however, and rerecorded the offending lyrics. Some versions of the song — including the one used in both of its music videos — kept in the original words, but feature loud sound effects layered over the slurs to make them inaudible.
Listen to “They Don’t Care About Us” here.
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Lana Del Rey, “Ultraviolence”
Original lyric: “He hit me and it felt like a kiss”
Tweaked lyric: Skipped completely in live performances
When asked a few years ago about her 2014 track “Ultraviolence” — which included the lyric from the 1963 Crystals tune “He Hit Me” — she admitted that she no longer sings part of the song in concert. “I don’t like it. I don’t. I don’t sing it,” she told Pitchfork in 2017. “I sing ‘Ultraviolence,’ but I don’t sing that line anymore. Having someone be aggressive in a relationship was the only relationship I knew. I’m not going to say that that [lyric] was 100 percent true, but I do feel comfortable saying what I was used to was a difficult, tumultuous relationship, and it wasn’t because of me. It didn’t come from my end.”
Listen to “Ultraviolence” here.
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Future & Lil Wayne, “Karate Chop (Remix)”
Original lyric: “’Bout to put rims on my skateboard wheels/ Beat the p—y up like Emmett Till/ Two cell phones ringin’ at the same time”
Tweaked lyric: “’Bout to put rims on my skateboard wheels/ Beat the p—y up like –/ Two cell phones ringin’ at the same time”
Lil Wayne publicly apologized after contributing a particularly grotesque guest verse to Future’s “Karate Chop,” in which he trivialized the death of Emmett Till — a Black teenager brutally beaten and killed in 1955. The rapper released a statement supporting Epic Records’ decision to pull the original version of the track and pledged to never perform the line about Till in live shows. “I have tremendous respect for those who paved the way for the liberty and opportunities that African-Americans currently enjoy,” he said at the time.
Listen to “Karate Chop (Remix)” here.
