1. "The Fight Song" - Marilyn Manson
Controversy champion from the late 90's and 00's, Marilyn Manson is a good place to kick this list off. "The Fight Song" is a high energy anthem for those who feel the world is against them. Since it is a song by Marilyn Manson, many media outlets analyzed it for offensive content and figured it was glorifying the shootings at Columbine. Poppycock, merely grasping at straws, as Manson was simply trying to exemplify that sports can be seen just as violent as anything.
2. "Little Black Backpack" - Stroke 9
Stroke 9 were a Californian band that had it's first major hit in 1999 with "Little Black Backpack". Quite the mouthful. The song is right on that verge between 90's grunge rock and 00's nu-metal and it seems to be about pummeling someone with their girlfriend's napsack. Stroke 9 are probably best known for their only other single the less ambiguous but equally as violent "Kick Some Ass". These guys had some anger issues.
3. "Believer" - Chantal Kreviazuk
Kreviazuk appeared on the Canadian music scene in 1997 with her debut album Under These Rocks & Stones. The album was great and spawned numerous singles. To this day she is known for her songwriting ability, piano playing and distinct voice. She is also one half of a Canadian music power couple since marrying Our Lady Peace's Raine Maida in 1999. So it's easy to forget that she once was so angry that she wrote a song about smashing some guy in the face with her microphone stand.
4. "Stranglehold" - Ted Nugent
Known as one of the best arena-shaking hard rock tracks of all time, "Stranglehold" is perhaps Nugent's best known song. He didn't sing lead on the track though and left that duty to Derek St. Holmes who also played rhythm guitar. Nugent so resented the attention St. Holmes got when this song was performed that he insisted on singing on every hit since. To quote Nugent "There's only one alpha wolf, and that's me".
5."Break Stuff" - Limp Bizkit
Limp Bizkit had a meteoric rise in the late 90's with their album 3 Dollar Bill Y'all. That success would continue into the 2000s with releases Significant Other and to a lesser extent Chocolate Starfish & The Hotdog Flavored Water. I feel kind of odd typing that. Majority of their success was from easily accessible, angry-youth targeted rap metal. "Break Stuff" was a perfect song for a generation that just had no clue what they were doing. This song's big claim to fame came at Woodstock '99 when Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst urged the crowd to let loose during this song. The crowd responded by tearing down barricades, scaling TV towers and creating plenty of meaty headlines for the wary press to broadcast to the world.
6. "Punching In A Dream" - The Naked and Famous
Hailing from Aukland, New Zealand, The Naked and Famous' first hit was 2010's "Punching In A Dream". They've since released their second album and have had their music featured in such shows as The Vampire Diaries, World of Jenks and several video games as well. While the song isn't inherently violent, it still conjures up a violent (and relatable) image of punching in slow motion.
7. "Beat On The Brat" - The Ramones
One of the biggest punk acts to come of New York City was the Ramones. Throw a rock and you'll hit a band that was inspired by them. Living in Queens, a suburb of NYC, Joey Ramone remembers seeing many upper class, snooty women with little pissant kids. The type that you just want to be 'beat on with a baseball bat'. A classic song is born.
8. "Smack My Bitch Up" - The Prodigy
Though The Prodigy maintain that the song's title refers to doing something with vigor and intensity, when you name a song "Smack My Bitch Up" and give it a hot techno beat, it's going to cause a stir. Just like in most cases of a song creating controversy, the "bad press" around "Smack My Bitch Up" actually helped boost the sales of their album The Fat Of The Land and The Prodigy decided to make an equally controversial video to accompany the song.
9. "Fightstarter Karaoke" - Dropkick Murphys
It might be drunken brawling inspired by a night of competitive whiskey shooting, but let's hope the heroes described in this song by The Dropkick Murphys could still pat each other on the back after the fight and share a pint or two.
10. "Cop Killer" - Body Count
Perhaps the most controversial song on this list. Now this list wasn't about controversial songs, though I should do that one of these days, but I felt I should do both ends of the arc on the violent song scale. The front man of Body Count was Ice-T who grew up running with many gangs and got the idea for the song by seeing the police force as his opponent. Not aiming the song towards police in general, but a view point from someone taking an extreme stand against the brutal and unjust cops who felt they were above the law. Obviously when it was released there was a public outcry. Many organizations called for a boycott, Body Count's own label pulled the song from the record in fear of government ramifications and Tipper Gore herself compared the song to Nazi propaganda. Ice T felt the controversy had overshadowed the song's merit and agreed to re-release the album without "Cop Killer" and instead gave it away as a free single. In an interesting twist Ice-T can now be seen on TV's Law & Order SVU playing a detective.
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