\u201cBeds Are Burning\u201d by Midnight Oil (1987)<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cThe time has come \/ To say fair\u2019s fair \/ To pay the rent \/ To pay our share.\u201d<\/p>\n
Americans might have missed the political meaning behind this alternative pub rock hit from 1987, mainly because it deals with real-world issues occurring in Australia at the time. \u201cBeds Are Burning\u201d was written about how Aboriginal peoples were removed from their land and left to live in squalor. It was based on the experience the band had while touring through the Outback. It\u2019s a classic \u201cland back\u201d protest anthem, one that traveled far and wide to reach No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the US.<\/p>\n
\u201c99 Luftballons\u201d by Nena (1983)<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cToday I walk my rounds \/ See the world lying in ruins \/ Found a balloon \/ I think of you and let it fly.\u201d<\/p>\n
In many listeners\u2019 defense, the German-language version of this song was a massive hit internationally. If you can\u2019t speak German, you might have gotten caught up in how catchy this song is and totally missed the lyrical intentions in the song. \u201c99 Luftballons\u201d was written by the West German band Nena about the Cold War. In the song, an innocent group of red balloons is released into the air. That prompts a general to think his country was being attacked by a foreign nation. The story ends in what most assume is nuclear war. It\u2019s such a well-written rock song among political songs of its time, complete with a new wave edge.<\/p>\n
Photo by Keith Meyers\/New York Times Co.\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some of the most successful rock songs of all time boast \u201csecretly\u201d political meanings. That was not exactly…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":768854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[976,171,975,4185,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-768853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-classic-rock","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-rock-music","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116506700756842406","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}