Results: Take That! Musically Of Course
Every song tells a story, and some songs tell stories about other songs. Sometimes these songs are deeply political, sometimes they're painfully personal, but the stories linking them together are interesting.
No pop song exists in a vacuum, so here are some songs that are responses to other songs – some within a short time and some years down the road.
1.
1.
Neil Young criticized Southern racism not once, but twice, with both his 1970 song "Southern Man" with the 1972 song "Alabama". Needless to say this angered many, and one direct musical "take that" was a song from Lynyrd Skynyrd, even though its songwriters were from Florida and California. Released in 1974 on the album Second Helping, and again as the album's second single, "Sweet Home Alabama" became Lynyrd Skynyrd's most successful song, and only track to crack the top ten on the charts. Calling Young out by name in one verse, the song was a bold statement of Southern pride and a plea for Northerners to not paint the entire South with the same dismissive brush. Did you know this trivia about the song "Sweet Home Alabama"?
No
55%
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567 votes
Yes
28%
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289 votes
Not familiar with this song
17%
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177 votes
2.
2.
Ian Curtis, frontman of Joy Division, was struggling personally in 1979, with a failing marriage, the stress of trying to keep his band afloat while working a day job, and his recent diagnosis with epilepsy. "Love Will Tear Us Apart" was written as a way to encapsulate all of those feelings, with a title that was an ironic riff on "Love Will Keep Us Together," the global smash 1975 single from pop duo Captain & Tennille, which Curtis found he just could not relate to. Did you know the Joy Division song was a response to the Captain & Tennille song?
No
65%
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670 votes
Yes
11%
•
116 votes
Not familiar with either of these songs
24%
•
247 votes
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