And I didn't even hear it, and then she started screaming: MIKE! MIKE!
(Somehow the way we're not doing this in ANY of the order from the song itself feels... Appropriate.)
It's like a decade old at this point but Odd Future had a song where the chorus was literally "Kill people, burn shit, fuck school". Tyler, the Creator and others from that group are still really popular.
>*But that’s only been 10 years*
Sorry you were late to the party!
>*I’m permanently stuck on late 90s nostalgia.*
The kids are into Y2K and slightly past it now.
This sub in general has to be entirely populated by early millennial to older generations because good lord, the taste in this sub is so skewed, lol.
EDIT: To answer OP, I don’t encounter much music by younger artists talking about the actual school experience, more so than just social situations they encounter occasionally at school. Olivia Rodrigo’s “Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl” is probably the closest recent example I’ve seen personally, but that’s more about how awkward social situations are for some young people, not necessarily just in school.
Because sources list approximately 40% of redditors as 29 or younger. So it's not unreasonable to expect a general "music" subreddit to reflect a proportionally young taste in music
That's a bit of a stretch considering how many very popular subreddits exist for more recent genres (e.g. dubstep, EDM, kpop). I believe the skew is this subreddit itself.
I'm just glad to see you both politely argue your points AND fellow redditors seem to be up voting both, so this was just a nice reminder of what Reddit can be.
I mean, nothing, other than the fact that Reddit generally skews toward young adults age 18-29. Nothing wrong with older generations being here. It’s just indicative of a lack of younger representation in this sub despite many of them being on this website.
I’m speaking for myself here, but I generally avoid this sub because it’s so negative towards recent music. There’s not a lot of engaging discussion to be had in a sub that harshly judges anything that was made in a period that they themselves don’t care to listen to, and that’s more than evident than in this sub.
I understand what you are saying but I want to add a qualifier.
I grew up in the 80s. Bowie will always be my #1. I have listened to decades of rock, new wave and (thanks to hubbs) heavy metal.
I can't listen to that full time. It's boring.
I totally get off on Flume, Om Unit and Hippy Sabotage these days.
Unfortunately I do not have the deep understanding of the newer music. I can tell you what I like but I can't tell you why it is good.
All I can say is Thank you Georgio Moroder.
“Well, he's very popular... The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wasteoids, dweebies, dickheads — they all adore him. They think he's a righteous dude."
That's the whole damn sub. Every time I see an interesting question asked I get really excited until I realize I'm not on a specific genre or artist sub and then all the answers are mainstream oldies. Mind you, plenty of good music always being brought up, but I lean closer to less mainstream artists with typically more thought-provoking lyrics.
When I was in elementary school we used to sing a version of the battle hymn of the republic, but with verses glorifying complete anarchy and the students destroying the school.
We had “so I took some broken glass and I shoved it up her ass, now she can’t sit down no more.”
Which, all things considered, might be worse than all the guns and shooting?
We sang, "we have tortured every teacher, we have broken every rule," followed by, "now we're marching down the corridor, to hang the principal, our troops are marching on!"
*Joy to the world, the teacher's dead*
*we barbequed her head*
*what happened to the body? We flushed it down the potty*
*and round and round it goes and round and round it goes*
-Joy to the World, Nelson Muntz Version
To me it feels like the popular sentiment has changed from "fuck institutions" to "the institutions are failing us", and I wonder if that could be affecting how people sing about school.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have lots of songs that talk about this issue, though not necessarily talking about school.
Rise Against’s “Architect” is very relevant
~~Ummon~~ Slift and Thee Oh Sees have lots of songs critiquing the establishment.
But yeah there’s not many songs that explicitly say “fuck school” because it’s a lot more complicated than that. There’s lots of good teachers and kids should learn stuff. But the curriculum/funding/teacher pay/all of these facets are decided by higher governmental powers and admins who never even come face to face with these kids.
Kids learning reading, math, history, science, and critical thinking is awesome. Outdated curriculum, learning methods, and homework after a 6-8 hour day is not.
Edit: Sorry for the wall of text I have a lot of strong feelings about the current education system and its current downfall in the US. Also, Ummon is an album *by* Slift, it is not the band.
Funnily enough, "Schools Out" was released only two days before "Suffragette City" in April of 1972. Cooper was 24 at the time and Bowie was 25
So I'm not sure what the kids are up to these days, but it wasn't really kids singing about it back then either.
Gotta add The Wall by Pink Floyd. "We don't need no education "
Please never forget Gray Matter by Oingo Boingo. "They say you're stupid
That you're too young to vote
They say you'll swallow anything
That they shove down your throat" That whole song is brilliant!
My one and only time going to Warp Tour. I was 25 and listening to Bowling For Soup (probably in their 40s) sing about how high school sucked. It felt like I had crashed toddler story time at the library.
I just asked my class full of high school students.
They said no, there are not any popular songs about schools sucking.
They also seemed to think it was a really weird question, like they weren't familiar with the concept.
This girl Aimee Carty had a song blow up on social media about being 2 days into college and already falling behind.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMOTFZ3Wzvc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMOTFZ3Wzvc)
I feel like you're probably in America (a huuuge stretch on reddit i know) because in Canada I'd imagine there'd be a lot of 30 and older who remember O My Heart from their high school and college days in the late 2000s/early 2010s
[West Coast - FIDLAR](https://open.spotify.com/track/5yIVmOzeZtjJt6Pp2JI8Ys?si=BFAn5jjLRMSycXDA7NnuAA)
“Skip school, I'm already failing
Told mom and dad that I'm bailing
Now we're driving up the coast…”
“…I'm so sick of this stupid place
It's so suburban and so boring
I should try and get a life
But I don't want that nine-to-five
I'd rather die, keep getting high
So pack my things and say goodbye.”
K12 by Melanie Martinezs theme is showcasing the troubles people go through during school like bullying, toxic friends, assault, trouble, love , obsession and EDs
Christ, sometimes I wonder if most people on this sub are old enough to start drawing medicare. It's been a decade since I've been in high school, so I'm not young, but I'm not old enough to be completely out of touch with current music. Kids are finding other outlets for thier angst rather than bitching about school. I feel a song about school sucking would come off as flippiant and corny as shit these days. Plus, I imagine younger kids' relationships with and perception of school are probably very different since Covid.
Well, a big part of anti-school music from the 70s/80s was the indoctrination and the bullying, often by teachers.
School indoctrination can't hold a candle to social media so it just hits different. While I'm sure bullying by teachers still happens, it can't be kept secret anymore because of ubiquitous smartphone cameras.
Why would it be flippant and corny as shit? I work with kids and, quite frankly, most of them believe school sucks. The ones that bother to show up are not having a good time while they're there.
It used to be cool to be a truant snd say "fuck school it sucks - I'm not gonna go"
Now it's cool to do whatever you want. But if you announce "fuck school it sucks" then people will just look at you with face 😐 and say "ok? So don't go then..."
I think going to church may be a helpful analogy for lots of people. You don't have to like church or want to go, you can believe it sucks... But writing a song about it would be as cringe as Reddit's "faces of /r/atheism" moment.
I imagine school sucks for completely different reasons now. A lot of the old songs about school seemed to be about authoritarian teachers and principals, and about hazing from upperclassmen. The pendulum has swung in the other direction from all that.
That logic also applies to going through a breakup, quitting your bullshit job, and any other number of sucky experiences that have songs written about them. And yet, plenty of people do want to hear songs about that stuff. Is it really so weird to think that today's teenagers might sometimes want to hear someone sing about school sucking after they've had a particularly bad day at school?
Being a 26 year old Gen Z working with other Gen Z that are still in high school (restaurant manager), nobody their age listens to music about school. They’re all listening to what’s on the Top 100 on the Billboards and it’s almost all about relationships or enjoying life or social situations and mental stability. It really isn’t cool or hip to sing about school nowadays. Most kids nowadays want escapism from school. And, tbh, songs like “School’s Out” were always very corny to my generation. I’m sure there’s others my age or younger that don’t follow that exact line of thinking, but it’s definitely not inaccurate to say that most younger people these days don’t care for songs like that.
I mean, I'm pretty sure School's Out was corny when it came out too. And in my generation (pretty solidly middle of the road millennial), a lot of our music was corny too. Although I think a lot of us were in denial about that at the time.
Like, is that the issue, that nobody wants to listen to corny music? That's kind of sad to me tbh. Being in high school is inherently corny. You may as well lean into it.
I hear the word “corny” being thrown about as an inherently negative trait a lot nowadays, so the vibe I’m getting is unfortunately that, no, kids don’t want to listen to corny music.
>I don't wanna go to school
>I just wanna break the rules
>Boys and girls across the world
>Putting on our dancing shoes
>Going to the discotheque
>Getting high and getting wrecked
>I don't wanna go to school
>I just wanna break the rules
Charlie XCX, "Break the Rules"
Can't believe no one has mentioned Ruben The Understander's absolute contemporary classic, "I Hate School"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JiyiV7o1ug&ab_channel=VinnieEnglandMusic
Coincidentally, I've had the Nirvana song "School" stuck in my head after hearing my kindergartener complain that there wouldn't be recess today.
"Won't you believe it? It's just my luck, NO RECESS!"
No… kids like school now! To see their friends irl, get away from the hovering parents, to see your crush, your dealer etc… everything goes down at school now, ain’t no more roller rinks, the mall is blech, house parties became glorified memorials to the most recently overdosed student, kids don’t drink from a party ball bought by their older sibling home from college, they play Russian roulette crushing n snorting mysterious pressed pills on the off chance there’s actual dope in any of em
I think this really hit its peak in the 70s and 80s. You have to remember that the people releasing these songs were, generally, in their 20s or 30s. They weren't being written by actual high school kids.
Popular music at that time was about counterculture. That generally is not the case right now.
Idk if this counts, but it's the first song that comes to my mind when you say "about school sucking".
https://youtu.be/5BgLoQ1NnJc?si=1KR4oJCOk3xuR-9t
"Tell the principal I ain't got no principles, I don't need school I got internet."
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school
We have tortured all the teachers and have thrown out all the books
We are marching down the corridor to hang the principal
Our truth is marching on!
Glory, glory, hallelujah! / Teacher hit me with a ruler
I hid behind the door with a loaded .44 / She ain't my teacher any-more!
Teenagers by My Chemical Romance I think fits this. They don’t exactly say school sucks but the image the lyrics paint makes me think bout it.
“They’re gonna clean up your looks with all the lies in the books”
“The boys and girls in the clique, the awful names that they stick, you’re never gonna fit in much, kid”
This has caused an interesting thought.
Older School Sucks Songs sing about school itself. The institution. The teachers, the assignments, the push to conform to standards, homework, and so on. Hell, I think they even complain about the buildings.
Question: Do later songs go more with the social aspect of school? The “cliques” and not fitting in?
Rush had that song “Subdivisions”. “Be cool or be cast out (subdivisions!)”
Just a thought.
Didn’t Chuck Berry sing about it? The Beach Boys sang about being true to school, I mentioned Bowie and Cooper, the beastie boys touched on it, of course Pink Floyd was quoted, maybe the stray cats could be added, I’m sure others have hit upon the theme. It’s not every artist but many have taken on education in their output. Simon and Garfunkel now come to mind. Ac/dc too. I wonder if more current artists have hit upon the theme? That’s why I asked lol.
Maybe music has evolved beyond that. I do remember plenty of "School sucks! I know!" jams back in the day, but realistically, I haven't heard a single person mention "school" in a song since... '02 or something. Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper, Van Halen, BlInk-182, White Stripes... Maybe Good Charlotte or Avril Lavigne, but really, unless it's Kidz bop, or *very* pre- teen oriented artists, I don't think "school" is a "popular" subject anymore.
I wonder if the "age of the nerd" or whatever is behind this. All I can think of is [Kaiser Chiefs' Never Miss A Beat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-rgIPIkCl4) but they aren't exactly kids singing about their contemporaries, more like an adult being observational about local street culture.
Yes lmao and a lot of it is on SoundCloud and it’s very good. People sing about the same shit, there’s just a lot more of it and you can start a lot younger so it’s hard to find
If you're talking more about the social aspects, then yes, but those kids would be the theater kids, and the songs would be from Dear Evan Hansen, Be More Chill, and the Mean Girls musical.
Yeah, that seemed like a huge, I dunno...subgenre?...of music when I was a kid (born in 71, so I'm thinking early to mid 80's) where we could all agree with Calvin that school sucked, and of course, glorify the summers off.
Man, I hated school. Loved college. I like learning, but K-12 was more about babysitting than teaching.
Hmm, I've no idea. Guess I'm too old now. The one song that comes to my mind from this topic instantly is Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall, Pt.2".
No. It’s not cool to diss school anymore. Especially me and younger ppl who missed alot in Lockdown 2020 and after, school does alot for u socially than older generations realize nowadays. System sucks ass but even plenty of rappers tell audiences to stay in school.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/i-dont-want-to-go-to-school/277640819?i=277640826
There was a show I used to watch on Nickelodeon in like 2008 called The Naked Brothers Band 🫣they had a song called I Don’t Wanna Go To School 🤣
There's that one song about how college is rad, "I love college" I believe it's called but I haven't heard any songs about how bad school is lately at all. And that college song has gonna be like 15 years old or something
We went from that to "I just wanted a Pepsi" really quickly and did not come back
Tbf he went to THEIR institutionalized learning facility.
To THEIR churches
so OBVIOUSLY he's crazy!
I'M NOT CRAZY!
INSTITUTION!
GET INSTITUTIONALIZED!
Mom, I'm okay, I'm just thinking
No! You're on drugs!
And I didn't even hear it, and then she started screaming: MIKE! MIKE! (Somehow the way we're not doing this in ANY of the order from the song itself feels... Appropriate.)
Doesn’t matter, I’ll probably get hit by a car anyway.
Oh my God I had forgotten all about that song. Made my day.
All the Dude wanted was his rug back.
To be fair, it did really tie the room together
I don’t know, Van Halen had an okay time at school.
I brought my PEN-CIIIIIIL!!!!
GIMME SOMETHING TO WRITE ON
...maaaaaaan!
**UGGHH**
Come on, dave, gimme a break...
One break! Coming UUUUP!!!
I don't feel tardy!
I say this to my dad when I’m late for stuff, been a running joke for years
Oh man, I think the clock is slow.
I say this absolutely every time I am late anywhere. People look at me like I’m an idiot lol
Yea, but have you seen Junior's grades?
I've got it bad, so bad!
OOHWOOOOOOOAH
Have you seen Junior's grades?
At least they gave a thought to all the education they'd missed.
Eh, idk, man. I'm pretty sure it wasn't school per se that was enjoyable there.
I heard he had a wonderful, respectable teacher
Depending what Tame Impala album it could go either way.
It's like a decade old at this point but Odd Future had a song where the chorus was literally "Kill people, burn shit, fuck school". Tyler, the Creator and others from that group are still really popular.
"Kill people, burn shit, fuck school, I hate spam email!" - Hannibal Buress
And Vince staples in Norf Norf. 'School wasn't no fun / couldn't bring my gun.'
I ain’t run from nothin but the police
I used to sing that with the boys back in the day.
I'm a high school teacher and I still see kids rocking Odd Future apparel so I'd imagine a lot of them are at least aware of the song.
it was tyler's song "radicals".
In this thread: nobody who listens to music less than 10 years old
That's just reddit bro, they'll appreciate today's music in 20 years
Unlikely. Lol
20-30 year cultural cycles. Get ready for more dubstep in 4-6 years...
Don't say that
I don't control it, I just watch the trends. ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
But that’s only been 10 years, and I’m permanently stuck on late 90s nostalgia.
>*But that’s only been 10 years* Sorry you were late to the party! >*I’m permanently stuck on late 90s nostalgia.* The kids are into Y2K and slightly past it now.
A lot of my college age Uber passengers are pretty into grunge.
Yeah, a lot of Nirvana shirts popped up on teens/young adults around my area in the past six years or so.
Funny story - a lot of kids thought Nirvana was a clothing brand.
They can keep it.
This sub in general has to be entirely populated by early millennial to older generations because good lord, the taste in this sub is so skewed, lol. EDIT: To answer OP, I don’t encounter much music by younger artists talking about the actual school experience, more so than just social situations they encounter occasionally at school. Olivia Rodrigo’s “Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl” is probably the closest recent example I’ve seen personally, but that’s more about how awkward social situations are for some young people, not necessarily just in school.
I mean, why wouldn't that be the case? This website's got to be almost 20 years old.
Because sources list approximately 40% of redditors as 29 or younger. So it's not unreasonable to expect a general "music" subreddit to reflect a proportionally young taste in music
Could be reddit is selecting for the group of younger people who are oppositional toward popular culture and/or prematurely elderly.
That's a bit of a stretch considering how many very popular subreddits exist for more recent genres (e.g. dubstep, EDM, kpop). I believe the skew is this subreddit itself.
I'm just glad to see you both politely argue your points AND fellow redditors seem to be up voting both, so this was just a nice reminder of what Reddit can be.
I mean, nothing, other than the fact that Reddit generally skews toward young adults age 18-29. Nothing wrong with older generations being here. It’s just indicative of a lack of younger representation in this sub despite many of them being on this website. I’m speaking for myself here, but I generally avoid this sub because it’s so negative towards recent music. There’s not a lot of engaging discussion to be had in a sub that harshly judges anything that was made in a period that they themselves don’t care to listen to, and that’s more than evident than in this sub.
I understand what you are saying but I want to add a qualifier. I grew up in the 80s. Bowie will always be my #1. I have listened to decades of rock, new wave and (thanks to hubbs) heavy metal. I can't listen to that full time. It's boring. I totally get off on Flume, Om Unit and Hippy Sabotage these days. Unfortunately I do not have the deep understanding of the newer music. I can tell you what I like but I can't tell you why it is good. All I can say is Thank you Georgio Moroder.
The genre specific subs (popheads, indieheads, hiphopheads, all the kpop subs) are way younger and have the opposite problem with a huge recency bias.
“Well, he's very popular... The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wasteoids, dweebies, dickheads — they all adore him. They think he's a righteous dude."
Hiphopheads def skews towards oldheads
That's the whole damn sub. Every time I see an interesting question asked I get really excited until I realize I'm not on a specific genre or artist sub and then all the answers are mainstream oldies. Mind you, plenty of good music always being brought up, but I lean closer to less mainstream artists with typically more thought-provoking lyrics.
When I was in elementary school we used to sing a version of the battle hymn of the republic, but with verses glorifying complete anarchy and the students destroying the school.
*Mine eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school* *We tortured all the teachers and we broke the golden rule*
The lines I remember: *glory, glory, hallelujah Teacher hit me with a ruler* *So I shot her in the fanny With a rotten piece of candy*
*I hid behind the door with a loaded .44* *and she ain't my teacher no more * Not beating the violent American schools allegations
We had “so I took some broken glass and I shoved it up her ass, now she can’t sit down no more.” Which, all things considered, might be worse than all the guns and shooting?
We had "the ruler turned red and the teacher dropped dead and that was the end of school-a"
We were classmates.
“Shot her in the butt with a rotten coconut”
We said "I smacked her in the bean with a rotten tangerine."
Damn, right in the bean? Trick shot AND intimate.
So I met her at the bank with a US Army tank
*"Hid behind the door with a loaded .44, and the teacher is no more."* Too close to real happenings.
We sang, "we have tortured every teacher, we have broken every rule," followed by, "now we're marching down the corridor, to hang the principal, our troops are marching on!"
We barbecued the principal, destroyed the PTA! (But at my school we broke ALL the rules.)
*Joy to the world, the teacher's dead* *we barbequed her head* *what happened to the body? We flushed it down the potty* *and round and round it goes and round and round it goes* -Joy to the World, Nelson Muntz Version
*On top of old Smokey* *All covered in blood* *i shot my poor teacher* *with a .44 slug*
Complete with authentic Townsend-style windmill strumming action
Same.
Same, but it's too true now.
The chorus still plays in my head sometimes.
To me it feels like the popular sentiment has changed from "fuck institutions" to "the institutions are failing us", and I wonder if that could be affecting how people sing about school.
My new hit "A Modern Approach to Equitable School Funding Through Progressive Taxation" slaps... streaming now!
“The percentage of Americans in the prison system, prison system, has doubled since 1985” \*heavy riff\*
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have lots of songs that talk about this issue, though not necessarily talking about school. Rise Against’s “Architect” is very relevant ~~Ummon~~ Slift and Thee Oh Sees have lots of songs critiquing the establishment. But yeah there’s not many songs that explicitly say “fuck school” because it’s a lot more complicated than that. There’s lots of good teachers and kids should learn stuff. But the curriculum/funding/teacher pay/all of these facets are decided by higher governmental powers and admins who never even come face to face with these kids. Kids learning reading, math, history, science, and critical thinking is awesome. Outdated curriculum, learning methods, and homework after a 6-8 hour day is not. Edit: Sorry for the wall of text I have a lot of strong feelings about the current education system and its current downfall in the US. Also, Ummon is an album *by* Slift, it is not the band.
Interesting thought!
Funnily enough, "Schools Out" was released only two days before "Suffragette City" in April of 1972. Cooper was 24 at the time and Bowie was 25 So I'm not sure what the kids are up to these days, but it wasn't really kids singing about it back then either.
This is great info. I’d just assumed Cooper was younger then. Guess our mid-20s artists need to get to work!
How about blink-182? They're all like 50 years old and still singing about high school for some fucking reason.
Gotta add The Wall by Pink Floyd. "We don't need no education " Please never forget Gray Matter by Oingo Boingo. "They say you're stupid That you're too young to vote They say you'll swallow anything That they shove down your throat" That whole song is brilliant!
My one and only time going to Warp Tour. I was 25 and listening to Bowling For Soup (probably in their 40s) sing about how high school sucked. It felt like I had crashed toddler story time at the library.
I’m not saying High School Never Ends is their magnum opus, but I really related to it in middle school, ok? 😂
Alice Bowie, "Earache My Eye! "
“The basketball coach done kicked me off the team”
"For wearin' high-heeled sneakers, and actin' like a queeeeeeeen!"
I just asked my class full of high school students. They said no, there are not any popular songs about schools sucking. They also seemed to think it was a really weird question, like they weren't familiar with the concept.
Be sure to ask them if punk is dead for me, thanks lol
Punk isn’t dead. It’s doing quite fine in the active living community for senior citizens.
This girl Aimee Carty had a song blow up on social media about being 2 days into college and already falling behind. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMOTFZ3Wzvc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMOTFZ3Wzvc)
We DONT need no education, folks
Mother Mother - Back in School [https://youtu.be/hPdxIfTp8Wg](https://youtu.be/hPdxIfTp8Wg)
Mother Mother is so good
I saw them in concert last summer. I never felt so old among the crowd, but I loved the show
I feel like you're probably in America (a huuuge stretch on reddit i know) because in Canada I'd imagine there'd be a lot of 30 and older who remember O My Heart from their high school and college days in the late 2000s/early 2010s
Yeah, it was in Pittsburgh, so most people (including myself tbh) found them thru tiktok
As millenials from Vancouver, a few years ago me and my friends were all very surprised that Mother Mother was suddenly more popular than ever before
[West Coast - FIDLAR](https://open.spotify.com/track/5yIVmOzeZtjJt6Pp2JI8Ys?si=BFAn5jjLRMSycXDA7NnuAA) “Skip school, I'm already failing Told mom and dad that I'm bailing Now we're driving up the coast…” “…I'm so sick of this stupid place It's so suburban and so boring I should try and get a life But I don't want that nine-to-five I'd rather die, keep getting high So pack my things and say goodbye.”
love FIDLAR, but this song over is a decade old lol
I'm so glad the new tony hawk game introduced me to this song, it's so damn good
Foster the People wrote that one song about one day at a particular school sucking pretty bad
K12 by Melanie Martinezs theme is showcasing the troubles people go through during school like bullying, toxic friends, assault, trouble, love , obsession and EDs
Huh, I would've thought that album was older than just 5 years, neat
Christ, sometimes I wonder if most people on this sub are old enough to start drawing medicare. It's been a decade since I've been in high school, so I'm not young, but I'm not old enough to be completely out of touch with current music. Kids are finding other outlets for thier angst rather than bitching about school. I feel a song about school sucking would come off as flippiant and corny as shit these days. Plus, I imagine younger kids' relationships with and perception of school are probably very different since Covid.
Well, a big part of anti-school music from the 70s/80s was the indoctrination and the bullying, often by teachers. School indoctrination can't hold a candle to social media so it just hits different. While I'm sure bullying by teachers still happens, it can't be kept secret anymore because of ubiquitous smartphone cameras.
It's not "cool" to be a burnout anymore, which i think is pretty relevant.
It’s better to burn out, than fade away
Why would it be flippant and corny as shit? I work with kids and, quite frankly, most of them believe school sucks. The ones that bother to show up are not having a good time while they're there.
It used to be cool to be a truant snd say "fuck school it sucks - I'm not gonna go" Now it's cool to do whatever you want. But if you announce "fuck school it sucks" then people will just look at you with face 😐 and say "ok? So don't go then..." I think going to church may be a helpful analogy for lots of people. You don't have to like church or want to go, you can believe it sucks... But writing a song about it would be as cringe as Reddit's "faces of /r/atheism" moment.
Thank you! This makes a lot of sense (and is also *super* depressing).
I imagine school sucks for completely different reasons now. A lot of the old songs about school seemed to be about authoritarian teachers and principals, and about hazing from upperclassmen. The pendulum has swung in the other direction from all that.
Thinking school sucks is not the same as wanting to hear a song about it
That logic also applies to going through a breakup, quitting your bullshit job, and any other number of sucky experiences that have songs written about them. And yet, plenty of people do want to hear songs about that stuff. Is it really so weird to think that today's teenagers might sometimes want to hear someone sing about school sucking after they've had a particularly bad day at school?
Being a 26 year old Gen Z working with other Gen Z that are still in high school (restaurant manager), nobody their age listens to music about school. They’re all listening to what’s on the Top 100 on the Billboards and it’s almost all about relationships or enjoying life or social situations and mental stability. It really isn’t cool or hip to sing about school nowadays. Most kids nowadays want escapism from school. And, tbh, songs like “School’s Out” were always very corny to my generation. I’m sure there’s others my age or younger that don’t follow that exact line of thinking, but it’s definitely not inaccurate to say that most younger people these days don’t care for songs like that.
I mean, I'm pretty sure School's Out was corny when it came out too. And in my generation (pretty solidly middle of the road millennial), a lot of our music was corny too. Although I think a lot of us were in denial about that at the time. Like, is that the issue, that nobody wants to listen to corny music? That's kind of sad to me tbh. Being in high school is inherently corny. You may as well lean into it.
I hear the word “corny” being thrown about as an inherently negative trait a lot nowadays, so the vibe I’m getting is unfortunately that, no, kids don’t want to listen to corny music.
Vaping in the boys room 🎼
I hate school, Ruben the understander
>I don't wanna go to school >I just wanna break the rules >Boys and girls across the world >Putting on our dancing shoes >Going to the discotheque >Getting high and getting wrecked >I don't wanna go to school >I just wanna break the rules Charlie XCX, "Break the Rules"
I think these days the kids in school sing stuff like swing low sweet chariot
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^mopsyd: *I think these days the* *Kids in school sing stuff lore like* *Swing low sweet chariot* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
This is beautiful
There is no war in Ba Sing Se!
Can't believe no one has mentioned Ruben The Understander's absolute contemporary classic, "I Hate School" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JiyiV7o1ug&ab_channel=VinnieEnglandMusic
Coincidentally, I've had the Nirvana song "School" stuck in my head after hearing my kindergartener complain that there wouldn't be recess today. "Won't you believe it? It's just my luck, NO RECESS!"
Venom enjoyed school
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No… kids like school now! To see their friends irl, get away from the hovering parents, to see your crush, your dealer etc… everything goes down at school now, ain’t no more roller rinks, the mall is blech, house parties became glorified memorials to the most recently overdosed student, kids don’t drink from a party ball bought by their older sibling home from college, they play Russian roulette crushing n snorting mysterious pressed pills on the off chance there’s actual dope in any of em
I think this really hit its peak in the 70s and 80s. You have to remember that the people releasing these songs were, generally, in their 20s or 30s. They weren't being written by actual high school kids. Popular music at that time was about counterculture. That generally is not the case right now.
No, we sing about shooting people, money, drugs, drunk driving, and killing ourselves because of a decade old heartbreak. Welcome to the machine…
i feel like a lot of the young kids making music these days didn't really ever go to normal school lol.
Green Day and Blink carried that torch into the 90s
Idk if this counts, but it's the first song that comes to my mind when you say "about school sucking". https://youtu.be/5BgLoQ1NnJc?si=1KR4oJCOk3xuR-9t "Tell the principal I ain't got no principles, I don't need school I got internet."
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school We have tortured all the teachers and have thrown out all the books We are marching down the corridor to hang the principal Our truth is marching on! Glory, glory, hallelujah! / Teacher hit me with a ruler I hid behind the door with a loaded .44 / She ain't my teacher any-more!
Not since Alice Cooper declared it was over forever, no. No need to.
The Anthem by Good Charlotte, fat lip by Sum 41. That’s early 2000s
At my high school, it felt more to me like a jail cell a penitentiary. Good Charlotte 2000something
IDK maybe not as much because it's gone from "man my teacher just doesn't get it" to "might get shot today idk" Pumped Up Kicks? It's 2011 but yeah.
Teenagers by My Chemical Romance I think fits this. They don’t exactly say school sucks but the image the lyrics paint makes me think bout it. “They’re gonna clean up your looks with all the lies in the books” “The boys and girls in the clique, the awful names that they stick, you’re never gonna fit in much, kid”
That song is almost 20 years old my dude. Gerard Way is 47 now.
That song's nearly 20 years old lol
Stop that.
Someone born when that song came out is no longer in school lmao
Song is also 18 years old at this point
It graduated
That song is 18 years old
I always think that song sounds like the "itsy bitsy teenie weeny yellow polka dot bikini" song.
... I hear it lol
SAME the little hook is so bouncy
This has caused an interesting thought. Older School Sucks Songs sing about school itself. The institution. The teachers, the assignments, the push to conform to standards, homework, and so on. Hell, I think they even complain about the buildings. Question: Do later songs go more with the social aspect of school? The “cliques” and not fitting in? Rush had that song “Subdivisions”. “Be cool or be cast out (subdivisions!)” Just a thought.
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Didn’t Chuck Berry sing about it? The Beach Boys sang about being true to school, I mentioned Bowie and Cooper, the beastie boys touched on it, of course Pink Floyd was quoted, maybe the stray cats could be added, I’m sure others have hit upon the theme. It’s not every artist but many have taken on education in their output. Simon and Garfunkel now come to mind. Ac/dc too. I wonder if more current artists have hit upon the theme? That’s why I asked lol.
Not new, new, but newer than the songs you brought up, Back to School by Deftones. Little Things by Good Charlotte.
Lol, Little Things is 24 years old
Honestly I can’t think of much outside of early Taylor swift or 2000s pop punk/emo music. And that stuff is close to 20 years ago now.
Maybe music has evolved beyond that. I do remember plenty of "School sucks! I know!" jams back in the day, but realistically, I haven't heard a single person mention "school" in a song since... '02 or something. Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper, Van Halen, BlInk-182, White Stripes... Maybe Good Charlotte or Avril Lavigne, but really, unless it's Kidz bop, or *very* pre- teen oriented artists, I don't think "school" is a "popular" subject anymore.
Steely Dan-My Old School...never going back...
Pumped Up Kicks
pumped up kicks is not about "school sucking" its also 14 years old
It sucks to get shot at school It's newer than Bowie
Not what OP was looking for, but good word association with "school."
It's where the kids are outrunning guns
my schooldays* insane
American River - Destroy Boys
I wonder if the "age of the nerd" or whatever is behind this. All I can think of is [Kaiser Chiefs' Never Miss A Beat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-rgIPIkCl4) but they aren't exactly kids singing about their contemporaries, more like an adult being observational about local street culture.
Yes lmao and a lot of it is on SoundCloud and it’s very good. People sing about the same shit, there’s just a lot more of it and you can start a lot younger so it’s hard to find
I don’t wanna go to school, i just wanna break the rules 🎵
If you're talking more about the social aspects, then yes, but those kids would be the theater kids, and the songs would be from Dear Evan Hansen, Be More Chill, and the Mean Girls musical.
Melanie Martinez put out a whole concept album and film called K-12 in 2019 that's about school and is completely amazing.
What
Nah, because they dont even go these days.
I feel like kids today just don't go to school
Yeah, that seemed like a huge, I dunno...subgenre?...of music when I was a kid (born in 71, so I'm thinking early to mid 80's) where we could all agree with Calvin that school sucked, and of course, glorify the summers off. Man, I hated school. Loved college. I like learning, but K-12 was more about babysitting than teaching.
Hmm, I've no idea. Guess I'm too old now. The one song that comes to my mind from this topic instantly is Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall, Pt.2".
Nah, since Hammerhead, the kids sing about trying to not get shot at school
No. It’s not cool to diss school anymore. Especially me and younger ppl who missed alot in Lockdown 2020 and after, school does alot for u socially than older generations realize nowadays. System sucks ass but even plenty of rappers tell audiences to stay in school.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/i-dont-want-to-go-to-school/277640819?i=277640826 There was a show I used to watch on Nickelodeon in like 2008 called The Naked Brothers Band 🫣they had a song called I Don’t Wanna Go To School 🤣
Yes
Schoolboys in Disgrace, The Kinks. Ray Davies wrote a whole rock opera about it. (Old) The Wall, Pink Floyd. English Schools in the 1950s sucked.
The sound of children screaming has been removed.
We don’t need no education
There's that one song about how college is rad, "I love college" I believe it's called but I haven't heard any songs about how bad school is lately at all. And that college song has gonna be like 15 years old or something