Discovered recently that Electric Wizard were kinda dicks back in the day. “At the time, we were pretty bad people. I got arrested for arson of a car, outside a police station. Tim [Bagshaw] went to nick a crucifix off a church roof so we could use it onstage…”
R. L. Burnside killed a man “possibly at a craps game.”
Varg of Mayhem Burzum burned a couple churches and killed a bandmate.
I could list other examples, but would like to hear from other people and other music genres.
Yeah, it has been weird to see some songs that were completely unremarked on by media at release (rightly or not) become solid examples of really problematic cultural artifacts.
“Island Girl” by Elton John is one that never fails to stun me. I haven’t listened to radio in years but I remember the song getting played occasionally even decades after release.
That’s just the opening verse, it does not get better. This song was number 1 in the US in 1975.