10 Pop Songs That Are Actually Incredibly Dark

There's always a certain ignorance that comes when you listen to songs that aren't in your native language. Even if you love the groove of the song, not being able to understand the words makes you focus more on the groove rather than any key lyric of the song. It might be a more natural way of listening to music, but there's a good chance that a pop song can slip in anything under our noses.

Though Nena's 99 Luftballoons was originally entirely in German, the title of the song is more than just some balloons blowing in the wind. When you go through the translated lyrics, the entire appeal of the song is wrapped around lyrics that have to do with nuclear fallout, as she talks about the war balloons flying overhead to bring destruction to everyone still waiting on the ground. As soon as the sparkly keyboard lines hit though, it doesn't really matter what they're singing about, getting more taken in by the melody than anything else.

The crazy thing is that no one even noticed it when they could understand it either, with Nena putting out an English version and getting the entire nation to groove to it. So now we have an enduring classic of the '80s, all based around the fact that bombs are going to come down on us. There might not be that much time left for all of us, but we can always keep dancing as long as the music is playing.