When it comes to diss tracks, the genres of rap and hip-hop dominate, with rap battles being a standard part of those musical cultures. But musicians from other genres do occasionally dip their toes into the musical fight. Here are the stories behind 10 savage songs from other genres—some of which you might not have even known were personal attacks.

Related: Top 10 ’90s Songs You Didn’t Realize Were So Heartbreaking

10 “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd

Lynyrd Skynyrd’s 1974 hit song “Sweet Home Alabama” was written in response to Neil Young slandering the southern American states in his songs “Southern Man” and “Alabama.” Not only is the song a retaliation, but Young is even name-checked in the lyrics: “Well, I heard Mr. Young sing about her / Well, I heard ol’ Neil put her down.” Lead vocalist Ronnie Van Zant later told Rolling Stone, “We thought Neil was shooting all the ducks in order to kill one or two.”

Instead of firing back, Neil Young actually admitted in his autobiography Waging Heavy Peace (2012) that “My own song ‘Alabama’ richly deserved the shot Lynyrd Skynyrd gave me with their great record. I don’t like my words when I listen to it. They are accusatory and condescending, not fully thought out, and too easy to misconstrue.”^[1]

9 “Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to…)” by Queen

Freddie Mercury has pure venom in his voice when singing “Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to…)” from Queen’s 1975 album A Night at the Opera. Although who exactly the song is dedicated to isn’t mentioned in the lyrics, it’s known to be about Queen’s former manager, Norman Sheffield.

The opening lines are about Sheffield withholding money from the band: “You suck my blood like a leech / You break the law and you breach / Screw my brain ’til it hurts / You’ve taken all my money—you still want more.” Apparently, Roger Taylor was even told that he shouldn’t play his drums too vigorously because there wasn’t enough money to buy new drumsticks, yet Sheffield was being driven around in a limo.

Despite not being named, Sheffield was so angered by the lyrics that he sued Queen for defamation, a move which outed him as the target of the song. Sheffield has denied that he mistreated the band, telling his side of the story in his 2013 autobiography Life on Two Legs: Set the Record Straight.^[2]

8 “Teenage Wildlife” by David Bowie

Although the target of David Bowie’s “Teenage Wildlife” (1980) isn’t certain, the general consensus is that it’s Gary Numan, with Bowie calling him “one of the new wave boys / Same old thing in brand new drag.” This speculation was partly fueled by an interview Bowie gave at the time where he criticized the younger musician: “What Numan did he did excellently but in repetition, in the same information coming over again and again, once you’ve heard one piece.”

Numan was aware of Bowie’s animosity toward him, saying in an interview with Uncut that he was booted from the Kenny Everett show at Bowie’s request. “I think he saw people like me as little upstarts,” Numan commented. For Bowie’s part, he never acknowledged the song as being about Numan, instead saying, “I guess it would be addressed to a mythical teenage brother if I had one, or maybe my latter-day adolescent self, trying to correct those things one thinks one’s done wrong.”^[3]

7 “Cry Me a River” by Justin Timberlake

For years, it was assumed—but not confirmed—that Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me a River” (2002) was about the breakdown of his relationship with Britney Spears, with the song pinning the blame on her for cheating: “You don’t have to say, what you did / I already know, I found out from him.” It wasn’t until 2011 that Timbaland, one of the song’s producers, finally confirmed that Spears was indeed the target of the track.

Spears may have responded with her 2003 single “Everytime,” but she then overtly commented on their breakup and Timberlake’s song in her 2023 memoir The Woman in Me. She admits to once kissing choreographer Wade Robson but writes that Timberlake had already cheated on her multiple times. “There were a couple of times during our relationship when I knew Justin had cheated on me,” she explains, before saying that she let it go “because I was so infatuated and so in love.”^[4]

6 “Bad Blood” by Taylor Swift

In a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone, Taylor Swift said that “Bad Blood” was about a fellow female artist. She didn’t name names but said that they became enemies after the singer “basically tried to sabotage an entire arena tour. She tried to hire a bunch of people out from under me.” The day after, Swift’s one-time friend Katy Perry tweeted, “Watch out for the Regina George in sheep’s clothing…,” leading to obvious speculation that she was the target of the diss track.

The two traded veiled barbs in interviews, and then in 2017, Perry seemed to drop her own diss track, “Swish Swish,” which included pointed lyrics such as “A tiger don’t lose no sleep / Don’t need opinions / From a shellfish or a sheep.” Soon afterward, while on James Corden’s Late Late Show, Perry gave more details about the beef, saying it was because three of Swift’s backup dancers left her tour to work with Perry instead.

By 2019, the two stars had made up and left their drama in the past, with the pair publicly reconciling on social media and even sharing a hug in the music video for Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down.”^[5]

5 “Rockin’ the Suburbs” by Ben Folds

Thanks to its parody styling, Ben Folds’s “Rockin’ the Suburbs” doesn’t have the mean personal edge of most diss tracks. The satirical song takes aim at the angry rock music made by bands like Korn and Rage Against the Machine, opening with the lyrics, “Let me tell y’all what it’s like / Being male, middle-class, and white / It’s a bitch if you don’t believe / Listen up to my new CD.”

Folds said that he was “taking the piss of the whole scene” and that he decided not to namedrop in the lyrics because “it wasn’t as funny when I directed it at somebody.” There are some visual references in the song’s music video, though. At one point, he mimics Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst by wearing his trademark New York Yankees cap—backward, of course. At the end of the video, there’s also a clear nod to Korn’s music video for “Freak on a Leash,” with Folds playing in front of a hole-punched black background that allows light to dramatically stream through.^[6]

4 “Hollaback Girl” by Gwen Stefani

Courtney Love has inspired her fair share of diss tracks, from “I’ll Stick Around” by Foo Fighters to “Starf*ckers, Inc.” by Nine Inch Nails. But the highest charting song about the grunge singer is Gwen Stefani’s No. 1 hit “Hollaback Girl” (2005). Although Stefani didn’t mention Love’s name, in an NME interview shortly afterward, she said, “Someone one time called me a cheerleader, negatively, and I’ve never been a cheerleader. So I was, like, ‘OK, f*ck you. You want me to be a cheerleader? Well, I will be one then. And I’ll rule the whole world, just you watch me.’”

Just one year earlier, in an interview with Seventeen magazine, Love commented, “Being famous is just like being in high school. But I’m not interested in being the cheerleader. I’m not interested in being Gwen Stefani. She’s the cheerleader, and I’m out in the smoker shed.” In a nod to this comment, the lyrics and music video of “Hollaback Girl” lean into high school imagery.^[7]

3 “How Do You Sleep?” by John Lennon

After the breakup of The Beatles, the former band members traded numerous diss tracks. One of the first was George Harrison’s “Wah-Wah” (1970), which reflected on the tensions between Paul McCartney and John Lennon. Paul and Linda McCartney’s 1971 album Ram also included multiple swipes at Lennon and Yoko Ono. In 1984, McCartney admitted that “Too Many People” was written because Lennon had “been doing a lot of preaching, and it got up my nose a little bit.”

Although the digs aren’t particularly pointed, Lennon picked up on them and decided to write a far more obvious diss track with “How Do You Sleep?” The lyrics sharply comment on McCartney associating with sycophants (“You live with straights who tell you you was king”) and not having written anything good since their 1965 hit “Yesterday” (“The only thing you done was yesterday”). Lennon even makes reference to the conspiracy theory that McCartney died in 1966 and was replaced with a lookalike: “Those freaks was right when they said you was dead.” Damn!^[8]

2 “Get in the Ring” by Guns N’ Roses

When Guns N’ Roses were penning “Get in the Ring,” they decided to namedrop as hard as humanely possible. The song is an attack on music critics, but instead of merely leaving it at “all you punks in the press, that want to start sh*t by printing lies instead of the things we said,” Axl Rose also listed specific people. “Andy Secher at Hit Parader, Circus magazine, Mick Wall at Kerrang!, Bob Guccione Jr. at Spin.”

The bad blood between the band and journalists was sparked when Guns N’ Roses started demanding creative control over interviews. The media turned on them, with Guccione printing that the band was “drug-addicted, paranoid, homophobic, racist, xenophobic, ruthless, violent, a threat to the liberty of the press, and a pain in the ass to almost everyone.” After the release of “Get in the Ring,” Guccione happily accepted the challenge of a physical fight, but Axl backed down.^[9]

1 “Obsessed” by Mariah Carey

The feud between Mariah Carey and Eminem started with his insistence that they briefly dated in 2001, which Carey says is a lie. They traded minor musical jabs shortly afterward, but things didn’t really heat up until Eminem released “Bagpipes from Baghdad” in 2009, which included lines such as “Mariah, what’s ever happened to us, why did we have to break up?”

Just one month later, Mariah released her own diss track, “Obsessed,” which was accompanied by a music video of the pop star being stalked by an Eminem lookalike—with the addition of a goatee—played by herself. Both Carey and Nick Cannon, her then-husband, denied that the stalker was styled to look like Eminem, with Carey saying, “All the speculation about who I’m playing in the video, it’s not accurate.” And Cannon claimed the song was inspired by a line from Mean Girls (2004).

However, the rapper clearly saw the connection, responding with “The Warning,” where he says, “I’m obsessed now, oh gee / Is that supposed to be me in the video with the goatee? / Wow Mariah, didn’t expect ya to go balls out.”^[10]

The music to come out of the small island country of New Zealand is as eclectic, varied and unique as the people themselves. Influenced by rock, pop, jazz, blues, hip-hop and the Maori people, New Zealand’s music inevitably gets its own creative kiwi interpretation.

Here are ten tracks, some well-known, others not so much, to give some insight into what musicians in the antipodean nation have produced.

Top 20 Cool Facts About New Zealand

10 Keith Urban “Blue Ain’t Your Color”

“Blue looks good on the sky
Looks good on that neon buzzin’ on the wall
But darling, it don’t match your eyes
I’m tellin’ you
You don’t need that guy
It’s so black and white
He’s stealin’ your thunder
Baby, blue ain’t your color”

Keith Urban is a New Zealand born country singer who released his self-titled debut album in Australia in in 1991, before moving to the US the following year. First working as a session musician in Nashville, Urban formed a band, “The Ranch”, who released one album and charted two singles before breaking up.

Urban released his solo debut album in 1999. The second single “Your Everything” made him the first New Zealand male performer to reach the Top 10 in the American Country Musicchart.

At the 48th Grammy awards, he earned his first Grammy for Best Male Country Vocal Performance for the song “You’ll Think Of Me”. To date he has released 11 studio albums and has had 20 Number 1 singles on the US Billboard Country Chart , with over 40 tunes making it into the Top 10. .

“Blue Ain’t Your Color” was the fourth single off Urban’s eighth studio album “Ripcord” and has proved to be his biggest single to date. It spent 12 weeks at Number 1 on the Hot Country Chart and earned the country singer American Music Awards for Favorite Male Country Artist, Favorite Country Song and Favorite Country Album.

Urban is also known for his roles as a coach for one season on the Australian version of the singing competition “The Voice” and as a judge for four seasons on “American Idol”. The popularity of these shows increased his profile across a wider segment of the television audience.^[1]

9 Flight of the Conchords “Ladies of the World”

“Oh you sexy hermaphrodite lady-man-ladies
With your sexy lady bits
And your sexy man bits too
Even you must be in to you
All the ladies in the world
I wanna’ get next to you
Show you some gratitude”

Comedic Kiwi duo Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie formed The Flight of the Conchords after meeting at Victoria University in Wellington.

After doing the rounds of various comedy circuits and festivals, the BBC commissioned a six-part radio show starring the duo, which first aired on BBC Radio Two in Sept 2005. The series followed The Conchords in their capacity as “New Zealand’s fourth-best folk guitar-based jazz, techno, hip-hop duo”, trying to break into the music scene in England. Their manager, Brian (played by Rhys Darby), made regular calls to Neil Finn (see Crowded House and Split Enz) who played a patient mentor and advisor, giving advice on how to succeed in the music industry in England. Comedian Jimmy Carr also featured throughout in the series, playing a passionate fan called Kipper.

This was followed by the quirky HBO series, that ran for two seasons. Along the lines of the radio show, the plot revolved around a fictional version of the comedic duo as they try to achieve success as a two-piece folk band in New York City.

The popularity of both the radio show and the HBO series saw the band release their “The Distant Future” EP in2007. Rolling Stone magazine scathingly dismissed the EP as “a souvenir of the show” and being “hard to imagine wanting to play it over and over”. However, in Feb 2008, Flight of the Conchords became the first non-American act to win Comedy Grammy. This was an achievement that put them alongside legends of comedy such as The Smothers Brothers and National Lampoon.

For Bret McKenzie, more musical success came in 2012 when he won an Academy Award for the best original song in a film. The song ‘Man or Muppet’ was one of four he contributed to the 2011 feature film “The Muppets”. Amongst many other acting roles, Jemaine Clement went on to voice the psychopathic cockatoo Nigel in the hit movie ”Rio”, also writing and performing the awesome track “Pretty Bird”.^[2]

8 Hayley Westenra “Who Painted the Moon Black?”

Did you see how hard I’ve tried?
Not to show the pain inside
Just as you walked away from me
Who painted the moon black?
Just when you passed your love back
Who painted the moon black?

First reaching international attention as a teenager, classically trained singer Hayley Westenra released the cross-over album “Pure” in 2003. The album went on to be certified 12x platinum in New Zealand, double platinum in the UK and platinum in Australia. “Pure” went straight to Number 1 in the UK classical music chart, and entered the pop charts at a respectable number 8.

The album itself was an eclectic mix of classical, hymns, cheesy light Euro pop and re-worked traditional Maori songs.

Promoted by a somewhat cringeworthy video of the singer grooving uncomfortably in front of a green-screen, “Who Painted The Moon Black” appeared more like a New Zealand tourism commercial. Unflattering video aside, the album remains fastest selling classical debut album of all time.^[3]

7 OMC “How Bizarre”

“Destination unknown, as we pull in for some gas
Freshly pasted poster reveals a smile from the past
Elephants and acrobats, lions, snakes, monkey
Pele speaks “righteous, ” Sister Zina says “funky”
How bizarre
How bizarre, how bizarre”

Outside of New Zealand, OMC’s 1995 track “How Bizarre” is generally regarded as a one ‘hit wonder’. The infectious pop-rap single from OMC (in full the Otara Millionaire’s Club, a tongue-n-cheek reference to their humble beginnings in one of NZ’s poorest suburb) was featured on their debut album of the same name.

The song appeared on US Billboard Mainstream Top 40 chart and went on to spend 36 weeks their Hot 100 airplay charts, peaking at number 4. It also featured in music charts in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Ireland and throughout Europe. It reached number five in the UK, and it made the Top 10 in popular music charts everywhere from Portugal to Israel.

Record label owner, Simon Grigg, described OMC’s unique sound as being a fusion of the mishmash of sounds that New Zealanders are exposed to. It’s the classic Kiwi strum meets punk rock meets disco meets a South Pacific beach party meets classic soul meets reggae and everything in between.” It culminated in a song that “was everywhere. It was so huge. New Zealanders don’t realise how massive it was. It was such a ubiquitous radio record. It was the number one radio record in New York City that year – bigger than the Spice Girls.”

While OMC went on to find some further international success, they never stormed the charts to such an extent as “How Bizarre” had done, resulting in the song being listed as the 71st greatest one-hit wonder of all time by VH1. Sadly, charismatic frontman Pauly Fuemana died in 2010, aged just 40, due to complications from a rare neurological disorder.^[4]

6 Shihad “Comfort Me”

“Back up, evolution here
All the sick fucks being born to kill
They just need someone to tell them they’re safe again
They all need someone to tell them that somebody cares
What have we become
Could you comfort me, comfort me?
The whole world’s come undone
Could you comfort me, comfort me?“

For me personally, picking a favourite Shihad track is like picking a favourite bag of potato chips – many are favourites, most I genuinely like and only a rare few do I turn away from. Shihad put on a high energy, tight sounding, engaging show and have put out some very solid albums in their almost 30 years together.

Formed in the late-1980’s, Shihad were a well-established rock act throughout New Zealand and Australia. Through the festival circuit, they were also gaining a foothold in Europe. Off the back of their critically acclaimed fourth album “The General Electric”, many in the music industry felt that they were poised for commercial success in the lucrative Americal market, but then the Sept 11 terrorist attacks occurred. “Impeccable timing,” singer Jon Toogood later commented. “All the ducks were lined up. Then the war happened – in 2001 the name Shihad wasn’t going to fly.”

The band had chosen their name after seeing David Lynch’s 1984 cult classic film ‘Dune’, which repeatedly uses the Islamic term ‘Jihad’. Founding member and drummer, Tom Larkin, explains that “When we were 15, we were all into this sci-fi movie Dune. See, Dune uses all these Arabic words throughout the movie and the end battle is a Jihad. We were stupid and thought it’d be a great name for a band so we called ourselves Shihad ’cause we couldn’t even spell it.”

In the wake of the terror attacks, the band’s American record company and management pressured them to change their name and reluctantly, they became “Pacifier”. Unfortunately, in the tense and uncertain political climate, the timing was off and commercial success evaded the band. Two years later, they became Shihad once more.

In 2012, the band released a 102-minute long documentary “Beautiful Machine”. Described as “a wild ride from anonymity to being the next ‘It’ band, and into the present day, Shihad: Beautiful Machine is an unflinching look at the elusive reality of a true rock dream.”

Although they have yet to achieve the acclaim that many might have expected, after thirty years and nine solid albums, fans are hopeful that Shihad will keep on rocking, putting on their legendary shows for the next generation of fans. Who knows, with a little luck and better timing, they might just achieve the success and acclaim that they so rightfully deserve.^[5]

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5 Shona Laing “(Glad I’m) Not A Kennedy

“The family tree is felled
Bereavement worn so well
Giving up on certainty
Wilderness society

Wearing the fame like a loaded gun
Tied up with a rosary
I’m glad I’m not a Kennedy”

Songstress Shona Laing found fame in New Zealand as a teenager in the early 1970’s when she finished runner-up in a television talent show. Perhaps Laing’s most well known song “(Glad I’m) Not A Kennedy” was released twice, first from her 1985 album “Genre”, then re-mixed and re-released on her album “South” two years later.

The song itself was inspired by a television appearance, when Senator Ted Kennedy announced his intention to become a presidential candidate. His on screen presence did not make a favourable impression on Laing, who later explained “I actually just said those words out loud: ‘God, glad I’m not a Kennedy.’ And bells went off, whistles rang and I went straight out to the shed to write it, and it was done and dusted in half an hour. It poured out.”^[6]

4 Lorde “Royals”

“And we’ll never be royals
It don’t run in our blood
That kind of lux just ain’t for us
We crave a different kind of buzz”

Singer Lorde, aka Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor, leapt to international stardom with the 2013 release of her critically acclaimed album “Pure Heroine”.

The song describes the lavish and decadent lifestyle of contemporary stars with a edgy sarcasm. “What really got me,” she explained “is this ridiculous, unrelatable, unattainable opulence that runs throughout. Lana Del Rey is always singing about being in the Hamptons or driving her Bugatti Veyron or whatever, and at the time, me and my friends were at some house party worrying how to get home because we couldn’t afford a cab. This is our reality!”

The song spent nine weeks at the top of U.S. Billboard 100, making the 16-year old Kiwi the youngest artist to do so since Tiffany in 1987. Her reaction to the achievement was that “It feels like a combination of my birthday, Christmas and washing my hair after a month of not doing so.”

It also topped the charts of New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, and the UK. To date, it has sold over 10 million copies globally. In 2014, the song won a Grammy for Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance.^[7]

3 Split Enz “Six Months In A Leaky Boat”

“Aotearoa
Rugged individual
Glisten like a pearl
At the bottom of the world
The tyranny of distance”

Released in 1982, “Six Months In A Leaky Boat” was the second single off their album “Time and Tide”. The song, written by band member Tim Finn, is usually interpreted as being a homage to the often perilous six month sea voyage that settlers took to come to New Zealand.

The single reached a dismal number 83 in the UK singles chart, largely due to the airplay ban by broadcasters at the BBC, who felt that the reference to “leaky boats” might have a negative impact on morale of the British Royal Navy while they were fighting the Falklands War against Argentina. They implied that the song was too provocative and was a thinly veiled criticism of the war, despite the fact that the song had in fact been written and recorded months earlier.

Split Enz members, brother Tim and Neil Finn have since confirmed that in addition to the theme of colonial settlement, the song also served as a metaphor for Tim’s relationship breakup and subsequent mental breakdown. “I was going through a lot of stuff. I had broken up after a long relationship and I was feeling a mixture of guilt and terror and sadness and whatever you go through. It was a hard time.” Tim later explained.

“Time & Tide” went on to become the band’s third number one album in both New Zealand and Australia, while eventually clawing its way to number 71 in the UK.^[8]

2 Mi-Sex “Computer Games”

“I fidget with the digit dots and cry an anxious tear
As the XU-1 connects the spot
But the matrix grid don’t care
Get a message to my mother
What number would she be
There’s a million angry citizens
Looking down their tubes at me”

How the heck can this track be forty years old???

“Computer Games” was the second release off their iconic debut album “Graffiti Crimes” (1979). The song peaked at number one in Australia, number two in Canada and number five in New Zealand. It also gained some traction in Europe and North America, although it was felt that their ‘risqué’ band name did not help them gain airplay in more conservative markets.

The video that accompanied the song was considered to be very cutting edge at the time. It starts with the band breaking into the data centre for then super-computer mainframe at Control Data in Sydney, Australia. As the band performs, the old school graphics projected behind them include a driving game and Star Wars-esque tie fighters, while data tapes spin and printers spew out a river of paper.

The synth-pop electro new wave band formed the year earlier, by frontman Ian Gilpin, keyboard player Murray Burns, Don Martin on bass, Kevin Stanton on lead guitar, and drummer Richard Hodgkinson.

Principal songwriter, Murry Burns later recalled that when Mi-Sex arrived in Australia in late 1978, bands were “still wearing white flares”. He added that “They were great but they hadn’t jumped into the edgy sound of the 80s. . . think we paved the way for a certain style of music, the likes of INXS and Icehouse . . . We got a great following very quickly.”

Following the tragic death of singer Ian Gilpin in January 1992 following a car crash, the band felt that they would never perform again, despite a nostalgic surge in popularity for 80’s pop music. But when faced with the opportunity to reunite for several gigs around Australasia, they went for it and “it’s really, really good fun”, confirms Burns.

“Computer Games” solidified their place in New Zealand music history. “It was unusual, one of those not-repeated songs . . . We got labelled with that song quite strongly, ” Burns says. The band’s unique sound, tight musicianship and futuristic imagery earned both the single and the album platinum status.

Advance one level on green!^[9]

1 Crowded House “Don’t Dream It’s Over”

“Now I’m towing my car, there’s a hole in the roof
My possessions are causing me suspicion but there’s no proof
In the paper today, tales of war and of waste
But you turn right over to the T.V. page
Hey now, hey now
Don’t dream it’s over”

Like the often bitter long-standing debate over the true origins of the humble pavlova, internationally acclaimed band Crowded House has been claimed by both New Zealand and Australia.

Fronted by former Split Enz member, New Zealand born Neil Finn (currently a member of Fleetwood Mac), who is vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter, clearly and unequivocally, this in my humble opinion is a New Zealand band!

Admittedly, Neil Finn told an Australian newspaper that Crowded House was a proud Australian band and most of its songs were inspired in Melbourne. Finn went on to state that Melbourne was the “birthplace of Crowded House and was always the town we chose to return to. It’s forever deeply ingrained in our collective psyche and was the backdrop for many of our best musical moments.” Sorry Neil, Crowded House is a Kiwi band and that’s that.

Their self-titled debut album, released in 1986, featured the single “Don’t Dream It’s Over”, which became an international hit, peaking at Number 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Band frontman Neil Finn has described the lyrics of this song as “on the one hand, feeling kind of lost and, on the other hand, sort of urging myself on”.^[10]

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