I've been trying to put together a playlist of accidental self owns by Big Media(TM) where they tried to make music slamming those on the right, but ended up making something catchy and being embraced by the very people they're railing against.
Two particular examples I found were Bad Religion's "The Kids Are Alt-Right"
Lyrics: https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/badreligion/thekidsarealtright.html
And a song from Far Cry 5 called "Keep Your Rifle by Your Side"
Lyrics: https://genius.com/Dan-romer-keep-your-rifle-by-your-side-lyrics
In the former, BR tries to paint the right as a cult (who doesn't these days) but it's hard to take seriously when the lyrics are:
We love God, We love our women, We love tradition, We love kin, We've got shiny new tools, For ancient impulses, That we can't even understand, So if you feel alone, And downtrodden, There's an elixir for your ills
So a bunch of people who feel alone and downtrodden found a group willing to accept them? Well that's not so different than the left in many cases. But they also love tradition and family? Personally, I find it hard to take any of that negatively.
In the latter, for context, the song was written by the in game doomsday cult, but if you're like me and are familiar with Ruby Ridge and Waco the lyrics hit kind of different. Essentially, the group sings about how the government will keep coming after them and it is their duty to defend themselves, their families, and their land by force. It does have a religious tinge to it but not exactly something that makes me want to dislike them. The video on YT has 2.3 million views when everything else in the album is sub 1 mill and the comments are absolutely flooded with people agreeing with the sentiments in the song. And it's catchy as fuck.
Anyway, if any of you have found something similar or have something to add, I'd love to hear it.
"American Woman" is highly unintentional in its cultural impact.
"American woman, stay away from me/just let me be/just go away" is the recurring line in the song, and yet it is played as both pro-American and pro-woman.
But that's not really a self-own so much as it TRIED to be a self-own, but people didn't listen to the lyrics and just heard the words American Woman and rocketed it to the top.
I think that's the OPPOSITE of what you're looking for, though...
Same thing happened with Springsteen's "Born in the USA." And yeah I guess I'm specifically looking more for anti-right music that doesn't smear us near as hard as they think it does.
Because they don't realize that the band that first sung it wasn't American, and it was meant to be critical of and a rejection of American culture. It's basically about the Americanization of Canadian culture that was warned against in the 60s and 70s (kind of a leftover of "Manifest Destiny" fear) and was written about the time the USA was trying to pressure Canada into getting into VietNam (which is what the "war machines" are all about). Or was a general response to it, anyway.
Remember it's from 1970 and the Guess Who, not that Lenny Kravitz whoever the hell he is one-cover-song-wonder.