[h=2]Loretta Lynn, “The Pill”[/h] Loretta Lynn | Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The country queen might seem quite benign now, but popular contemporary country music is not the rebellious, raw music that country was when people like Lynn and Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash were in their prime. Lynn’s 1975 song “The Pill” is really an early feminist punk song, celebrating how her life would be different now that she could have access to contraception and not be relegated to being a baby-making machine. It’s considered to be one of the first songs about the birth control pill and was banned from many radio stations due to its controversial subject matter.
The song reflected elements of Lynn’s personal life, as she’d been a teenage bride and already had six children by the time she wrote the song. While the ban prevented the song from becoming as big of a hit as it should’ve been given the magnitude of Lynn’s popularity, it’s now considered one of her biggest contributions to music history.