Who Let The Dogs Out?
This Calypso-lite music included a lovely (and later frustratingly omnipresent) call-and-response inquiry that never got answered, another song whose meaning was hidden by its party anthem vibes. After the song’s release in 2000, asking who let the dogs out became low-hanging comic fruit, which meant that most people were unaware that it was “a man-bashing song.” It’s a song about a good time being ruined by men catcalling and pestering women, according to songwriter Anslem Douglas in an interview with Rock Cellar Magazine.
Who Let The Dogs Out
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The surface meaning of the feisty pop song is quite standard: forbidden youthful love, the delights of failing your parents, and a partner pleading with you to go away with him. However, as songwriter/lead vocalist Johnny Rzeznik said during the band’s VH1 Storytellers event, the couple’s discontent stems from a deeper source. “The song is actually about these two teenage kids, and the girlfriend gets pregnant, and they’re trying to decide whether she should get an abortion, or they should get married, or what should go on,” he said.
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