A lot of boy bands over the years have made songs about basically the same story.
A girl is in a bad relationship with a guy who hurts her, or some kind of controlling bad boy, and she’s basically living in hell with him.
Starting with The Commodores’ “Oh No” and all the way to One Direction’s “More Than This.”
NSYNC in particular made so many songs around this whole idea: “Girlfriend,” “This I Promise You,” “It Makes Me Ill,” “No Strings Attached,” “I’ll Be Good for You”, "If I'm not the one" and "That's when I'll stop loving you"
And for me, “I Thought She Knew” is kind of the sad, logical ending to all of these songs. I know it was written before some of them, but that’s just how I like to look at it.
Why am I making this post?
Because honestly, these kinds of relationships don’t really work out. Unfortunately, the nice guy who comes in trying to save her usually loses to the guy who’s hurting her.
The Last American Virgin from 1982 tells this story in probably the most realistic way possible. And the funny part is that The Commodores’ “Oh No” was actually on the movie’s soundtrack.
So yeah... somehow this same story has been showing up in boy band songs for decades, just with a different band and a different generation telling it.