oh wait I meant "Longview"...it's that song that ends in "when masturbation's lost its fun, you're fucking lonely" and this was played in a store full of people.

Also teenage girls lip syncing LMFAO songs "Sexy and I know it" and "Sorry for party rockin" while trying to sell high end electronics.

While sitting in a Paris movie theater, waiting for Matrix III to start, the most pornographic and obscene rap was playing over the audio system. Everyone just nodded their head and felt, what I can only believe, was a sense of worldliness.

It could just be a cultural thing. Songs which are deemed fit for public gatherings in the States - such as "I Like Big Butts", risque but PG and widely considered fun - would be liable to get you executed in places like Iran or Singapore.

Besides (again talking here in the States), for private consumption, songs like "Face Down, As Up" are very common. 2-Live Crew wrote this song way back in 1990, specifically for an American audience. While America's conservative morality police, the FCC and their ilk, ensured it was censored on those few times it was broadcast, we all knew, and loved, what the song was about.

As for stores, I don't know if I've ever heard "Longview" played in a store (it's usually "Basketcase" or "Time of Your Life"), but the bookstore I used to work at often played a Muzak-ified version of "I Wanna Sex You Up" by Color Me Badd, which I'd argue is even more risque than that line from Longview.

My sister lived in France for several years and was always a bit surprised by the English-language songs that people and their kids would dance to. Sometimes she'd ask them if they knew what the words meant, and they'd say they didn't. So she'd translate for them. They would very quickly get rather horrified by the revelation.

So, no, it's not a cultural thing.

Not in France, or at least, not in the part of France your sister went to, and the communities she had contact with.

Here are some for ya.