Chilling Melodies: The 10 most disturbing pop songs ever made
Pop music isn’t one of the most buzzed-about genres in the world by accident. The whole reason why people get interested in this kind of music in the first place is because of its relative safety compared to the less user-friendly styles out in the wild. Some songs could get downright dark when they wanted to, and artists like Alanis Morrissette took disturbing to an entirely new level when crafting their hits.
Then again, not every pop sensation follows a set formula to create a classic. Pop music is a vast genre that encompasses everything from alternative and hip-hop to the sweetest, most saccharine tunes. Each has had its moment at the top of the charts, even if it sometimes sounds like something straight out of a horror movie. This diversity is what makes pop music so dynamic and ever-evolving.
There’s more than one way to scare an audience, though, and sometimes the lyrics have a sinister bent that no one ever realised. At one point, you might think you’re listening to one of the catchiest songs ever, only to find out that it’s about everything from killing to stalking to demonic possession.
Despite being a headtrip for people to listen to, that didn’t stop every one of these tracks from doing major numbers on the charts, either breaking into the Top 10 or leaving their stamp on society just by being unexplainably creepy. And in a world where many complain that mainstream music seems to be watered down by the day, getting tunes like these onto the charts shows that pop fans are much more eclectic than people think.
The most disturbing pop songs ever released:
10. ‘Dancing in the Moonlight’ – King Harvest
If there’s one genre that shouldn’t be in the same sentence as dark or disturbing, it’s yacht rock. This is the genre to relax and drink wine coolers to, and the only thing that could be considered disturbing about it is if the breeze blows your drink onto the floor. King Harvest were by no means that kind of group, but the origin of ‘Dancing in the Moonlight’ is something ripped straight out of a horror movie.
When vacationing with his wife, composer Sherman Kelly talked about the song springing to life after a bunch of criminals attacked them on a beach. After deciding to sleep on the sand that night, Kelly’s wife was sexually assaulted while he was knocked out as they took all of their belongings.
Once everything was settled, ‘Dancing in the Moonlight’ was born out of Kelly imagining a better world than the kind of nightmare he had experienced the night before. So, while nothing in the tune is definitely dark, here’s hoping that none of those yacht-themed getaways this song plays on ever ends up like the tragic night that Kelly endured.
9. ‘Last Kiss’ – Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam were nothing if not supportive of their musical heroes. Mike McCready would always feature a few nods to artists like Stevie Ray Vaughan when he played guitar, and it’s hard to imagine that Eddie Vedder would have accomplished anything in life had Pete Townshend not spoken to him through The Who’s records. ‘Last Kiss’ was a different breed of song, though, and for their remake of the 1950s classic, Pearl Jam reminded us that even the wholesome sounds of pre-rock and roll could still be dark as hell.
Since most of the track feels like it’s ripped straight out of a second-rate doo-wop album, this should just be the last kiss goodnight or something, right? In a sense, yes, but the lyrics go into exquisite detail about how this is about a couple who goes through a tragic car accident, with the woman bleeding out before help can arrive.
But for as dark as the tune is, there’s also a strange respect that comes from playing this song in the 1990s. It would have clearly been in poor taste coming on after the likes of Dion and The Shirelles, but for the band that made their biggest hit about a kid who takes his own life in the middle of his classroom, the lyrics and copyrights may as well have had Vedder’s name pre-stamped on it.
8. ‘Stan’ – Eminem
Looking back on the Eminem saga now feels like a backwards evolution chart. While any artist tries to gain wisdom as they grow in the music industry, hearing Slim Shady go from tasteless jokes and impressive flows to dad puns in his raps is nothing short of tragic. For however many rhymes he adds in for shock value these days, though, no one will be able to take ‘Stan’ away from him.
The Marshall Mathers LP isn’t necessarily going to go down as one of the most politically correct albums of all time, but ‘Stan’ was the one moment the psycho killer behind the mic actually had a heart. Re-enacting letters from a disturbed fan, the entire track feels like watching a high-stakes drama, as we witness Stan go from an avid fan of Slim to eventually having the worst kind of parasocial relationship imaginable, which ends at the bottom of a lake with a pregnant woman trapped in the trunk of a car.
For as dark as a deep cut like ‘Kim’ was, ‘Stan’ still seemed to have its heart in the right place. Eminem may have been looked at as the enemy of good taste throughout his time in the spotlight, but underneath that facade was a kid who was willing to show some compassion when he needed to.
7. ‘Under the Bridge’ – Red Hot Chili Peppers
For the first half of their career, Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ lyrics were never supposed to be anything groundbreaking. While they eventually developed into a complex band that sang about their struggles, no one lost sleep at night trying to figure out the vast complexities behind such fine works of poetry as ‘Catholic School Girls Rule’ or ‘Fight Like a Brave’. Once the group started working with Rick Rubin, though, the production guru knew that they would have to be honest with themselves if they wanted to reach the big time.
While ‘Knock Me Down’ from the previous record is a touching tribute to former guitarist Hillel Slovak, ‘Under the Bridge’ wasn’t even meant to be a song, taken from pieces of poetry Kiedis had kept in one of his notebooks. Despite being one of the biggest goofballs California had ever seen, hearing him be open and honest about his drug problems and going to a spot underneath a bridge to score some junk is more disturbing, given that it’s in a major key.
Kiedis would get a lot more open about his scar collection in the following few records, but ‘Under the Bridge’ is still a depressing look into the life of an addict. Songs of survival are usually meant to help the artist as much as the fans, but listening to those opening chords and Kiedis’s verses is like going down memory lane to a time that no one wants to relive.
6. ‘Every Breath You Take’ – The Police
For a band that was on the radio constantly throughout the 1980s, The Police were giving a lot of us an education. Sting had studied music before he even thought to put together a rock band, so he wasn’t afraid to throw something jazzy in the mix or talk about the wonders of being a hooker on ‘Roxanne’. If people were uncomfortable with ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me’, though, they weren’t prepared for what he had cooking up on ‘Every Breath You Take’.
Then again, a lot of people have been fooled about what the track is about for years. Despite having a smooth demeanour and a bulletproof melody, this “love” song never actually says that word in its lyrics, as Sting just talks about watching this person from some undisclosed location and saying that she belongs to him.
While the frontman has been honest about the tune centring around a stalker, it’s still crazy to imagine that this song has been used at weddings for a slow dance. I guess people can try to hold their significant others close while listening, but by the time the protagonist gets done singing, the only thing that he’s going to be getting is a restraining order if he’s lucky.
5. ‘Norwegian Wood’ – The Beatles
The Beatles never had time to be moptops for eternity. That lovable version of them as kids may have been fun for a while, but chances are you, too, would rather do anything else than have millions of people scream whenever you took to the stage for a gig. Rubber Soul was them breaking away from that kind of aesthetic, but no Beatles fan was willing to go dark so quickly on ‘Norwegian Wood’.
On the surface, this is just a love-lost track, like any other breakup song. John Lennon was no stranger to writing tearjerkers, but the sexual undercurrents behind this story are a lot more graphic, including him crawling up to sleep in the bathtub and waking up to find that his one-night stand left him on his ass.
No, the macabre part comes right at the very end when Lennon lights up a fire, and considering the pine that he’s using, it’s more than just a cigarette. Many artists can claim to be spiteful, but McCartney believes that Lennon wrote the ending about a man who burns down his old flame’s house for standing him up. While a handful of Fab tracks can be on the dreary side from time to time, it’s not every day that people talk about the wonders of arson in a relationship.
4. ‘Tubular Bells’ – Mike Oldfield
Most people who are into progressive rock know what they’re getting into with their favourite bands. Since most rock follows the same tired formula, what better way to mix it up than throwing in every strange time signature you can think of and see where it goes from there? It’s wild and zany, but more often than not, it doesn’t chart. Mike Oldfield single-handedly made the most terrifying movie theme ever created by accident.
While ‘Tubular Bells’ was meant to be a standalone piece spread out across 40 minutes, the shortened version created for the film The Exorcist is still one of the most haunting notes ever pressed to vinyl. Despite being used only a handful of times in the movies, that opening piano lick is enough to conjure up images of projectile vomiting and Linda Blair slowly being lifted off her bed by a demon.
In that respect, the progressive side of the riff actually works to the song’s advantage, with the offbeat time signature almost signalling to everyone that things aren’t okay. Whereas most progressive acts tended to devolve into creating songs used for scale exercises, ‘Tubular Bells’ is the kind of ethereal rock staple that only seems to get more chilling on repeated listens.
3. ‘Uninvited’ – Alanis Morrissette
For any major artist, a soundtrack tune is never a top priority. Any song is normally meant to be part of an album statement, so shoehorning it into a movie cheapens the impact that it would have in the context of a full project. But it also gives some artists an opportunity to stretch, and for as gritty as Alanis Morrissette could come off at times, one of her darkest songs only needed a piano and an orchestra to get the point across.
While City of Angels is a fairly compelling story about Nicholas Cage grappling with whether he should stay on Earth or remain a celestial being, ‘Uninvited’ is the kind of tune that’s better served coming from the perspective of a demon. Even though it’s technically in a major key, hearing Morrissette’s melody over top of it and talking about how this uninvited force is coming over her feels like being greeted by a spirit from beyond in all the wrong ways.
And despite having some alt-rock classics under her belt, this is by far the finest vocal performance that she has ever laid down, especially when she gets raspy in her falsetto in the verse break, which practically sounds like the moment of possession. City of Angels is a movie that would lend itself well to church music, but Morrissette created a track that’s the equivalent to stumbling into the woods and coming across a ritualistic sacrifice that no one wanted to see.
2. ‘This is America’ – Childish Gambino
After years in the public eye, you’d think that we’d have a better read on what Donald Glover actually does. Despite having some fantastic music under his belt as Childish Gambino, his focus on becoming a writer and an actor has made him less and less interested in making albums for the hell of it. But for a brief second there, he had made one of the most scathing anthems of the modern age on ‘This is America’.
In an era where it already felt like the world was falling apart, seeing Glover hold up a mirror to society on a track is one of the best pieces of black humour that anyone could have made. It goes without saying, but the best version to experience it is the music video, which features everything from commentary on how the US looks at gun culture to breaking up the multiple sections with the sound of gunshots going off.
While the track quickly came and went as a product of 2018, it seems a lot more pressing now in an era when social unrest is still more prevalent than ever. Glover never wanted to tell people how to live, but considering the protests surrounding police-involved shootings in the past few years, we certainly haven’t come a long way since these verses.
1. ‘Closer’ – Nine Inch Nails
The Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails doesn’t feel like an album that wants to be listened to half the time. If Broken already sounded like the internal ramblings of someone slowly losing their mind, this entire project was the moment where he snaps and starts actively destroying everything around him. So how is a conceptual record based around the worst parts of the human condition that ends with someone taking their own life somehow boasting a massive hit?
Well, it’s not like ‘Closer’ isn’t catchy. From the minute that the processed drums start, people are already transfixed on what they’re hearing, and once Reznor starts singing those harmonised ‘HELP ME’s, it’s hard not to sing along with them. But once he starts talking about wanting to fuck people like they’re animals, fun time is over, and now we are in his perverted sex dungeon as his resident hostage.
Kudos to him for recognising that sex sells, but this is one of the most unsexy songs about fornication that anyone has ever attempted. Then again, it’s not necessarily supposed to be seductive. This is about someone letting themselves succumb to their most predatory instincts, but it’s also impossible for anyone to look away.
