# Dark pop songs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 4, 2011, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-pop-songs/584343 "2011-06-04T22:42:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-pop-songs/584343/1 "2011-06-04T22:42:58Z")
First, I’m talking specially about the pop genre, and not just popular music that gets air play. Usually pop songs are happy tunes about love or sex. But lately I’ve been wondering about dark pop songs. For example, **New Order** ’s “[True Faith](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og1HAkjOuL0)” is about drug dependency\*, **Bronski Beat** ’s “[Smalltown Boy](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xuz94ZIPfJk)” being about isolation and rejection for being gay, and **Suzanne Vega** ’s song “[Luka](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZt7J0iaUD0)” being about abuse. So, what dark pop songs can you think of? And if you don’t mind, state why they are dark. - From [here](http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/15802/) > [@](#): > > this is from the songwriter, Bernard Sumner himself, during an interview for Q magazine in 1999. > “(True Faith) is about drug dependency. I don’t touch smack but when I wrote that song I tried to imagine what it’s like to be a smackhead and nothing else matters to you except that day’s hit. There’s a line in the song, 'When I was a very young boy, very young boys played with me/Now we’ve grown up together, they’re afraid of what they see.” The original was, ‘Now they’re taking drugs with me,’ but Stephen Hague our producer made us change it because he said it wouldn’t be a hit if we kept that line in. He was right. It was a very big hit, but we chickened out. I change it back sometimes live." ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-pop-songs/584343/2 "2011-06-04T22:46:49Z")
A very popular song by The Buoys-[_Timothy_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGNdvKvbxYQ), was about cannibalism. ---
**Author:** ![Gilles\_de\_Rais](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@Gilles\_de\_Rais](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gilles_de_Rais)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-pop-songs/584343/3 "2011-06-04T23:15:19Z")
Blue Öyster Cult’s _The Reaper_ deals with the inevitability of death. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds did a whole album of Murder Ballads (love it!) and a handful of other artists had very popular murder ballads: Tom Jones - _Delilah_ Kingston Trio - _Tom Dooley_ Bob Dylane - _Hurricane_ and _Stagger Lee_ which has been covered by everyone from Duke Ellington to the Grateful Dead. Then there are all those songs from the 50s about death and suicide; the guy who went back into the car on the railroad tracks for the school ring, _Billy, Don’t Be a Hero_ about going off to war and dying, and one of the first school massacres became _I Don’t Like Mondays_ by the Boomtown Rats. All pretty grim and dark, I’d say… ---
**Author:** ![samjones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@samjones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samjones)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-pop-songs/584343/4 "2011-06-04T23:18:59Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > First, I’m talking specially about the pop genre, and not just popular music that gets air play. In a river, the color of lead, immerse the baby’s head. Wrap her up in the News of the World, leave her on a doorstep girl. Dark enough for you? ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-pop-songs/584343/5 "2011-06-04T23:21:41Z")
Getting there. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-pop-songs/584343/6 "2011-06-04T23:22:25Z")
[_Run For Your Life_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv_Y1kbZbJA), by the Beatles. The tone is set in the first two lines: Well I’d rather see you dead, little girl Than to be with another man ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-pop-songs/584343/7 "2011-06-04T23:45:00Z")
[He Hit Me (and it felt like a kiss)](http:// [- YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9RuP1QMXOs&feature=youtube_gdata_player)) performed by The Crystals and written by Carole King. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-pop-songs/584343/8 "2011-06-05T02:04:35Z")
[Alone Again (Naturally)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_P-v1BVQn8) by Gilbert O’Sullivan. Contemplating suicide in the first verse, getting left at the altar, being deserted by God, parents dying. And a nice peppy beat! ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-pop-songs/584343/9 "2011-06-05T02:09:32Z")
[Disturbia](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1mU6h4Xdxc) by Rihanna about going insane. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-pop-songs/584343/10 "2011-06-05T02:46:49Z")
Third Eye Blind’s “Semi-Charmed Life.” An upbeat, poppy song that everyone was singing along with in the 90s-- actually a song about a guy’s descent into meth addiction and freaky sex. The Beatles’ “Help.” An actual cry-for-help by Lennon, sung in a radio-friendly up-tempo fashion. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Conqueror\_Worm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@The\_Conqueror\_Worm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Conqueror_Worm)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-pop-songs/584343/11 "2011-06-05T02:55:37Z")
**Veronica** by Elvis Costello. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-pop-songs/584343/12 "2011-06-05T05:00:58Z")
[“Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)”,](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDXLyczUMoE)Billy Joel. An uptempo description of the destruction of New York City. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-pop-songs/584343/13 "2011-06-05T05:17:00Z")
[Kiss with a Fist](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZOBRbVCJL4) Florence and the Machine I was going to say Tori Amos’ ‘Me and a Gun’, but I don’t know if it ever made it to the ‘pop’ stage. I love, love LOVE Kiss with a Fist, but when co-workers realize what the words are they act horrified. 😛 It’s such a great song, though! ---
**Author:** ![Teufelblitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@Teufelblitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teufelblitz)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-pop-songs/584343/14 "2011-06-05T05:20:45Z")
Since the focus is Pop music, I think the King of Pop deserves some attention. Billy Jean is about being accused of being the father of an illegitimate child. Dirty Diana is a tale if infidelity. Thriller was deliberately morbid, even if a bit kitschy. Man in the Mirror was about pretty much every horror in the world and how we should all feel responsible for them. Those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-pop-songs/584343/15 "2011-06-05T05:26:35Z")
“Every Breath You Take” by The Police is about stalking. “Roxanne” is about a hooker. ---
**Author:** ![Labtrash](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/labtrash/32/528_2.png) [@Labtrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labtrash)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-pop-songs/584343/16 "2011-06-05T12:04:54Z")
The subject matter in Warren Zevon’s _Excitable Boy_ is pretty dark. Not sure if it qualifies as pop, though. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-pop-songs/584343/17 "2011-06-05T12:39:28Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > [Alone Again (Naturally)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_P-v1BVQn8) by Gilbert O’Sullivan. Contemplating suicide in the first verse, getting left at the altar, being deserted by God, parents dying. And a nice peppy beat! This is probably the perfect example. I’ll counteroffer the Bee Gees’ “Tragedy,” partly because it’s another song with grim lyrics behind a high-energy beat, and partly because for much of my life I mistakenly thought “Alone Again, Naturally” was a Bee Gees song. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-pop-songs/584343/18 "2011-06-05T12:43:33Z")
> [@samjones](#): > > In a river, the color of lead, immerse the baby’s head. Wrap her up in the News of the World, leave her on a doorstep girl. > Dark enough for you? She could have been a poet or she could have been a fool. I think we’ll probably run into some controversy in the definition of “pop.” Britain has a much different pop scene than the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-pop-songs/584343/19 "2011-06-05T14:02:40Z")
I Love the Way You Lie by Eminem and Rhianna Hey, Man Nice Shot by Filter Possum Kingdom by The Toadies ---
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-pop-songs/584343/20 "2011-06-05T15:33:22Z")
[Freshman](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hxe85iErew) by The Verve Pipe [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-pop-songs/584343.md?page=2)