# Music that scares the crap out of you **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 24, 2017, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/780680 "2017-02-24T23:43:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2018, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/780680/81 "2018-08-04T02:11:25Z")
Interesting thread to resurrect: listened to most of the songs and don’t know if the crap was scared out of me but this is not happy time… For “Classical”, a book I read said this piece, Shostakovich’s Symphony no. 8, 3rd Movement, was “Terror and agony and heartbreak, captured in music.” Considering it was written by a Russian in the summer of 1943, there was enough terror and agony and heartbreak to capture. Don’t know if I want to listen to the whole thing… [Shostakovich's 8th Symphony by Mravinsky, mov 3 - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bhcw41fOdEY) For “Pop”, _Swamp Witch Hattie_ is more narration than song, but if it doesn’t give you at least a little shiver…[Swamp Witch- Jim Stafford - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB0SxXTR_UI) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2018, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/780680/82 "2018-08-04T03:43:42Z")
When I was in high school, I was lying in bed with earphones on, listening to a stack of my brother’s classical records. “Mars, the Bringer of War” from Holst’s _ **The Planets** _ came on just as I dozed off. Holy crap! The dream I had listening to that piece scared the hell out of me. I tried as hard as I could to wake up, but the visions kept right on coming. I finally woke up in a cold sweat. Another piece that gives me the creeps is Haendel's "Sarabande." I would feel that way even if it hadn't been the background music for a BBC documentary on Auschwitz: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JSAd3NpDi6Q/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCOADEOgC8quKqQMa8AEB-AG-AoAC8AGKAgwIABABGGUgWihCMA8=&rs=AOn4CLDCrdBbcR3W7cL7R9tMRNrqRkg27Q "Handel - Sarabande") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSAd3NpDi6Q) ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2018, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/780680/83 "2018-08-04T04:33:28Z")
This song. Has anyone ever REALLY listened to the lyrics? Battle Hymn of the Republic Sorry if I offended anybody. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2018, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/780680/84 "2018-08-04T04:43:23Z")
[quote=“terentii, post:82, topic:780680”] Another piece that gives me the creeps is Haendel’s “Sarabande.” I would feel that way even if it hadn’t been the background music for a BBC documentary on Auschwitz: [/QUOTE] Since I know that piece only as “the Barry Lyndon music”, the makers of that documentary - assuming it was made after the Kubrick film - really should have gone with something else. (Checks Wikipedia) - yes, it was made in 2005. I don’t really know how much of a household name _Barry Lyndon_ is, but I doubt anyone who’s a fan of Kubrick will _ever_ be able to hear that piece without envisioning Barry Lyndon and the smug voice of that film’s narrator. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2018, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/780680/85 "2018-08-04T04:57:56Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > Since I know that piece only as “the Barry Lyndon music”, the makers of that documentary - assuming it was made after the Kubrick film - really should have gone with something else. (Checks Wikipedia) - yes, it was made in 2005. I don’t really know how much of a household name _Barry Lyndon_ is, but I doubt anyone who’s a fan of Kubrick will _ever_ be able to hear that piece without envisioning Barry Lyndon and the smug voice of that film’s narrator. I’ve seen _ **Barry Lyndon** _. I remember “Liliburlero” and “British Grenadiers” being played in it, but "Sarabande"slipped my mind.\* **Duh!** :smack: \*Wasn’t “Auf Ansbach Dragoner” played in it as well? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2018, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/780680/86 "2018-08-04T16:36:23Z")
I never thought I would write this particular warning, but… NSFW opera scene… NSFS (not suitable for squeamish) either. [URL=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRYNHOiEFBs]Scene from Richard Strauss’s _Salome_ Salome, Herod’s daughter, in the opera about her by Richard Strauss, has a half-deranged half-ecstatic love scene with the dead body of John the Baptist. You can hear the mentally ill music and the triumphant love music alternating and then strangely merging. It’s disturbing. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2018, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/780680/87 "2018-08-04T17:05:40Z")
The earliest recordings – on wax cylinders – spook me out. For example, here’s Brahms playing his own music: [Johannes Brahms. Talks and Plays. Best Sound. Edison Phonograph - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRcMPxbaDAY) ---
**Author:** ![Philliam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/philliam/32/3011_2.png) [@Philliam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philliam)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2018, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/780680/88 "2018-08-04T17:42:06Z")
Wonderful and scary and ominous all at the same time: Lisa Gerrard (Dead Can Dance) - _The Host of Seraphim_: [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iqxzURgQWg) ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2018, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/780680/89 "2018-08-04T20:52:35Z")
_Erlkönig_ - Schubert’s version has creeped me out since the day I was introduced to it in an eighth grade music appreciation class. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erlk%C3%B6nig\_(Goethe)#Text ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2018, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/780680/90 "2018-08-05T02:28:41Z")
This video scares the hell out of me: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n\_qbGJuxCYY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_qbGJuxCYY) ---
**Author:** ![HowSoonIsThen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@HowSoonIsThen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HowSoonIsThen)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2018, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/780680/91 "2018-08-05T03:32:08Z")
> [@ruadh](#): > > Throbbing Gristle’s “Hamburger Lady”. Don’t go there if you don’t have to. Trust me on this. Replying to a comment over a year old, but still… Slug Bait is the one that scared me when I first heard it as a teen. Of course, listening back now the lyrics are ridiculous death metal style edginess. But it really had an effect on me at the time. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2018, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/780680/92 "2018-08-05T04:14:39Z")
[quote=“Philliam, post:88, topic:780680”] Wonderful and scary and ominous all at the same time: Lisa Gerrard (Dead Can Dance) - _The Host of Seraphim_: [/QUOTE] That was perfect for the penultimate sequence of King’s/Darabont’s “The Mist.” ---
**Author:** ![laurieb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/51bf81/32.png) [@laurieb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/laurieb)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2018, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/780680/93 "2018-08-06T16:24:16Z")
Anything that’s vaporwave. My boyfriend and I went on vacation in Singapore last summer. He somehow thought it would be a great idea to relax on the bed in our hotel room, watch the skyline, and listen to some vaporwave from YouTube. 5 minutes in, I couldn’t take it. It’s creepy as hell. That kind of music is so unsettling to me… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-scares-the-crap-out-of-you/780680.md?page=4)