Top 10 Most Disturbing Songs Because of What We Know Now

WatchMojo

Hmm... in hindsight... Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for pieces of music that, in light of dark events that occurred after their release, now induce chills.

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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for pieces of music that, in

00:09light of dark events that occurred after their release, now induce chills.

00:21Number 10.

00:22Bump N Grind – R. Kelly

00:28Any song that begins with those lyrics would be considered to have aged like milk.

00:34However, when you take into account singer Kelly's literal decades of misconduct allegations,

00:40the lyrics to Bump N Grind take on an entirely new context that would churn the stomach of

00:46even the most hardened listener.

00:55Originally acquitted in 2008 of misconduct charges involving minors, Kelly was sentenced

01:00to 31 years in prison following convictions in 2021 and 23.

01:05Kelly's self-admitted inability to control his inhibitions on Bump N Grind now leaves

01:10listeners hitting skip.

01:23After the premiere of Surviving R. Kelly in 2019, Lady Gaga scrubbed a version of her

01:292013 hit, Do You Want?, that featured Kelly from streaming services.

01:34Good call.

01:40Number 9.

01:41I Took A Pill In Ibiza – Mike Posner

01:44Posner's tropical dancefloor anthem is already a deceptively dark song.

01:54Its shockingly blunt lyrics find the Cooler Than Me singer lamenting on the hollow nature

02:00of fame and the stark realization that money and material possessions won't make you

02:05happy.

02:16The song's chorus, however, is where things really start to become eerie.

02:20It name-drops the late producer Avicii and, according to Posner, refers to a real-life

02:25incident in which he follows the Swedish DJ to the titular island and succumbed to

02:30peer pressure.

02:31Tragically, Avicii, born Tim Bergling, took his own life in 2018, reportedly following

02:38years-long struggles with addiction.

02:40Knowing that turns a cautionary tale into an uneasy, unintentional tribute.

02:55Number 8.

02:572009 – Mac Miller

03:06Pop fans were hit hard in September 2018 when Pittsburgh native Miller, born Malcolm

03:12McCormick, passed away from a drug overdose.

03:16Those same fans were also quick to point out that Miller had never shied away from addressing

03:20themes of addiction and depression in his music.

03:24In particular, they looked to 2009, the penultimate song on his 2018 album, Swimming, Miller's

03:31last before 2020's posthumous Circles.

03:41The song alludes to Miller's difficulty with his rapid rise to fame.

03:46The title is a reference to the release year of his first mixtapes.

03:50Over a gentle, twinkling beat, Miller rap-sings about using to ease his pain, and most heartbreakingly

03:57of all, argues that an angel's supposed to fly.

04:10Number 7.

04:11I Need A Girl Part 2 – P Diddy Not unlike Bump N Grind, the lyrics to the

04:24I Need A Girl Part 1 probably elicited cringe from listeners at the time, in this case,

04:30the year 2002.

04:32Written and co-produced by Sean P. Diddy Combs himself, the song raises eyebrows more than

04:37once.

04:38Did Puffy just compare the love of his life to… a brother?

04:42And for that matter, why are these brothers doing that?

04:46The chorus will definitely make you wince too.

04:54While I Need A Girl, the second, was already uncomfortable enough, that feeling doubled

04:59after Combs was hit with multiple misconduct and assault lawsuits at the end of 2023.

05:12Number 6.

05:13That'll Be The Day – Buddy Holly February 3rd, 1959 is known as the day the

05:20music died for a reason.

05:22That was the day the three rock and roll legends met a tragic and storied end when their plane

05:27crashed in Iowa.

05:29They were Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the big bopper J.P. Richardson.

05:44The man born Charles Hardin Holly had only relatively recently made his major label breakthrough

05:49album That'll Be The Day.

05:52That album's title track was a massive hit within the final year of Holly's life.

06:03Its chorus, detailing Holly's confidence that his relationship will never end, became

06:08tragically ironic following that plane crash, when in reality his wife, Maria Elena, was

06:15widowed.

06:16I knew that if I would have been there Buddy would have not taken the plane because I would

06:21have put my foot down and said no.

06:24Number 5.

06:25New Dawn Fades – Joy Division One of the literal progenitors of the gothic

06:38rock sub-genre, it goes without saying that Joy Division songs are already pretty spooky

06:43to begin with.

06:45Singer Ian Curtis, plagued by mental health and substance use disorder issues, took his

06:49own life on the 18th of May in 1980, aged only 23.

07:03Curtis' songwriting tackled these topics head-on, and this is no more apparent than

07:07on New Dawn Fades.

07:09Over a plodding drum beat that supports a fuzzy, Black Sabbath-tinged guitar riff, Curtis

07:15spares a soul about his total hopelessness in that unique baritone.

07:26Number 4.

07:27Legends – Juice WRLD Jared Higgins, better known to the general

07:38public as Juice WRLD, was plagued by similar issues to Mac Miller.

07:43Higgins, a major proponent of the 2010's emo rap scene, was perhaps even more unflinchingly

07:50honest about his substance use problem.

07:53A not-so-insignificant portion of his discography is devoted to this very topic.

08:06Legends, which appears on the artist's 2018 EP Too Soon, as well as his posthumous

08:122021 album Fighting Demons, makes chilling predictions to this effect.

08:18This is especially haunting when you consider that Higgins died in 2019 at the age of 21,

08:24exactly as the chorus of this song anticipates.

08:37Number 3.

08:38Rehab – Amy Winehouse Amy Winehouse's once-in-a-lifetime talent

08:47was grounded in her attitude, her unwillingness to be anything but authentically herself.

08:53That meant writing songs that drew extensively from her tumultuous personal life, which was

08:59the subject of mass media coverage and public scrutiny in the 2000's.

09:04So much so that her first album was entitled simply Frank.

09:08The release of her second album, Back to Black, was preceded by the single Rehab, produced

09:13by Mark Ronson.

09:19The upbeat Motown-inspired tune, in Winehouse's characteristically uncompromising manner,

09:25details the artist's refusal to give in to the demands of those around her.

09:30The British songbird's 2011 passing, induced by alcohol poisoning, permanently lent Rehab

09:36an unsettling double meaning.

09:39Add Back to Black's title song for an extra dose of spookiness.

09:51Number 2.

09:52Come As You Are – Nirvana It's no secret that Nirvana frontman Kurt

10:01Cobain was a master of dark, unsettling songwriting.

10:06In fact, there were multiple examples that stood out to us.

10:09In particular, I Hate Myself and Want to Die, the title of which clashes with its irreverent

10:15seemingly unrelated lyrics.

10:25Come As You Are adopts a similar tone, but takes on even more layers following Cobain's

10:31untimely end in 1994.

10:33Specifically, the song's verses consist of contradictory commands.

10:38And its bridge is Cobain declaring that he doesn't have a gun.

10:43Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of Nirvana's backstory can tell you precisely why this

10:48gives them goosebumps.

10:57Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

11:01Leaving on a Jet Plane – John Denver Foreshadows the way Denver met his end in

11:071997 Pretty Noose – Soundgarden

11:20Same as John Denver, but for Chris Cornell in 2017

11:31My Ding-a-ling – Chuck Berry A fairly creepy song even before considering

11:36Berry's numerous misconduct scandals.

11:47Time in a Bottle – Jim Croce Croce's final number one before his untimely passing

11:53is about not having enough time.

12:20Look At Your Game Girl – Charles Manson You probably already have a pretty good idea

12:32as to how this song ended up on our list.

12:36Music producer Phil Kaufman met Charles Manson while the two were imprisoned at the same

12:40facility.

12:41The two became friends, and Kaufman later recorded Manson's debut album Lie, The Love

12:47and Terror Cult through 1967 into 68.

13:02Among those songs was Look At Your Game Girl, an innocuous, simplistic folk song on the

13:08surface.

13:09Lyrics have been re-examined in the wake of Manson's infamous 1969 crime spree.

13:20In its review of the album, AllMusic described the song as embodying his fundamental approach

13:26to influencing young women by targeting their socially imposed hang-ups.

13:31Suddenly, Look At Your Game Girl isn't so innocuous.

13:41Which songs do you have a hard time listening to because of something terrible that's

13:45associated with them?

13:46Let us know in the comments!

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