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!