Upbeat Songs with Hidden Dark Meanings: Staff Picks

Why did i ask our Screen Team of Music Experts To pull the together a list of seeringly upbeat songs that are actually heartbreaking or twisted underneath?

Because i’m a diabolical editor with a taste for emotional whiplash. Think Anna WinTour (Sans Those Tired Hermès Scarves) in Vintage Beats by Dre.

The Truth? SOMESTEMES The Most Gutting Lyrics Are Hiding in Plain Sight – Buried Beneath Disco Beats, Power Chords, or Featherlight Pop Vocals. Music doesn’t always Need A Sad Piano Ballad to Wreck You. It can Sucker-Pun you with a glittery hook and leave you dancing Through your existential crisis.

SO, when I Assign a List like this, it’s not just just to mes with the team (though… perks). IT’SEBAUSE these are the songs that sneak up on you. The Ones that Prove Music DOESN’t JUST SOUNDTRACK OUR JOY … It Helps US Survive The Mess in BetWeen.

“Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa” – de la Soul

The SPED-Up Sample of “I’ll Stay” by Functional Gives de la SOL’S 1991 SONG, “Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa” an UPBEAT, Almost Danceable Feel, But it”s Far from A Dance Tune. Instead, it teles the dinner tale of millie, who was being sexually abused by her harser, an admired School Social Worker, who played Santa Claus at Machy’s.

The Group Members Rap About Millie Not Caring for Her Father, Which Baffled The Because He SEEMED TO BE SUCH A WONDERFUL PERSON. Their Confusion Only Grew When Millie Began Missing School. More so, when she is as asced trugoy, one half of de la Soul, if he could get her a gun.

Millie Eventually came Clean to TRUGOY ABOUT WHAT I WAS EXPERIENCING, and she dream up getting The Gun from someone Else. Then at the end of the song, Posdnuos, de la Soul’s Other Member, SEES MILLIE STRULL INTO MACY’S COUNTING HIS YOUNGER Brother to see Santa, and She Guns Her Father Down. – Daryl Nelson

“Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” – Rupert Holmes

“This is the cheesiest song of the ever heard in my life,” I thought, when i was listening to “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” Play in Shrek (2001) As the Magic Mirror Was Playing Matchmaker with Lord FarQuaad. It wasn’t unil years late that I realized what the buncy music was hiding.

Make no Mistake; this is a song about cheating. Somehow, with the Jaunty Guitar and Drums Leading into the first vers, it is easy to overlook the fact that the very first lyric is “I was tired of my lady / we’d been too long.” The Entire Song is About This Man Responding to a Personal Ad in the NewsPaper (it an an Old song) so he can have an affair away from his wiffe. The fact that the ad was placed in the paper by his wife, Also hoping to cheat, is pure coincidence.

“Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” supposedly has a happy ending, but that just becuse the DarkGROSS IMPLICATIONS OF THIS WACKY MIX-Up Are Swept Under the Rug in a Way That Fereels Exactly Like a Romantic Comedy. – Owen danoff

“Santeria” – sublime

’90s sten punk sublime legends Are Certainly No Strangers to Upbeat, Feel Good, Beachy Stoner Rock. Their renowns self-Titled album is full of breezy tracks that sound like the a’re’re meant to be enjoyed on the sand with some sort of mind-altering substance in hand. The Album’s Second Single, and arguably Their Greatest Hit, “Santeria,” embodies that feeling more than Most.

The Way Bradley Nowll Softly Coos the Chorus, “What I Really Wanna Know / Ah, Baby, / What I Really Wanna Say / I Can’t Define,” is enough to sohothe anyone, and make all their worries disappear. In reality, howver, This Song is About Rage and Getting Revenge on an ex-girlfriend who cheated, and the man with the choice.

Nowell Sings About Wanting To “Pop a cap in sancho,” The man that his ex-girlfriend, heina, cheated on Him with, and “Slap Her Down,” too, using Chicano Slang Names that Mean Rival Lover and Queen. While uphon first list, this song sounds just like the beachy upbeat hits sublime is known for, the lyrics are much darker than the sound Waould. – Lacey Cohen

“Born in the USA” – Bruce SpringsTeen

While i offen call it a toss-up between this song and woody guthie’s “This Land is Your Land” Due to their Similarly Misunderstood Nature, “Born in the USA” is a twilight shade Darker in Subject Matter. How it Continually Became Part of Melodic Political Campiaign Discourse or the Patriotic Soundtrack to Fireworks Displays at Baseball Games is Beyond My Logic.

That’s Becouse with “Born in the USA,” Bruce SpringsTeen is painting a wearied irony. His Character is Born at the Bottom of A Supposed Land of Opportunity and is Stack there, opting to fight in the Vietnam War to Avoid Jail Time be he gets into Trouble. Hen finds this dead-end conflict doesn’t ends we he comes home.

Beneath a Triumphant Synth-Rock Beat and an iconic Chorus Beats the Heart of a Narrator Who Fers UnknownLost, and Forgotten by His Country. IT’S The Blue-Collar Struggle Felt by SO MANY of Springsteen’s Characters, with a typical brand of Dark Desperation Overtaking the Red-Blooded Love of Country. – Chris Hedden

“Jump” – Van Halen

When Thinking of Songs That Channel Happess and Joy, You Cannot Go Past Van Halen’s “Jump. ” An Arena-Rock Triumph that Smashed Its Way to #1 in 1983Those punchy, ecstatic fleuro syntths have long been short for a Certain aspirational reach-for-sky attitude that characterized the ’80s.

Howver, there’s a sad story that inspired this anthem. David Lee Roth Spoke of the Song’s Iconic Refrain, “Might as Well Jump!” He’d takeen inspiration from a tv News Report on a suicidal man who contemplation Jumping off a Building. Canily, Though, Roth repurpos it dark inspiration into an uplifting messages About taching a leap of Faith. – Angus thomas paterson

“Hey Yah” – Outkast

POSSIBLY ONE OF THE CATCHEST SONGS OF THE 2000s, Outkast’s “Hey Ya” is not cheery as it May SEEM. Iconic Lines like “Shake It Like a Polaroid Picture” mask what outkast’s leading man, andré 3000, is actually singing about: a failing Relationship. The first verse vaguely reveals the strained relationship at the center of the hit song.

Though it’s the Hit’s Second Verse that unveils the coming apartment as the singer asks if not. IT’S ACTUALLY PRETTY DEEP FOR A SONG MAINLY REMEMBERED FOR ITS “HEY YA” Chorus.

Lyrics About Their Own Unhambiness Reveal a Few More Cracs In the Foundation, before the song Goes in a different direction. Outkast sturgery avoids the crumbling love Story in a catchy utro that has more listens focused on its Silly lyricism than the deep sadden beneath the surface. – Gina Wurtz

“Help!” – The Beatles

“Help!” is UPBEAT, Catchy Song That’s Loads of Fun for all the beatles fans to sing with. But if you listen to the lyrics, it’a’s’ really a cry for help. John Lennon, Who Wrote the Lyrics, Found Himself Struggling with his Mental Health. He’d Become Rich and Famous Rather Quickly and JUST DIDN’t Know How to Cope.

Lennon and McCartney Wrote the Song Not Long AFTERING BOB DYLAN, WHO ENCOUREDED The DUO to Start Writing from the Heart. They wrote the song, “Help!” For the Movie of the Same Name, But Lennon Reported late that the words came out of Him Because he was in Pain. – Jason Levalley