Sometimes you just can’t help what you love. In music, as in life, there are unpleasant things that still appeal to us for any number of reasons. It could be a personal experience, good or bad, that a particular song evokes or even resolves, or the quality songcraft itself and lyrics be damned. Or maybe you just don’t realize exactly what you’re singing along to? But the fact is there are many disturbing songs that we can’t help but love.
Like the ones listed in the gallery above … Some are overtly offensive, intentionally shocking or graphic of language; others more subtle and sneaky as they go about their business. They camouflage their ill intent behind honeyed rhymes or vague allusions just long enough to wind their way into your heart. And once you figure out their misleading ways, well, it’s too late to stop loving them.
Likewise, some of the artists on this list are repeat offenders. Hard rock icons like Alice Cooper, Slayer and Slipknot have built entire careers on the premise of freaking people out. Picking just one song that was especially popular and especially disturbing to represent these artists was not an easy task.
READ MORE: 15 Rock Songs That Are Actually Really Creepy
Other artists on this list, such as Pearl Jam, Toadies or the Ramones, make less frequent visits to the dark side but, in some ways, their forays come across that much more shocking. There’s no single way to define what makes a song disturbing.
So scroll through our gallery of 50 Disturbing Songs That People Love below to find which tunes unnerved us the most.
50 Disturbing Songs That People Love
You may be surprised by the disturbing nature of some of the songs you’ve been singing along to for years!
Gallery Credit: Eduardo Rivadavia, Loudwire
