What are the most upbeat songs with kind of depressing lyrics?
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
Not entirely upbeat, but people always play Linger by the Cranberries like it’s a love song. Most definitely isn’t.
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
Mark Knopfler has quite a few. Postcards from Paraguay. Quality Shoe. Romeo and Juliet. Boom Like That. It's a thing with him - contrasting the music with the theme.
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
The entirety of hissing fauna are you the destroyer by of Montreal
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Damn, I gotta go read those lyrics.
::: spoiler excerpt from the last verse
It's all over and I'm standin' pretty
In this dust that was a city
::: -
The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
wrote last edited by [email protected]- Eleanor Rigby by The Beatles
- Some Nights by Fun (and the music video really reinforces it)
- I Wanna Get Better by Bleachers
- a bunch of different songs by P!nk
- Weird Al's presidential debate autotune songs ("Bad Hombres, Nasty Women" from 2016, "WE'RE ALL DOOMED" from 2020, and "Deja Vu (But Worse)" from 2024)
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
Ruru's suicide stream ? Would that one count ? Damn it's like all the songs flew out of my brain the moment I read this question ahahahh
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
I always thought Free Four by Pink Floyd fit that category well.
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
Bad Moon Rising by Creedence.
It's about the apocalypse, but you wouldn't know it from how upbeat it is.
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
Talking Heads - Life During Wartime and Once in a Lifetime spring to mind.
It's probably easier to list the Talking Heads songs that are not upbeat and depressing.
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
wrote last edited by [email protected]Looks like we all forgot Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA.
Adding You Haven’t Done Nothin’ - Stevie Wonder’s bitch slap to Nixon, and CCR’s Fortunate Son.
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A solid majority of Bastille's discography comes to mind, though not as outright depressing as Pumped Up Kicks or Youth of a Nation, most of their tracks tend to be very instrumentally upbeat and lively, with gorgeous vocals, but thematically darker lyrics / topics. Happier comes to mind as immediately fitting the prompt (and having enough radio play to be recognizable), but The Draw, Haunt, and Skulls also fit well (I'd also included their cover of City High's What Would You Do, also long as being a cover isn't a immediate disqualifier).
I feel like they're kind of slept on since they don't get a whole lot of radio play outside of a handful of songs, but all their other work is just so good. Personal top favorite artist, hands down.
It'd be hard for a song with a title like "Pompeii" to be anything but dark, LOL
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99 Luftballons is upbeat and fun, and about some balloons inadvertently kicking off a cataclysmic war that leaves the world in ruins.
wrote last edited by [email protected]It's about the cold war paranoia. Sound is all synth pop upbeat, though.
The English version is called "99 Red Balloons".
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Good point. Born in the USA and Fortunate Son would probably fit in here as well.
Other songs frequently misunderstood by people of a certain political party
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99 Luftballons is upbeat and fun, and about some balloons inadvertently kicking off a cataclysmic war that leaves the world in ruins.
The balloons were a metaphor for the mushroom clouds from the nukes going off
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
Billy Idol - Dancing with Myself
Loneliness masked as liberation.Bulletproof - La Roux
Emotional numbness disguised as empowermentSome Linkin Park songs (Bleed it out, Up from the Bottom, etc.)
There's so many such songs...
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
That's like Paul Simon's entire schtick. Alongside downbeat songs with uplifting lyrics.
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
most of the after laughter album by paramore
also hey ya by outkast is often played at weddings while being about a relationship failing
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
Born in the USA
