Songs About Fear
What I fear more than anything is giving in. As a depressed person, every day I face a sadness that wants me to burst into heaving sobs in the middle of a subway car. Every morning it tries to weigh me down in bed and keep me from going to work, to keep me from living my life.
Fear is a quick-change artist. It takes on different forms and wears thousands of hats. Sometimes fear looks like a slithering snake or a furry spider. It can be the sound of heavy footsteps behind you on the walk home at night. Fear can be thrilling when you’re breaking the rules. These are obvious forms of fear though, partially the result of a chemical reaction in our bodies. What about when you can’t open up your heart to someone? Or when you can’t speak your mind? It can be hard to pin down what exactly we are so afraid of in moments like these.
These 16 songs each take a different approach to fear. Some songs simply sound like fear with minor chords and haunting melodies. Other songs, like Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” are about some of the most terrifying acts of human on human violence. And a few of the songs are about scary things (ghosts, dying, etc.) and how they turn out to be not so scary after all.
These songs aren’t to pump you up above your fear. Instead, take a listen and open up to whatever it is you are afraid of. Examine your fears and get to know them well because that’s when it becomes easier to push them to the background and keep right on doing your thing.
1. “Dance in the Dark” by Lady Gaga
Gaga has repeatedly told the press this song is about a woman who can only have sex with the lights out because intimacy can be scary.
2. “Straight for the Knife” by Sia
This track holds some pretty scary lyrics on love. “I’m hungry for your bad loving” sounds like that place you never want to get to where you barely recognize yourself in love.
Liz Phair is my personal queen of all feelings. The two minutes and 30 seconds of guitar at the beginning is so ominous sounding. This is another one about that overwhelming kind of love.
4. “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday
This is one of the most famous protest songs about American racism. Holiday’s voice is harsh and rasping as she paints the scene after a lynching.
5. “The Body Electric” by Hurray for the Riff Raff
Singer Alynda Lee Segarra was tired of reading about violence towards women in the news and she wrote the song to challenge the classic murder ballad, which historically takes a flippant tone towards killing wives and girlfriends.
On a similar note, Grimes wrote this song about the fear of being assaulted. Lyrics like “Coming up behind you, always coming and you’d never have a clue” pin down pretty accurately that fear you have alone in a dark place.
Come on, like Beyoncé wasn’t going to be on this playlist. This is Bey at her spookiest.
This song has a creepy sound to me. Purity Ring can also write some pretty macabre lyrics.
Plenty of us are afraid of ghosts, especially of the ex-lover variety.
10. “Rattlesnake” by St. Vincent
The accelerating sound and feel of this song are a bit like being chased.
11. “The Harbinger” by Julianna Barwick
Julianna Barwick’s angelic voice can take a haunting turn on a number of her tracks, including this one. The breathy white noise bleeds into her looped vocals perfectly.
12. “White Fire” by Angel Olsen
“Everything is tragic” is the opening line to this eerie number. Olsen’s whispery vocals make it feel like a brick has been dropped right on your heart.
This is my go-to song to listen to when I’m lying on my bed and feeling afraid of losing someone in my life. There’s some delicious desperation and sadness mixed in.
Leslie Feist has written the sweetest, saddest songs about a fear being realized. Here it happens to be losing a love you didn’t try hard enough to keep.
15. “I’m Gonna Die” by Future Wife
“I’m gonna die someday then I’ll be gone and it’ll be ok.”
16. “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free” by Nina Simone
Nina Simone on how free life would be without fear.
