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The Most Frightening Or Unnerving Song

The Prophet Song by Queen always made me shudder.

Perhaps a little more obtuse was the theme from Gentle Ben. It sort of conjoured up a picture of the calm before the storm (possibly a metaphor for the huge grizzly about to go bananas and eat the humans).

One by Metallica but maybe that was to do with the bleak vid that made for it.
 
DeeDeeTee said:
Most of what the group Queen did manages to make me angry and I don't know why, nothing against them personally, I can see that they were talented but the music makes me angry. Why? Answers ona postcard please.

Is it that any Queen music gets you to subconsciously think about the 'Greatest Rock Song of All Time' and 'First Video Ever to Be Played', Bohemian Raphsody? A song that we have all heard so often, that there is probably a few 1000 neurons in our brains that are continously playing it, in a loop, in our mind. I'd suggest that the sub-consciousness by this stage is probably gone through boredom with it and is now demented hearing this and is leaching through rage and anger to your waking self.

Or perhaps it's Brian May's poodle hair.

It's Brian Mays poodle hair!!! That's it!!! :D

I have no idea what it is about them at all. Some of the songs are catchy I can see that but if I really analyse it I think it's the screeching guitar and Freddie Mercurys rather operatic voice....plus, as you mention a little bit of the 'familiarity breeds contempt' creeping in.

I'm always intrigued by the power of music. How a drum beat can get us moving for instance. How 'rag-time' with his ragged tones drove people to predict the end of civilisation, How some people can get lost in jazz (I can't, I prefer 'trad' jazz which is seen as very unsophisticated). This is sort of linked to this-the power of music http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/4952646.stm
 
I'm always intrigued by the power of music. How a drum beat can get us moving for instance. How 'rag-time' with his ragged tones drove people to predict the end of civilisation, How some people can get lost in jazz

It seems to me, purely subjectively and with no hard facts to back me up, that music seems to be able to bypass the cerebral and logic parts of the mind and intertwine itself directly with your deepest emotions as well as being a important (and unbidden) cue for memories. Much more difficult with other forms of art, where analysis and comprehension are at the forefront - e.g. reading a book or film.

The power of repetitive beats, once you have gone past the self-conscious phase, the preening peacock/simulated sex phase that alot of dance can be, is I think that it takes you to a 'mystical' state of mind - almost out of body - it's no wonder to me that Sufi Mystics and other cultures around the globe use dance in this way.

Having said that alot of people like lyrics in popular music - something that leaves me cold, I barely remember song titles, never mind the lyrics - perhaps they have a different experience to me.
 
Of course there's an endless choice of stuff like Black/Death/Drone/Doom-Metal( & so-called "Goth" genre) music designed to be unnerving so I won't bother (or bore you by) naming the usual suspects.....
....but a couple that stand out from the pack are Abruptum & Sunno)))

.......Abruptum of course everyone already knows from "Lords of Chaos" & jeez they actually kinda live up to their image(unlike many others in the same genre). The first record these guys did had audio of their vocalist "It"(an actual Dwarf) screaming while he cut himself up in the recording studio. Word!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeBwKDAa ... re=related

/word to the wise: Clip is kinda nauseating & depressing: you have been warned

.....Sunno))) played in Melbourne about a year ago & people in neighbouring areas complained to the council, not about the band, the complainants thought construction was being done judging from the noises being made. A guy who was there at the gig, told me he left because he could "feel his brain rattling around in his skull". Surely a recommendation. Feedback city awaits:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtnG6EHh1N4

/nothing like a good old fashioned love song!


.
 
anything by sunn o)))

I dont really find it scary but it seems to hit a primal cord in my chest and makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up........

......the missus thinks its dross tho......lol
 
I was entertaining a young lady in my flat a few years ago :twisted: Had the lights off and a couple of candles lit. I put on Bach's "Also sprach Zarathustra" about half way through the lady said very forcibly that she "couldn't bear it any longer" and would I please put the lights on. she said later it had "terrified" her.
 
Mouldy13 said:
I was entertaining a young lady in my flat a few years ago :twisted: Had the lights off and a couple of candles lit. I put on Bach's "Also sprach Zarathustra" about half way through the lady said very forcibly that she "couldn't bear it any longer" and would I please put the lights on. she said later it had "terrified" her.

You sure she was talking about the music? ;)
 
What a bizarre choice of music for an intimate setting! It's not exactly Barry White, is it?
 
I once found a CD which was basically 'classical music for sex' - it had the Carmina Burana on it. That mental image really cracked me up :D
 
James_H2 said:
I once found a CD which was basically 'classical music for sex' - it had the Carmina Burana on it. That mental image really cracked me up :D

It's all in the timing, I'm guessing...
 
James_H2 said:
I once found a CD which was basically 'classical music for sex' - it had the Carmina Burana on it. That mental image really cracked me up :D

I remember a book about the "history of erotic film" mentioning one sex act to the tune of Ravel's Bolero :D

But to return to the subject:

A haunting and mysterious harpsichord tune - and that wonderful title:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZXzuIsxb64

It really gave me the shivers the first time I heard it.
 
uair01 said:
I remember a book about the "history of erotic film" mentioning one sex act to the tune of Ravel's Bolero :D

That'll be from the lamentable Dudley Moore film, '10'.
 
James_H2 said:
I once found a CD which was basically 'classical music for sex' - it had the Carmina Burana on it. That mental image really cracked me up :D

Probably didn't included Bach's, Wachet Auf (a.k.a Sleepers, wake).

I mean, you wouldn't want to tempt fate - it being based on the parable of the wise and foolish virgins.

Actually, maybe it did - to an English ear the words Wachet auf do sound a bit like an instruction.
 
James_H2 said:
I once found a CD which was basically 'classical music for sex' - it had the Carmina Burana on it. That mental image really cracked me up :D

The Old Spice effect.
 
poozler said:
teddy bears' picnic

first time I heard it (just a kid) I found it absolutely creepy. still do.

IIRC it was conceived as a grotesque intermezzo for orchestra by John Bratton in 1907. The words are much later - early 1930s. The model was certainly Gounod's Funeral March of a Marionette, best known as Hitchcock's sinister signature tune. 8)
 
JamesWhitehead, thanks for the info. I probably heard the Hitchcock theme and the Teddy Bear song around the same time and perhaps one had an effect of my perception of the other. They are both suggestive of slinking, leering, peeking creatures. (shivers)
 
Spookdaddy said:
Mouldy13 said:
I was entertaining a young lady in my flat a few years ago :twisted: Had the lights off and a couple of candles lit. I put on Bach's "Also sprach Zarathustra" about half way through the lady said very forcibly that she "couldn't bear it any longer" and would I please put the lights on. she said later it had "terrified" her.

You sure she was talking about the music? ;)

I like to think that she was :)
 
Maviself said:
Miley Cyrus *shudder*

No, but seriously Bach's Toccata & Fugue (in d minor or indeedy any key!)
Due entirely to a very creepy waxwork in Brading waxwork museum on the Isle of Wight. It portrayed a woman laying in bed dying of consumption with her chest rising and falling and the music playing really loudly!!
I was only about 8 years old, left me with a lifelong hatred of waxworks and THAT piece of music.
Thanks parents! :shock:


Oh my goodness, that waxwork scared the poo out of me when I visited it as a kid. For years I couldn't listen to Toccata and Fugue without getting a shudder down my spine. I think it was the skeletal monk playing the organ that did it for me (I was only about 5, and had pushed my way to the front of the group of people viewing it)

If I recall correctly the whole place was pretty creepy.
 
I've always been creeped out by the final track on the Butthole Surfers' album Locust Abortion Technician, "22 Going on 23". Basically, it's a recording of a young woman calling into a radio show about her rape, while distoted music plays in the background.

Also, "Star Bellied Boy" by riot grrl band Bikini Kill - not necessarily scary, but extremely intense.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nYX9C_lF4U

But most of all, "The Elements" by 4 Hero. Dark jungle track from the early 90s, featuring a shreiking choir, ominous bell sounds, a creaking dor slamming shut, and a sample of "this'll be the day that I die" from American Pie. I heard a story once about a guy crashing his car after this turned up on his dance mixtape.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HefafW-8wP0

The sound on that video isn't the best, which might deaden the effect the bit.
 
poozler said:
teddy bears' picnic

first time I heard it (just a kid) I found it absolutely creepy. still do.

Anyone seen the ad for the "th13teen" ride at Alton Towers?
Just made a whole new generation of kids creeped out by teddy bears' picnic!
 
Ever since watching Silence of the Lambs at a much, much too young age, 'Goodbye Horses' by Q Lazzarus has had a lasting effect on me. Although the scene has been parodied to the extent that the song now has almost comedic value, I still find it really quite unsettling.

The lyrics are quite dark too - According to Wikipedia, "the song is about transcendence over those who see the world as only earthy and finite. The horses represent the five senses from Hindu philosophy (The Bhagavad Gita) and the ability to lift one’s perception above these physical limitations and to see beyond this limited Earthly perspective.

The song is about someone who was so affected by a loss/breakup that they decide to give up the things that keep them tied to this world by emotion and 'leave the horses behind'..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLq3U6hkx-g
 
Electric_Monk said:
One song I find rather creepy to listen to is "The Well Below The Valley", the version I have is by Planxty but there's others.

Lyrics: http://www.kinglaoghaire.com/site/lyrics/song_603.html
Wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Well_Below_the_Valley

I believe the bush/lily/valley/well are also references to the female 'parts' :p
Not by Planxty, but there are several versions on You Tube. This one's from Christy Moore:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mjWhMn-VnU&feature=related

:yeay:
 
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