80s Kids Used To Jam Out to These 3 Songs; Now They Can’t Help but Get Creeped Out

There’s something about 80s music that yielded a lot of excellent songs that fans got creeped out by years later. In retrospect, I can’t imagine how anyone could miss the dark lyrics hidden in the following three songs. Perhaps it’s because they’re just such good tunes musically that listeners got distracted. Either way, these are three songs that 80s kids loved but got creeped out by once they realized what the songs were actually about.

“Every Breath You Take” by The Police from ‘Synchronicity’ (1983)

This song from The Police is the poster child for lists like this. Musically, “Every Breath You Take” is incredibly catchy and well-composed. Lyrically, it’s also a great piece of work. But those lyrics are quite dark once you realize that they are sung from the perspective of a stalker who obsessively stalks the object of his affection, always watching her.

“The tune itself is generic, an aggregate of hundreds of others, but the words are interesting,” said the track’s songwriter, Sting. “It sounds like a comforting love song. I didn’t realize at the time how sinister it is. I think I was thinking of Big Brother, surveillance and control.”

“Nebraska” by Bruce Springsteen from ‘Nebraska’ (1982)

Alright, if you have ears and can understand the English language, you probably got creeped out the first time you listened to “Nebraska” by Bruce Springsteen. That doesn’t make it any less of an amazing song, though. And plenty of 80s kids listened to this classic straight from the record player, likely lying on the floor of their bedrooms, staring at the ceiling. But those lyrics, man… What a spooky tale.

“Nebraska” is based on a real-life horror. The song is sung from the perspective of one Charles Starkweather. He was a serial killer who murdered 11 people during a “spree” in 1958. He was later arrested and executed by electrocution. The case remains a blight on the state of Nebraska’s history. Springsteen also said that some of the imagery of the song was inspired by the 1973 movie Badlands, a crime drama about the Starkweather murders.

“Don’t You Want Me” by The Human League from ‘Dare’ (1981)

This entry on our list of songs that creeped 80s kids out was actually a surprise to me. This is such a fun, upbeat, danceable track that I never really listened to the lyrics. From the chorus alone, I assumed it was a heartbreak tune about unrequited love. That’s definitely what the song is about, but the lyrics are actually much worse at the same time.

“Don’t You Want Me” is a synth-soaked new wave tune about a man who turns a waitress into a pop superstar, not unlike the plot of A Star Is Born. However, lines like “But don’t forget, it’s me who put you where you are now / And I can put you back down too” and “You know I don’t believe you when you say that you don’t need me” are unsettlingly sinister.

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