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* 4*Town - "1 True Love" from ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'' cowritten by Music/BillieEilish and Music/{{Finneas}}.
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* Music/TheWeeknd - "Wasted Times", in which despite his attachment-avoidance, the singer realizes he's not happy seeing anyone other than his ex, is jealous thinking about her dating other men, and tries to tell her she could come back anytime.
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* Sally Shapiro - "If You Ever Wanna Change Your Mind", which also marked the duo's ([[TenMinuteRetirement temporary]]) [[RealLifeWritesThePlot real-life breakup]].

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* Sally Shapiro - "If You Ever Wanna Change Your Mind", which also marked the duo's ([[TenMinuteRetirement temporary]]) [[RealLifeWritesThePlot real-life breakup]].breakup]], "Fading Away".
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* Jodeci - "Stay", "I'm Still Waiting".

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* Jodeci Music/{{Jodeci}} - "Stay", "I'm Still Waiting".
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* Music/FrankZappa - "Stuff Up the Cracks", the final track of ''Music/CruisinWithRubenAndTheJets'', has the singer plead his girl not to leave him [[SuicideAsComedy or else he'll kill himself with oven gas]].

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* Music/FrankZappa - "Stuff Up the Cracks", the final track of ''Music/CruisinWithRubenAndTheJets'', ''Music/CruisingWithRubenAndTheJets'', has the singer plead his girl not to leave him [[SuicideAsComedy or else he'll kill himself with oven gas]].
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* Music/FrankZappa - "Stuff Up the Cracks", the final track of ''Music/CruisinWithRubenAndTheJets'', has the singer plead his girl not to leave him [[SuicideAsComedy or else he'll kill himself with oven gas]].
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* Sally Shapiro & Tommy '86 - "Why Did I Say Goodbye".
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* Music/GlassAnimals - "Agnes" is a GriefSong about drifting apart from a friend who's succumbed to substance abuse and poor mental health. While it can sound like a more conventional breakup song, "Heat Waves" is also intended to be about processing the loss of a friend.

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* Music/GlassAnimals - "Gooey", in which the singer announces their departure from an AdultChild partner and disillusionment with their naïve and lackadaisical ways.



* Music/GoodKid: "Drifting" was written with this purpose. It's about a guy who no longer listens to his girlfriend, and wants to forget everything they've done together. The final line, "and now I know that you’ve been gone", confirms that the break up did happen. Good Kid often uses "Drifting" to close tours or playlists.

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* Music/GoodKid: Music/GoodKid - "Drifting" was written with this purpose. It's about a guy who no longer listens to his girlfriend, and wants to forget everything they've done together. The final line, "and now I know that you’ve been gone", confirms that the break up did happen. Good Kid often uses "Drifting" to close tours or playlists.



* Music/{{Pink}} - "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)" is such a cathartically explosive declaration of ''doneness'' with an emotionally-draining relationship that it crosses the line into making a breakup sound like the kind of occasion that warrants throwing a party.



* Music/{{Ludo}} - "Drunken Lament" is sung by a man who's on an extended bender after being dumped, begging into the void for his ex to come back and give him the chance to change himself into what she wants - with the implication being that [[{{Irony}} what she wants is a partner who doesn't have his tendencies to wallow in self-hatred.]]



* Music/{{Pink}} - "Please Don't Leave Me".

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* Music/{{Pink}} - "Please Don't Leave Me".Me", with a dark twist in that it's from the perspective of an abusive partner desperately attempting to manipulate their victim into taking them back.



* Music/{{Garbage}} - "Automatic Systematic Habit", in which the singer vents her rage and disgust to the man she's involved with on having discovered that she's one of many women he's been having affairs with and hiding from each other.



* Music/TheWeeknd - "Secrets", which samples the chorus of "Talking In Your Sleep" by the Romantics and recontextualizes it so that the singer's partner isn't talking about how much she loves ''him'' as she sleeps, but rather confirming his suspicions that she's interested in other people.



* Music/TheKillers - The infamous Murder Trilogy is, as the name implies, a three-song arc spinning a tale of this. "Leave the Bourbon On the Shelf" centers on the leaving, "Midnight Show" centers on the killing, and "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine" is the ex-boyfriend's [[UnreliableNarrator misleading account of events given to the police afterwards.]]



* Music/BlocParty: Intimacy is a goldmine of these. It was written after a bad breakup of the lead singer, Kele Okereke. We've got: "Trojan Horse", "One Month Off", "Your Visits Getting Shorter", "Zephyrus" and "One More Chance".

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* Music/BillyTalent - "Afraid of Heights" is a desperate plea to be a team again with a partner who's grown emotionally distant.
* Music/BlocParty: Intimacy ''Intimacy'' is a goldmine of these. It was written after a bad breakup of the lead singer, Kele Okereke. We've got: "Trojan Horse", "One Month Off", "Your Visits Getting Shorter", "Zephyrus" and "One More Chance".



* K's Choice - "My Heart" is sung from the perspective of one half of a marriage that all of the joy has deteriorated from, with the only thing that both people have in common anymore is their love for their new baby. And based on the singer's pleas for their spouse to break anything but their heart, that's not proving to be enough to hold them together.



* Music/Maroon5 - "Nothing Lasts Forever" and "Better That We Break" are both about looking at dying relationships and accepting that, even if it's painful to consider, the only healthy option one and one's partner might have is to end things.



* Music/LadyGaga - "Million Reasons" is about being frozen on the brink of ending a relationship you know you have every reason to leave, begging your partner to give you just "one good one to stay".



* Music/The1975 - "The Sound", in which the narrator freely lists off both his own and his ex's toxic tendencies (including slipping in that he's still her booty call after they agreed to end their involvement for his sanity's sake) and assures her that "I don't regret it, but I'm glad that we're through".



* Music/TheKillers - "Smile Like You Mean It" is an unusually positive example of this, about the process of moving on after a breakup - namely in that said process, as the song's title might indicate, can be a matter of "fake it 'til you make it".
* Music/{{Ludo}} - "Good Will Hunting By Myself" is a comedic example, in which the narrator passive-aggressively assures the listener that he's taking a recent breakup well, only to grow increasingly openly frustrated with his ex's treatment of him during the bridge until he ''explodes'' into a ranting TheReasonYouSuckSpeech that comes off much more as vindictive than as genuinely glad to be rid of her.



* Music/TheWeeknd - "Sacrifice", in which the narrator swears he tried to stick out a recent relationship and is willing to be there for his ex as a friend, but felt it was inevitable that he return to his comfort zone as an unattached free spirit in the end.



* Music/MotherMother - "Ghosting" is about finally, truly letting a past flame go on an emotional level and accepting the thought that they no longer need you in their life after having been unable to bring oneself to cut ties.



* Music/PoetsOfTheFall - "Once Upon a Playground Rainy" is a reflection on romances from one's youth, looking with some melancholy but ultimate acceptance and appreciation on the way that all the people and emotions that were involved look in hindsight and have changed with time.



* Music/TheWeeknd - "Out of Time", in which the singer returns to a partner he ran out on after doing some work on unpacking his intimacy issues, only to find himself needing to accept she's fallen for someone new.



* Music/Maroon5 - "Feelings" is about a man who's trying to have an affair with woman who has a boyfriend. He tries to convince her to leave her boyfriend.

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* Music/Maroon5 - "Figure It Out" and "Feelings" is are about a man who's men who are in affairs (the former) or trying to have an affair affairs (the latter) with woman women who has a boyfriend. He have boyfriends. In each case, the man tries to convince her to leave her boyfriend.
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* Music/RobCantor has a variant of this: "The Rendezvous" is a CallAndResponseSong about two people having broken up. The man wants to apologize for his mistakes and see her again, while the woman hopes that he's being honest and feels the same. They eventually get back together, getting engaged and admitting that the biggest mistake they made was leaving each other.
-->''I can see I was wrong (I want you back tonight)\\
Didn’t take very long (I want a hand in mine)\\
I go dark when you’re gone\\
We could start it again''
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* Music/CardboardCutouts - "Fifteen" revolves around a man who fell in love when he was fifteen, and has remained in the relationship since. However, since then, his girlfriend has become overly jealous and attached. He feels that the relationship is "killing him" and he refuses to come home because he doesn't want to deal with her. The hostile tone of the song and the line that he "needs some time to think this through" implies he might break up with her when he gets back.
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* Music/{{LANY}}'s "never mind, let's break up". The guy doesn't feel like his girlfriend is treating him right, since she [[ExiledToTheCouch exiles him to the couch]] and constantly fights with him, despite his best attempts to give her what she wants. The conclusion? "I thought about giving you one more chance. Never mind, let's break up!"
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* Music/AllTimeLow - [[AntiChristmasSong "Merry Christmas, Kiss My Ass"]]
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* Vandal Moon - "The Way You Cry"


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* Music/TheCruxshadows - "All The White Horses"
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* Music/AceOfBase - "Don't Turn Around"

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* Music/AceOfBase - "Don't Turn Around"Around".



* Music/AndyWilliams - "Say It Isn't So"

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* Music/AndyWilliams Andy Williams - "Say It Isn't So"So".



* The Temptations - "Don't Send Me Away" and "(I Know) I'm Losing You".

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* The Temptations Music/TheTemptations - "Don't Send Me Away" and "(I Know) I'm Losing You".
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* Kelis - [[strike:[[RefrainFromAssuming "I Hate You So Much Right Now"]]]] "Caught Out There".

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* Kelis - [[strike:[[RefrainFromAssuming "I Hate You So Much Right Now"]]]] "Caught Out There".
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* Music/{{Noah|Indonesia}}: "Mungkin Nanti" takes place around the break-up, with the singer telling his lover to get over it and not to ever talk about it again.


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* Music/{{Noah|Indonesia}}:
** "Lihat Langkahku" has the singer telling his ex hat he is so over their relationship and doesn't want to see her again.
** In "Seperti Kemarin", the singer boasts about how fine he feels without his ex and rejects an attempt from her to get together again.


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* Music/{{Noah|Indonesia}} - "Diatas Normal" has the singer insisting that rationally, he should be over a break-up, but he can't to his own frustration.
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* Music/TheRollingStones - "Miss You".

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* Music/TheRollingStones Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}} - "Miss You".
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Bastard Girlfriend is no longer a trope


** "Black Magic" is about Slim being under the thumb of, and eventually killing, his BastardGirlfriend.

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** "Black Magic" is about Slim being under the thumb of, and eventually killing, his BastardGirlfriend.bad girlfriend.
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* Avenue Beat - "I Don't Really Like Your Boyfriend" has the singer telling her friend to break up with her controlling boyfriend because she deserves better.

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* Avenue Beat Music/AvenueBeat - "I Don't Really Like Your Boyfriend" has the singer telling her friend to break up with her controlling boyfriend because she deserves better.
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** "Love The Way You Lie" doesn't quite get to this stage, but ends with Slim/Marshall threatening his girl that if she ever leaves him, he'll tie her to the bed and set the house on fire. However, its SpiritualSuccessor "Tragic Endings" ends with Slim/Marshall getting burned to death by his girl in revenge for trying to leave him.
** "Black Magic" is about Slim being under the thumb of, and eventually killing, his BastardGirlfriend.
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* Music/{{Journey}} - "Separate Ways".

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* Music/{{Journey}} Music/{{Journey|Band}} - "Separate Ways".



* Music/{{Journey}} - "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)"

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* Music/{{Journey}} Music/{{Journey|Band}} - "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)"
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* Prince Royce & Maria Becerra - "Te Espero"(Maria B.'s part)


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* Prince Royce & Maria Becerra - "Te Espero"(Prince Royce's part)
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Should HAVE, not should of. The correct form is right there is the song's title...


* Keyshia Cole - "I Should Have Cheated" A song where the singer states that she should of cheated on her boyfriend after the multiple times he accused her of doing so, which he has been suspected of as well.

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* Keyshia Cole - "I Should Have Cheated" A song where the singer states that she should of have cheated on her boyfriend after the multiple times he accused her of doing so, which he has been suspected of as well.

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* Music/CaroleKing - "It's Too Late" (also covered by Music/GloriaEstefan).



* Čechomor - "Dívčí kámen" (Girl Rock - name of a Czech castle). The singer goes to war and gives a metaphorical middle finger to his ex-girlfriend (or just a girl he was unsuccesfully pursuing, the song isn't very clear on this point).
* Chris Clark - "Love's Gone Bad".
* Music/CliffRichard - "We Don't Talk Any More"



* Color Theory - "The Fifth of July" (no relation to the similarly titled Louise Goffin song)



* Music/CaroleKing - "It's Too Late" (also covered by Music/GloriaEstefan).
* Čechomor - "Dívčí kámen" (Girl Rock - name of a Czech castle). The singer goes to war and gives a metaphorical middle finger to his ex-girlfriend (or just a girl he was unsuccesfully pursuing, the song isn't very clear on this point).
* Chris Clark - "Love's Gone Bad".
* Color Theory - "The Fifth of July" (no relation to the similarly titled Louise Goffin song)
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* Creator/KrisKristofferson - "For The Good Times" (performed by Bill Nash, Ray Price, Perry Como, and others) concerns the narrator aiming to make an inevitable breakup go as nicely and smoothly as possible with one more night.

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-->''When I dream about you, girl you never go away\\

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-->''When I dream about you, that'z when everything's alright\\
You're in my arms, here next to me, fore-e-ever
When I dream about you,
girl you never go away\\



Just close my eyes


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* Lobo - "How Can I Tell Her" is an inversion, where the narrator asks his new lover for advice on how to break up with his old one.
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* Sharon Van Etten - "Love More".

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* Sharon Van Etten Music/SharonVanEtten - "Love More". More" is about a bad relationship that has since ended.
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Up To Eleven is a defunct trope


** It's not completely straight, since it's set to the tune of a slow dance and the lyrics are turned UpToEleven. Weird Al also had "You Don't Love Me Anymore", which is definitely ''not'' a straight example.

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** It's not completely straight, since it's set to the tune of a slow dance and the lyrics are turned UpToEleven.exaggerated. Weird Al also had "You Don't Love Me Anymore", which is definitely ''not'' a straight example.



* Music/RebaMcEntire - "Every Other Weekend," a duet with Kenny Chesney, describes a [[AmicableExes divorced couple]] who only have brief contact with each other when they exchange kids. They're still in love with each other and regret their divorce, but are convinced the other has moved on and say nothing. The video takes the emotions UpToEleven. The song has no timeline beyond the present. The video takes place over ten years, with the kids growing from preschoolers to teenagers. Both parents still in love with the other and wanting to be a family again, both saying nothing.

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* Music/RebaMcEntire - "Every Other Weekend," a duet with Kenny Chesney, describes a [[AmicableExes divorced couple]] who only have brief contact with each other when they exchange kids. They're still in love with each other and regret their divorce, but are convinced the other has moved on and say nothing. The video takes the emotions UpToEleven.to another level. The song has no timeline beyond the present. The video takes place over ten years, with the kids growing from preschoolers to teenagers. Both parents still in love with the other and wanting to be a family again, both saying nothing.
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* Music/{{Eminem}} - "Stronger Than I Was" - a song often believed by fans to have been written from the perspective of his wife, Kim, who he infamously murdered on several of his older songs.

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