Line #31 AbusiveParents/Music


1	* Music/SuzanneVega's "Luka". The child is questioned about the scars he has, and he blames himself for being clumsy and that he "[[CutHimselfShaving walked into the door again]]" to hide the fact that he is being abused.
2	* Jason Michael Carroll's "Alyssa Lies".
3	* Music/MartinaMcBride's "Concrete Angel" is about a child who is abused by both her parents. It has a {{Downer Ending}}.
4	* The main character in Music/CarrieUnderwood's "Blown Away" is heavily implied to have been abused by her alcoholic father.
5	* Music/{{Disturbed}}:
6	** "Down with the Sickness" tells about child abuse as a metaphor for "mother society" beating down the freaks.
7	** "Tyrant" is a bitter rant directed at a [[ParentalBlamelessness blame-shifting parent]]. The song mentions screams and violence and "breaking a family in two" in the past, and in the present, the narrator tries to repair their relationship, to no avail, and wonders if he can ever heal after the abuse.
8	* "Crawling" by Music/LinkinPark is about Chester Bennington's experiences with abuse as a kid, albeit not from his parents but an associate.
9	* John Michael Montgomery's "The Little Girl," where the title character witnesses her father beating her mother ... and then one day witnessing his murdering her before turning the gun on himself.
10	* "Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?" by Music/TheOffspring. The song is meant to be an apology to a girl that lead singer Dexter Holland, as well as his friends, knew was sexually abused during her youth by her father, yet no one ever brought it up.
11	* "Amy in the White Coat" by Bright Eyes is about the life of a girl who is being sexually abused by her father. The song is told through the point-of-view of her father and some of her classmates.
12	* "Janie's Got a Gun" by Music/{{Aerosmith}} is about a girl who murders her father because he sexually abused her.
13	* Music/PearlJam:
14	** "Alive" tells the story of a young man raped by his mother. Although the story is very much a grim one, it was seen as a survivor's anthem among victims of ParentalIncest, as fans commonly interpreted the chorus "I'm still alive, hey, I'm still alive" as being a triumphant declaration of survival, rather than what Eddie Vedder called a curse. In 2006, though, [[WordOfGod stated that the fan response changed his view of the song, and that the "curse" had been lifted from it.]]
15	** Their song "Daughter" also counts. It's about a girl with a learning disability being abused by her parents for being "difficult".
16	* Take a song by Music/{{Korn}}. Any song. Usually it's more about neglect than direct abuse, but to the children in the songs, it feels just the same.
17	* Music/RegalPinion has a song called "For the Best" is about a daughter at her abusive father's funeral. His actions range from locking her in her room for hours on end to telling teachers she "bumped into the chair". Regal has stated that he wrote the song as a TakeThat to people who ignored the signs but did nothing of it.
18	-->''"Teachers saw her as that god damn "one kid" / The one you fantasize in mind's eye you'd rid\
19	"Oh if only I knew then I'd do something different." / Well you did nothing, so congratulations"''
20	* Music/{{Voltaire}}'s song "The Chosen". The protagonist says "First time I had sex I was three/ First time consenting was thirteen", and claims that his mother "once left me in a supermarket".
21	* Music/SufjanStevens has several songs dealing with various manifestations of the trope, from "That Was the Worst Christmas Ever!" (emotional abuse) to "Pitssfield" (neglect) to "Wallowa Lake Monster" (MissingMom leaving her children "in the rain").
22	* Music/{{Beartooth}}'s song "Beaten In Lips", which spares no expenses on abusive parents and straight-up tells the abused children to not get brought down by them.
23	* Music/AlanisMorissette's "Perfect" is a song from the parent's perspect, about parents who live vicariously through their kids and humiliate and berate them for not meeting expectations.
24	-->''"We love you just the way you are / If you're perfect."''
25	* Referenced near the end of the Music/PinkFloyd song "Dogs"
26	-->''"Who was born in a house full of pain"''
27	* First Born by The Plot In You is a ConceptAlbum about this.
28	* Pat Benatar's "Hell is for Children", about the utter hell that kids with abusive parents have to live through.
29	-->''"Be a good boy and you'll get a new toy/Tell Grandma you fell off the swing."''
30	* ''Invisible Circles'' by Music/AfterForever is a ConceptAlbum centered on this theme, inspired by some of the children guitarist/vocalist Sander Gommans encountered during his previous job as an art teacher. In this story, the workaholic father refuses to compromise his chances at his dream career to help raise his daughter, leaving the mother to give up her job completely to spend time with the girl. This progresses for several years with the father rarely around and the mother taking out her frustrations on the daughter, who retreats into an escapist fantasy online in search of positive attention she doesn't get at home. But things go FromBadToWorse when an argument ends with the father walking out on both of them...
31	* "Prison Sex" by Music/{{Tool}}.
32	* Quite a few songs by Music/TheMountainGoats, due to John having been abused himself. The entire album "The Sunset Tree" was about his abusive stepfather, particularly "Dance Music" and "This Year". A special note also goes to the [[{{Tearjerker}} soul-shattering]] "Song for my Stepfather".
33	* Not quite PlayedForDrama, but definitely present in "Amos Moses" by Jerry Reed. [[FreudianExcuse Amos' surly demeanor is explained]] by Amos' father using him to bait alligators while hunting when Amos was a child. This, err ''hands-on'' approach to gator hunting at one point cost Amos his entire left arm up to the elbow.
34	* Although the parents in ''Music/{{Tommy}}'' appear to mean well, they take ParentalNeglect so far that it's a matter of opinion whether it amounts to this. Their attempts to cure their son include paying a gypsy to feed him acid. They are also known for leaving him alone with his abusive cousin and/or his drunk rapist uncle. According to WordOfGod re: an early interview with [[Music/TheWho Pete Townshend]], Tommy's dad hits him ''for being deaf, dumb and blind'' (never mind that ''his own'' actions--killing a man in front of Tommy and then forcing him to keep quiet--actually traumatized the poor kid enough to have caused these disabilities in the first place). While it's perhaps not intentional, the way both parents refer to him simply as "the boy" comes off as fairly sociopathic.
35	* Music/{{Genesis\|Band}}, "No Son Of Mine" from Music/WeCantDance tells the story of a boy who lived with an abusive father and runs away from home when he couldn't stand the torment any longer, but then returns after a while to which his father says [[IHaveNoSon "You're no son, you're no son of mine."]] The words he said had hurt the boy, and he lived to regret the words he said.
36	* In the ''Music/EvilliousChronicles'', there's the song Blood-Stained Switch. In the PV, the diary of the featured girl shows up and describes her father beating her... [[ParentalIncest among other things]]...
37	* Music/TenThousandManiacs' "What's the Matter Here?" addresses the issue of neighbors abusing their child, and the protagonist wanting to act, but not daring to intervene:
38	-->''If I'm the only witness to your madness\
39	Offer me some words to balance out\
40	What I see and what I hear.\
41	\
42	All these cold and rude things that you do\
43	I suppose you do because he belongs to you\
44	And instead of love and the feel of warmth\
45	You've given him these cuts and sores\
46	That don't heal with time or with age.''
47	* Music/{{Skillet}} has a few songs reflecting Cooper's relationship with his father. He says his father wasn't physically abusive like "Open Wounds" suggests, but he was emotionally abusive. All of the songs involving Cooper's relationship were written and performed by him.
48	* "Oh Father" by Music/{{Madonna}}, which combines the parental abuse with a dark religious aspect, the child confessing their "sins" against his or her "father", making this also a ReligionRantSong. The video for the song combines this trope with DomesticAbuse as the adult version of her character has a relationship with a male character vaguely resembling her father that just slaps her for no reason, suggesting that children who grow up in abusive homes end up being in abusive relationships themselves.
49	* "Little Bird" by Music/ImogenHeap seems to be about this trope, although it could also be spousal abuse. Either way, the narrator of the song gradually discovers the abuse and asks the little bird of the song's title to help rescue the victim, [[spoiler: only for the little bird to abandon them at the end of the song.]]
50	* Music/{{Ludacris}}' song "Runaway Love" is about young girls (the oldest only being 12) who [[TheRunAway run away]] from neglectful and abusive homes.
51	* Music/ThreeDaysGrace's song "Home" is about feeling ostracized in your own home because of verbally abusive parents.
52	* "Fire On Babylon" by Music/SineadOConnor tells of her own abusive mother.
53	* [[Music/NewYork1989 "Endless Cycle"]] by Music/LouReed:
54	-->"The man if he marries will batter his child\
55	And have endless excuses\
56	The woman, sadly, will do much the same\
57	Thinking that's it right and it's proper\
58	Better than their mommy and their daddy did\
59	Better than the childhood they suffered\
60	Truth is they're happier when they're in pain\
61	In fact, that's why they got married"
62	* "Dear Mr. Jesus" by Powersource, sung by a 6-year-old Sharon Batts about another child who has been abused by a parent.
63	* Heavily implied in "seven" by Music/TaylorSwift:
64	-->I think your house is haunted\
65	Your dad is always mad, [[InnocentInaccurate and that must be why]]\
66	And I think you should come live with me\
67	and we can be pirates\
68	Then you won't have to cry\
69	Or hide in the closet
70	* Music/TearsForFears: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuhaoK7RQvQ Tears Roll Down]]" (the BSide of "Sowing the Seeds of Love") and the single "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29IGXRtIaKg Laid So Low (Tears Roll Down)]]" mention an abusive mother.
71	-->''And when your mother's violence\
72	Sent your soul underground\
73	Where tears roll down''
74	* Music/LudwigVanBeethoven's father Johann was an [[AlcoholicParent alcoholic]] who initially taught his now famous son harshly and intensively. He would often beat Ludwig whenever his son makes a mistake in playing a musical instrument.
75	* Much of the Russian band Kis-Kis's video for their song "Molchi" is about this and [[DomesticAbuse domestic abuse]]. The song itself seems to be more about [[BystanderSyndrome Bystander Syndrome]].
76	* Verse 2 of Music/{{Meatloaf}}'s "Objects In The Rear View Mirror (May Appear Closer Than They Are)" reminisces about how the protagonist's father used to beat him while ranting vitriol towards everyone the man knew.
77	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPF7lit7Z00 "You're a Useless Child"]] by Kikuo. Unlike most songs dealing with the subject, the song is sung by the ''parent'' instead of their child; as you'd expect, it serves as one big TheReasonYouSuckSpeech for them, which continues even as they progress into adulthood. During the bridge, [[spoiler: the child [[DrivenToSuicide ends up committing suicide]], and the singer spends the final chorus berating themselves for their child's death and wishing they could rewind time to fix their mistakes.]]

Context AbusiveParents / Music