Green Eyed Monster / Music

Green-Eyed Monsters in music.

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• The quote at the top of the main page is provided by the amusing song "Jimmy Olsen's Blues" by the Spin Doctors from the early 1990s and featured the Daily Planet's favorite cub photographer lusting after Lois Lane and jealously grumbling about Superman. The song, despite being a catchy tune and a minor hit, actually didn't reflect the situation in the comics, where Jimmy didn't actually have any romantic interest in Lois and was famously known as "Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen." That being said, the song got Jimmy's name back into the pop culture mainstream, and for a while comic book artists actually drew Jimmy wearing a Spin Doctors t-shirt as a Shout-Out. Also, more than a decade and a half later in Superman: Birthright, the author added the detail of Jimmy having a bit of a crush on Lois.
• This trope most often turns up in the case of love songs written for someone who is, well, already taken. Examples include:
  • Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend".
  • Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me".
    • To a lesser extent, "Teardrops on My Guitar" is also like this.
• Invoked by way of an Album Title Drop in R.E.M.'s song "Circus Envy":
  "Make way for monster jealousy"
• The Killers:
  • The song Mr. Brightside has become a theme song for jealousy, and the name is frequently used as an alternative name for the Green-Eyed Monster.
  • Almost a decade later, a sequel to Mr. Brightside was released titled "Miss Atomic Bomb." It was based around the idea of looking back at a relationship that was ruined by the protagonist's jealousy, and the regret of allowing it to take control.
• Narmiest one is "Envy" by Ash, the chorus of which goes "Envy, envy, ennnnnnnvy."
• "My Jealousy" by Celebrate The Nun, which is about the protagonist being envious of the new boyfriend of the ex-girlfriend he still loves.
• First by Lindsay Lohan invokes this.
• Evillious Chronicles: The main character of "The Tailor Shop on Enbizaka" is Kayo Sudou, a hardworking and popular tailor, who is constantly thinking about her "lovely person", who doesn't come home to her. This gets more twisted as the song goes on. For starters, not only does she kill the three girls she sees him with and steals their clothing, but the girls in question were his family- his wife and two daughters. He doesn't even know the tailor. Upon him greeting Kayo with a "Hello, nice to meet you", she murders him just the same as his family.
• "Jessie's Girl" by Rick Springfield probably deserves mention here. It's about being jealous of your best friend because you're in love with his girlfriend.
• There is a song by Darren Criss that is creatively titled "Jealousy".
• Cher Lloyd's "Want U Back" is about a girl who thought she was too good for her boyfriend and dumps him. Expecting him to be heartbroken, she's the one in the dumps when he bounces back and gets a new girlfriend. It is not a Green-Eyed Epiphany, she's jealous because the guy doesn't need her anymore.
• Patty Loveless' "Jealous Bone" is about a woman who can't handle the thought of the one she loves with anyone else.
• While the chorus of Lee Ann Womack's "I'll Think of a Reason Later" tries to paint what the narrator's feeling as Irrational Hatred, it's pretty obvious that the reason the narrator hates the new lady in the life of the man she loved is this trope through and through — she even mentions "having the slightest of a jealous bone" that tends to get larger when she sees him with her.
• Beyoncé has a song called "Jealous" in her 2013 self-titled album.
• Joe Jackson's "Is She Really Going Out With Him" expresses envy over other guys who have women with them in general.
• Elvis Costello's "Living in Paradise" from This Year's Model
  I don't like those other guys looking at your curves
  I don't like you walking 'round with physical jerks
  Everything they say and do is getting on my nerves
  Soon they will be lucky to be picking up the perks
• Dr. Hook's "When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman" is written from the perspective of a man tormented by jealousy and insecurity about his beautiful girlfriend cheating on him, which isn't helped by the fact that practically everyone she comes across flirts with and compliments her:
  You know that it's crazy
  You wanna trust her
  Then somebody hangs up when you answer the phone...
• Buttress: In "Brutus", the protagonist admits she's murdering her best friend partly because of envy of his ruling position, male privilege, and the way people cling to his every word.
• Erykah Badu's "Green Eyes" discusses this trope where she says that she is totally not jealous of her ex's new lover:
  My eyes are green
  'Cause I eat a lot of vegetables
  It don't have nothing
  To do with your new friend.
• Part of The Megas' take on Dr Wily is that, as a Well-Intentioned Extremist who genuinely believes that he wants the best for the world, he's upset that Mega Man is praised and lauded (not that it's doing him any good psychologically, mind you) while Wily himself is an object of fear and hatred:
  Tell me why/I'm the one that they fear/And for him they cheer
• Jim Croce's "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" tells the story of a big tough guy who made the mistake of hitting on the wife of "a jealous man" who turned out to be bigger and tougher than him.
• "It Should've Been Me" by Riproducer is written from the perspective of someone whose crush has chosen someone else, much to her anger given how much she's done for them. She hides it from them up until the last chorus, wherein the jealousy comes out full force...and, somewhat surprisingly, ends with her realizing what she's doing and stepping down from her pursuit despite her sadness over it.
• Saving Jane's "Girl Next Door" is about a moderately pretty, moderately popular girl just seething with envy for another even more popular and attractive girl. Even while she knows the grudge is unfair, she tells herself the other girl is probably a bitch even though it sounds like the other girl is actually rather nice.

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