History HarsherInHindsight / Music

* The Kleptones' 2004 mashup album ''A Night at the Hip Hopera'' included a song called "Bite", featuring samples of {{Queen}}'s "Another One Bites The Dust" and [[WuTangClan Ol' Dirty Bastard]]'s "Got Your Money", and ending with a clip from an "Honest Obituary" segment from ''TV Offal''. ODB died shortly after the album's release, making it almost seem as though the track was mocking his death.

* The Kleptones' 2004 mashup album ''A Night at the Hip Hopera'' included a song called "Bite", featuring samples of {{Queen}}'s "Another One Bites The Dust" and [[WuTangClan Ol' Dirty Bastard]]'s "Got Your Money", along with a clip from an "Honest Obituary" segment from ''TV Offal''. ODB died shortly after the album's release, making it almost seem as though the track was mocking his death.

** One of the songs he co-wrote was "Voiceless Screaming," a pained reflection on depression and its related suffering, somewhat modeled on Stairway to Heaven by LedZeppelin. He would later release this song in his solo work as "Voiceless," as a tribute to his late best friend, [[HidetoMatsumoto hide.]]

* "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)" by Merle Travis and Tex Williams, while not exactly a celebration of a smoker's lifestyle, includes the lyrics "...And I don't reckon that it'll harm your health/Smoked all my life and I ain't dead yet", spoken by Williams. Well, now he is dead. Cause of death? Pancreatic cancer, one of the diseases linked to cigarette smoking.

* It's either this or FunnyAneurysmMoment, but "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman%27s_Song Superman's Song]]" by Music/CrashTestDummies is a mournful dirge that tells the story of Franchise/{{Superman}} who had the power to commit great evil and bring himself unfathomable riches, but instead chose to use his powers for good, while expecting no payment for his deeds (the song also compares him to Literature/{{Tarzan}} of the Apes, who is considered to be a crude, rouge, and uncivilized AntiHero). The song focuses on the death of the superhero, and its chorus says it all: "Superman never made any money / For saving the world from Solomon Grundy / '''''And sometimes I despair the world will never see''''' / '''''Another man like him'''''". As if that wasn't chilling enough, there is even a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihUIPlLw2ZE music video]] that shows his funeral! And this was over a year before ''TheDeathOfSuperman'' StoryArc!

* One of Music/BritneySpears' early singles, "Lucky" talks about an actress who has fame, beauty, awards...and soul-crushing loneliness. Given the singer's later breakdowns, the song takes on a creepy air of foretelling.

* Martina McBride's ''Concrete Angel'' is bad enough, noting an abusive relationship that ends in death, and the memorial as a concrete angel. But after hearing about the "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Junko_Furuta Concrete-encased high school girl murder case]]" and the resulting ''guro manga'' made of the incident (no links, please), it becomes particularly chilling when you realize none of the lyrics suggest that it was her parents that did this, and the entire song ''could just as easily describe this incident.'' It wasn't intentional, not that it matters.
* "Rehab" by AmyWinehouse sounds a lot more disturbing since she passed away after a lifetime of drugs and alcohol abuse.
* "Free Bird" by LynyrdSkynyrd is a perfect example of this trope. "If I leave here tomorrow..."

* Warren Zevon has a couple of these; most noticeably "My Shit's Fucked Up", and "Life'll Kill ya." The former is about a patient finding out he's terminally ill (in a decidedly un-clinical way), and the latter includes the lyrics "Some get the awful, awful diseases." Warren died in 2003 of Mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer.

* The video for the JohnnyCash cover of "Hurt" has a quick cut to his wife June Carter Cash as he sings "Everyone I know/Goes away in the end". Her death a few months later made the video even more depressing.
* In 1997, MichaelJackson released the song "Morphine" on the album ''Blood on the Dance Floor: [=HIStory=] in the Mix''. The song was a chilling description of drug abuse, with lines like "A heart attack, baby" and "Trust in me / Just in me / Put all your trust in me", the latter line referring to dependence on the titular drug. The bridge is even worse: the angry singing turns into a soft, melancholy melody describing a person's slide into addiction, specifically to the painkiller Demerol, while the sounds of a respirator, an ECG machine, and presumably a doctor talking are heard in the background. Between 2003 and 2005, Jackson allegedly became dependent on Demerol. Then, on June 25, 2009, Jackson died of cardiac arrest, eventually deemed to have been a homicide caused by a lethal combination of drugs, primarily the anesthetic propofol, administered by his personal doctor. As of August 30, the doctor is currently under investigation for manslaughter, although he claims that Jackson specifically asked for propofol, and he also claims that he had administered it every night for six weeks.

-->"The clock begins to destroy Michael Jackson."

* Most of JoyDivision's lyrics. Especially ''In A Lonely Place'': "Hangman looks round as he waits, cord stretches tight as it breaks, one day we will die in your dreams, how I wish you were here with me now".
* For Squirrels' single "The Mighty KC" was inspired by KurtCobain's suicide, and while the chorus was actually optimistic, the verses were needless to say pretty bleak. A month before the album it was on came out, half of the band (including vocalist Jack Vigliatura III) and their manager died when their touring van overturned. Particularly eerie because all had died younger than Cobain did (Vigliatura was only 21), and because the song included the line "Ship me off to the morgue, I'm ready to be buried".
* KurtCobain's suicide makes some Music/{{Nirvana}} material uncomfortable.

* One of the verses in PhilOchs "There but for Fortune" is about a man whose life was ruined by alcohol. Only one example of Phil's more depressing lyrics describing his own future and eventually suicide.

* A song from EltonJohn's ''Blue Moves'' album from 1976, "Idol", is a rumination on the rise and fall of a (possibly fictional) washed-up teen idol from TheFifties, one whose "face has changed, he's not the same anymore". This song was inspired by Elton's meeting ElvisPresley for the first time, and being horrified at the distressed state Elvis was in. A year later, Elvis would be dead. This would serve as a wake-up call for Elton to slow down his own career, lest he wind up like Elvis. Unfortunately, Elton's drug and alcohol habits, promiscuity and bulimia were still taking over his life. After seeing himself in a video singing at Ryan White's funeral as sad, bloated, morbidly obese and "look(ing) like a 75-year old man", he finally took himself to rehab in 1990 and saved his life.

* A verse in {{Queen}}'s 1989 album, ''The Miracle'', called "Khashoggi's Ship", contains the lines "I'm in pretty good shape" and "No one stops my party". Freddie Mercury secretly (but knowingly) was dying of AIDS at the time.

**** Freddie, Queen, and the few other people who knew about Freddie's illness did and said all that they could to [[HandWave hide the fact that]] [[BlatantLies Freddie had the disease]], at least until it was [[TheNotSecret too obvious to keep it a secret]]. It wasn't mentioned in interviews, talked about in private, etc. until the night before his death, when Freddie sent the press release. Freddie wanted to [[StatusQuoIsGod carry on as normally as possible]] until the end, and did not want the tabloid press to complicate his life or the lives of those he cared for, or for anyone to worry about him or buy his records out of sympathy. So any WordOfGod you get from Freddie, Queen, etc. up until November 23, 1991 was made while trying to keep the issue a secret and downplay any "clues" about his condition.

* The video for {{Eminem}}'s song [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lexLAjh8fPA&ob=av3e Like Toy Soldiers]] featured D12 member Proof being gunned down and then dying from his wounds in the hospital. Proof was shot and killed for real only a year later.

* On TheWho's "Tommy," the song "Sally Simpson" tells the story of a girl who sneaks out of her house to see Tommy speak, only to be injured when the audience's passionate reaction to Tommy causes them to riot. It is very chilling to hear after the infamous Who concert riot of 1979.
* YokoOno's "Walking on Thin Ice" is a song about the unpredictability of life and death, and the last song JohnLennon worked on. He was shot to death the day he finished recording it, and died clutching the completed mix of the song in his hands.

* One of BritneySpears' early singles, "Lucky" talks about an actress who has fame, beauty, awards...and soul-crushing loneliness. Given the singer's later breakdowns, the song takes on a creepy air of foretelling.
** A similar situation occurred with LindsayLohan's "Rumors."

* BillyJoel's "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)" straddles the line between this trope and a FunnyAneurysmMoment, as Joel originally intended the described destruction of New York City to be tongue-in-cheek or, in his words, "science fiction". After 9/11 some of the imagery (particularly the falling skyline) became all too real. Billy averted TooSoon by playing the song very soon after 9/11 at a benefit concert, lampshading these tropes, saying "I never thought it would really happen. But unlike the end of that song, [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming we ain't going anywhere]]."

* While "Forecast Fascist Future" by of Montreal is filled with one LyricalShoehorn after another (or, given Kevin Barnes's Elephant 6-flavored [[CloudCuckooLander personality]], a bizarre universe), the title and chorus was always marked as a harsh criticism towards his audience. Considering how [[ItGotWorse things got worse]], it almost seems prophetic now, especially the chorus:

* KingCrimson's song "Larks' Tongues in Aspic IV" (specifically, the "Coda: I Have a Dream" section), released in 2000, has lyrics consisting of a list of major events during the 20th century; one line of lyrics is "Tim [=McVeigh=], Saddam Hussein, the bombing of the World Trade". Many live performances of this song used an instrumental version of the coda (although they started doing this at least as early as August 2001).
* Brian Wilson's old BeachBoys song "In My Room" where he 'locks out all his worries and fears' and where he 'won't be afraid' takes on some real gravity when you know what his family life was like.

* Accidental elegys:

** The Black-eyed Peas' "[[http://idolator.com/5798492/the-black-eyed-peas-just-cant-get-enough-video I Just Can't Get Enough]]" video (an homage to ''LostInTranslation'') was filmed in Tokyo a week before the 9.0 earthquake.

* The {{Dio}} track "End of the World" off of the "Master of the Moon" album contains the line "They say you never hear the bullet that kills, and I don't hear a sound...". After {{Ronnie James Dio}} died of cancer, it was revealed that the cancer wasn't caught until a very late stage, due to his stubborn reluctance to ever see a doctor (not even once he was having obvious symptoms, so certainly not for routine screenings). In contrast to the image the line originally evoked, it now calls to mind the idea that if he had been listening for the bullet, he might have heard it in time to dodge.

* JohnLennon's "Beautiful Boy", written for his son Sean, features the line "I can hardly wait until you come of age but I guess we'll both just have to be patient". He was murdered a few years later, when his son was five (even his older son, Julian, was only a teenager).

---> All the other kids with the pumped-up kicks better run, better run, outrun my gun\\

-> --and is downright scary after the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Norway_attacks Oslo/Utoya attacks]] where ''69 teenagers'' were murdered by a lone gunman.
* In {{Coheed and Cambria}}'s "Blood Red Summer" video, Claudio Sanchez (lead vocals, rhythm guitar) looks up to see Joshua Eppard (drums) and Mic Todd (bass) sitting in rocking chairs, waving to him, and vanishing. Josh later left the band to further a solo project, while Mic left after being charged for robbery while on drugs. Even worse, in their "A Favor House Atlantic: The Movie" self-parody video, Mic's personality was essentially boiled down to "the stoner".
* In 2011, {{Anal Cunt}} released "Wearing Out Our Welcome", which has become this trope due to the death of lead singer Seth Putnam the same year. The songs "Nothing's Offensive Anymore" and "Wasting Time Writing Anal Cunt Songs", both discussing how the band was declining and running out of steam. In a promotional interview, Putnam even sounds like he's dying.

** Another one: Putnam contributed backing vocals on the {{Pantera}} song "Suicide Note Pt. II", featuring the line "Do it, do it, do it, try to die/ yeah like me" A few years later, Putnam suffered a near-fatal drug overdose and entered a coma, something his family and friends suspected was a suicide attempt. (Although it's worth noting that Seth's post-coma behavior, like demanding whiskey as soon as he woke up and getting back onstage before he could even walk, could qualify as a [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome CMOA]].
* From "Heart of Gold" by NeilYoung: "''Keep me searching for a heart of gold...and I'm getting old.''" First sung when he was 25. He is now 65.
* In 1973, keyboardist Richard Wright of Pink Floyd wrote an instrumental piece as part of ''TheDarkSideOfTheMoon'' caled "The Great Gig In The Sky", which evokes grief, sorrow and fear of death. Wright was the first member of the band lineup that recorded the album to die, age 65, in 2008 of cancer.
* In 1994, {{Weezer}} released the song "Mykel and Carli," a cute, bittersweet tribute to two girls who ran the Weezer fan club - actually it's something of a {{tuckerization}} as the Mykel and Carli in the ''song'' are a pair of friends in high school, who the narrator still misses. The song, which was released as a B-side to "Undone (The Sweater Song)," takes a more poignant tone when you learn that, a few years after the song was released, both Mykel and Carli died in a tragic car accident on their way to a Weezer show. The song can be found on the Deluxe Edition of the Blue Album.

* The current single by pop singer KatyPerry (as of January 2012) is "The One That Got Away", taken from her 2010 album, ''Teenage Dream''. Not long after she released the single in late 2011 came the announcement that she and RussellBrand were divorcing.

* {{REM}}'s "Airportman" was written in 1999, and is most likely just about a weary, disillusioned businessman traveling by plane. After 9\11, it also became easy to read as a man preparing to hijack a plane, especially because the first few lines are "He moves efficiently \ past security \ great opportunity awaits".
* PaulMcCartney and Wings's song "LiveAndLetDie" can be this when you realize two members of the band are dead.
* The Music/{{Wings}} songs "Medicine Jar" and "Wino Junko" were anti-drugs songs written and sung by the at-the-time lead guitarist Jimmy McCulloch. He would die in a few years from a drug overdose. The drug bust and short incarceration Paul would go through in Japan in 1979, which would lead to Wings' breakup. would only compound the HIH.
* This lyric is from the remix of N.E.R.D's "Everyone Nose."One has to wonder what was going through Kanye and Pharell's minds when word came that Whitney Houston had cocaine in her system when she died.
--->Kanye West: "From that Paris, Lindsey, Britney, Mary-Kate and Whitney

* After TedGardestad jumped in front of a train, neither of his song lyrics "Can't stop the train from a rollin / or make the wheels turn slow / you know I had to go" and "I believe that life has a happy ending" were quite the same again.

* After [[Ted Gärdestad]] jumped in front of a train, neither of his song lyrics "Can't stop the train from a rollin / or make the wheels turn slow / you know I had to go" and "I believe that life has a happy ending" were quite the same again.

--->"Yo, I been in the game since before you was born / I might still be [=MCin'=] even after you're gone / Strange thought, I know, but my skills still grow / The 80's, the 90's, 2000's, and so / On and on until the crack of dawn / Until the year 3000 and beyond / Stay up all night, and I MC and never die / Cause death is the cousin of sleep"

* The Argentine rock band Soda Stereo has a song called ''Cuando pase el temblor'' (After the trembling) that has the verses "Wake me up after the trembling". In 2010, Gustavo Cerati, former vocals and guitar of the band, suffered a cerebral stroke after a show in Venezuela, remaining in a coma under respiratory aide ever since. Additionally, "temblor" can also means "earth tremor", so it's not uncommon to read on the messages of the song's video things like "all these earthquakes are already passed, wake up already!"

On top of that, the cover art featured a man with a needle in his arm. Putnam's death by heart attack was likely due to his excessive drug usage.

** The fact that Germans consider this song a symbol of one of the most joyous events in their history may seem like pure schadenfreude if you think about it.

** Another song of Elton's, "All The Nasties", released on 1971's "Madman Across The Water'', is, [[WordOfGod according to lyricist Bernie Taupin]], both a TakeThat to Elton's critics, and a rumination on whether the general public would reject Elton over his homosexuality. Elton would come out, albeit as bisexual, in 1976, at the height of his career. The backlash he would receive over his sexuality would severely damage his career until the release of 1983's ''Too Low For Zero'' album, and even then, he would not enjoy quite the level of success he had in the 1970s.

* ''Wind of Change'' by {{Scorpions}}, a famous ballad celebrating perestroika, often seems like an example of this trope to many Russians, since the fall of the Union resulted in many tragic events in Russia (and most other post-Soviet countries too). The line about an "August summer night, soldiers passing by" is perhaps the most jarring, since the most dramatic events of the [=GKChP=] coup unfolded exactly at August summer nights just one year later after the song was recorded, and yes, it did involve soldiers.

* ''Wind of Change'' by {{Scorpions}}, a famous ballad celebrating perestroika, often seems like an example of this trope to many Russians, since the fall of the Union resulted in many tragic events in Russia (and most other post-Soviet countries too). The line about an "August summer night" is perhaps the most jarring, since the most dramatic events of the [=GKChP=] coup unfolded exactly at August summer nights just one year later after the song was recorded.

* ''Wind of Change'' by {{Scorpions}}, a famous ballad celebrating perestroika, often seems like an example of this trope to many Russians, since the fall of the Union resulted in many tragic events in Russia (and most other post-Soviet countries too). The line about an "August summer night" is perhaps the most jarring, since the most dramatic events of the GKChP coup unfolded exactly at August summer nights just one year later after the song was recorded.

* ''Wind of Change'' by {{Scorpions}}, a famous ballad celebrating perestroika, often seems like an example of this trope to many Russians, since the fall of the Union resulted in many tragic events in Russia (and most other post-Soviet countries too).

* Part of VisualKei band Music/{{Versailles}}'s backstory is that the band members are the "Descendants of the Rose," cursed with immortality. Then their bassist, Jasmine You, died suddenly and unexpectedly in August of 2009, just before their second album was scheduled to release. He was promoted to "Eternal Member" after his death.

--->People say that they clean: motherfucker, don't bullshit me!"

* The Music/{{Wings}} songs "Medicine Jar" and "Wino Junko" were anti-drugs songs written and sung by the at-the-time lead guitarist Jimmy McCulloch. He would die in a few years from a drug overdose. The drug bust and short incarceration Paul would go through in 1979, which would lead to Wings' breakup. would only compound the HIH.

* The {{Music/{{Wings}} songs "Medicine Jar" and "Wino Junko" were anti-drugs songs written and sung by the at-the-time lead guitarist Jimmy McCulloch. He would die in a few years from a drug overdose. The drug bust and short incarceration Paul would go through in 1979, which would lead to Wings' breakup. would only compound the HIH.

* The [[Music/{{Wings}}]] songs "Medicine Jar" and "Wino Junko" were anti-drugs songs written and sung by the at-the-time lead guitarist Jimmy McCulloch. He would die in a few years from a drug overdose. The drug bust and short incarceration Paul would go through in 1979, which would lead to Wings' breakup. would only compound the HIH.

* The [[Music/{{Wings}}]] songs "Medicine Jar" and "Wino Junko" were anti-drugs songs written and sung by the at-the-time lead guitarist Jimmy {~McCulloch~}. He would die in a few years from a drug overdose. The drug bust and short incarceration Paul would go through in 1979, which would lead to Wings' breakup. would only compound the HIH.

* The [[Music/{{Wings}}]] songs "Medicine Jar" and "Wino Junko" were anti-drugs songs written and sung by the at-the-time lead guitarist Jimmy {{~McCulloch~}}. He would die in a few years from a drug overdose. The drug bust and short incarceration Paul would go through in 1979, which would lead to Wings' breakup. would only compound the HIH.

* PaulMccartney and Wings's song "LiveAndLetDie" can be this when you realize two members of the band are dead.

* In 2011, {{Anal Cunt}} released "Wearing Out Our Welcome", which has become this trope due to the death of lead singer Seth Putnam the same year.
** The songs "Nothing's Offensive Anymore" and "Wasting Time Writing Anal Cunt Songs", both discussing how the band was declining and running out of steam.
** The cover art featured a man with a needle in his arm. Putnam's death by heart attack was likely due to his excessive drug usage.