History LyricalDissonance / Music

[[folder: Traditional Pop]]

[[folder: Rap and Hip-hop]]
* ICP's "Another Love Song" is about [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRp5qOun63s the wrath of a lover's scorn]] where the original love song is about [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfxDhNysSpg the tenderness a man wants to share with his date]].
* Kanye West's "We Don't Care" sports a playful, carefree tune, while talking about selling drugs for a living and making fun of people expecting black youth to die early.
* Outkast's "Hey Ya!" sounds like a happy, upbeat hip-hop song -- there's a famous [=YouTube=] video of the Peanuts characters dancing joyfully to it -- but the lyrics are a moody meditation on whether it's worth staying in an failing relationship:
--> "If what they say is that nothing is forever, then what makes love the exception? Why are we so in denial when we know we're not happy here?" (Yall' don't wanna hear me, you just wanna dance...)
** Speaking of Outkast, the song "The Rooster" is also an upbeat hip-hop song in terms of instrumental, but the lyrics tell the story of a married couple on the verge of divorce.
** Outkast even lampshades this phenomenon with "The Whole World", an upbeat song about how people love upbeat songs regardless of the message or lyrics.
* The controversial "Read A Book" video by D'Mite gained a lot of attention on BET for its supposedly racist and stereotypical depiction of black culture, claiming it should be censored for children. Of course while the beat, rhythm and style of the song is modeled after dirty south (or crunk) rappers like Lil Jon, the lyrics tell positive messages and promote healthy lifestyle choices as well as a rejection of mainstream hip-hop excess in favor of reading, cleanliness, drinking water, parental responsibility and such.
* "Fatima" by K'naan is sung very happily and has a joyful track, but it's about a childhood friend who was kidnapped. Possibly justified (and somewhat lampshaded) at the end of the song when he informs the listener to not cry because the song is meant as a celebration, not a form of mourning.

[[folder: Reggae and Ska]]
* A substantially large portion of the aforementioned Jamaican music of the 60's and 70's defines this trope by singing about injustice, poverty, racism, etc. accompanied by the upbeat, singable melodies of reggae and ska. A slight inversion of this trope is that sometimes the lyrics would seem tame, even if the actual meaning was something more sinister. For example, one of Bob Marley's earliest hits with The Wailers was called "Simmer Down", which despite sounding like he's talking to misbehaving children is actually a plea for gangs to stop killing each other. The word "rudeboy" is extremely common in ska and reggae music, which sounds like it refers to a childish prankster but actually refers to the extremely dangerous gangsters and hoods of Jamaica.
* Just about everything by The Specials counts. Notably, we have "Hey Little Rich Girl", which has a fast and upbeat accompaniment but describes the titular rich girl going to London and becoming a prostitute and adult movie star and their first number one hit, "Too Much Too Young", is about teenage pregnancy messing up somebody's life.
* "Cardiac Arrest" by {{Music/Madness}} is about ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, "Johnny the Horse" is about a homeless man who gets kicked to death "for entertainment" and "Idiot Child" is about a child who never received any encouragement.
* Streetlight Manifesto's "The Saddest Song" fits this. Entirely peppy, with lyrics along the lines of
-->And it's the saddest song you'll ever hear
-->the most pain you will ever feel
-->but you grit your teeth because it don't get better than this.
** "As The Footsteps Die Out Forever" ([[strike: also by Streetlight Manifesto]] by Catch 22 before their lead singer left and formed Streetlight Manifesto) is a upbeat and happy song about the singer's mother getting sick and dying.
** Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution, pretty much the same band, has "It's a Wonderful Life," titled and performed happily, about an unhappy conscript coming to terms with the fact that he's much more likely to die at war than ever see his wife again. Somewhat [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] in that he decides that it was all worth it anyway.
-->I was told boy prepare for war
-->but they failed to mention what I'd be fighting for
-->So I fought for this
-->That as I passed away I'd feel her kiss
-->and I smile, what a wonderful life
* Aswad's version of "Don't Turn Around". An upbeat song about a relationship break-up.
* [=UB40=]'s version of "Red Red Wine". The melody is a somewhat upbeat spin on a song about a man who turns to the bottle to forget a lost love.
* A lot of Fishbone's earlier work fits this.
* "Boom Bye Bye" by Buju Banton is a notorious song with a quite catchy and happy beat, with lyrics about the execution of gays.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Other]]
* "Christmastime Is Here" from ''ACharlieBrownChristmas''. It has lyrics that describe how wonderful Christmas is ("Fun for all that children call their favorite time of year") but has a very slow, almost melancholy feel to it. This makes it memorable.
* Elsewhere in the Downer Christmas Carols department, we have "I'll Be Home For Christmas" -- a lovely crooner's ballad about being deployed overseas at the holidays, and only able to pretend you're at home celebrating with your family.
* The group Go Fish has "What Mary Didn't Know", an amazingly peppy song about a girl whom the narrator had the opportunity to lead to Christ but didn't ''before she died, and his angst over whether she's in Hell because of him''.
---> "I knew the things to say, I knew the things to do
---> I knew the people to know, but God, I didn't know you..."
---> [Someday I'll answer for] What Mary didn't know was the answer I was holding
---> I didn't think she'd change, so I never even tried
---> How was I to know? I wish I would've told her
---> Now I'll have to live in doubt, with what Mary didn't know...
* Sarah Brightman's "Once in a Lifetime" is a soft, gentle song about a woman experimenting with S&M.
* EmilieAutumn's song "Miss Lucy Had Some Leeches", which is about Victorian Lunatic Asylums... sung in the style of Miss Suzy Had A Steamboat.
** She also has "Marry Me", who to a sweet waltzy tune, narrates in first person the story of a woman who copes with being trapped in an arranged marriage with an rich older man by indulging in alcohol and having a lover (while denying her husband his "marital rights"). All of this, while waiting for her own death. But hey, at least she has quite the pretty clothes!
** Emilie Autumn does this fairly often. "The Art of Suicide" comes to mind, a cheery tune about, well, suicide. "Thank God I'm Pretty" also qualifies, a happy-sounding song about being judged solely on looks.
*** "The Art of Suicide" is even worse than that-- it's not about ''suicide'', it's about the disturbing implications of ''romanticising'' suicide. "Ankles displayed, melodramatically laid...."
* The Canadian band The Pettit Project, known for their happy love songs such as "99 Lives" (about a guy who is trying to get the girl of his dreams but just can't get it right, but keeps trying because he knows he will succeed), made an album called "6 Week Summer Vacation in Hell". The entire album is about six weeks of the summer of 2004 when "the angels of heartbreak, loss, and death simultaneously swooped down on The Pettit Project campsite, trapped us in our cozy sleeping bags, and swung us as hard as they could into a nearby tree". The liner notes then go on to say "We promise that on our next album we'll sing about Free Trade, or Bush or something equally as uninteresting". The notes end with a sentence that makes fun of this very trope, saying "Now go and listen to our sad songs that sound happy, baby".
* Voltaire's "Come, Sweet Death" is an upbeat song dedicated to Death of the Endless from the ''{{Sandman}}'' comics. But it is completely in-character for [[PerkyGoth Death]], of course.
** Most of Voltaire's songs are like this. BRAINS! Is a swing-type music about a kid gathering brains for an evil meteor. And it was awesome.
** The song from ''TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy''? Hell yeah it was awesome!
** He even has a bouncy song about this trope, called "Death, Death (Devil, Devil, Evil, Evil)"
** "When You're Evil", anyone? It's basically a song about how much he loves to do evil things, set to a tango.
** And "The Headless Waltz" which is about... um... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin pretty much exactly what you'd expect]]
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YUFFMA4V-w "Die die die di-die die"]]
** You know those tunes that just sound like they were written so that the [[{{Eagleland}} American]] government could inspire patriotism? Set to one of those lyrics about how much he hates the place and wishes someone would [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tuy4Bpz080Q "Bomb New Jersey"]].
** Guess what the gospel-esque [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6rLMchPYSw&feature=related "Hell in a Handbasket"]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin is about]].
* The song for the ''{{Mercenaries}} 2'' commercial [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCvIw7DMHXc "Oh No You Didn't"]] is a light hip hop/barbershop chorus set to an upbeat piano tune that wouldn't be out of place at an amateur recital or off-Broadway musical. The lyrics are about getting revenge after getting shot in the arse by your employer. And it's totally awesome.
* On a more general level, pick any extremist movement with lyrics that have a markedly different effect on you than on its members. For an example that's obscure enough to be safe, Finnish hardliner communist tunes from the 1970s are catchy, uplifting and energizing calls for determination and solidarity, both of which will be needed to restart the civil war and slaughter the bourgeoisie, clergy, police, government and everyone else involved in the upper classes' worldwide plot that previously started World War II to destroy the Soviet Union. Trust no one.
** This happens frequently with political songs, particularly of a satirical nature. NeilYoung's "Rockin' in the Free World" and John Fogerty's "Fortunate Son" were mistaken for proud, jingoistic rock songs by those who listened only to their melodies and choruses, and not their verses.
* The chirpy EndingTheme from ''CaptainScarlet'': "They crash him, and his body may burn. They smash him, but they know he'll return... to live again". Accompanied by images of a terrified Captain Scarlet in a variety of perilous and painful-looking situations.
* "Macarena" is a catchy dance tune about the town [[strike:prostitute]] GoodBadGirl?
* Deliberately, blatantly, and hilariously invoked by Andrew Hansen of TheChaser, in his lounge arrangement of the CannibalCorpse song "Rancid Amputation".
* WesleyWillis primarily sings over pre-programmed tracks from his synthesizer, which usually means really happy-sounding tinny keyboard lines backing up songs called things like "Kill That Jerk" and "Fuck With Me And Find Out".
** Let's not forget perennial classics such as "Birdman Kicked My Ass" and "I Whooped Batman's Ass".
* "Arthur McBride" is basically a big TakeThat and ScrewYou at military recruiters. The Enter the Haggis version is a fast paced, crowd sing-along number.
* Oda's "Sex Crime" is a catchy eurobeat number thats about [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin wanting to rape someone]]. Near the end there's lyrics like ''you make me want to kill you'' and the song gets a lot creepier.
* You can find children from [[FromTheMouthsOfBabes seven onwards]] singing [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_Dance_%28hymn%29 "Lord of the Dance"]] at Catholic schools and churches. Enthusiastic renditions of lyrics like:
** ''I danced on the Sabbath / And I cured the lame; / The holy people / Said it was a shame. / They whipped and they stripped / And they hung me on high, / And they left me there / On a Cross to die.''
* A very strong candidate for MostTriumphantExample would be "Won't You Come over to My House?", best known from the famous short ''OneFroggyEvening''. If your memory's a bit hazy, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqB_YYB8TJU here's]] the cartoon, and [[http://froggyeve.tripod.com/comeover.html here]] are the full lyrics.
* The AngryVideoGameNerd's theme song, by Kyle Justin. It's an uptempo song about how much James Rolfe hates the video games he has to review.
* Band Aid's world-hunger-awareness-raising anthem "Do They Know It's Christmas?" may or may not qualify... but The Echoing Green's bouncy techno cover version certainly does.
** The original version qualifies when you consider that what was intended as a way to raise awareness of world hunger is now played annually as a festive, celebratory song.
* One might note that the original words to "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" are somewhat ... depressing, (including the line "We all will muddle through somehow") and that the retouching to make the song acceptable to modern audiences has left a melancholy tune with much more pleasant lyrics.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Classical and Orchestral]]

[[folder: Comedy and Parody]]

[[folder: Country]]

[[folder:POwer Metal]]

[[folder:R & B]]

[[folder: Traditional]]

[[folder: Metal]]
* At first glance, [[{{Ptitlewsbhxd7l}} Mötley Crüe]]'s "You're All I Need" is a pretty straightforward power ballad which tells the endearing story of a young man and his girlfriend... take a closer look at the lyrics and it becomes obvious that it's about a man killing his girlfriend out of jealousy. "Laid out cold, now we're both alone, but killing you helped me keep you at home."
** "Kickstart My Heart", an upbeat metal tune... about Nikki Sixx being clinically dead for a minute after overdosing.
* The ending to Protest The Hero's "Turn Soonest To The Sea" has a Disneyesque sing-song group chorus with the following lyrics:
-->''Maybe someday when, when this bloody skull has dried\\
(I'll) know our city is in ruins\\
When our greatest source of pride\\
(is) a monument of dicks and ribs and the gender crown we wore\\
Where underneath, a plaque will read, a plaque will read, "No woman is a whore"''
** Justified, in that it's about tearing down our society's entrenched unfairness and creating a world of true gender equality, but still pretty jarring the first time you hear it, when you haven't had a chance to figure that out.
* Used for comedic value by Psychostick whose metal-tinged modern hardcore sound is used as a vehicle for them to bitch about (as well as other things) very mundane and silly topics such as itchy balls ("Scrotal Torment"), a piece of shit car ("Two Ton Paperweight"), and how much they hate doing laundry ("I Hate Doing Laundry").
* Doom Metal band Sentenced are practically the embodiment of this trope. The music is very upbeat, catchy and joyful yet the lyrics are almost always about suicide. 'Excuse me while I kill myself' for example is about blowing your brains out, yet the song is quite catchy.
* SonataArctica has its fair share of melancholic love songs played to the fast, upbeat bombast of power metal.
** It also has "The End of This Chapter" which sounds mostly like a powerballad, has most of the lyrics of a melancholic love song, but is actually about a stalker.
** Probably the most impressive is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7Zs-eGcAa4 "White Pearl, Black Oceans"]], another song that's mostly a power ballad, about a lighthouse attendant hooking up with a girl at a party the night before she sails away, getting knocked unconscious by her jealous husband, and then her ship crashing and everybody on board dying because he wasn't there to work the lighthouse.
** And "Shy," which is sung in an ''adorably'' well... [[CaptainObvious shy]] voice but is basically about the singer stalking his crush.
** Without filling three screens full of examples it's easy to say most of Sonata Arctica's pre-Unia stuff is actually pretty creepy if you listen to the lyrics but on the surface is the audible equivalent of an explosion in a skittle factory.
* "This is More" by Stick to Your Guns. The vocalist sings "rest assure that with a heart that's pure, we'll be victorious and not let our hate get the best of us"... over a brutal breakdown.
** Much of their music, for that matter. Not helped by the fact that the singer tells short, inspirational anecdotes between songs live, and that the newest album is called "The Hope Devision", and has a heart as the album art.
* "Let The New Day Begin" by the Swedish death/power metal band {{Therion}} from their early (before they shifted to powermetal) album ''Lepaca Kliffoth''. The music is fairly typical death metal with a bit of early power metal, while the lyrics basically amount to a message of [[BeyondTheImpossible perseverance]] and [[HumanityIsSuperior greatness of Man]]. The final verse goes like this:
-->''Join with the fallen ones/Open your eyes and see/There is no pain to fear/Your strength will carry you/And when the sky turns black/Gaze through eternity/To stars so far away/But trust me, they can be reached/''
* TypeONegative loves to do this, from "We Hate Everyone" being sung deliberately in a dispassionate way to the upbeatness of "Dead Again."
* Witchfynde's "Heartbeat" sounds like a typical 80's power ballad if you aren't listening too hard; the chorus is "(she said) Can you feel my heart beat? It's beating for you..." However if you pay attention to the lyrics, the song is actually about a female vampire that preys on lonely men.
* {{Soundgarden}}'s "My Wave" is an example of in-song dissonance. The verses are basically an exhortation to do whatever you want ("if it feels alright"), and then the chorus suddenly [[MoodWhiplash switches]] out of nowhere to a [[LeaveMeAlone fuck-off-leave-me-alone]] sentiment ("Don't come over here/Piss on my gate/Save it just keep it/off my wave"). The verses are anchored by a grungy heavy-metal riff, but as is Soundgarden's wont, the song takes a left-field twist with bright, psychedelic-influenced choruses and coda.
* BlackSabbath's "NIB" subverts this -- it starts off sounding awfully sinister for an apparent love song... but once you get to the lines that imply mind control and reveal that the singer's character is Lucifer, it all comes together.
** Then double-subverted by WordOfGod, which states that it's not the tale of seduction it first seems, but a song about the devil pulling a HeelFaceTurn due to ThePowerOfLove.
* Pig Destroyer's music embodies this trope. Imagine a guy screaming and wailing uncontrollably over sickening guitar tones, singing lyrics such as "She frolics through the rain whispering love insane, her kisses exit through heart-shaped exit wounds". They call themselves "pornographers of sound".
* {{Nightwish}} has a few songs that come to mind. First is "Feel For You" off of 2002's ''Century Child''. What ostensibly seems to be a love song, starts growing grim, and once you hear the male vocal, you realize it's about a murdered ex, an unhealthy obsession, or both.
--> Barely cold in her grave
--> Barely warm in my bed
--> Settling for a draw tonight
--> Puppet girl, your strings are mine
** Another is "Eramaan Viimeinen". This is a very upbeat song with guest vocals from Jonsu, lead songer of cheery pop/rock band Indica- with depressing lyrics about wandering the wilderness alone.
* {{Metallica}}'s "Wherever I May Roam" is a typical metal ballad, but the lyrics are about vagrancy and would fit more into a country song. Doesn't stop the song from being awesome, though. WordOfGod says it's about home sickness.
** "One" is this way as well, or at least at the beginning. It starts out so light and, to someone, even soothing. [[AndIMustScream Guess what it's about?]]. At least it gets heavy near the end but the beginning can be misleading.
** Metallica's cover of "Die Die My Darling" is a song most people can't help but rock out to, and then you hear the lyrics. At least the name gives you a hint about the song.
* Wintersun has several of these. Most of the songs are speedy, energetic, and sound uplifting. Then you read the lyrics: "Nothing but blood so red and deceased / Nothing but pain, I fall on my knees / Tormenting demons, I suffer and bleed / Only way out is through window of dreams"
* While none of {{Evanescence}}'s music could be called ''happy'', their song "Anywhere" from their ''Origin'' album has a distinctly hopeful (if melancholy) sound. At first blush, it's a sweet song about starting a new life with a loved one. And then... That One Line kind of ruins it.
--> Unlock your heart
--> Drop your guard
--> '''No one's left to stop you'''
** The song itself isn't happy, but that OminousLatinChanting at the end of "Whisper" sounds really, really, um...ominous. Especially the one word most likely to be recognized, "maleficum". But the actual translation? "Deliver us from danger, deliver us from evil."
*** Amy Lee is the queen of this trope. "Taking Over Me" is a love song - even if it is a bit obsessive, it's hardly dark, and "Imaginary" is about a dreamworld filled with "paper flowers" and not wanting to be part of the scary real world. Not that you would know that from the minor key and 'epic' guitar riffs on both songs.
*** "Taking Over Me" not dark??? Are you serious? One of the lines is "saving me...raping me..." That qualifies as dark. "Imaginary" is arguably about depression or even schizophrenia.
* [[RhapsodyOfFire Rhapsody's]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-9C8HnuH0U "Rain of a Thousand Flames"]] has one of the most uplifting tunes one the band's repertory, it actually sounds like ThemeMusicPowerUp material. Then along cames the chorus...
-->''Under the rain of a thousand flames''
-->''We face the real pain falling in vain''
-->''While the Dark Angel screams for vengeance''
-->''In the dead shadow of falling stars''

[[folder:Musical Theatre]]
* ''AvenueQ''. All of it. The musical styles you loved on SesameStreet, applied to topics like racism and pornography!
** {{Lampshaded}} in "It Sucks To Be Me":
--->'''Christmas Eve:''' Why you all so happy? [sic]
--->'''Nicky:''' Because our lives suck!
** [-'''Brian:''' What are you laughing about?-]
---> '''Gary:''' Racism!
---> '''Brian:''' Cool!
* ''TheProducers'' opens with everyone leaving a musical and then singing a joyful, sensational song about how god awful it was.
* "Die Moritat vom Mackie Messer/Mack the Knife" -- especially the Bobby Darin version. A swinging, catchy, toe-tapping pop standard about a murderer, kidnapper, arsonist, thief, rapist, etc., who can't be beat. That said, the lyrics were often sanitized in some translations... it is much nastier in the original German version, generally, than say the Blitzstein lyrics. That said, "Mack the Knife" is ''still'' an awesome song.
** Among other things, you can blame Ella Fitzgerald (or credit her) for toning down the song; she admitted that she forgot half the lyrics and scatted the missing portions.
** Several other songs from ''The Threepenny Opera'' have similar lyrical dissonances. There is one song where the frequent refrain of "Yay! Hooray!" is performed in as deadpan and monotone a manner possible.
*** "Hoch sollen sie leben! Hoch hoch hoch!"
** Brecht in general depended on Lyrical Dissonance in his music in other plays. For instance, in ''Mother Courage and Her Children'', there is a lullaby that Mother Courage sings over [[spoiler: her daughter Kattrin's dead body]], with lyrics of an obviously materialistic nature. This sort of thing is key to ''verfremdungseffekt'' of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_theatre Epic Theatre]].
* "I'm Calm" from the musical ''AFunnyThingHappenedOnTheWayToTheForum''.
* "Hey Big Spender," from ''Sweet Charity,'' sounds like an erotic come on ("Good lookin', so refined/So wouldn't you like to know what's goin' on in my mind?"), but is sung by a group of bored taxi dance girls who can barely summon up the energy to go through the motions of their job.
* Freddy Cole once sang an upbeat version of "Send in the Clowns," telling a radio interviewer that no one else had done it. He didn't seem to understand why no one else had done it.
* Almost all the music in the musical ''{{Little Shop of Horrors}}'' is lathered with lyrical dissonance. The best example is the show's opening title. Three Motown-style singers dance and sing to the fun, bouncy, rock n' roll prologue - about the end of the world. The lyrics, though sometimes silly with words like "shang-a-lang" and "bop sh'bob" throughout, is actually a warning to the audience about the foreboding terror that is the man-eating plant, Audrey 2: "You better, tellin' you, you better // Tell your mama somethin's gonna get her // She better, ev'rybody better // Beware!"
** The entire musical follows in this perky rock n' roll styled music, even when the subjects of the songs are depressing and/or disturbing: the pessimistic view of living in the city ("Skid Row"), the sadistic and cruel nature of a dentist ("Dentist!"), death through loss of oxygen ("Now (It's Just The Gas)"), or an alien plant's need to eat humans to survive ("Suppertime", "Feed Me (Git It)").
* [[http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1loyjm4SOa0 "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life"]] by Monty Python could be taken either as disguised sarcasm (as in ''Life of Brian'', where it's sung by guys who are being ''crucified''), or as a slightly fractured inspirational song (as in ''Spamalot'', the musical adaptation of ''MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'').
** Add to that "Brave Sir Robin" from ''MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'' and the musical ''Spamalot'', in which Sir Robin's bard sings a cheery, Renaissance-sounding tune about Sir Robin getting horribly mutilated in battle. "His nostrils raped and his bottom burned off", indeed.
* StephenSondheim loves this trope about as much as Gilbert and Sullivan did. ''Assassins'' in particular has "Unworthy of Your Love" (what sounds like a tender love duet... except that the singers are Squeaky Fromme and John Hinckley, Jr., talking about how they will prove their love for (repsectively) Charles Manson and Jodie Foster by shooting the president), and "The Ballad of Czolgosz" (an upbeat, patriotic-sounding turn-of-the-century style song about how you can "move to the head of the line" in the US -- as Leon Czolgosz is waiting in a line of people to shake [=McKinley=]'s hand, ending with Czolgosz shooting him).
** Don't forget "The Ballad of Guiteau", which is not only a happy song about a guy who shoots the President (featuring tap-dancing on the gallows, no less), but it was ''written by the actual assassin''. Creepy.
*** Especially creepy considering that before he read it to the crowd at the gallows, he said this about his words: "If set to music, they may be rendered very effective."
** "Everybody's Got the Right" from ''Assassins'' is another fantastic example. The lyrics read almost like something that might be read in an elementary school classroom, that everyone has the right to find happiness- except the song is about madmen ''defending their right to kill the president.''
** "A Little Priest", from ''SweeneyTodd''. It's a fun, showstopping, and, especially in the original stage musical, humorous number... about cannibalism.
*** Ah yes, ''SweeneyTodd''. With such numbers as "A Little Priest" above and the reprise of "Johanna", a rather upbeat number in major key about how the VillainProtagonist is too busy killing people to think about his own daughter.
* Andrew Lloyd Webber's ''{{Phantom of the Opera}}'' includes an example of this in the perfectly happy-sounding tune of "Masquerade". Once you realise what it's actually talking about (pay attention to the words, not the tune), you can get rather depressed.
--> 'Masquerade! Paper faces on parade! Masquerade! Hide your face so the world will never find you!'
** Highlighted at the end of the play, when the Phantom [[DarkReprise sings a slow, sad version of the chorus]].
* "I Dreamed a Dream" from ''LesMiserables'' is a song about crushed hopes and dreams set to the most beautiful, uplifting, triumphant music imaginable.
** Made even more dissonant now that Susan Boyle sang it to make her own dream come true.
* GilbertAndSullivan are ''all'' over this.
** ''Trial by Jury'' -- This one's about a trial, so when the plaintiff arrives to the tune of "Comes the cheated flower / Comes the broken maid", it's made catchy, upbeat and fun, to make it thoroughly clear that despite said lyrics, this is all part of a grand scam.
** ''The Sorcerer'' has a bawdy drinking song about tea, then later we get the song "Oh joyous boon / Oh mad delight" -- which is appropriately upbeat -- and continues upbeat through lyrics like "Alas! that lovers thus should meet:/ Oh, pity, pity me!"
** '''H.M.S. Pinafore:'' As the protagonist works himself up to suicide in the Act I finale, all sorts of cheery and patriotic tunes get thrown in, even while Ralph sings, "The maiden treats my suit with scorn,/Rejects my humble gift, my lady;/She says I am ignobly born,/And cuts my hopes adrift, my lady." Of course, it eventually turns appropriately sombre, just in time for Josephine to rush in and admit she loves him after all.
** ''The Pirates of Penzance'': The loudest song in the entire operetta is the one about sneaking quietly into the Stanley home:
-> ''WithCatlikeTread\\
Upon our prey we steal\\
In silence dread\\
Our cautious way we feel\\
[[BlatantLies No sound at all\\
We never speak a word]]\\
A fly's foot-fall\\
Would be distinctly heard.''
Sung ''fortissimo'' with heavy use of cymbals and brass in the accompaniment.
** ''Iolanthe:'' Parts of the Act I finale, but also "In vain to us you plead", which is a flirty little song about how much the women hate the men they're singing it to.
*** Part of the joke is that they're in love with the men, but have to do their duty in telling them to buzz off. Lelia's line before the song is: "But we can't stop him now. (''Aside to Celia''.) Aren't they lovely! (''Aloud''.) Oh, why did you go and defy us, you great geese!"
** ''Princess Ida:'' [[http://diamond.boisestate.edu/gas/princess_ida/webop/pi_24.html "When Anger Spreads Its Wing"]] is about going off to war, but sounds kind of like it should be about Bertie Wooster and his smashing adventures.
** ''The Mikado''. Beheadings, descriptions of grisly executions, lists of people to kill off -- all fodder for a cheery little operetta. The first song in the second half, "Brightly dawns our wedding day/Joyous hour we give thee greeting" ends with everyone in tears (though there is a good reason for that).
** ''Ruddigore:'' "I Shipped D'ye See" is a cheery patriotic naval ballad about fleeing from the French. "Happily coupled are we" has a cheery melody befitting a song by a sailor about his forthcoming marital bliss. It keeps this melody when Rose comes in with her verse, about him sailing off and having affairs with women in every port, while she's left behind to wait for him. Oh, and another cheery song about upcoming death, this time the rapid-fire patter song, "My eyes are fully open" (First verse ends "But I have to die tomorrow, so it really doesn't matter!") Oh, and I'm not sure if it counts, but the lyrics of "You understand? I think I do" is about how horrible it is to have to betray Robin's secret identity, but duty requires it. However, doing so lets one of them steal back a woman from Robin, and gets the other out of the family curse, so the cheery, bouncy music is actually highly appropriate.
** ''The Yeomen of the Guard:'' "How say you maiden, will you wed/A man about to lose his head?" is, as you should guess by now, one of the most upbeat, fun, cheery numbers. Meanwhile, "Oh, a private buffoon is a light-hearted loon", of course, turns out to be about how the jester's being torn apart and has to remain cheerful throughout it all. Later, "When a wooer goes a wooing"'s most heartbreaking line is "Oh the happy days of wooing" -- sung in emotionless monotone by the person that the plot has set out to break, taking everything from him. Oh, and it ends on a grand, energetic chorus [[spoiler:while that person dies]].
** ''Utopia, Limited:'' "First You're Born" is about how a character's life is one big joke played on him by the universe. It's done as a comic number. "A tenor, all singers above" is a classic tenor ballad -- about how the tenor can't sing, complete with intentionally flubbed high notes. Oh, and "It's understood, I think all round" and "In every mental lore" are both cheery songs with lines about about grisly deaths (by duelling and being blown up by dynamite, respectively), but do I really need to mention that at this point?
** ''The Grand Duke'': "Won't It Be a Pretty Wedding" savages the bride's taste and sense of fashion, and then everyone goes on to savage the groom in "Pretty Lisa, fair and tasty". Several other examples, which would take too long to explain.
** Sullivan also tends to drop down to a lower note for words like "high", "top", "above" and so on, and vice-versa for words like "bottom" and "low". And, by the way, all of these were Victorian, so this is OlderThanRadio.
*** That might have something to do with the fact that G&S's genre is called "Topsy-Turvy" (also the title of a movie about them.)
* At least half of ''SpringAwakening'', although "My Junk" is a really cute upbeat song about masturbation and about comparing teenage crushes to drug addiction, which is arguably even more lyrically dissonant.
* "Get Happy," popularized by Judy Garland in the film ''Summer Stock'', is a peppy, rousing song about Judgment Day.
* The song "Three-Five-Zero-Zero" from the musical ''{{Hair}}'' has a verse that's an example of this. These words are sung to a cheery tune best described as "Dixieland". The meaning of the title? There were 3500 men in the first platoon of soldiers sent to Vietnam. Two out of every three were black. Offensive lyrics are spoilered:
-->Pris'ners in [[spoiler: Niggertown]], it's a dirty little war
-->Three-five-zero-zero
-->Take weapons up and begin to kill
-->Watch the long long armies drifting home
* ''Urinetown'' is all over this trope. They even hang a lampshade on it:
--> '''Little Sally''':What kind of musical is this? The good guys finally take over, and then everything starts falling apart?
--> '''Officer Lockstock''': Like I said Little Sally, this isn't a happy musical.
--> '''Little Sally''': But the music's so happy!
* "Shy" from ''Once Upon a Mattress'' features the heroine describing how demure and bashful she is...while belting practically the entire song at the top of her lungs.
** "Sensitivity," from the same musical, is the rather ironic song by the queen, who is anything ''but'' sensitive - but the off-kilter and jerky five-beat pattern is not very sensitive either.
* "I Want More" from ''LestatTheMusical'', Claudia's first song. Quite possibly the most cheerful song in the show, all about drinking people's blood..
* The obscure musical ''Fade Out Fade In'' has the song "You Mustn't Feel Discouraged," which ''[[LyricalDissonance sounds]]'' congenially cheerful, especially when it accompanies a playful tap-dance routine, but here's how the lyrics go:
-->"When you think you've hit the bottom,\\
And you're feeling mighty low,\\
You mustn't feel discouraged--\\
There's always one step further down you can go."
** A video of it can be found [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxa4e-P5g5s here]]

[[folder: Punk]]
* TheClash's "Somebody Got Murdered" is about... well, somebody getting murdered. While the tone of the singer himself is pretty somber, the music sounds more like peppy new wave than punk rock.
** This goes for a lot of their songs. "Clampdown", which is similarly peppy, is either about the Nazis or just fascist regimes in general ("Taking off his turban they say is this man a Jew"). "London Calling" (about the city's destruction and the end of the world), "Train in Vain" (their only love song, which is a break-up song) and "Julie's Been Working For The Drug Squad".
** Let's not forget "Spanish Bombs", which is an upbeat, poppy rock song about the horrors of the Spanish civil war.
** "Jimmy Jazz" is an upbeat song about some sort of fugitive who will be killed if found.
* FiveIronFrenzy's "Blue Comb '78" puts humorous lyrics (eulogizing a comb that singer Reese Roper lost when he was five years old) to dramatically overwrought music (dramatically overwrought for a ska-punk band, at least). Subverted in that the song is actually a metaphor for his parent's divorce and his own lost innocence: Reese has stated that the lost comb incident was the last memory he has of his parents prior to the divorce. He chose to write indirectly to avoid falling into {{Wangst}}.
* TheRamones wrote several songs about Joey Ramone's Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. However, they had the same upbeat power chord sequences as every other Ramones song. For example, the peppy "I Wanna Be Sedated" is about a nervous breakdown right before a show in England.
--->Just get me to the airport, put me on a plane\\
Hurry hurry hurry, before I go insane\\
I can't control my fingers, I can't control my brain\\
Oh no no no no no!
** That song is about the fact that London goes on lockdown when it's Christmas Eve, and the band was stuck in the hotel for the entire day when they got there for a concert on Christmas Day; hence, the opening lines:
--->Twenty, twenty, 24 hours to go\\
I want to be sedated\\
Nothing to do, nowhere to go\\
I want to be sedated
*** The Ramones were made of this. "Beat on the Brat", anyone?
* "Pour Decisions" by Scottish-Canadian celtic punk outfit The Real McKenzies is a jolly dinkalong about a guy who's pissed his life away as a drunken punk rocker, looking back on the opportunities he's missed.
* Reel Big Fish's best songs are depressing songs over cheery ska-punk including "She Has A Girlfriend Now", "She's Famous Now", and "Sell Out".
* The Reign of Kindo song "Breathe Again" is a very soothing soft rock song... until you listen closely and realize three verses in that [[http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858736721/ it's about a father who takes revenge on a man who broke into his house on Christmas Eve and stole the presents]]. It's hard to relax to a song when the singer swears that he "won't stop tearing him limb from limb [so] he'll never breathe again". It ends with him dumping the thief's body in the river and gaining immense relief from the murder.
* The hardcore punk band 25 ta Life ''love'' this trope. Not only do their heavy and aggressive sound and hip hoppish bravado conflict with their lyrics, but ''their lyrics conflict with their lyrics''. The band intersperses hip hoppish use of "motherfucker" while extolling the virtues of friendship, brotherhood, etc.
* "Jet Boy Jet Girl" by Elton Motello is a celebratory-sounding catchy pop-punk song with saxophone and rockabilly-influenced guitar leads. It also happens to be about about a 15 year old boy in a sexual relationship with an older man, and the homicidal thoughts he starts having when he sees said older partner with a woman on his arm:
-->Can you tell what's on my mind
-->She's with him it's driving me wild
-->I'd like to hit him on the head until he's dead
-->The sight of blood is such a high
-->Ooh ooh ooh ooh
-->He gives me head
* LA punk band X's song "I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts" sounds cheerful (and is certainly catchy), but the lyrics (and the title) show that the song is actually a protest song seething with irony and sarcasm towards the atmosphere of fear and anxiety in the Reagan years.
** "Johny Hit And Run Paulene" is kind of on the borderline of this: the actual melody is suitably dark for a tale of a drug-induced raping spree, but it's juxtaposed with some very happy-sounding 50's rock guitar leads (and it's intro is nearly identical to that of Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode").
*** The band actually refused to play that one on concerts after a short while when crowds would [[MisaimedFandom embrace the very dark song as another uptempo punk anthem]].
* For its first two verses, The Buzzcocks' "Promises" is a cheerful song about a man and a woman promising to be faithful and honest with each other, set to an appropriately optimistic melody ("We promised to be true, there'd be no other, we promised that forever we would care"). The reason that it's an example is that during the bridge it's revealed the woman had been cheating on him, and then the next two verses directly contradict the first two, while still being set to the exact same melody ("You've never been true, and it's plain to see, the fact is you never really cared").
* Pretty much everything ever written by Alkaline Trio who have monopolised the lyrically dissonant dark pop punk genre. And written some damn good lyrics while they're at it.
* Every song by Andrew Jackson Jihad.
* Husker Du's song "Diane" was a great contrast to their previous music. It was poppy, words were clearly sung, and it was over 4 and a half minutes in length. But then the lyrics kick in...
-->Hey, little girl, do you need a ride?\\
I've got room in my wagon, why don't you hop inside?\\
We can cruise down Roberts Street all night long,\\
But I think I'll just rape you and kill you instead.
* Boys Night Out's entire ''Broken Bones and Bloody Kisses'' EP is a rather poppy album full of rather dark lyrics mostly about murder and suicide.
* "Beach Party Vietnam" by the Dead Milkmen:
-->"Hey, Frankie, are you gonna give me your class ring?"
-->"I'm afraid I can't do that, Annette."
-->"Why not?"
-->"I haven't got any arms."

[[folder: R&B]]
* "I Put a Spell on You" by Screamin' Jay Hawkins, turned out this way by happy accident. It was originally penned and composed as an ordinary love ballad. However, one case of wine later, and Hawkins and his entire band decided to record the song while ''stone drunk''. The resulting cocophony of roaring, howling and snorting is somewhere on the line between Nightmare Fuel and Comedy Gold. The otherwise innocuous lyrics become something out of an insane stalker's mind, and then of course, there's the demonic laughter.
* Most people think "I Second That Emotion" by The Miracles is a happy song. It's actually about a man leaving an unfaithful woman, and telling her that if she wants to commit, he'll take her back.
** Ditto "Tears of a Clown". The English Beat's jarring cover didn't help matters.
* "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" by The Temptations was about a man getting dumped and all the demeaning things he would do to get her back. It would be so sad if it wasn't so damn catchy and easy to dance to.
* {{Rihanna}}'s "Take a Bow" is a scathingly sarcastic "screw you" to an ex wanting forgiveness...set to a touching piano arrangement. It's a little strange when ''AmericasBestDanceCrew'' uses the chorus as its "goodbye" theme. The chorus sounds fine out of context--the only outright hurtful stuff is in the verses. Still, it's strange to hear them congratulating a crew on how far they've gotten when you know the lyrics in their entirety:
-->''How about a round of applause?
-->Standing ovation.
-->You look so dumb right now
-->Standing outside my house
-->Trying to apologize, you're so ugly when you cry.
** By contast, her next single, "Disturbia", is an upbeat pop/dance number with lyrics about a descent into madness.
* DavidBowie's "Young Americans" is a poppy, R&B type tune, with very cynical lyrics about American events.
** Not to mention "Bombers" being an incredibly catchy and peppy sounding song about bombs destroying the world. Sample lyrics:
-->"A-bombs, H-bombs, even very small ones
-->Ripped apart the sand
-->Till the stench was just revolting
-->And the sky a greenish tan."
** And from "Oh! You Pretty Things", a catchy, mellow song about [[ChildhoodsEnd humanity's obsolescence and replacement by a superior species]]:
-->"Look out my window and what do I see?
-->A hand in the sky reaching down to me
-->All the nightmares came today
-->And it looks as thought they're here to stay...
-->The earth is a bitch
-->We've finished our news
-->Homo sapiens have outgrown their use."
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAV0XrbEwNc This]] song by Cee-Lo Green.
* "Hit 'Em Up Style{Oops!}" by Blu Cantrell is a bouncy number about [[AntiLoveSong taking revenge on a cheating boyfriend]] by [[DisproportionateRetribution running up his credit cards and selling his stuff]].

[[folder: Rap and Hip-hop]]
* ICP's "Another Love Song" is about [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRp5qOun63s the wrath of a lover's scorn]] where the original love song is about [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfxDhNysSpg the tenderness a man wants to share with his date]].
* Kanye West's "We Don't Care" sports a playful, carefree tune, while talking about selling drugs for a living and making fun of people expecting black youth to die early.
* Outkast's "Hey Ya!" sounds like a happy, upbeat hip-hop song -- there's a famous [=YouTube=] video of the Peanuts characters dancing joyfully to it -- but the lyrics are a moody meditation on whether it's worth staying in an failing relationship:
--> "If what they say is that nothing is forever, then what makes love the exception? Why are we so in denial when we know we're not happy here?" (Yall' don't wanna hear me, you just wanna dance...)
** Speaking of Outkast, the song "The Rooster" is also an upbeat hip-hop song in terms of instrumental, but the lyrics tell the story of a married couple on the verge of divorce.
** Outkast even lampshades this phenomenon with "The Whole World", an upbeat song about how people love upbeat songs regardless of the message or lyrics.
* The controversial "Read A Book" video by D'Mite gained a lot of attention on BET for its supposedly racist and stereotypical depiction of black culture, claiming it should be censored for children. Of course while the beat, rhythm and style of the song is modeled after dirty south (or crunk) rappers like Lil Jon, the lyrics tell positive messages and promote healthy lifestyle choices as well as a rejection of mainstream hip-hop excess in favor of reading, cleanliness, drinking water, parental responsibility and such.
* "Fatima" by K'naan is sung very happily and has a joyful track, but it's about a childhood friend who was kidnapped. Possibly justified (and somewhat lampshaded) at the end of the song when he informs the listener to not cry because the song is meant as a celebration, not a form of mourning.

[[folder: Reggae and Ska]]
* A substantially large portion of the aforementioned Jamaican music of the 60's and 70's defines this trope by singing about injustice, poverty, racism, etc. accompanied by the upbeat, singable melodies of reggae and ska. A slight inversion of this trope is that sometimes the lyrics would seem tame, even if the actual meaning was something more sinister. For example, one of Bob Marley's earliest hits with The Wailers was called "Simmer Down", which despite sounding like he's talking to misbehaving children is actually a plea for gangs to stop killing each other. The word "rudeboy" is extremely common in ska and reggae music, which sounds like it refers to a childish prankster but actually refers to the extremely dangerous gangsters and hoods of Jamaica.
* Just about everything by The Specials counts. Notably, we have "Hey Little Rich Girl", which has a fast and upbeat accompaniment but describes the titular rich girl going to London and becoming a prostitute and adult movie star and their first number one hit, "Too Much Too Young", is about teenage pregnancy messing up somebody's life.
* "Cardiac Arrest" by {{Music/Madness}} is about ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, "Johnny the Horse" is about a homeless man who gets kicked to death "for entertainment" and "Idiot Child" is about a child who never received any encouragement.
* Streetlight Manifesto's "The Saddest Song" fits this. Entirely peppy, with lyrics along the lines of
-->And it's the saddest song you'll ever hear
-->the most pain you will ever feel
-->but you grit your teeth because it don't get better than this.
** "As The Footsteps Die Out Forever" ([[strike: also by Streetlight Manifesto]] by Catch 22 before their lead singer left and formed Streetlight Manifesto) is a upbeat and happy song about the singer's mother getting sick and dying.
** Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution, pretty much the same band, has "It's a Wonderful Life," titled and performed happily, about an unhappy conscript coming to terms with the fact that he's much more likely to die at war than ever see his wife again. Somewhat [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] in that he decides that it was all worth it anyway.
-->I was told boy prepare for war
-->but they failed to mention what I'd be fighting for
-->So I fought for this
-->That as I passed away I'd feel her kiss
-->and I smile, what a wonderful life
* Aswad's version of "Don't Turn Around". An upbeat song about a relationship break-up.
* [=UB40=]'s version of "Red Red Wine". The melody is a somewhat upbeat spin on a song about a man who turns to the bottle to forget a lost love.
* A lot of Fishbone's earlier work fits this.
* "Boom Bye Bye" by Buju Banton is a notorious song with a quite catchy and happy beat, with lyrics about the execution of gays.

[[folder: Other]]
* "Christmastime Is Here" from ''ACharlieBrownChristmas''. It has lyrics that describe how wonderful Christmas is ("Fun for all that children call their favorite time of year") but has a very slow, almost melancholy feel to it. This makes it memorable.
* Elsewhere in the Downer Christmas Carols department, we have "I'll Be Home For Christmas" -- a lovely crooner's ballad about being deployed overseas at the holidays, and only able to pretend you're at home celebrating with your family.
* The group Go Fish has "What Mary Didn't Know", an amazingly peppy song about a girl whom the narrator had the opportunity to lead to Christ but didn't ''before she died, and his angst over whether she's in Hell because of him''.
---> "I knew the things to say, I knew the things to do
---> I knew the people to know, but God, I didn't know you..."
---> [Someday I'll answer for] What Mary didn't know was the answer I was holding
---> I didn't think she'd change, so I never even tried
---> How was I to know? I wish I would've told her
---> Now I'll have to live in doubt, with what Mary didn't know...
* Sarah Brightman's "Once in a Lifetime" is a soft, gentle song about a woman experimenting with S&M.
* EmilieAutumn's song "Miss Lucy Had Some Leeches", which is about Victorian Lunatic Asylums... sung in the style of Miss Suzy Had A Steamboat.
** She also has "Marry Me", who to a sweet waltzy tune, narrates in first person the story of a woman who copes with being trapped in an arranged marriage with an rich older man by indulging in alcohol and having a lover (while denying her husband his "marital rights"). All of this, while waiting for her own death. But hey, at least she has quite the pretty clothes!
** Emilie Autumn does this fairly often. "The Art of Suicide" comes to mind, a cheery tune about, well, suicide. "Thank God I'm Pretty" also qualifies, a happy-sounding song about being judged solely on looks.
*** "The Art of Suicide" is even worse than that-- it's not about ''suicide'', it's about the disturbing implications of ''romanticising'' suicide. "Ankles displayed, melodramatically laid...."
* The Canadian band The Pettit Project, known for their happy love songs such as "99 Lives" (about a guy who is trying to get the girl of his dreams but just can't get it right, but keeps trying because he knows he will succeed), made an album called "6 Week Summer Vacation in Hell". The entire album is about six weeks of the summer of 2004 when "the angels of heartbreak, loss, and death simultaneously swooped down on The Pettit Project campsite, trapped us in our cozy sleeping bags, and swung us as hard as they could into a nearby tree". The liner notes then go on to say "We promise that on our next album we'll sing about Free Trade, or Bush or something equally as uninteresting". The notes end with a sentence that makes fun of this very trope, saying "Now go and listen to our sad songs that sound happy, baby".
* Voltaire's "Come, Sweet Death" is an upbeat song dedicated to Death of the Endless from the ''{{Sandman}}'' comics. But it is completely in-character for [[PerkyGoth Death]], of course.
** Most of Voltaire's songs are like this. BRAINS! Is a swing-type music about a kid gathering brains for an evil meteor. And it was awesome.
** The song from ''TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy''? Hell yeah it was awesome!
** He even has a bouncy song about this trope, called "Death, Death (Devil, Devil, Evil, Evil)"
** "When You're Evil", anyone? It's basically a song about how much he loves to do evil things, set to a tango.
** And "The Headless Waltz" which is about... um... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin pretty much exactly what you'd expect]]
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YUFFMA4V-w "Die die die di-die die"]]
** You know those tunes that just sound like they were written so that the [[{{Eagleland}} American]] government could inspire patriotism? Set to one of those lyrics about how much he hates the place and wishes someone would [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tuy4Bpz080Q "Bomb New Jersey"]].
** Guess what the gospel-esque [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6rLMchPYSw&feature=related "Hell in a Handbasket"]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin is about]].
* The song for the ''{{Mercenaries}} 2'' commercial [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCvIw7DMHXc "Oh No You Didn't"]] is a light hip hop/barbershop chorus set to an upbeat piano tune that wouldn't be out of place at an amateur recital or off-Broadway musical. The lyrics are about getting revenge after getting shot in the arse by your employer. And it's totally awesome.
* On a more general level, pick any extremist movement with lyrics that have a markedly different effect on you than on its members. For an example that's obscure enough to be safe, Finnish hardliner communist tunes from the 1970s are catchy, uplifting and energizing calls for determination and solidarity, both of which will be needed to restart the civil war and slaughter the bourgeoisie, clergy, police, government and everyone else involved in the upper classes' worldwide plot that previously started World War II to destroy the Soviet Union. Trust no one.
** This happens frequently with political songs, particularly of a satirical nature. NeilYoung's "Rockin' in the Free World" and John Fogerty's "Fortunate Son" were mistaken for proud, jingoistic rock songs by those who listened only to their melodies and choruses, and not their verses.
* The chirpy EndingTheme from ''CaptainScarlet'': "They crash him, and his body may burn. They smash him, but they know he'll return... to live again". Accompanied by images of a terrified Captain Scarlet in a variety of perilous and painful-looking situations.
* "Macarena" is a catchy dance tune about the town [[strike:prostitute]] GoodBadGirl?
* Deliberately, blatantly, and hilariously invoked by Andrew Hansen of TheChaser, in his lounge arrangement of the CannibalCorpse song "Rancid Amputation".
* WesleyWillis primarily sings over pre-programmed tracks from his synthesizer, which usually means really happy-sounding tinny keyboard lines backing up songs called things like "Kill That Jerk" and "Fuck With Me And Find Out".
** Let's not forget perennial classics such as "Birdman Kicked My Ass" and "I Whooped Batman's Ass".
* "Arthur McBride" is basically a big TakeThat and ScrewYou at military recruiters. The Enter the Haggis version is a fast paced, crowd sing-along number.
* Oda's "Sex Crime" is a catchy eurobeat number thats about [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin wanting to rape someone]]. Near the end there's lyrics like ''you make me want to kill you'' and the song gets a lot creepier.
* You can find children from [[FromTheMouthsOfBabes seven onwards]] singing [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_Dance_%28hymn%29 "Lord of the Dance"]] at Catholic schools and churches. Enthusiastic renditions of lyrics like:
** ''I danced on the Sabbath / And I cured the lame; / The holy people / Said it was a shame. / They whipped and they stripped / And they hung me on high, / And they left me there / On a Cross to die.''
* A very strong candidate for MostTriumphantExample would be "Won't You Come over to My House?", best known from the famous short ''OneFroggyEvening''. If your memory's a bit hazy, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqB_YYB8TJU here's]] the cartoon, and [[http://froggyeve.tripod.com/comeover.html here]] are the full lyrics.
* The AngryVideoGameNerd's theme song, by Kyle Justin. It's an uptempo song about how much James Rolfe hates the video games he has to review.
* Band Aid's world-hunger-awareness-raising anthem "Do They Know It's Christmas?" may or may not qualify... but The Echoing Green's bouncy techno cover version certainly does.
** The original version qualifies when you consider that what was intended as a way to raise awareness of world hunger is now played annually as a festive, celebratory song.
* One might note that the original words to "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" are somewhat ... depressing, (including the line "We all will muddle through somehow") and that the retouching to make the song acceptable to modern audiences has left a melancholy tune with much more pleasant lyrics.

''Older folders:''

[[folder: Music: 1970s and older]]
* "Butcher Pete" by Roy Brown is a bouncy jazz number about a guy who's either [[AxCrazy a serial killer who targets women]] or [[{{Casanova}} a philandering cad.]] As [[http://www.cracked.com/article_17625_p2.html Cracked.com]] puts it, "This is a rare example where hiding the sexual content behind double entendres and innuendo somehow made the song a thousand times ''more'' offensive."
* 10cc's "Rubber Bullets" is a happy, peppy, upbeat tune about a prison riot.
* BobDylan uses this from time to time. The most famous instance, however, is "Like a Rolling Stone," in which happy (or at least happy-ish) and bright music contrasts with Dylan's [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism incredibly cynical]] tirade against a girl who finds herself on the street after living a life of privilege. Please note that this is often considered ''the best'' rock song of all time.
** And there is also "Tangled Up in Blue", which is one of his happiest, catchiest tunes, although the lyrics tell the story of a breakup.
** Part of the reason for this might be that people often have a difficult time understanding a [[TheUnintelligible damn thing]] Dylan says.
* JethroTull's famous song "Aqualung" from the eponymous album has a catchy, upbeat tune, after a catchy, though less-upbeat, introduction. It's about a pedophilic hobo with creepy, raspy breath that sounds like scuba gear. It also happens to be probably their most famous song of all time. ''Everyone'' is horrified when they first hear what the lyrics actually are.
-->Sitting on a park bench\\
Eying little girls with bad intent\\
''[lecherous sniggering]''
** The song directly after it on the same album, "Cross-Eyed Mary", is about a little girl who actively seeks out pedophiles like Aqualung. After a minute-long flute introduction, slides rockily into a growling, proto-metal tune that is possibly the most rock-out-inducing tune in the band's repertoire.
--->Laughing in the playground\\
Gets no kicks from little boys\\
Would rather make it with a leching grey\\
Or maybe her attention\\
Is drawn by Aqualung\\
Who watches through the railings as they play
* "Last Kiss" only has one version (the PearlJam cover) that ''wasn't'' upbeat... despite the fact that the song is about ''teenagers dying in auto accidents''.
** J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers' original never stuck me as that upbeat, even if it is up-tempo. The background singers are downright ghoulish.
* NapoleonXIV's "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!"
* A lot of PinkFloyd's early songs, especially those penned by [[CloudCuckoolander Syd]] [[CrazyAwesome Barrett]], exhibit this trope. Some examples include "Arnold Layne", pretty much all of ''The Piper at the Gates of Dawn'', "Corporal Clegg", "Scream Thy Last Scream", "Jugband Blues", "Point Me At The Sky", "Crying Song", "If", "Burning Bridges", "Free Four"...
** The cover album ''Rebuild the Wall'' by Luther Wright and the Wrongs. All the [[NightmareFuel content]] of the original album, but twice as fast and with country accents.
* MeatLoaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" seems at first to be a love story (slightly drawn out and oddly described, but never mind) but changes fairly suddenly from the singer promising to "love you to the end of time" to regretting that promise ("so now I'm praying for the end of time...").
** Specifically, it's about a teenage boy cajoling his girl to have sex with him, with her only promising to do so if he stays with her forever. The last verse, quite upbeat and high tempo, is the two some time later realizing what a mistake that was.
* This was JoyDivision's stock-in-trade. Most of their songs are fast and catchy... with some of the most wretchedly depressing lyrics ever committed to paper:
-->When routine bites hard and ambitions are low
-->And resentment rides high but emotions won't grow
-->And we're changing our ways, taking different roads
-->Then love, love will tear us apart again
-->Why is the bedroom so cold turned away on your side?
-->Is my timing that flawed, our respect run so dry?
-->Yet there's still this appeal that we've kept through our lives
-->Love, love will tear us apart again
-->Do you cry out in your sleep, all my failings exposed?
-->Get a taste in my mouth as desperation takes hold
-->Is it something so good just can't function no more?
-->When love, love will tear us apart again
** Even their name is a bit of a joke. In the novel, ''The House of Dolls'' by Yehiel De-Nur, joy divisions were groups of Jewish women in the concentration camps who were kept to sexually service Nazi guards.
** Some other wonderful numbers include "Isolation", a nice little bouncy synthpop song about the singer hating himself, and "Transmission", which seems upbeat and nice... until you look at the lyrics closely.
* RayCharles' version of "Bye Bye Love." The more well-known version by the Everly Brothers is in a major key already, but Ray's version is positively bouncy. The song is about...well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin exactly what the title tells you]]. Hear [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=729yYBH6ZxY part of it]] during a fittingly upbeat dance performance.
* Smokey Robinson, in "Tears of a Clown", sings of a man hurt by a lover who left him comparing himself to the characters in the opera ''Pagliacci,'' comedians/clowns who [[StepfordSmiler hide their hurt and anger behind empty smiles]], complete with a distinctive circus calliope riff. (Notably, the circusesque melody was written -- by Stevie Wonder -- long before the lyrics; Robinson went with the LyricalDissonance intentionally after being reminded of the characters in ''Pagliacci''.)
* "Tragedy" by the Bee Gees. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The name already says a lot, obviously]], but it's still weird to have a very upbeat song with lyrics about a man who's about to cross the DespairEventHorizon after his girlfriend dumps him.
* The song "Friday 13th" by Atomic Rooster is surprisingly catchy to contain lyrics like
-->No one in the world will love you
-->No one in the world will miss you
-->No one in the world will need you
* Many songs by Steely Dan are good examples of this trope. (Examples: "Peg," "My Old School," "Reelin' in the Years," and so on.) The most stunning example in a Dan song is "Chain Lightning." It is a 6/8 jazz shuffle. The lyrics invoke a sense of Orwell. A good formula is, the happier the song, the more twisted the lyrics.
** On the same record as "Chain Lightning" is "Everyone's Gone to the Movies", in which a man known as Mr. La Page shows pornographic films in his living room to neighbourhood children, while the parents are none the wiser and happy that their children are out of the house.
** In contrast, Donald Fagen's solo work largely subverts this -- at least up until ''Morph the Cat'', and even that has exceptions ("Mary Shut the Garden Door", "Security Joan").
** "Kid Charlemagne" is an upbeat jazz-funk-rock song about an LSD dealer and his eventual arrest. "... Your low-rent friends are dead ..."
** In kind of a subversion, their song "Deacon Blues" sounds somber and morose, until you realize, ''the lyrics are about a hipster wannabe who wants to mythologize himself by adopting the nickname of a losing college sports team (the Wake Forest Demon Deacons--as contrasted with the winning Alabama Crimson Tide).
* Paul [=McCartney=] and Wings' "[[http://tinysong.com/6ObT Live and Let Die]]" ([[http://tinysong.com/7esa covered by]] GunsNRoses) is pretty happy, if aggressive, and to be fair, it's sparse on the lyrics, but what is there is chastising a naive listener for ''caring about other people''.
** But it fits [[JamesBond the person]] [[LiveAndLetDie for whom]] the song was written for...
* Barry Manilow's "Copacabana". Peppy little ditty about a woman losing her boyfriend in a bar brawl and becoming an alcoholic.
** Particularly peculiar was when the song was acted out by muppets on ''The Muppet Show'' when Liza Manelli was the guest star.
* "Detroit Rock City" by {{Kiss}} is an upbeat rock anthem about a fan who was killed in an auto wreck while driving to a concert.
* TheRollingStones loved doing this. To cite two notorious examples:
** "Sympathy For The Devil" is an erudite, brooding meditation of the dark side of human nature, using 2,000 years of human history as a backdrop...set to a fun uptempo samba beat, complete with an infectious "woo woo" chant.
** "Brown Sugar" is a rousing rocker about, um, sexual exploitation of slaves in the pre-Civil War South.
** "Jumping Jack Flash" is about how the singer's life was terrible, such as losing his parents and instead being raised by "a toothless bearded hag", but that it's "all right now". Now [[http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=MvLCnKqYWzA&fmt=18 listen to it in]] ''EliteBeatAgents''.
* [[DonMcLean Don "It Means I Never Have To Work Again" McLean's]] "Primetime". The music sounds pretty upbeat. The lyrics...
-->''We had to burn the city 'cause they wouldn't agree\\
That things go better with democracy''
* "Run, Joey, Run" by David Geddes suffers from this

[[folder:Music: 1990s]]
* GreenDay's "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" is an absolutely vicious breakup song, with a gentle guitar rhythm going on in the background. It was actually written by the lead vocalist/guitarist when he and his girlfriend broke up. The 'Good Riddance' part was added to the title when the situation became even [[ItGotWorse worse]].
** It's even funnier that at nearly every single high school dance, that is the last song. Always.
*** "For what it's worth, it was worth all the while," "Hang (the memories) on a shelf ''in good health and good times''", "make the best of this test," and of course the chorus. [[SarcasmMode Sure sounds absolutely vicious to me]]. If it's about a breakup, I will always think of it as a "Fun while it lasted, let's both go on with our lives and remember each other kindly," song.
*** Two words: ''Glen Campbell''.
** What's arguably their greatest hit, "Basket Case", as the [[http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:3ifexbthld6e allmusic song review]] points, is a cheerful/sarcastic tune [[SanitySlippageSong on the paranoia and the descending sanity of the narrator.]]
** Another Green Day song, "Misery", has an upbeat tune, but as the title suggests it's about misery.
** Green Day's "Having A Blast" is a catchy pop song about blowing up one's neighbors.
* [[{{REM}} R.E.M.'s]] "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" is an insanely upbeat and cheery song about, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the end of the world]].
** Stipe's lyrics are usually laden with irony somewhere: "The One I Love" seems to be a straightforward rock love song, except for the fact that the lover in question is referred to constantly as "A simple prop / To occupy my time", replaced in the final verse with "Another prop".
*** "The One I Love" is a case where the song itself is unclear and open to interpretation. It never makes clear whether the phrase "A simple prop/ To occupy my time" refers to the lover in question, or whether it refers to "This One", making it a description of the song itself, as in "I was bored and thinking of you so I composed this simple prop of a song to occupy my time and dedicated it to you." Either interpretation fits the lyrics.
** WordofGod says [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwPu96ZcV_I "Shiny Happy People"]] is about the Tiananmen Square massacre, and it's really from the point of view of the Chinese Government with a StepfordSmiler tone. Naturally, [[MisaimedFandom they failed miserably]], but Michael Moore got the tone right in ''Fahrenheit 9/11'' when the song was played to scenes of Bush shaking hands with the Saudis.
*** The song's name came from Chinese propaganda that called the Tiananmen Square massacre "Shiny happy people holding hands." Yeah.
** Similarly,"Try Not To Breathe" is a cheery song about the singer wanting to kill himself.
* "I Bombed Korea" by CAKE. Post-traumatic stress disorder and a GuiltComplex never sounded so good.
* "Closer" by NineInchNails. The beat and porn-esque bassline give the impression that it is a song about sexual gratification, but the lyrics are about a man that uses sex as a means to escape his crippling self-loathing. Still to this day, many listeners ignore the actual lyrical content and instead focus on the "OMG he wants to fuck me like an animal!"-factor.
* PearlJam's done this a couple times:
** "Even Flow" is a very intense-sounding song...about life through the eyes of a homeless person, who sleeps on the streets ("Freezing / Rests his head on a pillow made of concrete"), is illiterate (Even / Looking through the paper though he doesn't know how to read) and possibly mentally ill, as he "looks insane" when he smiles and struggles to keep coherent thoughts (Even Flow / Thoughts arrive like butterflies / He don't know / So he chases them away)
** "Alive" sounds like a rousing anthem about life but is about a mother falling in love with her son, who looks just like his dead father, and sexually abusing him.
*** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted:]] WordOfGod states that the positive fan response has changed the meaning of the song into a rousing anthem about life.
** "Jeremy" comes off as a fairly upbeat song but is about a kid who killed himself in front of his high school English class (made even more disturbing by the video for it).
** "Better Man", another song grievously misinterpreted by its listeners (as a love song), is actually a song about abusive relationships from the woman's point of view, and [[WordOfGod Eddie Vedder himself said]] it's "dedicated to the bastard that married my Momma".
** And, in an ''in''version, "Spin the Black Circle" sounds very dark and the vocals in it border on screaming at parts, but it's actually about vinyl records.
*** The first few lines of that song also seem specifically written to mislead the listener into thinking it's going to be about heroin ("See this needle, see my hand, drop-drop-droppin' it down, oh so gently")
** "Glorified G", one of their peppiest sounding songs, sung from the point of view of a gun nut.
* "Wonderful" by Everclear is, both by title and music, a funky, happy song -- but the words describe the absolutely heartbreaking thought process of a child whose parents are breaking up:
--> I don't want to meet your friends
--> And I don't want to start over again
--> I just want my life to be the same, just like it used to be
--> Some days I hate everything
--> Everyone and everything
--> Please don't tell me everything is wonderful now
** Everclear seems to do this sort of thing quite often. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8uamNDLEA0 "Father Of Mine"]] is about a father who abuses his wife and abandons his child, but you'd never guess it from the tune alone.
** "Amphetamine" is an upbeat song about a depressed addict in California ("Yeah, you just take your pill, and everything will be alright").
* "Crash Into Me" by Dave Matthews Band. It sounds like a beautiful, southern-style acoustic love song, but according to [[WordOfGod Dave Matthews]] the narrator is either a peeping Tom, a fifteen-year old boy having a sexual fantasy, or both.
** There's also "So Damn Lucky", an upbeat song about a car crash after getting drunk at the bar.
* "Spiderwebs" by NoDoubt has a upbeat, catchy tune, but it's about a girl who keeps getting called by a guy so much that she has to screen her phone calls (sounds like a stalker to me).
** Real Life Writes The Song.
* TheOffspring, "Come Out and Play", a catchy punk song with a singalong chorus... and lyrics about school violence.
** Its "sister song" (both were off the same album, and released to radio at the same time), "Self Esteem", is an equally-catchy power-punk tune about a guy who is being used sexually by his girlfriend, who treats him like crap and cheats on him, but he goes along with the relationship anyway because he's afraid people will see him as a "dweeb" if he breaks it off with her.
** Let's not forget "Why Don't You Get A Job", with its Caribbean melody (reminiscent of "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da") and lyrics that basically say, to two of the singers' friends SOs (one male, one female), "You're a worthless fucking leech, but they won't tell you, so I will: fuck off!". Or "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)", laughing at [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy wiggers]] over a good punk/alt-rock riff. Or "Special Delivery": catchy riff, lyrics about stalker with voices in his head. Or "Walla Walla", another fast tune about how ''you'', the subject of the song, are going to prison ''and it's a good thing because you're an idiot reprobate''.
** There's also "The End of the Line" which is a really fast song about mourning someone who died. Or "Jennifer Lost the War," which is also really fast but about the suffering of girls caught up in a war. Or "Hit That," which is cheerful and bouncy-sounding and all about ''unplanned pregnancy''(!)
** "Hammerhead". School shooting song that ''sounds'' like it wouldn't be out of place in a soldier's iPod, with lyrics like "Risk my life to keep my people from harm", "I'm just doing what I'm told", and "I'll take this life so others may live"...and then there's TheReveal at the end.
--->Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
--->I will fear no evil: for Thou are with me
--->Locked and loaded gonna find my truth
--->Now I'm busting through,
--->All hell breaks loose
--->And you can all hide behind your desks now!
--->[[CerebusRetcon And you can cry "teacher come help me!"]]
--->[[WhamLine Through you all, my aim's true!]]
--->[[HighOctaneNightmareFuel My aim's true!]]
* Stroke 9's catchy "Little Black Backpack." ''I think I'm gonna bash his head in!''
* "Worlock" by Skinny Puppy. The song is one of Skinny Puppy's most accessible songs and is essentially a pop song with heavy drums. The strings in the chorus are particularly beautiful. But the lyrics are the usual insane-demented-weird-incomprehensibility that Skinny Puppy revel in (and the music video for the song is NightmareFuelUnleaded).
* So, you have this catchy funk-metal song. What do you do? If you answered "write lyrics about standing in the shower, thinking and pissing yourself", congratulations, you're [[JanesAddiction Perry Farrell]].
* Used by Marcy Playground's "Sex and Candy" -- the lyrics seem innocuous enough, but the tune is strange, and the singer sounds kind of stoned. The music video is borderline NightmareFuel with such images as the singer standing up to his chin in a hole while a huge spider crawls towards him and two men tearing apart a woman's dresser. It ends with the singer being pushed to the ground, uttering the final lyric "Mama, this must be my dream" as green blood oozes out from under him. According to WordOfGod, the song and music videos were intended to be about someone having a wet dream.
* Big Fun's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W76iB2tvPdY "Handfull of Promises"]]. You think the poppy and catchy song these three dance and sing in the rain is a cheery one? Check out the lyrics, where a guy complains about how he didn't know better [[YourCheatingHeart his ex-girlfriend was cheating on him]]... while everyone else knew but didn't tell him.
--> Should've been running
--> I know it sounds funny
--> I was such a fool
--> Cause I couldn't see it coming.
--> Just a handfull of promises
--> You gave me
--> A pocketfull of dreams
--> That just won't do
--> How can I go on
--> With nothing to live on
--> But a handfull of promises?
* Jack Off Jill's "Horrible". Keeps this catchy, upbeat tune while singing about a cannibal.
* [[{{Garbage}} Garbage's]] incredibly bouncy song "Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go)": the first verse is about a pretty but airheaded girl who runs when things get tough and the second verse is about a young male transvestite who's mistaken for an actual girl. Given it was apparently based on two incredibly depressing books about child abuse, prostitution and rape (''Sarah'' and ''The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things'') you can pretty much put a ring around that, despite Shirley Manson (the band's vocalist) describing it as "an adrenaline rush" and "probably the most celebratory song we've ever written". Yeah, right.
** "Only Happy When it Rains" is something of a subversion: a upbeat, catchy song about being depressed... but ''enjoying'' it.
** Don't forget the ridiculously catchy [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-CHEnJ7gnc "Push It"]] ({{Mind Screw}} music video notwithstanding) and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkxphrmB22Q "Why Do You Love Me"]].
** "Cup of Coffee". By the sound of it, it's a soft song about a couple breaking up, nothing out of the ordinary. Until the lyrics show that the singer is ''completely obsessed'' with their ex, and ''stare in their window at night'', have stopped eating, wished they were never born, etc, etc.
** And "# 1 Crush". A smooth rock song about being completely and totally obsessed with another person to the point that you would do anything for them.
* Sublime's "Wrong Way" is about a teenage prostitute. Although it's pretty blatent what the song is about, the cheery beat contrasts with the dark lyrics.
** "Santeria", a wistful song about a jealous ex-boyfriend attempting to reclaim his girlfriend, promising to kill the guy who took her ("and I won't think twice to stick that barrel straight down Sancho's throat").
** Let's not forget "Date Rape".
* Chumbawumba embodies this trope, with cheery pop-synth beats, and female soprano vocals...that are rather depressing (and ofteneither critiquing society or politics). For example, their song Smalltown, an airy, breezy number containing these lyrics:
''Cafes full of people dressed as spies''//
''And all I know is guilt for being different''//
''It's always raining stones''//
''There's a killer in my home''//
* {{Hanson}}'s "[=MMMBop=]". A catchy, danceble, uptempo song by the looks of it, one of the happiest-sounding songs of TheNineties, but it's really about relationships and the unpredicticability of friendships.
-->You have so many relationships in this life \\
Only one or two will last \\
You go through all the pain and strife \\
Then you turn your back, and they're gone so fast...
[[/folder]]

[[folder:2000s]]
* AnimalCollective's "Graze" starts off with a voice gently singing how awesome it is to wake up on a beautiful morning like this one. Then it slowly builds to a climax, but when it hits in all its joyous panfluting majesty, it's accompanied by lyrics as "Why do you have to go? / I'm in the dark unknown / And you're staying home".
* Played with rather amusingly in the Say Anything song "That Is Why". It comes off as a peppy faux showtune that's actually about him hating his ex and listing of reasons why she's a horrible bitch. Escpecially weird that an earlier version of the song, "You Should Rock My World" is cheery lyrics set to the same melody.
* "Face Down", by the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, is a bright, cheery song about relationship violence.
* DeathCabForCutie (OK, [[FaceOfTheBand Ben Gibbard]]) loves this trope. In between writing {{TearJerker}}s and {{ObsessionSong}}s, he writes songs like "No Sunlight" from ''Narrow Stairs'', a beach tune type song about losing you innocence as you grow up...
--->With every year,
--->That came to pass,
--->More clouds appeared,
--->'Til the sky went black.
--->And there was no sunlight,
--->No sunlight anymore.
*** ''Narrow Stairs'' as a whole is made of this trope. Not a one of the tunes on the album are sad, yet nearly all the songs are about failing relationships, hoping for love that never comes, staying in relationships because you know you can't get anyone else, and stalking people. What a cheery psyche Ben Gibbard must have!
**** Doubly ironic, considering that he married his long time girlfriend [[ManicPixieDreamGirl Zooey Deschanel]] less than a year after its release.
** "The Ice is Getting Thinner", a thinly-veiled message about global warming. Or "The Sound of Settling", a cheery indie pop crowd song about being unable to say what you really mean to people.
** Which is seen as hilarious and silly by some fans, but Your Mileage May Vary.
** What about "My Mirror Speaks" off ''The Open Door EP'' a cheery sounding pop tune about someone who doesn't really develop attachments or doesn't remain very committed to anything until he or she looks into the mirror and realizes that the way that he or she has been living hasn't been working.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrQRS40OKNE "White Winter Hymnal"]] by Fleet Foxes. It's a beautiful little ditty about decapitation.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t7E4amWDqI "A Song About An Anglerfish"]] is an incredibly upbeat, energetic tune about the narrator dealing with his crushing despair by using an anglerfish as his role model, which has no objective reason to be happy but "has no frickin' idea what else to be" because the anglerfish has only ever known darkness and loneliness and thus has nothing else to compare it to.
-->''Because you can't hate the night if you've lived your whole life without light''
-->''And you can't hate the dish if you've only ever eaten fish''
-->''And you can't feel alone if it's all you've ever known''
* "Further" by VNV Nation is an incredibly catchy and uplifting song... about how nothing we've ever done will make the slightest bit of difference because we all die in the end.
** Several VNV Nation songs fall under this trope. "Genesis" attacks Man's dependence on God and the Old World desire to claim things in God's name, all while ''sampling a reading of the book of Genesis'' by the crew of the Apollo 8 mission over a happy trance progression.
** In an inversion, "Fragments" features positive lyrics about a glorious future, set to an abrasive and menacing industrial dance track.
* DreamTheater has utilized the "death growl" vocal effect exactly once: on "A Nightmare To Remember", it occurs after the HAPPIEST part of the story where it is revealed that everyone survived a car accident. This part is, for some strange reason, very angrily shouted.
-->It's a miracle he lived
-->It's a blessing no one died
-->By the grace of God above
-->Everyone survived
-->OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAHHHHH!
** Don't forget Solitary Shell and About to Crash, both of which are movements in the song "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence". The entire song is about mental illness, and these two movements are uplifting and happy. Like this little dity, set to perfectly happy sounding music:
-->She was raised in a small midwestern town
-->By a charming and eccentric loving father
-->She was praised as the perfect teenage girl
-->And everyone thought highly of her
-->And she tried everyday
-->With endless drive
-->To make the grade
-->Then one day
-->She woke up to find
-->The perfect girl
-->Had lost her mind
* {{Gorillaz}} have a cheery little number called "Every Planet We Reach Is Dead".
** Much more evident in the song "Superfast Jellyfish". It's a pop-filled silly sugar sparkle... about the devastating effects of consumerism. "The sea is radioactive"
* AvrilLavigne's "Anything But Ordinary". It's {{Emo}}.
--> Somebody rip my heart out
--> And leave me here to bleed
** "He Wasn't", a beautifully happy and energetic song about a woman who dumped her ex and is feeling lonely.
* To a degree, all of the songs by [[RockPaperCynic Peter Chiykowski]]... except "Rock, Paper, Cynic" and "Sansregret", [[spoiler:which are ''instrumental'']]. As of September 2009, we've [[http://www.myspace.com/rockpapercynic got the awesome]]
** "Raising Cain", a melancholy, saxophone-heavy ditty whose message is basically, "we've got nothing to do, so let's go out and party",
** "The Black Ship Batrachian", another sad tune with lyrics about the freedom that the people who live on the titular ship have,
** "One Shell, Two Shell", a war-protest song about ''MarioKart'',
** "ZombieApocalypse Blues": It's [[CrowningMomentOfFunny hilarious]], but at the end the singer gets eaten by zombies, which, [[ViewersAreMorons in case you hadn't noticed]], is ''creepy'', and
** "A Love Song For the Post-Apocalypse", which is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a happy song that just happens to be set in a post-apocalyptal world]].
* Almost every single one of the All American Rejects songs is upbeat. Almost every single one of their songs is about breakups.
** Move Along is about someone trying to prevent (assumedly their lover) from committing suicide.
* "Just Dance", by LadyGaga. It has an upbeat, really catchy, really danceable sound. The narrator of the song is a woman in a club who is so completely and totally disoriented with drunkenness that she can't see straight, or remember where she is. Later in the song, she gets hit on by (and possibly, has casual sex with) a sleazy-sounding guy.
** Check out TheOtherWiki's [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paparazzi_(Lady_Gaga_song) article]] on [[LoonyFan "Paparazzi"]].
** From her new album, we have to mention "Telephone", a upbeat dance number dedicated to say "stop calling me, I don't want to talk to you, like, ''never''", and "Bad Romance", her ode to either dysfunctional relationships or awful romance novels. Maybe both.
** And let's not forget "Dance In The Dark"! It's an upbeat''ish'' song about a girl who has a boyfriend who calls her a mess and a tramp. Even better for an example are the first lines in the song, "Silicone. Saline. Poison. Inject me." Basically, it's talking about breast implants and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botox Botox]] injections.
** "Eh Eh Nothing Else I Can Say". It has the sweetest beat of all her songs and translates to 'I don't think we're meant for each other, sorry, bye bye.'
* FranzFerdinand's bouncy hit "Take Me Out" is [[http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2004/feb/16/popandrock based on the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife.]]
** And "The Fallen" is a rather chaotic song about the second coming of Christ, and how he would be lower middle class.
* {{Eminem}}'s "Superman" has a nice soft beat and sounds like a standard romance ballad and the lyrics lead you to believe that at first
--> Eminem: I know what you wanna hear...
-->'Cuz I know you want me baby I think I want you too...
--> Girl: I think I love you baby...
--> Eminem: I think I love you too...
-->I'm here to save you girl
-->Come be in Shady's world
-->I wanna grow together
-->Let's let our love unfurl
-->You know you want me baby
-->You know I want you too
-->They call me Superman
-->I'm here to rescue you
-->I wanna save you girl
-->come be in Shady's world...
--> Girl: oh boy you drive me crazy...
--> Eminem: Bitch, you make me hurl
** Also includes such wonderful lines like
--> Superman aint savin shit, girl you can jump on Shady's dick
--> Bitch if you died, wouldn't buy you life
-->But I do know one thing though
-->Bitches they come, they go/Saturday through sunday monday/Monday through sunday yo/Maybe i'll love you one day/Maybe we'll someday grow/Till then just sit your drunk ass on that fuckin runway hoe...
** And let's not forget "My Name Is", also by Eminem. It has an upbeat tune, and Eminem begins it in a friendly, somewhat silly voice...while talking about things like sticking nails through his eyelids and trying acid. Not to mention either stapling his teacher's nuts to a sheet of paper, or assaulting said teacher to get a better grade (depends if it's the clean version or the original).
* AmandaPalmer (of the Dresden Dolls) released "Oasis" as the first single off her solo album. It's a happy bouncy hi-energy crowd-singy little number about... uh... [[http://www.vimeo.com/2730706 rape, abortions and backstabby friends.]] Oh, and writing a letter to a certain British band...
** Palmer pointed out her blog that the LyricalDissonance is a big part of what makes it offensive, and if she were to sing the same words to a slow mournful tune it probably wouldn't have been banned from the radio.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C17yfGyJjM The video]] is even better.
** There's also "Bad Habit," which is a catchy, up-beat ear worm about self-harm.
** [[HowDidWeMissThisOne I can't believe there's no mention of]] "Coin Operated Boy". The verses and chorus seem to be about a happy relationship between a girl and her robotic boyfriend... But when it gets to the bridge... oh boy.
* [[TeamAmericaWorldPolice "EVERYONE HAS AIDS! AIDS AIDS AIDS!"]] Etcetera.
* "PDA" by Interpol has this written throughout the song. It's a cheery song about a psychopathic rapist/killer running a hotel who goes to jail after raping one of his tenants
* P!nk (or '{{Pink}}', if you prefer) has a bouncy, upbeat Top 40 song. It's called "Please Don't Leave Me". Wait, it gets worse. The song is about a violently abusive relationship - as sung from the point of view ''of the abuser''.
-->You're my perfect little punching bag...
** Especially when you see the music video. It's Pink going {{Yandere}} at its finest.
* Beck's "Girl" is a happy tune that sounds like it is about summer love, but is actually probably about a sniper tracking his next victim.
* The Killers write lots of bright-sounding tunes... with lyrics that may or may not match that tone. "Mr. Brightside" sounds like the name implies... but the lyrics are about a guy watching as the girl he likes is getting ready to sleep with another man. As a more recent example, "Spaceman" is an awfully cheery tune for a song about an alien abduction.
** "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine," where the narrator is going to kill the woman he loves because she has other things to do in her life than be with him constantly. He is then arrested and says he would never do such a thing because they were friends. Not to mention that words in the song repeat later in the CD and seem to imply that the man is completely out of his mind.
** "Midnight Show" doesn't immediately seem like this, because most of the lyrics make it sound like a standard romance song - except WordOfGod has stated it's the second song in the "murder trilogy." "Leave the Burbon on the Shelf" is about the narrator in a dysfunctional relationship with a girl named Jennifer. "Midnight Show" is about him using sexy promises to lure her to a secluded place '''to kill her and dump her body in the ocean.''' Then the above-mentioned "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine" is him being questioned by the police and denying it.
* LemonDemon's "Atomic Copper Claw" is a hyper song is sung by a paranoid person who believes he's being stalked by someone wanting to kill him, with the instrument the song is named after hiding under his long sleeves.
** Lemon Demon does this a lot. A few other examples:
*** "Dead Sea Monkeys," a cheerful, upbeat song about... dead sea monkeys.
*** "Gonna Dig Up Alec Guinness," perhaps the best example, a cheerful, 80's-sounding rock song about exhuming Alec Guinness and putting him on display for profit.
*** "Stuck," a slow, cheerful-sounding song with a lot of whistling about a person who is literally trapped in a song and wants to you put him out of his misery by skipping the track.
*** "Eyewishes," a catchy rock song with a great guitar riff about committing suicide.
*** "I Know Your Name," a catchy surfer-rock melody about an insane man who accosts random people and burns down a supermarket.
*** "Action Movie Hero Boy," a song about a dynamite-obsessed moron who blows himself up.
*** "The Saga of You, Confused Destroyer of Planets," a catchy little tune about blowing up millions of lives. "It's just a paradox, it isn't wrong."
*** "The Satirist's Love Song," a cheerful tune in which the narrator tells his girlfriend or significant other that their entire relationship was a work of satire.
*** "Bill Watterson," a song about stalking [[CalvinAndHobbes Bill Watterson]].
*** And then there's "The UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny", a happy little song about dozens of pop-cultural characters fighting a free-for-all BattleRoyaleWithCheese that devastates the Earth.
* "1985" by Bowling for Soup. An upbeat song that is actually about a girl who was a teenager in 1985, and the big plans she had never came to pass, certainly not the 80s tribute the video makes it out to be.
** On a similar note, their song "99 Biker Friends", the catchiest song about abusive boyfriends ever (though the end of the song has the singer planning on attacking the abuser, with the help of Chuck Norris, [[FiftyCent 50 Cent]], the A-Team, obscure 80s hair metal band Danger Danger, and a pair of prison guards. [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer No, that actually]] ''[[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer is]]'' [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer how it ends]])
* "Tarantula" by TheSmashingPumpkins: a dark song about being in love.
** Also "Today" a cheerful sounding song about suicide.
* Canadian musician Matthew Good has a few songs like this: "Moon Over Marin" (a cover of a Dead Kennedy's song) is a slow, somewhat dreamy kind of song about a guy who can't walk on the beach outside his house without a gasmask and hazard suit because it's so polluted. "Silent Army in the Trees" is a driving rock song about a military man holding his friends and watching them bleed, then getting home and still being haunted by the horrors of war. "Vancouver National Anthem" is, contrary to the title and upbeat music, is about how Vancouver is segregated between the rich and the poor, and everyone dies downtown.
* [[YourMileageMayVary Meant sarcastically or not]], Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" is a catchy ditty sung by a SpoiledBrat JerkAss who not only intends [[ClingyJealousGirl to steal another girl's boyfriend]], but have him "wrapped around her finger" because said girl is [[DieForOurShip "like, whatever"]]. And your 13 year old niece has probably been dancing to this all day.
** And her method of stealing said boyfriend? [[BeAWhoreToGetYourMan Being a better lay.]]
* A 2000s {{TNT}} example "Satellite", one of TNT's more mainstream songs, with a power pop feel to it. The lyrics talk about how material and shallow some people seem to be when rich and famous. Here's the song performed in playback in 2003 [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7dvQ0tZv6Y Enjoy]].
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7yfISlGLNU "I'm On a Boat"]] by TheLonelyIsland, is an angry and confrontational sound rap in pure "gangsta rap" style... [[StealthParody about being on a boat]].
* On a similar [[{{Incredibly Lame Pun}} note]], there's also [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NisCkxU544c "Like A Boss"]], which starts out as a corporate performance review done to the tune of a rap song. About halfway through, the lyrics [[{{Refuge in Audacity}} take a turn for the weird]].
* The Bright Eyes song "At the Bottom of Everything" has a happy-go-lucky folk tune and is sung rather joyously, but the introduction informs the listener that it's a story about a plane full of people that are plummeting to their deaths and who all simultaneously realize that their lives and goals were meaningless.
* "Up and Away" by Kid Cudi, total stoned apathy never sounded so jangly.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAJA-bz1uo0 "Paper Planes"]] by MIA seems pretty cheery going by the tune, but the lyrics seem to be sung from the point of view of a violent, drug-addled gangster.
** Ironically, the position is supported by the artist. It appears to be a typical "hustle" song about the artist's illegal operations and monetary gains. [[spoiler:It's really about inner-city taxi drivers who have to drive annoying people around in violent areas, but all they really care about is the fare.]]
** And the tune is sampled from "Straight To Hell" by The Clash, who, as noted way, way, further up on the page, use this trope a lot (the aformentioned song is another example).
* Metro Station's "Shake It" is a nu-wave rocker that at first sounds like it's about dancing, but a closer listen reveals the lyrics are really about IntercourseWithYou.
** "Disco" trumps it. Cheery dance beat, check, first lines of the chorus "Oh-oh, she's dancing/At the dico"... Next lines? "Oh-oh, she's dying/On the dancefloor."
* Black Eyed Peas's "Where is the Love?" A typical soul-song beat with "People killin', people dyin' / Children hurt and you hear them cryin' / Can you practice what you preach / And would you turn the other cheek"...
* ReginaSpektor's song "Two Birds" could also count. It may sound upbeat, even ''cute'', until you realize it's describing a relationship wherein one person seems to be afraid of commitment and continuously lies/makes excuses. What's more heartbreaking is that the other is oblivious to the lies and promises to never leave the other. The only thing keeping it from being a total downer is the last line, "''One tries to fly away, and the other...''" which implies that he ''might'' "fly away" too, but the outcome is never known.
** Regina Spektor seems to use this trope a lot in her songs. "Buildings" almost seems cheery until you realize it's talking about a husband with a wife suffering from possible depression (and an alcoholic as well) and she keeps promising to change, as the husband believes that if they can make 'buildings so tall these days' then she can overcome her problems. And "That Time" is a cheery song that talks about cute, normal things like reading only the backs of cereal boxes and deciding to kiss anywhere except the mouth... and also has a human tooth found on Delancey, a pigeon being eaten by a cat, a friend overdosing twice, and the narrator taking them to the ER while their hallucinating over drugs as well.
* Al Duvall, a blues musician InTheStyleOf [[OlderThanTelevision 1920s-era and older]] artists, is (while it isn't all he does) well known for light, happy, and wit-laden ditties that could all be set in a CrapsackWorld à la [[TheMarvelousMisadventuresOfFlapjack Flapjack.]] There's "Poppycock and Tommyrot," about a traveling salesman who packs up and leaves before his customers realize he's scammed them, "Mary Mack," about a shopkeeper who falls in love with the thief who's been raiding his store, "Slick Hamtree," which closes with a song about a man who can't do his job (farming chickens) while turning a profit, and "Dark Inside," a song about (among other things) binge drinking, work accidents, stalkers, wartime, and gambling oneself broke.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Foreign Language]]
* "Un Matin Tu Dansais", from the French rock opera of ''HunchbackofNotreDame'', is a duet that starts off with a beautiful, longing melody as Frollo describes to Esmeralda how he first fell in love with her, and then she sings of how Phoebus will save her (she's currently in a cage, condemned to die). Then the song strays toward much darker territory as he makes her an offer: love him and he'll save her. Yet as it goes from devotion to blackmail to attempted rape, the tune stays that same light, lovely melody, with only the desperation and fear in the actor's voices to reveal that they're really singing things like "choose the grave or my bed" and "I'll bite you like a dog".
* Finnish folk-pop group Värttinä sometimes exemplify this trope, especially on their earlier albums, which feature dizzyingly chipper songs about unhappy marriages, villages full of idiots, and the general wretchedness of life.
** "Matalii ja Mustii" is about a town where the girls are ugly, the boys are stupid, and the children are presumably below average. The [[LazyBum lazy]], [[ReallyGetsAround experienced]], [[LadyDrunk alcoholic]] narrator is not impressed. This song was featured on the Arthur cartoon.
** "Marilaulu" is about pouring boiling lead into gossiping old women's mouths, after cutting out their tongues.
*** Mind you, the gossip was about the narrator's [[BlackWidow habit of disposing of her unsatisfactory husbands]].
** "Kivutar" is about an evil goddess, and the black magic she is preparing to unleash on the world.
** "Iro" tells the story of a girl who never ever found a lover...the list goes on.
* Merengue singer and songwriter Juan Luis Guerra tends to include a song about social issues in each album he releases... and those songs also tend to be very catchy and upbeat, leading to dancers everywhere happily dancing to songs about people applying for an American visa as their last hope ("Visa para un sueño"), being confronted with high prices, higher corruption and lack of essential items ("El Costo de la vida"), or being victims of an truly awful medic care system ("El Niagara en bicicleta").
** He's not the only one, either! The Brazilian group Paralamas has songs like that as well, depicting [[CrapsackWorld the poverty and hopelesness of Brazilian low class people]] with happy, upbeat melodies. An example is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MEEkBnw8iw&feature=related "Alagados"]], which speaks about the hard life conditions in Rio ("The city, with its open arms in the postcards and its tightened fist in real life, denies you opporunities and shows you the face of evil.").
*** "Alagados"! It has an Spanish version by the very same group, and we can assure the message wasn't lost.
* French comedian trio ''Les Inconnus'' had a field day with this, usually in the name of [[AffectionateParody lighthearted satire]]. Their most notable piece is arguably [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WousdWP-5vY "Et vice et versa"]], a soothing, melancholic-sounding piece that could almost be mistaken for a genuine song...that is, unless you speak French, in which case the deep-sounding, hellenism-laden lyrics are nothing more than [[WordSaladPhilosophy hilarious pseudo-philosophical ramblings]] [[MeaninglessMeaningfulWords full of misused words]] [[WantonCrueltyToTheCommonComma and laughable grammar]] [[IceCreamKoan and mean absolutely nothing.]]
* The meaning of {{Rammstein}}'s biggest hit depends on its spelling. If it's "Du Hasst Mich" (You Hate Me), then the song is suitably angry. However, it's also been spelled, "Du Hast Mich" (You Have Me), making it a love song. The lyrics work either way.
** Taken as part of the larger sentence "Du hast mich gefragt und ich hab nichts gesagt" ("You have asked me and I have said nothing.")it's definitely NOT a love song. The song's chorus is a shouted "Nein" to a German wedding vow. (Made quite starkly apparent in meaning in the video) However, the progressing nature of the lyrics probably mean "du hast mich" is a doubled hate/have leading up to the rest. To muddy the waters the english translation takes the "hate" meaning only and alters all the rest, leading to idiots on youtube "correcting" the accurate tranlation.
*** There's another pun in said German wedding vow: read as ''Willst du bis der Tod, der scheide . . . ?'' it means "Do you want, until the death which would separate . . . ?" Read it as ''. . . bis der Tod der Scheide'' and it becomes "until the death of the vagina," since ''Scheide'' (literally "separation") is German for "vagina." Rammstein loves its wordplay.
** Rammstein also makes sure to prevent LyricalDissonance in their song "Amerika", by pointing out in English that "this is not a love song... I don't speak my mother tongue/no this is not a love song."
*** And yet [[MisaimedFandom some people still take it as such.]]
*** They played it straight, for irony value earlier in the same song. Listen to the opening version of the chorus -- in this song about American corporate/cultural dominance of the world -- and tell me it doesn't sound like a Soviet anthem.
**** Speaking of Soviet anthems.. "Moskau". The cheery female vocalist sings about Lenin and pioneers while the main lyrics praise the titular city.. by comparing it to an old whore.
* Die Toten Hosen's "Weihnachtsmann vom Dach" (Santa from the Roof) is a cheerful holiday tune with child-like, giddy vocals...about a child finding Santa Claus dead and swinging from a noose, along with a note saying he (Santa Claus) hopes he has not spoiled their Christmas with his suicide. It is, however, clearly intended as comedy.
* German punk rockers Die Ärzte seem to enjoy this trope immensely, as they are known for their satiric and sometimes plain weird songs. A very noteworthy example is "Baby", a song that appears to be an empowering ballad for vegetarians at the start... And then goes on for several verses with suggestions to eat people, instead of animals.
** Just one album later, the highly-upbeat song "Breit" has the protagonist praise the joys of doing drugs -- clearly including the fact that he's wasting his life and slowly loses control of his bodily functions.
----> ''Now I'm almost thirty and still alive / I'm still the coolest in this room / I drool a little and smell badly / Because I'm hanging around on this couch for years / Social contacts, I don't need / I'm stoned seven days a week'' (Translated)
** "De ce Plang Chitarele" is a song summed up pretty good with the title which translates roughly to [[spoiler:Why the Guitars Cry.]] But of course, being O-Zone, it's happy, upbeat and danceable.
** "Schlaflied" might qualify. It starts out all mellow and soothing and sweet and cute. Unfortunately, it's about an EldritchAbomination that ''comes to you in the night, gouges out your eyes, rips out your throat and drinks your blood.''
* The Italian song, "Teorema" basically teaches that you have to treat a woman bad to have her love you ('Take a woman, treat her badly' are the opening lyrics) in a sarcastic take of 'all girls love bad boys' with quiet music. The chorus says 'I'll never tell her that I live for her, I'll treat her badly, and she'll love me'.
* There is a Russian pop song by Natasha Korolyova, called "Malenkaya Strana" (The Little Country). Then somebody made a remix with different lyrics, and the song became "Yadernaya Voina" (The Nuclear War), about nukes, mutants, ash and death... sung in a little girl's voice to the same cutesy tune.
* The French-Spanish group Mano Negra has a song named "Mala Vida" ("Bad life"), which talks about a HenpeckedHusband who's [[DomesticAbuse heavily abused by his bitchy wife]] and threatens to leave her if she doesn't stop... with a rocky, upbeat tune. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWV2kM1laIc And a musical video]] [[RefugeInAudacity that thrives]] [[DeadBabyComedy on black comedy]].
** Their singer Manu Chao later went as a solist, and maintained the disonance alive.
* The French oldie "Je t'attendrai a la porte du garage" (I'll wait for you at the garage door), a supposedly funny song with a very light-hearted tune... that tells the story of a woman who has to raise her kids alone because her husband left. The title refers to what she writes to him: she'll wait for him at the garage door, and one day he'll finally come back home and everything will be alright. He does come back. Forty years later.
* The French punk song "Manu Chao" by Les Wampas sounds like a happy, upbeat, Ramones-like punk song. Then you look up a translation of the lyrics, and find it's a song lamenting that the members aren't rich, especially compared to certain other French "punk" artists.
* The Argentinian band Los Fabulosos Cadillacs has explored this trope with the song [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEdTPqo2hgc "Matador"]] (prominently featured in the closing credits to ''GrossePointeBlank''), which is a very danceable song about political assassinations in Latin America.
** Before that, they released "Mal Bicho", who is another danceable song who is a long call out to a shameless racist, openly insulting and mocking his beliefs. It has [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wctrVAyefms a controversial video]] featuring blood everywhere, [[TooSoon torture victims]], the band being killed during a "live" show, and [[RefugeInAudacity a effeminate dancing]] [[AdolfHitler Hitler]] as the torturer.
** A "lighter" example is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ6u2STHDLs "El Satanico Dr. Cadillac"]], a danceable and rhythmic song where the narrator laments how an old friend fucked up his own life.
* Venezuelan Ska band Desorden Publico lives and breathes this trope, but where it shows more is in their 1997 album ''Plomo Revienta'' (slang who would -roughly- translate as "buttload of gunshots"), which is an long view on how dangerous is living in Caracas (violence, crime, governmental indolence, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking bad love life]]...), and the perpetual alert state the city inhabitants live on because of it. All in the form of bouncy ska songs. The most memorable is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz7sh9JwS2I "Alla Cayo"]], a bouncy song with witty rhymes whose lyrics tell the story of three "normal" slum deaths: a petty murder of a thug because of his expensive Air Jordan shoes, a drug-related crime, and a innocent high schooler killed by a lost bullet during a gang battle. The last verse is in a funeral, with a mother loudly crying for her dead boy, but we don't know whose mother is this. The chorus it's so catchy you don't realize until later how cruel and ''detached'' really is:
--->''He fell there, he fell there, fell there, fell there''\\
''He fell there, he fell there, fell there, fell there''\\
''And they painted his {{chalk outline}} on the sidewalk (how pity!)''\\
''And they painted his chalk outline on the sidewalk (how pity!)''\\
''And they painted his chalk outline on the sidewalk...''
* The French song [[http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/gentiment+ je+ t%27immole/video/x20dw7_mai-lan-gentiment-je-timmole_music "Gentiment je t'immole"]] sounds like a soft ballad, until you listen to the lyrics, which include things like 'you scream like a whore, your skin comes off'
* Shakira's "Estoy Aqui" fits. This lighthearted, poppish tune fools many English-speaking listeners into thinking that it's a happy song... that is, until they look up the translation and discover that it's actually... an incredibly sad break-up song.
** She used to do some of those during her early career. From the same album, "Pies Descalzos" is a direct complain about moral hypocrisy, and "Se quiere, se mata" music is too upbeat for a song about an aborting teenager.
* France Gall and Serge Gainsbourg's "Les sucettes" is NOT a song about a girl who likes lollipops.
** But you probably won't know that until you hit puberty. The song sounds like a lullaby and you have to really pay attention to some of the verbs used to get that the dirty subtext is in fact text.
** Note that apprently, France Gall herself had no idea what the song was really about, making it a rare case of the singer herself not catching the lyrical dissonance (then again, it was written by Gainsbourg so she should've known better).
* Speaking of Serge Gainsbourg, his reggae cover of La Marseillaise (The French national anthem) called "Aux Armes, etc" definitely counts. As if a reggae tune for the national anthem of an European country wasn't strange enough, anyone who's read the lyrics of the song know they are extremely violent and gory.
* Julio Jarmillo is an Ecuadorian "pasillo" performer who has a wonderfull song called "Bodas Negras" it doesn't starts happy, but as the music advances it gets more cheerfull. It's a wonderfull love song to dance with...Except when you realize it talks about a guy that pulls out his ex-lovers skelleton out of the grave and dances, kisses it and finally marries it.
* Listen to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvTrNkMW0uo "Fumaza"]] by Los Pinguos. Doesn't it just make you want to dance? Read [[http://www.lospinguos.com/texto-fumaza-english.html this translation of the lyrics]]. Doesn't it just make you want to cry?
* The lyrics of many songs of the German band Blutjungs are a good example of LyricalDissonance unless you are a sick, sick person. The music of their songs is happy-sounding upbeat stuff while their lyrics are about killing children with poisoned candy on playgrounds, shooting your 15-year-old pregnant ex with a shotgun, eating the flesh off drowned bodies, brutally beating a skater to a horrible death because he made you drop your beer, slowly killing an elderly lady just to inherit her Porsche convertible, etc.
* Only the Spanish group No Me Pises Que Llevo Chanclas (something like "Don't step on me I'm wearing sandals") could write a song about the pain of losing a beloved pet (in this case, a singing canary) [[RefugeInAudacity and make it absolutely]] [[CrowningMomentOfFunny HILARIOUS]]. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfShb9u0m0g Here it is, the name is "Canario" ("Canary")]]
* One French dance track titled "Angelina" was a big hit in discos (especially in the Philippines), but the lyrics tell of a girl who's dying of an incurable disease.
* Mana and Santana's joint effort song "Corazon Es Peinado" a smooth salsa/guitar jam with lyrics that translate to:
''How it hurts to be forgotten/''//
''How my heart aches/''//
''How painful this life is/''//
''Without you by my side, love/''//
''My heart is pierced!"''//
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Japanese Language]]
* Happened a lot with Ayumi Hamasaki via ExecutiveMeddling. Her gimmick is that she writes her own lyrics (often based in the angsty experiences she had), but she rarely composes the music. While in the studio albums this trope is hardly noticeable, it become notorious in the Eurodance and Trance remixes of her first albums, where angsty songs about abandonment where given extremely happy new melodies. Memorable offenders are the remixes from "Trauma" and "Kanariya".
** One example from an actual album is "Memorial Address", a song about a sudden abandonment (implied to be because of the other person's death), who begins with a sweet and sad melody... and suddenly the music switch into a energetic rock tune.
* The 1963 song "Ue o muite aruko" by Kyu Sakamoto (better known to English speakers as "Sukiyaki") has a cheerful-sounding tune, but is in fact about a man whose heart is broken, and who walks in the rain looking upwards so that his tears are disguised by the rainwater running down his face.
* J-rock band Flow did a mostly upbeat ska cover of "Okuro Kotoba"... which is a song about painful goodbyes.
** Considering the title roughly means "Words of Farewell"... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin one should be prepared...]]
* Gackt's "Kono Dare mo Inai Heya de" (In This Empty Room) slowly builds to ninety seconds of cheerful humming reminiscent of "Hey, Jude"...as the increasingly angsty lyrics make it clear that the singer is ''losing his mind after his lover's murder''. Just to drive it home, the cheery music ends in a few ominous-sounding violin measures.
** "Kalmia". While having a rather soft melodic rock sound to it with some minor and basic guitar solos that don't really hint at anything evil, the translated lyrics depict hearing (and apparently seeing) headless dolls laughing while staring at an otherwise destroyed town from afar, and a recalling of an apocalypse of sorts wherein everything vanishes and gets sucked up into the sky in what sounds like a killer tornado/hurricane. All while Gackt sings along, his voice giving no hint of terror of the situation, or any hint for that matter that this isn't just another one of his kooky rock ballads. However, a botanist, or even a seasoned gardener could tell you that [[MeaningfulName the kalmia is a beautiful yet extremely poisonous flower.]]
* Miyavi has this with [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFCcQMJ6Z-c "Papamama Nozomare nu Baby"]]. It sounds deceptively like un upbeat victory-inspiring rebel anthem...here are the [[http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858549336/ lyrics]].
* cali=gari. All of it. "Mama ga boku o sutete papa ga boku o okashita hi" -- "The day mama abandoned and papa raped me".
* Shiina Ringo's "Queen of Kabukicho" is a delightful song about a girl whose prostitute mother abandons her and who subsequently becomes a prostitute herself.
* "Moonflower", sung by Tomokazu Seki, is a cheerful little number about being soul-crushingly isolated and hiding it.
* The hit track of the Japanese J-rock band Chatmonchy is "Hana No Yume," an upbeat bouncy song with a music video full of bright happy colors. Its lyrics, however, are full of sad, violent imagery, as in the refrain: "I cut my finger on a thin piece of paper / And red, red blood oozed out / Such a small blade, but it hurt, really hurt my fingertip."
* Japanese rock band L'Arc~en~Ciel's song "Feeling Fine": while an upbeat song musically, a translation of the lyrics point that it is likely about a couple after a breakup.
* Japanese folk-pop artist Miyuki Nakajima has a few:
** "Usotsuki ga Suki yo" ("I Like Liars"), a happy party tune about a woman chatting up guys while drunk and lying to them even though she'll be betrayed by them.
** The original version of "Yokorembo" ("Unrequited Love") is an upbeat, bouncy pop ditty about what the title implies.
** Also of note is the [[http://www.xiami.com/song/3455122/ji original version]] of "Awase Kagami" ("Self-Portrait in Two Mirrors"): RageAgainstTheReflection set to a pleasant jazzy tune.
* ''Puncolle Voice Actresses Legendary Punk Songs Collection'' is an album of female J-Pop singers covering various punk rock classics. Pretty much every single song falls into this category, like Rie Tanaka's cover of the Sex Pistols' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sidvycbl2Zk&feature=related&fmt=18 Anarchy in the UK]]. The melody and rhythm wouldn't seem out of place in a walk on the beach at sundown.
* JPop singer Utada had a song called "Hotel Lobby" that kinda runs into this trope. The melody is kinda upbeat, but when you listen to the lyrics, it's all about a prostitute and how much her life sucks. Yay.
* Dir en grey's song "embryo". While sounding like a perfectly tender ballad with a warming chorus, the lyrics (sung from a daughter's perspective) reveal that the singer's mother has hung herself to save herself from an abusive relationship with her husband, who has now turned to raping his daughter. She ends up eventually killing her father ''during another rape'', and yet manages to ''not abort the baby she is now carrying.''
** It should be noted that the song's lyrics were understandably changed to the singer's desire to join his mother in the afterlife, for its release as a single.
** It should also be noted that "Embryo" contains creepy whispering verses and almost an emo chorus. However, this trope is true to some of Dir en Grey's early upbeat and melodic stuff such as "Yurameki", "-I'll-", "Raison detre", "Wake", "Jessica", etc. The most perfect example is "Yokan" from their ''Gauze'' album (1999), this happy-sounding song with sad lyrics even got them to perform on pop-ish talk shows like ''Music Station'' and ''sitting next to frigging Ayumi Hamasaki'', the Empress of Pop herself.
* "Guchi" by Nakamura Ataru sounds like a traditional Japanese folk ballad, but it's about people complaining and the singer being extremely fed up.
* HelloProject shuffle group SALT5 released only one song, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtjTbRTuT9k "GET UP RAPPER"]], which is obviously a rap song. However, the lyrics are about such things as wanting to eat banana chips, wearing beige knickers and how women "blossom beautifully".
* Onyanko Club's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuK_XbEIMe8 "Sailorfuku wo Nugasanai de"]] is a catchy, upbeat song... about a girl who wants to have sex. The lyrics include such lines as "Mama and Papa won't know", "It's a bit scary but / being a virgin is boring" and "I want to try having sex". Oh, and the title translates to "Don't Take Off My Sailor Uniform".
* This is a major theme of the Japanese rock band Bump of Chicken. Prime examples are [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL-4Csgx0Y0 "Dandelion"]], a song about a lonely lion who... well, just watch the video; and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCdsSVdukXA "Wheel Song"]], a song about someone leaving and possibly never seeing them again. Most Bump songs are rather sad, but come across as happy. It's usually a shock to an English speaker who learns what the lyrics actually are.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqcfew2JCes This]] {{Vocaloid}} Kaito song sounds sweet and happy, assuming you ignore the title; even the look on Kaito's face is joyous! Then read the lyrics. Despite that, it's becoming a fan favorite for being so hilarious.
** In fact, a lot of the producers in the {{Vocaloid}} fandom are specialiced in this type of songs. Happy techo-dance breakup songs, bubblegum-pop {{yangire}} songs, peppy songs about death and destruction, you name it. And then there are the ones with FridgeBrilliance NightmareFuel...
** Take Len Kagamine's "The Riddler Who Can't Solve Anything", set to a fast, upbeat tune about murder and the potential idea that [[spoiler: Len]] is the killer.
*** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4ydivnfcno "Hetarenaide yo!"]] Listen to the first 1:50 or so, without looking at the lyrics. Sounds like a cute and innocent song, right? Now, listen to it from start to end while looking at the subtitles. [[spoiler:And then comes the SoundEffectBleep...]]
** There are countless examples, especially with Miku's songs. Take [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn2OVrck9jA&feature=related "Cactus and Mirage"]], a cute, upbeat-sounding song about a nurse that eventually falls in love with her infatuated, dying patient when it's already too late. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM_rzQx4p5Q "Saihate"]], another upbeat song that acts as a farewell message to a lover who has died. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1WhfIHOYxU "(It's not) World's End"]] is, once again, an upbeat song sung during the singer's last 5 minutes of life, requesting her love only recall her for five minutes on the day every year. Hatsune Miku's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s2Pk_AySTU "Left Behind City"]] song is about a girl who feels left behind in the world.
* わたしのココ's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4HZese8wXg "Like You"]] ([[NotSafeForWork Hide your children,]] [[LoudOfWar turn the volume down]] ''[[LoudOfWar low]]'' '''[[FalseReassurance and keep it there,]]''' bracing yourself for the 25-second mark) has a sweet and charming melody, that is, alongside the monstrous barrage of digital noise. It's about a girl who hates herself strongly and can't even bring herself to commit suicide. What's worse is that it's based on a cheery, uptempo instrumental done before their days as わたしのココ (titled "December"), and it's one of their less depressing works.
* Most Yaen songs are like this. For example, their 2004 song "HEAVEN'S RULE" might be best surmised as a song about a world of crime with victims and witnesses too afraid to do anything but look the other way- sung from the point of the criminal, all to a synth-laden V6-worthy noise-pop beat.
''I'm certainly not among the angels/''//
''Yeah, I'm just a plain old rat/...''//
''No matter who does what/''//
''It's the rule to pretend you don't see/''//
''This is the paradise where we enjoy that freedom/''//
''WELCOME TO THE HEAVEN/...''//
''This isn't a place for you to come to/''//
''NEVER COME BACK AGAIN/''//
* Also, see the 60s-70s psychedelic band THE MOPS, whose melodies sound groovy, if you don't know what "Goiken muyou" or "Orewo koroshitekure" really mean.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Electronic]]
* The song "Lamette" ("Razor Blades") by Italian singer Donatella Rettore, is a cheery, danceable song about... cutting your wrists with razor blades, complete with 'plop plop' sounds, intended to be the blood coming out of the wounds.

[[folder:Eurobeat]]
* Eurobeat Lovers' "Yozora no Muko" (Over The Time) is a fast, bouncy, {{Engrish}} [[SpeedyTechnoRemake Eurobeat cover]] of a sad J-Pop ballad, originally by Suga Shikao. By the same label (and singer) who did the Eurobeat cover of TM Revolution's "Hot Limit".
* Dead Or Alive (yes, the "You Spin Me Round" guys) had a more minor hit back in 1986 called "Brand New Lover". It's a joyful, dancey, Hi-NRG tune... about the singer telling his girl/boy/whatever (with Pete Burns it's hard to tell) that he's bored with her/him and wants to leave.

[[folder: Country]]
* How has GarthBrooks' song [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pxzhitVtLM "Papa Loved Mama"]] not made it on here? An upbeat country song that you could listen to on a good day... that's about a woman cheating on her trucker husband and his deadly revenge on her. "Papas rig was buried in the local motel/The desk clerk said he saw it all real clear/He never hit the brakes and he was shifting gears."..."Mama's in the graveyard/Papa's in the pen"
* JohnnyCash seemed to have had a fondness for toe-tapping up-tempo tunes for his dark and lonesome lyrics. Just think of "Folsom Prison Blues" and "Cocaine Blues".
** The 1948 country hit version of "Cocaine Blues" by Roy Hogsed (one of the all time great country music names) from which Cash picked up the song is even more dissonant than Cash's: Hogsed sings it in very clean-cut, singing cowboy-type voice, and the lead instrument in his band is a perky, bouncy accordion!
** From late in Cash's career, the song "The Man Comes Around" has lyrics depicting the Christian apocalypse over a fairly upbeat guitar.
* The DixieChicks' "Goodbye Earl". It's got a reputation for being, well, 'empowering', but seriously. Listen to it while paying no attention to the lyrics. Then listen again. The titular Earl is an abusive deadbeat, and as the narrator relates with alarming relish, he just had to die. Fairly typical for a vengeful country song, but the fact that the most joyous chorus is the part describing his wife murdering him, wrapping him in a tarp and keeping him around for kicks and giggles.
** The second chorus ''does'' involve them getting rid of the body...
** The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GovJ4jAnr14 music video]] ensures no viewer can miss the lyrical dissonance. Stars (Dennis Franz, Jane Krakowski, Lauren Holly, [[{{Heroes}} Adrian Pasdar]] act out the verses and ''everybody dances happily'' during the chorus, including "undead Earl". Subtle it ain't, but darkly comedic, sure.
** 'We need a break~ Let's go out to the lake Earl~ We'll take a lunch~ ''And stuff you in the trunk, Earl~'''
* Martina [=McBride=]'s "Beautiful Again" has a cheerful melody, but the verses tell about a girl's rough childhood and teenage pregnancy. ''Then'' the chorus is about optimism in the face of everything else:
--> "But when it rains \\
The past gets washed away and then \\
She smiles 'cause she knows in the end \\
The world gets beautiful \\
Beautiful again"
** "Independence Day" has a triumphantly patriotic-sounding chorus, and it is a favorite among conservative pundits and politicians. The song is about a girl whose parents' abusive relationship ended in arson/murder/suicide on the titular holiday.
* Marty Robbins's "El Paso" is an uptempo, initially sweet-sounding song narrated by a guy who [[spoiler: dies of gunshot wounds in the final stanza.]] The Grateful Dead gleefully covered this many times in especially bouncy, jaunty live versions.
** The Dead's own "Mexicali Blues" is another of the cowboy songs favored by Bob Weir: a fast Tex-Mex polka whose narrator has crossed into Mexico to dodge the law, and winds up an exiled alcoholic in grinding poverty.
--> "Is there anything a man don't stand to lose \\
When the devil wants to take it all away? \\
Cherish well your thoughts; keep a tight grip on your booze \\
'Cause thinkin' and drinkin' are all I have today" \\
* DariusRucker seems to be incapable of putting out a single without an upbeat melody, no matter how unfitting it might be. "Come Back Song" is an excellent example, being an upbeat ditty about how crappy the guy's life was since he left his girlfriend. He's also [[StepfordSmiler almost smiling]] in the videos.
* David Nail's "Red Light" is a song that if you take out the lyrics the melody is rather upbeat and jaunty. Then you listen to the lyrics and you discover it's a break up song. The song's lyrics don't even sound like a stereotypical break up song and while sad they lampshade it
--> ''It ain't the middle of the night\\
It ain't even raining outside\\
It ain't exactly what I had in mind\\
For goodbye.''
* Like many of the examples here, "One Blue Sky," by Sugarland, also has a happy, upbeat tune. The song is about a huge flood throwing a small town into panic.

[[folder: Electronic Music]]
* You can't really get much more horrific than Paul Hardcastle's "19". "The VietnamWar was an unspeakable tragedy for everyone involved. Let's dance!"
* Wolfsheim - "Once In A Lifetime". The lyrics involve the singer [[RageAgainstTheHeavens cursing God]] for [[DeadLittleSister taking away his wife and son]], possibly contemplating suicide. The singer's pregnant wife was killed in a hurricane in 1998? while he was on tour.
* Danielle Dax made a living off this trope. "Jehovah's Precious Stone", a bouncy dance number, had a chorus which included: "Cast aspersions, terrorize the weak/Race relations on a losing streak/Ply the bloated ego of a white supreme".
* Sunscreem - "Looking At You". Bright, major-keyed, Europop tune about being haunted to death by the images of an ex-lover:
---> There is a hollow in the bed / Where you last slept/ I took a picture/Are you laughing at me/I scratched your records, dear/And threw them in the nearest river/Are you laughing at me?
---> Still I try/To get by/But I know I'll di-i-ie/Looking at you
** Sunscreem did quite this a lot, in particular their US hit "Love U More" (cover versions of which normally omit the darker verses, missing the point and turning it into a SingleStanzaSong).
* "Slut Trash" by Decoded Feedback is an upbeat techno-{{industrial}} track about the hopelessness of life as a prostitute.
* Apoptygma Berzerk's "Eclipse" is unusually bright for an EBM tune, with uplifting trance-style riffs, but it still retains the dark lyrics, presumably about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt or the Rapture.
* Despite its title and upbeatness, "Progress" by Dempa (of http://www.spacesynth.de/) is about us [[HumansAreBastards consuming the planet to death]]. "Violence, people dying. Hunger, children crying. Science, making haste. Pollution, toxic waste."
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XOrbHxJSYM "The Human Germ"]] by Snog. Also about us selfishly destroying the planet:
-->All the birds and trees and
-->Things they are a losing everything
-->Everywhere is vanishing
-->When I lay me down at last,
-->My body tired, my time passed.
-->We've eroded the soil from the ground,
-->A rocky grave is where I'll be found.
-->'Cause whatever direction you may turn
-->You'll see my friend
-->The Earth's been poisoned by the human germ.
-->Look to the sky, look to the moon,
-->Escape for some but not for you.
-->Doomed to wander a barren rock,
-->If I was naive I'd call it bad luck.
-->'But whatever direction you may turn
-->You'll see my friend
-->The Earth's been poisoned by the human germ.
-->Evolution, well, that's passe.
-->However, we got to wherever we are today.
-->Whether from space, whether from the chimp,
-->All excuses are looking quite limp.
-->'Cause whatever direction you may turn
-->You'll see my friend
-->The Earth's been poisoned by the human germ.
** In fact, a lot of songs by Snog are like this, eg [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypURj5_I-XY "The Prole Song"]].'
* The bulk of the [[StealthParody humor]] in Passenger Of Shit's work relies on the [[UpToEleven ridiculous]] [[ExaggeratedTrope exaggeration]] of this trope.
* Moby's "South Side" is a celebratory-sounding song, which makes a certain amount of sense because it's about driving around the city with friends, but certain lines more than hint they're in a very dangerous part of town ("weapons in hand as we go for a ride", "I pick up my friends and we hope we don't die").
* "A Shattered Heart" by Young Fire. An otherwise upbeat Eurodance tune: "Like an angel afraid to fly, flying only in her dreams... trying to find her way back home... on the road she walks alone"(don't remember the rest).
* "It's a Sin" by the PetShopBoys. Epic dance tune about how "everything i long to do, no matter where or when or who... [is] a sin".
** "What Have I Done to Deserve This?":
---> You always wanted a lover
---> I only wanted a job
---> I've always worked for a living
---> How am I gonna get through?
---> I come here looking for money (got to have it)
---> And end up living with love
---> Now you've left me with nothing (can't take it)
---> How am I gonna get through?
--->''[later]''
---> We don't have to fall apart, we don't have to fight
---> We don't need to go to Hell and back every night
** "Casanova In Hell" is instrumented and sung like a sweet ballad, but it's about the original {{Casanova}} late in life peeking through the curtains at a young couple doing the deed, fantasizing about raping the girl, and realizing he's impotent and no longer able to charm the ladies.
* DepecheMode almost always has angsty lyrics, and these are almost always paired with appropriately angsty or at least rougher-than-standard-pop music. And then there's "A Photograph Of You", which is bouncy, happy, and sweet, almost like an old-school BeachBoys track on synths... but it's about a guy too torn up about his breakup to throw away the photo he keeps of his girlfriend.
* The [[MemeticMutation memetic music video]] "Torres Gemelas" by Ecuadorian artist Delfin is an upbeat catchy techno song about... the 9/11 attacks, complete with video footage. The Spanish lyrics describe how he misses his girlfriend who was killed that day.

[[folder:Electropop]]
* Ken Laszlo's hit "Don't Cry" (not to be confused with a similarly named track by GunsNRoses) is an upbeat Italo Disco track that tells about a guy consoling a girl who got dumped by her boyfriend.
* "Tik Tok" by {{Kesha}}. At first it seems to be about dancing, but it's actually about waking up hung over, going out, and getting drunk again.

[[folder: Folk]]
* "Merry Little Minuet," written by Sheldon Harnick and recorded by the Kingston Trio, is a cheerful little ditty with a pessimistic worldview.
* Kris Kristofferson. "Billy Dee" has an upbeat tune, but when you listen to the lyrics it's about a young man who gets lost in addiction and eventually ODs.
* "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond" is commonly sung at the beery, cheery end of parties and ceilidhs, oblivious to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bonnie_Banks_o%27_Loch_Lomond# Interpretation gloomy interpretation]] of the words.
* "Waltzing Matilda" by Banjo Paterson is a cheerful-sounding song, the kind you want to sing along to, but the main character who steals sheep and camps under trees eventually commits suicide. Added bonus: Many Aussies consider this to be their national anthem, unofficially. Makes sense, given the historical context...
* Canadian folk singer James Gordon gives us "Hockey Town", a jaunty pop-like number about a thirteen-year-old girl getting sexually assaulted by a seventeen-year-old member of her town's hockey team. Here's what happens next:
--> Now she's lying in the leaves;
--> She cries till someone calls the police.
--> The policeman says "I can't believe
--> The story that you're telling me!
--> They are all such fine young men,
--> [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney With expensive lawyers to defend them]].
--> Why don't you go on home? And then
--> Don't hang around the rink again."
--> ''[...]''
--> Everybody says that he'll go far.
--> He's got a contract with the Dallas Stars,
--> And tonight, down at the local bar,
--> They laugh about the way they dropped the charges!
* "Little Brown Jug" by Joseph Winner, a drinking song whose lyrics are about a man and his wife experiencing a hard, alcoholic life. The tone and melody of the song however, are bright and cheerful.
* About half of the songs by JeremyMessersmith fit this trope. Almost all of his songs, are sweet, gentle tunes about topics like [[DrowningMySorrows drinking away the pain of a breakup,]] [[FriendsWithBenefits sex ruining friendships,]] and [[StepfordSuburbia resigning yourself to an unfulfilling life.]]
* Flogging Molly's songs often turn out this way. Almost all of them are in major keys with happy, fast-paced fiddle or pipe tunes as the melody. A recurring theme lyrically, on the other hand, is grief for lost youth, lost love and/or the generally crappy lot in life of the Irish. See "Light of a Fading Star"; "Tomorrow Comes a Day Too Soon"; "My Sweet Roisin Dubh"; "The Rare Ould Times"; "Tobacco Island"; and "What's Left of the Flag". "Screaming at the Wailing Wall" is one of their few songs ''not'' about these things, but remains a chipper-tuned downer.
** "The Rare Ould Times" isn't their song ([[RefrainFromAssuming and it isn't even the proper name of]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin_in_the_Rare_Old_Times the song]]), though it generally ''is'' performed with the intent of lyrical dissonance.
* "Whatever You Say, Say Nothing" is usually [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vm51sR4tRY sung in an upbeat fashion]]. It is actually a scathing satire of...well...the specific target has changed over the years, but seems to generally be police state tactics and the use of [[TheMole informers]] in general.
* "God Save Ireland" is generally a fast paced song beloved by Irish Republicans. It's about three men who are being ''hanged'' and their [[FacingTheBulletsOneLiner last defiant words]] to their executioners.
* "Whiskey in the Jar" is certainly a fast, bouncy song that is a great one to sing along to. It is about a thief who is betrayed by his wife and thrown in prison
* "The Minstrel Boy" can be performed in an uptempo fashion (e.g. Enter the Haggis, Young Dubliners). The eponymous Minstrel goes off to war, gets thrown in prison, and breaks his harp because its songs were "meant for the pure and free/ they shall never sound in slavery." The dissonance isn't quite as stealthy in many other examples, but it still fits.
* "The Helicopter Song" a.k.a. "The Warder in the Joy" by the Wolfe Tones. If you just listen to the melody, you'd never realize it was about a prison break.
** Hell, even if you listen, unless you know a little Irish English, you ''still'' might not realize it's about a prison break.
* SimonAndGarfunkel's song "The Sun Is Burning". A sweet, melodic little piece, which is about a nuclear holocaust.
** "I Am a Rock" sounds upbeat, but is about a recluse locking himself away. "The Boxer" is also up there in terms of this trope. The "Lai-la-lai!" in the chorus just adds to it. "Leaves That Are Green" is about the brevity of life and inevitability of death, and yet the actual music is lively and upbeat.
* "You Will Burn" as recorded by Steeleye Span. The tone of the music calls to mind uplifting anthems such as "We Shall Overcome." The lyrics are about (and from the POV of) a group of people who break into your house, kidnap you, take you into the woods "where none will hear your cry," mutilate you, kill your children, raze your house, and [[BurnTheWitch burn you at the stake]], all the while declaring that they're saving your soul.
* Harvey Andrews' "Hey, Sandy", about Sandra Scheuer, has a fairly bouncy tune, to the point where at least one folk singer has demanded of an audience who seemed to be enjoying it "Do you actually know what this is about?"
* TheMountainGoats are masters of this trope. "No Children" is kind of upbeat and perky — you could almost dance a jig to it — even though it has some of the nastiest, most spiteful lyrics ever committed to music. "Dance Music" is about stalking a girl and watching your parents' marriage fall apart, but the tune is similarly happy.
* Singer and guitar player Jim Croce has a few songs like this. One, "Salon and Saloon", ''should'' be happy and upbeat--it's a song about two old high school friends reuniting and chatting. Instead, it sounds like someone's entire family just died. Likewise, "Time in a Bottle" is a touching song about how much the singer cares for someone, yet it sounds wistful and bleak (perhaps justified, as the refrain says "But there never seems to be enough time to do the things you want to do once you find them").
* "There She Goes" by the La's is an upbeat-sounding folk-rock song ... which most people who have listened closely to the lyrics think is about heroin ("There she goes ... racing through my brain ... pulsing through my vein ... no one else could heal my pain"). Apparently the people who have not listened closely to the lyrics include the Christian band Sixpence None the Richer, who did a remake ... and the manufacturers of the Ortho-Tricyclen birth control pill, who used the song in a commercial.

[[folder: Traditional]]
* The traditional French song "Alouette", often taught to children, actually is about removing a lark's feathers in order to cook the bird.
** There is a children's song from the Phillipines that describes the sighting, shooting and eating of a bird in both Tagalog and English.
** Puerto Rico has at least two Christmas carols that have to do with roasting pigs on a spit. One of them begins "You get the pig, you kill it, you skin it . . ."
* Then there's the happy French song that often produces spontaneous can canning. You know? The one about HELL and DAMNATION?
* Several folk songs about love and death, such as "Frankie and Johnny", "Molly Malone" and "Oh My Darling, Clementine" have upbeat tunes.
* The traditional song "Listen to the Mockingbird" is a trilling, bouncy ditty lamenting the singer's dead sweetheart in lyrical tones. (However, one children's beginning piano book had a Bowdlerised version of the refrain, substituting "singing all the way" for "singing o'er her grave.")
* "The Man on the Flying Trapeze" is another nursery song that should be on here. A song in happy, happy ¾ time about a man whose girlfriend is taken by a circus performer. Then, after being trained by said circus performer, She, depending on how you look at the line "thus my love is stolen from me", has finally left the man singing for good, or dies attempting her first trapeze act.
* Depending on the singer, the Civil War era ballad, "Lorena" can be sung quite cheerfully and even in its slower forms just sounds like a sweet love ballad... until you realize that it's about a soldier who not only [[UnfortunateImplications knows he's likely to die]], but already gave up on the woman he loved when he left for war... 100 months ago.
** Folk legend has it that entire regiments during the war on both sides were banned from singing the song, because though it had the cheery sound of more positive ballads, the lyrics themselves were so heartbreaking to the soldiers (many who actually lived what the song was about), that it was causing detriment to the war effort by harming morale and making soldiers inconsolably homesick.
* "Rock-a-bye baby," the famous nursery rhyme, also falls under this category. Just listen to lyrics closely and think about it.
** In fact a lot of nursery rhymes are quite violent in nature once you pay attention to the lyrics.
*** This is probably because Mommy's REALLY tired when she sings them. I like to refer to them as "Mommy's Ready To Snap songs".
** This was {{lampshaded}} in "Good Night," the very fist ''{{Simpsons}}'' short on ''TheTraceyUllmanShow'', in which Marge sings it to Maggie, who visualizes exactly what the lyrics describe.
** "Hush-a-bye"/"All the Pretty Little Horses" is especially sad and even gruesome, although the offending stanza isn't often sung anymore; apparently it was originally sung by a slave mother to her master's child, which she was forced to nurse while neglecting her own.
--->Way down yonder, in the meadow,
--->There's a poor wee little lamby.
--->The birds and butterflies peckin' at its eyes,
--->The poor little thing cried "mammy."
* "You Are My Sunshine" -- a cheery children's tune, or so it seems. The chorus is nice enough, but the verses are very downbeat and depressing.
** Well, that depends on [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqNPx1hbhfo who sings it]], now doesn't it?
*** No, no it doesn't. Are you listening to the words?
--->"The other night, dear,
--->As I lay sleeping
--->I dreamed I held you in my arms.
--->When I awoke, dear,
--->I was mistaken
--->And I hung my head and cried."

*** Don't forget
--->"You told me once, dear
--->You really loved me
--->And no one else could come between
--->But now you've left me
--->And love another
--->You have shattered all my dreams"
** Kevin Devine's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFR_Dv_AVEw version]] is especially heartbreaking (at least to me).
** And the song promptly becomes HighOctaneNightmareFuel after reading the short story "It's a ''Good'' Life" or watching the ''TwilightZone'' episode of the same name.
* "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" sounds incredibly depressing and ominous for a song about the cheerful celebration of returning soldier. This may have something to do with how the song's tune originally came from the Irish ballad "Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye", which told the story of the return of a horribly maimed soldier to his family and love. He's so badly injured they hardly recognise him, and he won't be able to work. "You've lost an arm, you've lost a leg. You'll have to be put with a bowl out to beg."
** The version I know is worse -- "You haven't an arm, you haven't a leg, // You're an eyeless, noseless, chickenless egg; // You'll have to be put in a bowl to beg...." There's an English folk song called "The Recruited Collier", in which a young girl sings about her sorrow and shock at seeing her sweetheart go off to war where she knows he'll probably be killed, although he thinks it's a bit of fun. It has a terrifically upbeat, bouncy tune. One folksinger insisted on setting it to a different tune, precisely because of the Lyrical Dissonance which she thought was inappropriate -- but really the contrast between the jolly tune and the ominous words only made it sadder and creepier.
* The Lebanese song "Al Nadda" was used for the menu for the ''{{Civilization}}: Warlords'' expansion pack. That treatment of it sounds like [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__29A8qWkrc this]]. It plays over a background of a Mongol sitting by a fire at night, resting his sword point on the ground. So what do the lyrics translate as? Gotta be badass shit about killin' infidels or of [[ConanTheBarbarian what is best in life]], right?
-->O' Nadda, Nadda\\
Where roses are blooming on her cheek.\\
And if they refuse to give you to me, I will tear down the high mountains.\\
O' Nadda, Nadda, Nadda.\\
Where roses are blooming on her cheek.\\
And if they refuse to give you to me, I will tear down the high mountains.\\
Nadda was by the water spring.\\
And I asked her why she was not around.\\
Nadda was by the water spring.\\
And I asked her why she was not around.\\
She looked at me with those eyes.\\
And she wanted to talk to me and she did not want to.
** Yup. It's a love song. Admittedly, one of longing, and indeed of a woman whom the singer might well threaten to go to war over...but a love song nonetheless.

[[folder: Jazz]]
* Nina Simone's "Go To Hell," a soft jazzy tune about how you better shape up or guess what, you'll roast in hell for eternity. That includes your children if you don't raise them right.
* Bobby Darrin's "Artificial Flowers". A Perry Como-esque upbeat jazz song, with lyrics about an orphan making flowers in a tenement and then freezing to death.....
** There's also "Mack the Knife", but to a lesser extent..

[[folder: Metal]]
* [[ChristianRock Christian Metal]]. Just Christian Metal. ''Every Christian Metal band ever'' plays brutally aggressive music with super positive Christian messages lurking under the guttural scream vocals. As I Lay Dying, Mortification and Impending Doom are examples of this.
* "The Crow Man", a rather upbeat, folksy-sounding tune by Pagan Altar, about renewing the earth every year via human sacrifice.
* Some songs by [=DragonForce=] arguably fall under this in a weird way: not only does the music (generally upbeat, fast, and even uplifting) disagree with the lyrics, but the lyrics don't always agree amongst themselves. "My Spirit Will Go On", in particular, has both a catchy tune and extremely depressing lyrics that suddenly get contradicted by the final line of the chorus. See also: "Black Winter Night", which is a triumphant-sounding tune (complete with brass section) about sailing on endless seas of sadness as the world ends and all of humanity dies out. Then again, the band has implied that they write their lyrics based on the {{Rule Of Cool}}, so...
** "My Spirit Will Go On" has the darkest intro of any of their songs.
** "Disciples of Babylon" is their only song that doesn't directly imply the inevitable death (usually in a war that apparently lasts forever) of the protagonists. What the song is about instead is a matter of heated debate.
*** It's about [[FateStayNight whether the heroes and their king have enough swords, of course]].
** In a less severe version of this trope, all of their songs are set in winter, usually during a snowstorm, despite their style being summery. They also tend to be set at night, and usually while waiting for a "brighter day" that never seems to come.
* "Blood Religion" by GammaRay is a song about a vampire. It starts out with dark sounding music while Kai Hansen sings about his soul being in Hell for eternity. Then he screams "Yeah! Bite me!" and the music becomes upbeat (for metal) and catchy, but the lyrics are still creepy, if pretty [[NarmCharm cheesy]]. When performed live, it ends with an audience sing-along about "screaming for blood red vengeance."
* A very jarring example comes from the German band J.B.O., which specializes in parodies and metallized covers of songs. Their song "Gänseblümchen", translates as "''Dandelion''", is about a guy singing a love song to a girl. This includes writing poetry and picking up flowers, done in Heavy Metal. In the third verse the music abruptly switches to a softer style and the singer goes on how he will torture the girl if she leaves him. Since it is sung in German it sounds doubly menacing. Can be found [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4Qltmd7WjE here]]
* "Vide Infra" by KillswitchEngage is a loud aggressive metalcore song that is filled with harshly screamed vocals and thick and pounding guitars. But lyrically the song is about preaching equality, tolerance and respect to people different then you.
* JudasPriest's "Painkiller" is an immensely heavy metal song which could rival the very dark "Master of Puppets"... and it talks about a savior who helps mankind survives and basically ensures a happy ending. Halford screaming the vocals in a pretty insane tone probably doesn't help.
* At first glance, [[{{Ptitlewsbhxd7l}} Mötley Crüe]]'s "You're All I Need" is a pretty straightforward power ballad which tells the endearing story of a young man and his girlfriend... take a closer look at the lyrics and it becomes obvious that it's about a man killing his girlfriend out of jealousy. "Laid out cold, now we're both alone, but killing you helped me keep you at home."
** "Kickstart My Heart", an upbeat metal tune... about Nikki Sixx being clinically dead for a minute after overdosing.
* The ending to Protest The Hero's "Turn Soonest To The Sea" has a Disneyesque sing-song group chorus with the following lyrics:
-->''Maybe someday when, when this bloody skull has dried\\
(I'll) know our city is in ruins\\
When our greatest source of pride\\
(is) a monument of dicks and ribs and the gender crown we wore\\
Where underneath, a plaque will read, a plaque will read, "No woman is a whore"''
** Justified, in that it's about tearing down our society's entrenched unfairness and creating a world of true gender equality, but still pretty jarring the first time you hear it, when you haven't had a chance to figure that out.
* Used for comedic value by Psychostick whose metal-tinged modern hardcore sound is used as a vehicle for them to bitch about (as well as other things) very mundane and silly topics such as itchy balls ("Scrotal Torment"), a piece of shit car ("Two Ton Paperweight"), and how much they hate doing laundry ("I Hate Doing Laundry").
* Doom Metal band Sentenced are practically the embodiment of this trope. The music is very upbeat, catchy and joyful yet the lyrics are almost always about suicide. 'Excuse me while I kill myself' for example is about blowing your brains out, yet the song is quite catchy.
* SonataArctica has its fair share of melancholic love songs played to the fast, upbeat bombast of power metal.
** It also has "The End of This Chapter" which sounds mostly like a powerballad, has most of the lyrics of a melancholic love song, but is actually about a stalker.
** Probably the most impressive is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7Zs-eGcAa4 "White Pearl, Black Oceans"]], another song that's mostly a power ballad, about a lighthouse attendant hooking up with a girl at a party the night before she sails away, getting knocked unconscious by her jealous husband, and then her ship crashing and everybody on board dying because he wasn't there to work the lighthouse.
** And "Shy," which is sung in an ''adorably'' well... [[CaptainObvious shy]] voice but is basically about the singer stalking his crush.
** Without filling three screens full of examples it's easy to say most of Sonata Arctica's pre-Unia stuff is actually pretty creepy if you listen to the lyrics but on the surface is the audible equivalent of an explosion in a skittle factory.
* "This is More" by Stick to Your Guns. The vocalist sings "rest assure that with a heart that's pure, we'll be victorious and not let our hate get the best of us"... over a brutal breakdown.
** Much of their music, for that matter. Not helped by the fact that the singer tells short, inspirational anecdotes between songs live, and that the newest album is called "The Hope Devision", and has a heart as the album art.
* "Let The New Day Begin" by the Swedish death/power metal band {{Therion}} from their early (before they shifted to powermetal) album ''Lepaca Kliffoth''. The music is fairly typical death metal with a bit of early power metal, while the lyrics basically amount to a message of [[BeyondTheImpossible perseverance]] and [[HumanityIsSuperior greatness of Man]]. The final verse goes like this:
-->''Join with the fallen ones/Open your eyes and see/There is no pain to fear/Your strength will carry you/And when the sky turns black/Gaze through eternity/To stars so far away/But trust me, they can be reached/''
* TypeONegative loves to do this, from "We Hate Everyone" being sung deliberately in a dispassionate way to the upbeatness of "Dead Again."
* Witchfynde's "Heartbeat" sounds like a typical 80's power ballad if you aren't listening too hard; the chorus is "(she said) Can you feel my heart beat? It's beating for you..." However if you pay attention to the lyrics, the song is actually about a female vampire that preys on lonely men.
* {{Soundgarden}}'s "My Wave" is an example of in-song dissonance. The verses are basically an exhortation to do whatever you want ("if it feels alright"), and then the chorus suddenly [[MoodWhiplash switches]] out of nowhere to a [[LeaveMeAlone fuck-off-leave-me-alone]] sentiment ("Don't come over here/Piss on my gate/Save it just keep it/off my wave"). The verses are anchored by a grungy heavy-metal riff, but as is Soundgarden's wont, the song takes a left-field twist with bright, psychedelic-influenced choruses and coda.
* BlackSabbath's "NIB" subverts this -- it starts off sounding awfully sinister for an apparent love song... but once you get to the lines that imply mind control and reveal that the singer's character is Lucifer, it all comes together.
** Then double-subverted by WordOfGod, which states that it's not the tale of seduction it first seems, but a song about the devil pulling a HeelFaceTurn due to ThePowerOfLove.
* Pig Destroyer's music embodies this trope. Imagine a guy screaming and wailing uncontrollably over sickening guitar tones, singing lyrics such as "She frolics through the rain whispering love insane, her kisses exit through heart-shaped exit wounds". They call themselves "pornographers of sound".
* {{Nightwish}} has a few songs that come to mind. First is "Feel For You" off of 2002's ''Century Child''. What ostensibly seems to be a love song, starts growing grim, and once you hear the male vocal, you realize it's about a murdered ex, an unhealthy obsession, or both.
--> Barely cold in her grave
--> Barely warm in my bed
--> Settling for a draw tonight
--> Puppet girl, your strings are mine
** Another is "Eramaan Viimeinen". This is a very upbeat song with guest vocals from Jonsu, lead songer of cheery pop/rock band Indica- with depressing lyrics about wandering the wilderness alone.
* {{Metallica}}'s "Wherever I May Roam" is a typical metal ballad, but the lyrics are about vagrancy and would fit more into a country song. Doesn't stop the song from being awesome, though. WordOfGod says it's about home sickness.
** "One" is this way as well, or at least at the beginning. It starts out so light and, to someone, even soothing. [[AndIMustScream Guess what it's about?]]. At least it gets heavy near the end but the beginning can be misleading.
** Metallica's cover of "Die Die My Darling" is a song most people can't help but rock out to, and then you hear the lyrics. At least the name gives you a hint about the song.
* Wintersun has several of these. Most of the songs are speedy, energetic, and sound uplifting. Then you read the lyrics: "Nothing but blood so red and deceased / Nothing but pain, I fall on my knees / Tormenting demons, I suffer and bleed / Only way out is through window of dreams"
* While none of {{Evanescence}}'s music could be called ''happy'', their song "Anywhere" from their ''Origin'' album has a distinctly hopeful (if melancholy) sound. At first blush, it's a sweet song about starting a new life with a loved one. And then... That One Line kind of ruins it.
--> Unlock your heart
--> Drop your guard
--> '''No one's left to stop you'''
** The song itself isn't happy, but that OminousLatinChanting at the end of "Whisper" sounds really, really, um...ominous. Especially the one word most likely to be recognized, "maleficum". But the actual translation? "Deliver us from danger, deliver us from evil."
*** Amy Lee is the queen of this trope. "Taking Over Me" is a love song - even if it is a bit obsessive, it's hardly dark, and "Imaginary" is about a dreamworld filled with "paper flowers" and not wanting to be part of the scary real world. Not that you would know that from the minor key and 'epic' guitar riffs on both songs.
*** "Taking Over Me" not dark??? Are you serious? One of the lines is "saving me...raping me..." That qualifies as dark. "Imaginary" is arguably about depression or even schizophrenia.
* [[RhapsodyOfFire Rhapsody's]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-9C8HnuH0U "Rain of a Thousand Flames"]] has one of the most uplifting tunes one the band's repertory, it actually sounds like ThemeMusicPowerUp material. Then along cames the chorus...
-->''Under the rain of a thousand flames''
-->''We face the real pain falling in vain''
-->''While the Dark Angel screams for vengeance''
-->''In the dead shadow of falling stars''

[[folder:Musical Theatre]]
* ''AvenueQ''. All of it. The musical styles you loved on SesameStreet, applied to topics like racism and pornography!
** {{Lampshaded}} in "It Sucks To Be Me":
--->'''Christmas Eve:''' Why you all so happy? [sic]
--->'''Nicky:''' Because our lives suck!
** [-'''Brian:''' What are you laughing about?-]
---> '''Gary:''' Racism!
---> '''Brian:''' Cool!
* ''TheProducers'' opens with everyone leaving a musical and then singing a joyful, sensational song about how god awful it was.
* "Die Moritat vom Mackie Messer/Mack the Knife" -- especially the Bobby Darin version. A swinging, catchy, toe-tapping pop standard about a murderer, kidnapper, arsonist, thief, rapist, etc., who can't be beat. That said, the lyrics were often sanitized in some translations... it is much nastier in the original German version, generally, than say the Blitzstein lyrics. That said, "Mack the Knife" is ''still'' an awesome song.
** Among other things, you can blame Ella Fitzgerald (or credit her) for toning down the song; she admitted that she forgot half the lyrics and scatted the missing portions.
** Several other songs from ''The Threepenny Opera'' have similar lyrical dissonances. There is one song where the frequent refrain of "Yay! Hooray!" is performed in as deadpan and monotone a manner possible.
*** "Hoch sollen sie leben! Hoch hoch hoch!"
** Brecht in general depended on Lyrical Dissonance in his music in other plays. For instance, in ''Mother Courage and Her Children'', there is a lullaby that Mother Courage sings over [[spoiler: her daughter Kattrin's dead body]], with lyrics of an obviously materialistic nature. This sort of thing is key to ''verfremdungseffekt'' of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_theatre Epic Theatre]].
* "I'm Calm" from the musical ''AFunnyThingHappenedOnTheWayToTheForum''.
* "Hey Big Spender," from ''Sweet Charity,'' sounds like an erotic come on ("Good lookin', so refined/So wouldn't you like to know what's goin' on in my mind?"), but is sung by a group of bored taxi dance girls who can barely summon up the energy to go through the motions of their job.
* Freddy Cole once sang an upbeat version of "Send in the Clowns," telling a radio interviewer that no one else had done it. He didn't seem to understand why no one else had done it.
* Almost all the music in the musical ''{{Little Shop of Horrors}}'' is lathered with lyrical dissonance. The best example is the show's opening title. Three Motown-style singers dance and sing to the fun, bouncy, rock n' roll prologue - about the end of the world. The lyrics, though sometimes silly with words like "shang-a-lang" and "bop sh'bob" throughout, is actually a warning to the audience about the foreboding terror that is the man-eating plant, Audrey 2: "You better, tellin' you, you better // Tell your mama somethin's gonna get her // She better, ev'rybody better // Beware!"
** The entire musical follows in this perky rock n' roll styled music, even when the subjects of the songs are depressing and/or disturbing: the pessimistic view of living in the city ("Skid Row"), the sadistic and cruel nature of a dentist ("Dentist!"), death through loss of oxygen ("Now (It's Just The Gas)"), or an alien plant's need to eat humans to survive ("Suppertime", "Feed Me (Git It)").
* [[http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1loyjm4SOa0 "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life"]] by Monty Python could be taken either as disguised sarcasm (as in ''Life of Brian'', where it's sung by guys who are being ''crucified''), or as a slightly fractured inspirational song (as in ''Spamalot'', the musical adaptation of ''MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'').
** Add to that "Brave Sir Robin" from ''MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'' and the musical ''Spamalot'', in which Sir Robin's bard sings a cheery, Renaissance-sounding tune about Sir Robin getting horribly mutilated in battle. "His nostrils raped and his bottom burned off", indeed.
* StephenSondheim loves this trope about as much as Gilbert and Sullivan did. ''Assassins'' in particular has "Unworthy of Your Love" (what sounds like a tender love duet... except that the singers are Squeaky Fromme and John Hinckley, Jr., talking about how they will prove their love for (repsectively) Charles Manson and Jodie Foster by shooting the president), and "The Ballad of Czolgosz" (an upbeat, patriotic-sounding turn-of-the-century style song about how you can "move to the head of the line" in the US -- as Leon Czolgosz is waiting in a line of people to shake [=McKinley=]'s hand, ending with Czolgosz shooting him).
** Don't forget "The Ballad of Guiteau", which is not only a happy song about a guy who shoots the President (featuring tap-dancing on the gallows, no less), but it was ''written by the actual assassin''. Creepy.
*** Especially creepy considering that before he read it to the crowd at the gallows, he said this about his words: "If set to music, they may be rendered very effective."
** "Everybody's Got the Right" from ''Assassins'' is another fantastic example. The lyrics read almost like something that might be read in an elementary school classroom, that everyone has the right to find happiness- except the song is about madmen ''defending their right to kill the president.''
** "A Little Priest", from ''SweeneyTodd''. It's a fun, showstopping, and, especially in the original stage musical, humorous number... about cannibalism.
*** Ah yes, ''SweeneyTodd''. With such numbers as "A Little Priest" above and the reprise of "Johanna", a rather upbeat number in major key about how the VillainProtagonist is too busy killing people to think about his own daughter.
* Andrew Lloyd Webber's ''{{Phantom of the Opera}}'' includes an example of this in the perfectly happy-sounding tune of "Masquerade". Once you realise what it's actually talking about (pay attention to the words, not the tune), you can get rather depressed.
--> 'Masquerade! Paper faces on parade! Masquerade! Hide your face so the world will never find you!'
** Highlighted at the end of the play, when the Phantom [[DarkReprise sings a slow, sad version of the chorus]].
* "I Dreamed a Dream" from ''LesMiserables'' is a song about crushed hopes and dreams set to the most beautiful, uplifting, triumphant music imaginable.
** Made even more dissonant now that Susan Boyle sang it to make her own dream come true.
* GilbertAndSullivan are ''all'' over this.
** ''Trial by Jury'' -- This one's about a trial, so when the plaintiff arrives to the tune of "Comes the cheated flower / Comes the broken maid", it's made catchy, upbeat and fun, to make it thoroughly clear that despite said lyrics, this is all part of a grand scam.
** ''The Sorcerer'' has a bawdy drinking song about tea, then later we get the song "Oh joyous boon / Oh mad delight" -- which is appropriately upbeat -- and continues upbeat through lyrics like "Alas! that lovers thus should meet:/ Oh, pity, pity me!"
** '''H.M.S. Pinafore:'' As the protagonist works himself up to suicide in the Act I finale, all sorts of cheery and patriotic tunes get thrown in, even while Ralph sings, "The maiden treats my suit with scorn,/Rejects my humble gift, my lady;/She says I am ignobly born,/And cuts my hopes adrift, my lady." Of course, it eventually turns appropriately sombre, just in time for Josephine to rush in and admit she loves him after all.
** ''The Pirates of Penzance'': The loudest song in the entire operetta is the one about sneaking quietly into the Stanley home:
-> ''WithCatlikeTread\\
Upon our prey we steal\\
In silence dread\\
Our cautious way we feel\\
[[BlatantLies No sound at all\\
We never speak a word]]\\
A fly's foot-fall\\
Would be distinctly heard.''
Sung ''fortissimo'' with heavy use of cymbals and brass in the accompaniment.
** ''Iolanthe:'' Parts of the Act I finale, but also "In vain to us you plead", which is a flirty little song about how much the women hate the men they're singing it to.
*** Part of the joke is that they're in love with the men, but have to do their duty in telling them to buzz off. Lelia's line before the song is: "But we can't stop him now. (''Aside to Celia''.) Aren't they lovely! (''Aloud''.) Oh, why did you go and defy us, you great geese!"
** ''Princess Ida:'' [[http://diamond.boisestate.edu/gas/princess_ida/webop/pi_24.html "When Anger Spreads Its Wing"]] is about going off to war, but sounds kind of like it should be about Bertie Wooster and his smashing adventures.
** ''The Mikado''. Beheadings, descriptions of grisly executions, lists of people to kill off -- all fodder for a cheery little operetta. The first song in the second half, "Brightly dawns our wedding day/Joyous hour we give thee greeting" ends with everyone in tears (though there is a good reason for that).
** ''Ruddigore:'' "I Shipped D'ye See" is a cheery patriotic naval ballad about fleeing from the French. "Happily coupled are we" has a cheery melody befitting a song by a sailor about his forthcoming marital bliss. It keeps this melody when Rose comes in with her verse, about him sailing off and having affairs with women in every port, while she's left behind to wait for him. Oh, and another cheery song about upcoming death, this time the rapid-fire patter song, "My eyes are fully open" (First verse ends "But I have to die tomorrow, so it really doesn't matter!") Oh, and I'm not sure if it counts, but the lyrics of "You understand? I think I do" is about how horrible it is to have to betray Robin's secret identity, but duty requires it. However, doing so lets one of them steal back a woman from Robin, and gets the other out of the family curse, so the cheery, bouncy music is actually highly appropriate.
** ''The Yeomen of the Guard:'' "How say you maiden, will you wed/A man about to lose his head?" is, as you should guess by now, one of the most upbeat, fun, cheery numbers. Meanwhile, "Oh, a private buffoon is a light-hearted loon", of course, turns out to be about how the jester's being torn apart and has to remain cheerful throughout it all. Later, "When a wooer goes a wooing"'s most heartbreaking line is "Oh the happy days of wooing" -- sung in emotionless monotone by the person that the plot has set out to break, taking everything from him. Oh, and it ends on a grand, energetic chorus [[spoiler:while that person dies]].
** ''Utopia, Limited:'' "First You're Born" is about how a character's life is one big joke played on him by the universe. It's done as a comic number. "A tenor, all singers above" is a classic tenor ballad -- about how the tenor can't sing, complete with intentionally flubbed high notes. Oh, and "It's understood, I think all round" and "In every mental lore" are both cheery songs with lines about about grisly deaths (by duelling and being blown up by dynamite, respectively), but do I really need to mention that at this point?
** ''The Grand Duke'': "Won't It Be a Pretty Wedding" savages the bride's taste and sense of fashion, and then everyone goes on to savage the groom in "Pretty Lisa, fair and tasty". Several other examples, which would take too long to explain.
** Sullivan also tends to drop down to a lower note for words like "high", "top", "above" and so on, and vice-versa for words like "bottom" and "low". And, by the way, all of these were Victorian, so this is OlderThanRadio.
*** That might have something to do with the fact that G&S's genre is called "Topsy-Turvy" (also the title of a movie about them.)
* At least half of ''SpringAwakening'', although "My Junk" is a really cute upbeat song about masturbation and about comparing teenage crushes to drug addiction, which is arguably even more lyrically dissonant.
* "Get Happy," popularized by Judy Garland in the film ''Summer Stock'', is a peppy, rousing song about Judgment Day.
* The song "Three-Five-Zero-Zero" from the musical ''{{Hair}}'' has a verse that's an example of this. These words are sung to a cheery tune best described as "Dixieland". The meaning of the title? There were 3500 men in the first platoon of soldiers sent to Vietnam. Two out of every three were black. Offensive lyrics are spoilered:
-->Pris'ners in [[spoiler: Niggertown]], it's a dirty little war
-->Three-five-zero-zero
-->Take weapons up and begin to kill
-->Watch the long long armies drifting home
* ''Urinetown'' is all over this trope. They even hang a lampshade on it:
--> '''Little Sally''':What kind of musical is this? The good guys finally take over, and then everything starts falling apart?
--> '''Officer Lockstock''': Like I said Little Sally, this isn't a happy musical.
--> '''Little Sally''': But the music's so happy!
* "Shy" from ''Once Upon a Mattress'' features the heroine describing how demure and bashful she is...while belting practically the entire song at the top of her lungs.
** "Sensitivity," from the same musical, is the rather ironic song by the queen, who is anything ''but'' sensitive - but the off-kilter and jerky five-beat pattern is not very sensitive either.
* "I Want More" from ''LestatTheMusical'', Claudia's first song. Quite possibly the most cheerful song in the show, all about drinking people's blood..
* The obscure musical ''Fade Out Fade In'' has the song "You Mustn't Feel Discouraged," which ''[[LyricalDissonance sounds]]'' congenially cheerful, especially when it accompanies a playful tap-dance routine, but here's how the lyrics go:
-->"When you think you've hit the bottom,\\
And you're feeling mighty low,\\
You mustn't feel discouraged--\\
There's always one step further down you can go."
** A video of it can be found [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxa4e-P5g5s here]]

[[folder: Punk]]
* TheClash's "Somebody Got Murdered" is about... well, somebody getting murdered. While the tone of the singer himself is pretty somber, the music sounds more like peppy new wave than punk rock.
** This goes for a lot of their songs. "Clampdown", which is similarly peppy, is either about the Nazis or just fascist regimes in general ("Taking off his turban they say is this man a Jew"). "London Calling" (about the city's destruction and the end of the world), "Train in Vain" (their only love song, which is a break-up song) and "Julie's Been Working For The Drug Squad".
** Let's not forget "Spanish Bombs", which is an upbeat, poppy rock song about the horrors of the Spanish civil war.
** "Jimmy Jazz" is an upbeat song about some sort of fugitive who will be killed if found.
* FiveIronFrenzy's "Blue Comb '78" puts humorous lyrics (eulogizing a comb that singer Reese Roper lost when he was five years old) to dramatically overwrought music (dramatically overwrought for a ska-punk band, at least). Subverted in that the song is actually a metaphor for his parent's divorce and his own lost innocence: Reese has stated that the lost comb incident was the last memory he has of his parents prior to the divorce. He chose to write indirectly to avoid falling into {{Wangst}}.
* TheRamones wrote several songs about Joey Ramone's Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. However, they had the same upbeat power chord sequences as every other Ramones song. For example, the peppy "I Wanna Be Sedated" is about a nervous breakdown right before a show in England.
--->Just get me to the airport, put me on a plane\\
Hurry hurry hurry, before I go insane\\
I can't control my fingers, I can't control my brain\\
Oh no no no no no!
** That song is about the fact that London goes on lockdown when it's Christmas Eve, and the band was stuck in the hotel for the entire day when they got there for a concert on Christmas Day; hence, the opening lines:
--->Twenty, twenty, 24 hours to go\\
I want to be sedated\\
Nothing to do, nowhere to go\\
I want to be sedated
*** The Ramones were made of this. "Beat on the Brat", anyone?
* "Pour Decisions" by Scottish-Canadian celtic punk outfit The Real McKenzies is a jolly dinkalong about a guy who's pissed his life away as a drunken punk rocker, looking back on the opportunities he's missed.
* Reel Big Fish's best songs are depressing songs over cheery ska-punk including "She Has A Girlfriend Now", "She's Famous Now", and "Sell Out".
* The Reign of Kindo song "Breathe Again" is a very soothing soft rock song... until you listen closely and realize three verses in that [[http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858736721/ it's about a father who takes revenge on a man who broke into his house on Christmas Eve and stole the presents]]. It's hard to relax to a song when the singer swears that he "won't stop tearing him limb from limb [so] he'll never breathe again". It ends with him dumping the thief's body in the river and gaining immense relief from the murder.
* The hardcore punk band 25 ta Life ''love'' this trope. Not only do their heavy and aggressive sound and hip hoppish bravado conflict with their lyrics, but ''their lyrics conflict with their lyrics''. The band intersperses hip hoppish use of "motherfucker" while extolling the virtues of friendship, brotherhood, etc.
* "Jet Boy Jet Girl" by Elton Motello is a celebratory-sounding catchy pop-punk song with saxophone and rockabilly-influenced guitar leads. It also happens to be about about a 15 year old boy in a sexual relationship with an older man, and the homicidal thoughts he starts having when he sees said older partner with a woman on his arm:
-->Can you tell what's on my mind
-->She's with him it's driving me wild
-->I'd like to hit him on the head until he's dead
-->The sight of blood is such a high
-->Ooh ooh ooh ooh
-->He gives me head
* LA punk band X's song "I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts" sounds cheerful (and is certainly catchy), but the lyrics (and the title) show that the song is actually a protest song seething with irony and sarcasm towards the atmosphere of fear and anxiety in the Reagan years.
** "Johny Hit And Run Paulene" is kind of on the borderline of this: the actual melody is suitably dark for a tale of a drug-induced raping spree, but it's juxtaposed with some very happy-sounding 50's rock guitar leads (and it's intro is nearly identical to that of Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode").
*** The band actually refused to play that one on concerts after a short while when crowds would [[MisaimedFandom embrace the very dark song as another uptempo punk anthem]].
* For its first two verses, The Buzzcocks' "Promises" is a cheerful song about a man and a woman promising to be faithful and honest with each other, set to an appropriately optimistic melody ("We promised to be true, there'd be no other, we promised that forever we would care"). The reason that it's an example is that during the bridge it's revealed the woman had been cheating on him, and then the next two verses directly contradict the first two, while still being set to the exact same melody ("You've never been true, and it's plain to see, the fact is you never really cared").
* Pretty much everything ever written by Alkaline Trio who have monopolised the lyrically dissonant dark pop punk genre. And written some damn good lyrics while they're at it.
* Every song by Andrew Jackson Jihad.
* Husker Du's song "Diane" was a great contrast to their previous music. It was poppy, words were clearly sung, and it was over 4 and a half minutes in length. But then the lyrics kick in...
-->Hey, little girl, do you need a ride?\\
I've got room in my wagon, why don't you hop inside?\\
We can cruise down Roberts Street all night long,\\
But I think I'll just rape you and kill you instead.
* Boys Night Out's entire ''Broken Bones and Bloody Kisses'' EP is a rather poppy album full of rather dark lyrics mostly about murder and suicide.
* "Beach Party Vietnam" by the Dead Milkmen:
-->"Hey, Frankie, are you gonna give me your class ring?"
-->"I'm afraid I can't do that, Annette."
-->"Why not?"
-->"I haven't got any arms."

[[folder: R&B]]
* "I Put a Spell on You" by Screamin' Jay Hawkins, turned out this way by happy accident. It was originally penned and composed as an ordinary love ballad. However, one case of wine later, and Hawkins and his entire band decided to record the song while ''stone drunk''. The resulting cocophony of roaring, howling and snorting is somewhere on the line between Nightmare Fuel and Comedy Gold. The otherwise innocuous lyrics become something out of an insane stalker's mind, and then of course, there's the demonic laughter.
* Most people think "I Second That Emotion" by The Miracles is a happy song. It's actually about a man leaving an unfaithful woman, and telling her that if she wants to commit, he'll take her back.
** Ditto "Tears of a Clown". The English Beat's jarring cover didn't help matters.
* "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" by The Temptations was about a man getting dumped and all the demeaning things he would do to get her back. It would be so sad if it wasn't so damn catchy and easy to dance to.
* {{Rihanna}}'s "Take a Bow" is a scathingly sarcastic "screw you" to an ex wanting forgiveness...set to a touching piano arrangement. It's a little strange when ''AmericasBestDanceCrew'' uses the chorus as its "goodbye" theme. The chorus sounds fine out of context--the only outright hurtful stuff is in the verses. Still, it's strange to hear them congratulating a crew on how far they've gotten when you know the lyrics in their entirety:
-->''How about a round of applause?
-->Standing ovation.
-->You look so dumb right now
-->Standing outside my house
-->Trying to apologize, you're so ugly when you cry.
** By contast, her next single, "Disturbia", is an upbeat pop/dance number with lyrics about a descent into madness.
* DavidBowie's "Young Americans" is a poppy, R&B type tune, with very cynical lyrics about American events.
** Not to mention "Bombers" being an incredibly catchy and peppy sounding song about bombs destroying the world. Sample lyrics:
-->"A-bombs, H-bombs, even very small ones
-->Ripped apart the sand
-->Till the stench was just revolting
-->And the sky a greenish tan."
** And from "Oh! You Pretty Things", a catchy, mellow song about [[ChildhoodsEnd humanity's obsolescence and replacement by a superior species]]:
-->"Look out my window and what do I see?
-->A hand in the sky reaching down to me
-->All the nightmares came today
-->And it looks as thought they're here to stay...
-->The earth is a bitch
-->We've finished our news
-->Homo sapiens have outgrown their use."
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAV0XrbEwNc This]] song by Cee-Lo Green.
* "Hit 'Em Up Style{Oops!}" by Blu Cantrell is a bouncy number about [[AntiLoveSong taking revenge on a cheating boyfriend]] by [[DisproportionateRetribution running up his credit cards and selling his stuff]].

[[folder: Rap and Hip-hop]]
* ICP's "Another Love Song" is about [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRp5qOun63s the wrath of a lover's scorn]] where the original love song is about [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfxDhNysSpg the tenderness a man wants to share with his date]].
* Kanye West's "We Don't Care" sports a playful, carefree tune, while talking about selling drugs for a living and making fun of people expecting black youth to die early.
* Outkast's "Hey Ya!" sounds like a happy, upbeat hip-hop song -- there's a famous [=YouTube=] video of the Peanuts characters dancing joyfully to it -- but the lyrics are a moody meditation on whether it's worth staying in an failing relationship:
--> "If what they say is that nothing is forever, then what makes love the exception? Why are we so in denial when we know we're not happy here?" (Yall' don't wanna hear me, you just wanna dance...)
** Speaking of Outkast, the song "The Rooster" is also an upbeat hip-hop song in terms of instrumental, but the lyrics tell the story of a married couple on the verge of divorce.
** Outkast even lampshades this phenomenon with "The Whole World", an upbeat song about how people love upbeat songs regardless of the message or lyrics.
* The controversial "Read A Book" video by D'Mite gained a lot of attention on BET for its supposedly racist and stereotypical depiction of black culture, claiming it should be censored for children. Of course while the beat, rhythm and style of the song is modeled after dirty south (or crunk) rappers like Lil Jon, the lyrics tell positive messages and promote healthy lifestyle choices as well as a rejection of mainstream hip-hop excess in favor of reading, cleanliness, drinking water, parental responsibility and such.
* "Fatima" by K'naan is sung very happily and has a joyful track, but it's about a childhood friend who was kidnapped. Possibly justified (and somewhat lampshaded) at the end of the song when he informs the listener to not cry because the song is meant as a celebration, not a form of mourning.

[[folder: Reggae and Ska]]
* A substantially large portion of the aforementioned Jamaican music of the 60's and 70's defines this trope by singing about injustice, poverty, racism, etc. accompanied by the upbeat, singable melodies of reggae and ska. A slight inversion of this trope is that sometimes the lyrics would seem tame, even if the actual meaning was something more sinister. For example, one of Bob Marley's earliest hits with The Wailers was called "Simmer Down", which despite sounding like he's talking to misbehaving children is actually a plea for gangs to stop killing each other. The word "rudeboy" is extremely common in ska and reggae music, which sounds like it refers to a childish prankster but actually refers to the extremely dangerous gangsters and hoods of Jamaica.
* Just about everything by The Specials counts. Notably, we have "Hey Little Rich Girl", which has a fast and upbeat accompaniment but describes the titular rich girl going to London and becoming a prostitute and adult movie star and their first number one hit, "Too Much Too Young", is about teenage pregnancy messing up somebody's life.
* "Cardiac Arrest" by {{Music/Madness}} is about ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, "Johnny the Horse" is about a homeless man who gets kicked to death "for entertainment" and "Idiot Child" is about a child who never received any encouragement.
* Streetlight Manifesto's "The Saddest Song" fits this. Entirely peppy, with lyrics along the lines of
-->And it's the saddest song you'll ever hear
-->the most pain you will ever feel
-->but you grit your teeth because it don't get better than this.
** "As The Footsteps Die Out Forever" ([[strike: also by Streetlight Manifesto]] by Catch 22 before their lead singer left and formed Streetlight Manifesto) is a upbeat and happy song about the singer's mother getting sick and dying.
** Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution, pretty much the same band, has "It's a Wonderful Life," titled and performed happily, about an unhappy conscript coming to terms with the fact that he's much more likely to die at war than ever see his wife again. Somewhat [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] in that he decides that it was all worth it anyway.
-->I was told boy prepare for war
-->but they failed to mention what I'd be fighting for
-->So I fought for this
-->That as I passed away I'd feel her kiss
-->and I smile, what a wonderful life
* Aswad's version of "Don't Turn Around". An upbeat song about a relationship break-up.
* [=UB40=]'s version of "Red Red Wine". The melody is a somewhat upbeat spin on a song about a man who turns to the bottle to forget a lost love.
* A lot of Fishbone's earlier work fits this.
* "Boom Bye Bye" by Buju Banton is a notorious song with a quite catchy and happy beat, with lyrics about the execution of gays.

[[folder: Other]]
* "Christmastime Is Here" from ''ACharlieBrownChristmas''. It has lyrics that describe how wonderful Christmas is ("Fun for all that children call their favorite time of year") but has a very slow, almost melancholy feel to it. This makes it memorable.
* Elsewhere in the Downer Christmas Carols department, we have "I'll Be Home For Christmas" -- a lovely crooner's ballad about being deployed overseas at the holidays, and only able to pretend you're at home celebrating with your family.
* The group Go Fish has "What Mary Didn't Know", an amazingly peppy song about a girl whom the narrator had the opportunity to lead to Christ but didn't ''before she died, and his angst over whether she's in Hell because of him''.
---> "I knew the things to say, I knew the things to do
---> I knew the people to know, but God, I didn't know you..."
---> [Someday I'll answer for] What Mary didn't know was the answer I was holding
---> I didn't think she'd change, so I never even tried
---> How was I to know? I wish I would've told her
---> Now I'll have to live in doubt, with what Mary didn't know...
* Sarah Brightman's "Once in a Lifetime" is a soft, gentle song about a woman experimenting with S&M.
* EmilieAutumn's song "Miss Lucy Had Some Leeches", which is about Victorian Lunatic Asylums... sung in the style of Miss Suzy Had A Steamboat.
** She also has "Marry Me", who to a sweet waltzy tune, narrates in first person the story of a woman who copes with being trapped in an arranged marriage with an rich older man by indulging in alcohol and having a lover (while denying her husband his "marital rights"). All of this, while waiting for her own death. But hey, at least she has quite the pretty clothes!
** Emilie Autumn does this fairly often. "The Art of Suicide" comes to mind, a cheery tune about, well, suicide. "Thank God I'm Pretty" also qualifies, a happy-sounding song about being judged solely on looks.
*** "The Art of Suicide" is even worse than that-- it's not about ''suicide'', it's about the disturbing implications of ''romanticising'' suicide. "Ankles displayed, melodramatically laid...."
* The Canadian band The Pettit Project, known for their happy love songs such as "99 Lives" (about a guy who is trying to get the girl of his dreams but just can't get it right, but keeps trying because he knows he will succeed), made an album called "6 Week Summer Vacation in Hell". The entire album is about six weeks of the summer of 2004 when "the angels of heartbreak, loss, and death simultaneously swooped down on The Pettit Project campsite, trapped us in our cozy sleeping bags, and swung us as hard as they could into a nearby tree". The liner notes then go on to say "We promise that on our next album we'll sing about Free Trade, or Bush or something equally as uninteresting". The notes end with a sentence that makes fun of this very trope, saying "Now go and listen to our sad songs that sound happy, baby".
* Voltaire's "Come, Sweet Death" is an upbeat song dedicated to Death of the Endless from the ''{{Sandman}}'' comics. But it is completely in-character for [[PerkyGoth Death]], of course.
** Most of Voltaire's songs are like this. BRAINS! Is a swing-type music about a kid gathering brains for an evil meteor. And it was awesome.
** The song from ''TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy''? Hell yeah it was awesome!
** He even has a bouncy song about this trope, called "Death, Death (Devil, Devil, Evil, Evil)"
** "When You're Evil", anyone? It's basically a song about how much he loves to do evil things, set to a tango.
** And "The Headless Waltz" which is about... um... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin pretty much exactly what you'd expect]]
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YUFFMA4V-w "Die die die di-die die"]]
** You know those tunes that just sound like they were written so that the [[{{Eagleland}} American]] government could inspire patriotism? Set to one of those lyrics about how much he hates the place and wishes someone would [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tuy4Bpz080Q "Bomb New Jersey"]].
** Guess what the gospel-esque [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6rLMchPYSw&feature=related "Hell in a Handbasket"]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin is about]].
* The song for the ''{{Mercenaries}} 2'' commercial [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCvIw7DMHXc "Oh No You Didn't"]] is a light hip hop/barbershop chorus set to an upbeat piano tune that wouldn't be out of place at an amateur recital or off-Broadway musical. The lyrics are about getting revenge after getting shot in the arse by your employer. And it's totally awesome.
* On a more general level, pick any extremist movement with lyrics that have a markedly different effect on you than on its members. For an example that's obscure enough to be safe, Finnish hardliner communist tunes from the 1970s are catchy, uplifting and energizing calls for determination and solidarity, both of which will be needed to restart the civil war and slaughter the bourgeoisie, clergy, police, government and everyone else involved in the upper classes' worldwide plot that previously started World War II to destroy the Soviet Union. Trust no one.
** This happens frequently with political songs, particularly of a satirical nature. NeilYoung's "Rockin' in the Free World" and John Fogerty's "Fortunate Son" were mistaken for proud, jingoistic rock songs by those who listened only to their melodies and choruses, and not their verses.
* The chirpy EndingTheme from ''CaptainScarlet'': "They crash him, and his body may burn. They smash him, but they know he'll return... to live again". Accompanied by images of a terrified Captain Scarlet in a variety of perilous and painful-looking situations.
* "Macarena" is a catchy dance tune about the town [[strike:prostitute]] GoodBadGirl?
* Deliberately, blatantly, and hilariously invoked by Andrew Hansen of TheChaser, in his lounge arrangement of the CannibalCorpse song "Rancid Amputation".
* WesleyWillis primarily sings over pre-programmed tracks from his synthesizer, which usually means really happy-sounding tinny keyboard lines backing up songs called things like "Kill That Jerk" and "Fuck With Me And Find Out".
** Let's not forget perennial classics such as "Birdman Kicked My Ass" and "I Whooped Batman's Ass".
* "Arthur McBride" is basically a big TakeThat and ScrewYou at military recruiters. The Enter the Haggis version is a fast paced, crowd sing-along number.
* Oda's "Sex Crime" is a catchy eurobeat number thats about [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin wanting to rape someone]]. Near the end there's lyrics like ''you make me want to kill you'' and the song gets a lot creepier.
* You can find children from [[FromTheMouthsOfBabes seven onwards]] singing [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_Dance_%28hymn%29 "Lord of the Dance"]] at Catholic schools and churches. Enthusiastic renditions of lyrics like:
** ''I danced on the Sabbath / And I cured the lame; / The holy people / Said it was a shame. / They whipped and they stripped / And they hung me on high, / And they left me there / On a Cross to die.''
* A very strong candidate for MostTriumphantExample would be "Won't You Come over to My House?", best known from the famous short ''OneFroggyEvening''. If your memory's a bit hazy, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqB_YYB8TJU here's]] the cartoon, and [[http://froggyeve.tripod.com/comeover.html here]] are the full lyrics.
* The AngryVideoGameNerd's theme song, by Kyle Justin. It's an uptempo song about how much James Rolfe hates the video games he has to review.
* Band Aid's world-hunger-awareness-raising anthem "Do They Know It's Christmas?" may or may not qualify... but The Echoing Green's bouncy techno cover version certainly does.
** The original version qualifies when you consider that what was intended as a way to raise awareness of world hunger is now played annually as a festive, celebratory song.
* One might note that the original words to "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" are somewhat ... depressing, (including the line "We all will muddle through somehow") and that the retouching to make the song acceptable to modern audiences has left a melancholy tune with much more pleasant lyrics.
[[/folder]]

''Older folders:''

[[folder: Music: 1970s and older]]
* "Butcher Pete" by Roy Brown is a bouncy jazz number about a guy who's either [[AxCrazy a serial killer who targets women]] or [[{{Casanova}} a philandering cad.]] As [[http://www.cracked.com/article_17625_p2.html Cracked.com]] puts it, "This is a rare example where hiding the sexual content behind double entendres and innuendo somehow made the song a thousand times ''more'' offensive."
* 10cc's "Rubber Bullets" is a happy, peppy, upbeat tune about a prison riot.
* BobDylan uses this from time to time. The most famous instance, however, is "Like a Rolling Stone," in which happy (or at least happy-ish) and bright music contrasts with Dylan's [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism incredibly cynical]] tirade against a girl who finds herself on the street after living a life of privilege. Please note that this is often considered ''the best'' rock song of all time.
** And there is also "Tangled Up in Blue", which is one of his happiest, catchiest tunes, although the lyrics tell the story of a breakup.
** Part of the reason for this might be that people often have a difficult time understanding a [[TheUnintelligible damn thing]] Dylan says.
* JethroTull's famous song "Aqualung" from the eponymous album has a catchy, upbeat tune, after a catchy, though less-upbeat, introduction. It's about a pedophilic hobo with creepy, raspy breath that sounds like scuba gear. It also happens to be probably their most famous song of all time. ''Everyone'' is horrified when they first hear what the lyrics actually are.
-->Sitting on a park bench\\
Eying little girls with bad intent\\
''[lecherous sniggering]''
** The song directly after it on the same album, "Cross-Eyed Mary", is about a little girl who actively seeks out pedophiles like Aqualung. After a minute-long flute introduction, slides rockily into a growling, proto-metal tune that is possibly the most rock-out-inducing tune in the band's repertoire.
--->Laughing in the playground\\
Gets no kicks from little boys\\
Would rather make it with a leching grey\\
Or maybe her attention\\
Is drawn by Aqualung\\
Who watches through the railings as they play
* "Last Kiss" only has one version (the PearlJam cover) that ''wasn't'' upbeat... despite the fact that the song is about ''teenagers dying in auto accidents''.
** J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers' original never stuck me as that upbeat, even if it is up-tempo. The background singers are downright ghoulish.
* NapoleonXIV's "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!"
* A lot of PinkFloyd's early songs, especially those penned by [[CloudCuckoolander Syd]] [[CrazyAwesome Barrett]], exhibit this trope. Some examples include "Arnold Layne", pretty much all of ''The Piper at the Gates of Dawn'', "Corporal Clegg", "Scream Thy Last Scream", "Jugband Blues", "Point Me At The Sky", "Crying Song", "If", "Burning Bridges", "Free Four"...
** The cover album ''Rebuild the Wall'' by Luther Wright and the Wrongs. All the [[NightmareFuel content]] of the original album, but twice as fast and with country accents.
* MeatLoaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" seems at first to be a love story (slightly drawn out and oddly described, but never mind) but changes fairly suddenly from the singer promising to "love you to the end of time" to regretting that promise ("so now I'm praying for the end of time...").
** Specifically, it's about a teenage boy cajoling his girl to have sex with him, with her only promising to do so if he stays with her forever. The last verse, quite upbeat and high tempo, is the two some time later realizing what a mistake that was.
* This was JoyDivision's stock-in-trade. Most of their songs are fast and catchy... with some of the most wretchedly depressing lyrics ever committed to paper:
-->When routine bites hard and ambitions are low
-->And resentment rides high but emotions won't grow
-->And we're changing our ways, taking different roads
-->Then love, love will tear us apart again
-->Why is the bedroom so cold turned away on your side?
-->Is my timing that flawed, our respect run so dry?
-->Yet there's still this appeal that we've kept through our lives
-->Love, love will tear us apart again
-->Do you cry out in your sleep, all my failings exposed?
-->Get a taste in my mouth as desperation takes hold
-->Is it something so good just can't function no more?
-->When love, love will tear us apart again
** Even their name is a bit of a joke. In the novel, ''The House of Dolls'' by Yehiel De-Nur, joy divisions were groups of Jewish women in the concentration camps who were kept to sexually service Nazi guards.
** Some other wonderful numbers include "Isolation", a nice little bouncy synthpop song about the singer hating himself, and "Transmission", which seems upbeat and nice... until you look at the lyrics closely.
* RayCharles' version of "Bye Bye Love." The more well-known version by the Everly Brothers is in a major key already, but Ray's version is positively bouncy. The song is about...well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin exactly what the title tells you]]. Hear [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=729yYBH6ZxY part of it]] during a fittingly upbeat dance performance.
* Smokey Robinson, in "Tears of a Clown", sings of a man hurt by a lover who left him comparing himself to the characters in the opera ''Pagliacci,'' comedians/clowns who [[StepfordSmiler hide their hurt and anger behind empty smiles]], complete with a distinctive circus calliope riff. (Notably, the circusesque melody was written -- by Stevie Wonder -- long before the lyrics; Robinson went with the LyricalDissonance intentionally after being reminded of the characters in ''Pagliacci''.)
* "Tragedy" by the Bee Gees. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The name already says a lot, obviously]], but it's still weird to have a very upbeat song with lyrics about a man who's about to cross the DespairEventHorizon after his girlfriend dumps him.
* The song "Friday 13th" by Atomic Rooster is surprisingly catchy to contain lyrics like
-->No one in the world will love you
-->No one in the world will miss you
-->No one in the world will need you
* Many songs by Steely Dan are good examples of this trope. (Examples: "Peg," "My Old School," "Reelin' in the Years," and so on.) The most stunning example in a Dan song is "Chain Lightning." It is a 6/8 jazz shuffle. The lyrics invoke a sense of Orwell. A good formula is, the happier the song, the more twisted the lyrics.
** On the same record as "Chain Lightning" is "Everyone's Gone to the Movies", in which a man known as Mr. La Page shows pornographic films in his living room to neighbourhood children, while the parents are none the wiser and happy that their children are out of the house.
** In contrast, Donald Fagen's solo work largely subverts this -- at least up until ''Morph the Cat'', and even that has exceptions ("Mary Shut the Garden Door", "Security Joan").
** "Kid Charlemagne" is an upbeat jazz-funk-rock song about an LSD dealer and his eventual arrest. "... Your low-rent friends are dead ..."
** In kind of a subversion, their song "Deacon Blues" sounds somber and morose, until you realize, ''the lyrics are about a hipster wannabe who wants to mythologize himself by adopting the nickname of a losing college sports team (the Wake Forest Demon Deacons--as contrasted with the winning Alabama Crimson Tide).
* Paul [=McCartney=] and Wings' "[[http://tinysong.com/6ObT Live and Let Die]]" ([[http://tinysong.com/7esa covered by]] GunsNRoses) is pretty happy, if aggressive, and to be fair, it's sparse on the lyrics, but what is there is chastising a naive listener for ''caring about other people''.
** But it fits [[JamesBond the person]] [[LiveAndLetDie for whom]] the song was written for...
* Barry Manilow's "Copacabana". Peppy little ditty about a woman losing her boyfriend in a bar brawl and becoming an alcoholic.
** Particularly peculiar was when the song was acted out by muppets on ''The Muppet Show'' when Liza Manelli was the guest star.
* "Detroit Rock City" by {{Kiss}} is an upbeat rock anthem about a fan who was killed in an auto wreck while driving to a concert.
* TheRollingStones loved doing this. To cite two notorious examples:
** "Sympathy For The Devil" is an erudite, brooding meditation of the dark side of human nature, using 2,000 years of human history as a backdrop...set to a fun uptempo samba beat, complete with an infectious "woo woo" chant.
** "Brown Sugar" is a rousing rocker about, um, sexual exploitation of slaves in the pre-Civil War South.
** "Jumping Jack Flash" is about how the singer's life was terrible, such as losing his parents and instead being raised by "a toothless bearded hag", but that it's "all right now". Now [[http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=MvLCnKqYWzA&fmt=18 listen to it in]] ''EliteBeatAgents''.
* [[DonMcLean Don "It Means I Never Have To Work Again" McLean's]] "Primetime". The music sounds pretty upbeat. The lyrics...
-->''We had to burn the city 'cause they wouldn't agree\\
That things go better with democracy''
* "Run, Joey, Run" by David Geddes suffers from this
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music: 1990s]]
* GreenDay's "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" is an absolutely vicious breakup song, with a gentle guitar rhythm going on in the background. It was actually written by the lead vocalist/guitarist when he and his girlfriend broke up. The 'Good Riddance' part was added to the title when the situation became even [[ItGotWorse worse]].
** It's even funnier that at nearly every single high school dance, that is the last song. Always.
*** "For what it's worth, it was worth all the while," "Hang (the memories) on a shelf ''in good health and good times''", "make the best of this test," and of course the chorus. [[SarcasmMode Sure sounds absolutely vicious to me]]. If it's about a breakup, I will always think of it as a "Fun while it lasted, let's both go on with our lives and remember each other kindly," song.
*** Two words: ''Glen Campbell''.
** What's arguably their greatest hit, "Basket Case", as the [[http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:3ifexbthld6e allmusic song review]] points, is a cheerful/sarcastic tune [[SanitySlippageSong on the paranoia and the descending sanity of the narrator.]]
** Another Green Day song, "Misery", has an upbeat tune, but as the title suggests it's about misery.
** Green Day's "Having A Blast" is a catchy pop song about blowing up one's neighbors.
* [[{{REM}} R.E.M.'s]] "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" is an insanely upbeat and cheery song about, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the end of the world]].
** Stipe's lyrics are usually laden with irony somewhere: "The One I Love" seems to be a straightforward rock love song, except for the fact that the lover in question is referred to constantly as "A simple prop / To occupy my time", replaced in the final verse with "Another prop".
*** "The One I Love" is a case where the song itself is unclear and open to interpretation. It never makes clear whether the phrase "A simple prop/ To occupy my time" refers to the lover in question, or whether it refers to "This One", making it a description of the song itself, as in "I was bored and thinking of you so I composed this simple prop of a song to occupy my time and dedicated it to you." Either interpretation fits the lyrics.
** WordofGod says [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwPu96ZcV_I "Shiny Happy People"]] is about the Tiananmen Square massacre, and it's really from the point of view of the Chinese Government with a StepfordSmiler tone. Naturally, [[MisaimedFandom they failed miserably]], but Michael Moore got the tone right in ''Fahrenheit 9/11'' when the song was played to scenes of Bush shaking hands with the Saudis.
*** The song's name came from Chinese propaganda that called the Tiananmen Square massacre "Shiny happy people holding hands." Yeah.
** Similarly,"Try Not To Breathe" is a cheery song about the singer wanting to kill himself.
* "I Bombed Korea" by CAKE. Post-traumatic stress disorder and a GuiltComplex never sounded so good.
* "Closer" by NineInchNails. The beat and porn-esque bassline give the impression that it is a song about sexual gratification, but the lyrics are about a man that uses sex as a means to escape his crippling self-loathing. Still to this day, many listeners ignore the actual lyrical content and instead focus on the "OMG he wants to fuck me like an animal!"-factor.
* PearlJam's done this a couple times:
** "Even Flow" is a very intense-sounding song...about life through the eyes of a homeless person, who sleeps on the streets ("Freezing / Rests his head on a pillow made of concrete"), is illiterate (Even / Looking through the paper though he doesn't know how to read) and possibly mentally ill, as he "looks insane" when he smiles and struggles to keep coherent thoughts (Even Flow / Thoughts arrive like butterflies / He don't know / So he chases them away)
** "Alive" sounds like a rousing anthem about life but is about a mother falling in love with her son, who looks just like his dead father, and sexually abusing him.
*** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted:]] WordOfGod states that the positive fan response has changed the meaning of the song into a rousing anthem about life.
** "Jeremy" comes off as a fairly upbeat song but is about a kid who killed himself in front of his high school English class (made even more disturbing by the video for it).
** "Better Man", another song grievously misinterpreted by its listeners (as a love song), is actually a song about abusive relationships from the woman's point of view, and [[WordOfGod Eddie Vedder himself said]] it's "dedicated to the bastard that married my Momma".
** And, in an ''in''version, "Spin the Black Circle" sounds very dark and the vocals in it border on screaming at parts, but it's actually about vinyl records.
*** The first few lines of that song also seem specifically written to mislead the listener into thinking it's going to be about heroin ("See this needle, see my hand, drop-drop-droppin' it down, oh so gently")
** "Glorified G", one of their peppiest sounding songs, sung from the point of view of a gun nut.
* "Wonderful" by Everclear is, both by title and music, a funky, happy song -- but the words describe the absolutely heartbreaking thought process of a child whose parents are breaking up:
--> I don't want to meet your friends
--> And I don't want to start over again
--> I just want my life to be the same, just like it used to be
--> Some days I hate everything
--> Everyone and everything
--> Please don't tell me everything is wonderful now
** Everclear seems to do this sort of thing quite often. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8uamNDLEA0 "Father Of Mine"]] is about a father who abuses his wife and abandons his child, but you'd never guess it from the tune alone.
** "Amphetamine" is an upbeat song about a depressed addict in California ("Yeah, you just take your pill, and everything will be alright").
* "Crash Into Me" by Dave Matthews Band. It sounds like a beautiful, southern-style acoustic love song, but according to [[WordOfGod Dave Matthews]] the narrator is either a peeping Tom, a fifteen-year old boy having a sexual fantasy, or both.
** There's also "So Damn Lucky", an upbeat song about a car crash after getting drunk at the bar.
* "Spiderwebs" by NoDoubt has a upbeat, catchy tune, but it's about a girl who keeps getting called by a guy so much that she has to screen her phone calls (sounds like a stalker to me).
** Real Life Writes The Song.
* TheOffspring, "Come Out and Play", a catchy punk song with a singalong chorus... and lyrics about school violence.
** Its "sister song" (both were off the same album, and released to radio at the same time), "Self Esteem", is an equally-catchy power-punk tune about a guy who is being used sexually by his girlfriend, who treats him like crap and cheats on him, but he goes along with the relationship anyway because he's afraid people will see him as a "dweeb" if he breaks it off with her.
** Let's not forget "Why Don't You Get A Job", with its Caribbean melody (reminiscent of "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da") and lyrics that basically say, to two of the singers' friends SOs (one male, one female), "You're a worthless fucking leech, but they won't tell you, so I will: fuck off!". Or "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)", laughing at [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy wiggers]] over a good punk/alt-rock riff. Or "Special Delivery": catchy riff, lyrics about stalker with voices in his head. Or "Walla Walla", another fast tune about how ''you'', the subject of the song, are going to prison ''and it's a good thing because you're an idiot reprobate''.
** There's also "The End of the Line" which is a really fast song about mourning someone who died. Or "Jennifer Lost the War," which is also really fast but about the suffering of girls caught up in a war. Or "Hit That," which is cheerful and bouncy-sounding and all about ''unplanned pregnancy''(!)
** "Hammerhead". School shooting song that ''sounds'' like it wouldn't be out of place in a soldier's iPod, with lyrics like "Risk my life to keep my people from harm", "I'm just doing what I'm told", and "I'll take this life so others may live"...and then there's TheReveal at the end.
--->Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
--->I will fear no evil: for Thou are with me
--->Locked and loaded gonna find my truth
--->Now I'm busting through,
--->All hell breaks loose
--->And you can all hide behind your desks now!
--->[[CerebusRetcon And you can cry "teacher come help me!"]]
--->[[WhamLine Through you all, my aim's true!]]
--->[[HighOctaneNightmareFuel My aim's true!]]
* Stroke 9's catchy "Little Black Backpack." ''I think I'm gonna bash his head in!''
* "Worlock" by Skinny Puppy. The song is one of Skinny Puppy's most accessible songs and is essentially a pop song with heavy drums. The strings in the chorus are particularly beautiful. But the lyrics are the usual insane-demented-weird-incomprehensibility that Skinny Puppy revel in (and the music video for the song is NightmareFuelUnleaded).
* So, you have this catchy funk-metal song. What do you do? If you answered "write lyrics about standing in the shower, thinking and pissing yourself", congratulations, you're [[JanesAddiction Perry Farrell]].
* Used by Marcy Playground's "Sex and Candy" -- the lyrics seem innocuous enough, but the tune is strange, and the singer sounds kind of stoned. The music video is borderline NightmareFuel with such images as the singer standing up to his chin in a hole while a huge spider crawls towards him and two men tearing apart a woman's dresser. It ends with the singer being pushed to the ground, uttering the final lyric "Mama, this must be my dream" as green blood oozes out from under him. According to WordOfGod, the song and music videos were intended to be about someone having a wet dream.
* Big Fun's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W76iB2tvPdY "Handfull of Promises"]]. You think the poppy and catchy song these three dance and sing in the rain is a cheery one? Check out the lyrics, where a guy complains about how he didn't know better [[YourCheatingHeart his ex-girlfriend was cheating on him]]... while everyone else knew but didn't tell him.
--> Should've been running
--> I know it sounds funny
--> I was such a fool
--> Cause I couldn't see it coming.
--> Just a handfull of promises
--> You gave me
--> A pocketfull of dreams
--> That just won't do
--> How can I go on
--> With nothing to live on
--> But a handfull of promises?
* Jack Off Jill's "Horrible". Keeps this catchy, upbeat tune while singing about a cannibal.
* [[{{Garbage}} Garbage's]] incredibly bouncy song "Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go)": the first verse is about a pretty but airheaded girl who runs when things get tough and the second verse is about a young male transvestite who's mistaken for an actual girl. Given it was apparently based on two incredibly depressing books about child abuse, prostitution and rape (''Sarah'' and ''The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things'') you can pretty much put a ring around that, despite Shirley Manson (the band's vocalist) describing it as "an adrenaline rush" and "probably the most celebratory song we've ever written". Yeah, right.
** "Only Happy When it Rains" is something of a subversion: a upbeat, catchy song about being depressed... but ''enjoying'' it.
** Don't forget the ridiculously catchy [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-CHEnJ7gnc "Push It"]] ({{Mind Screw}} music video notwithstanding) and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkxphrmB22Q "Why Do You Love Me"]].
** "Cup of Coffee". By the sound of it, it's a soft song about a couple breaking up, nothing out of the ordinary. Until the lyrics show that the singer is ''completely obsessed'' with their ex, and ''stare in their window at night'', have stopped eating, wished they were never born, etc, etc.
** And "# 1 Crush". A smooth rock song about being completely and totally obsessed with another person to the point that you would do anything for them.
* Sublime's "Wrong Way" is about a teenage prostitute. Although it's pretty blatent what the song is about, the cheery beat contrasts with the dark lyrics.
** "Santeria", a wistful song about a jealous ex-boyfriend attempting to reclaim his girlfriend, promising to kill the guy who took her ("and I won't think twice to stick that barrel straight down Sancho's throat").
** Let's not forget "Date Rape".
* Chumbawumba embodies this trope, with cheery pop-synth beats, and female soprano vocals...that are rather depressing (and ofteneither critiquing society or politics). For example, their song Smalltown, an airy, breezy number containing these lyrics:
''Cafes full of people dressed as spies''//
''And all I know is guilt for being different''//
''It's always raining stones''//
''There's a killer in my home''//
* {{Hanson}}'s "[=MMMBop=]". A catchy, danceble, uptempo song by the looks of it, one of the happiest-sounding songs of TheNineties, but it's really about relationships and the unpredicticability of friendships.
-->You have so many relationships in this life \\
Only one or two will last \\
You go through all the pain and strife \\
Then you turn your back, and they're gone so fast...
[[/folder]]

[[folder:2000s]]
* AnimalCollective's "Graze" starts off with a voice gently singing how awesome it is to wake up on a beautiful morning like this one. Then it slowly builds to a climax, but when it hits in all its joyous panfluting majesty, it's accompanied by lyrics as "Why do you have to go? / I'm in the dark unknown / And you're staying home".
* Played with rather amusingly in the Say Anything song "That Is Why". It comes off as a peppy faux showtune that's actually about him hating his ex and listing of reasons why she's a horrible bitch. Escpecially weird that an earlier version of the song, "You Should Rock My World" is cheery lyrics set to the same melody.
* "Face Down", by the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, is a bright, cheery song about relationship violence.
* DeathCabForCutie (OK, [[FaceOfTheBand Ben Gibbard]]) loves this trope. In between writing {{TearJerker}}s and {{ObsessionSong}}s, he writes songs like "No Sunlight" from ''Narrow Stairs'', a beach tune type song about losing you innocence as you grow up...
--->With every year,
--->That came to pass,
--->More clouds appeared,
--->'Til the sky went black.
--->And there was no sunlight,
--->No sunlight anymore.
*** ''Narrow Stairs'' as a whole is made of this trope. Not a one of the tunes on the album are sad, yet nearly all the songs are about failing relationships, hoping for love that never comes, staying in relationships because you know you can't get anyone else, and stalking people. What a cheery psyche Ben Gibbard must have!
**** Doubly ironic, considering that he married his long time girlfriend [[ManicPixieDreamGirl Zooey Deschanel]] less than a year after its release.
** "The Ice is Getting Thinner", a thinly-veiled message about global warming. Or "The Sound of Settling", a cheery indie pop crowd song about being unable to say what you really mean to people.
** Which is seen as hilarious and silly by some fans, but Your Mileage May Vary.
** What about "My Mirror Speaks" off ''The Open Door EP'' a cheery sounding pop tune about someone who doesn't really develop attachments or doesn't remain very committed to anything until he or she looks into the mirror and realizes that the way that he or she has been living hasn't been working.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrQRS40OKNE "White Winter Hymnal"]] by Fleet Foxes. It's a beautiful little ditty about decapitation.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t7E4amWDqI "A Song About An Anglerfish"]] is an incredibly upbeat, energetic tune about the narrator dealing with his crushing despair by using an anglerfish as his role model, which has no objective reason to be happy but "has no frickin' idea what else to be" because the anglerfish has only ever known darkness and loneliness and thus has nothing else to compare it to.
-->''Because you can't hate the night if you've lived your whole life without light''
-->''And you can't hate the dish if you've only ever eaten fish''
-->''And you can't feel alone if it's all you've ever known''
* "Further" by VNV Nation is an incredibly catchy and uplifting song... about how nothing we've ever done will make the slightest bit of difference because we all die in the end.
** Several VNV Nation songs fall under this trope. "Genesis" attacks Man's dependence on God and the Old World desire to claim things in God's name, all while ''sampling a reading of the book of Genesis'' by the crew of the Apollo 8 mission over a happy trance progression.
** In an inversion, "Fragments" features positive lyrics about a glorious future, set to an abrasive and menacing industrial dance track.
* DreamTheater has utilized the "death growl" vocal effect exactly once: on "A Nightmare To Remember", it occurs after the HAPPIEST part of the story where it is revealed that everyone survived a car accident. This part is, for some strange reason, very angrily shouted.
-->It's a miracle he lived
-->It's a blessing no one died
-->By the grace of God above
-->Everyone survived
-->OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAHHHHH!
** Don't forget Solitary Shell and About to Crash, both of which are movements in the song "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence". The entire song is about mental illness, and these two movements are uplifting and happy. Like this little dity, set to perfectly happy sounding music:
-->She was raised in a small midwestern town
-->By a charming and eccentric loving father
-->She was praised as the perfect teenage girl
-->And everyone thought highly of her
-->And she tried everyday
-->With endless drive
-->To make the grade
-->Then one day
-->She woke up to find
-->The perfect girl
-->Had lost her mind
* {{Gorillaz}} have a cheery little number called "Every Planet We Reach Is Dead".
** Much more evident in the song "Superfast Jellyfish". It's a pop-filled silly sugar sparkle... about the devastating effects of consumerism. "The sea is radioactive"
* AvrilLavigne's "Anything But Ordinary". It's {{Emo}}.
--> Somebody rip my heart out
--> And leave me here to bleed
** "He Wasn't", a beautifully happy and energetic song about a woman who dumped her ex and is feeling lonely.
* To a degree, all of the songs by [[RockPaperCynic Peter Chiykowski]]... except "Rock, Paper, Cynic" and "Sansregret", [[spoiler:which are ''instrumental'']]. As of September 2009, we've [[http://www.myspace.com/rockpapercynic got the awesome]]
** "Raising Cain", a melancholy, saxophone-heavy ditty whose message is basically, "we've got nothing to do, so let's go out and party",
** "The Black Ship Batrachian", another sad tune with lyrics about the freedom that the people who live on the titular ship have,
** "One Shell, Two Shell", a war-protest song about ''MarioKart'',
** "ZombieApocalypse Blues": It's [[CrowningMomentOfFunny hilarious]], but at the end the singer gets eaten by zombies, which, [[ViewersAreMorons in case you hadn't noticed]], is ''creepy'', and
** "A Love Song For the Post-Apocalypse", which is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a happy song that just happens to be set in a post-apocalyptal world]].
* Almost every single one of the All American Rejects songs is upbeat. Almost every single one of their songs is about breakups.
** Move Along is about someone trying to prevent (assumedly their lover) from committing suicide.
* "Just Dance", by LadyGaga. It has an upbeat, really catchy, really danceable sound. The narrator of the song is a woman in a club who is so completely and totally disoriented with drunkenness that she can't see straight, or remember where she is. Later in the song, she gets hit on by (and possibly, has casual sex with) a sleazy-sounding guy.
** Check out TheOtherWiki's [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paparazzi_(Lady_Gaga_song) article]] on [[LoonyFan "Paparazzi"]].
** From her new album, we have to mention "Telephone", a upbeat dance number dedicated to say "stop calling me, I don't want to talk to you, like, ''never''", and "Bad Romance", her ode to either dysfunctional relationships or awful romance novels. Maybe both.
** And let's not forget "Dance In The Dark"! It's an upbeat''ish'' song about a girl who has a boyfriend who calls her a mess and a tramp. Even better for an example are the first lines in the song, "Silicone. Saline. Poison. Inject me." Basically, it's talking about breast implants and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botox Botox]] injections.
** "Eh Eh Nothing Else I Can Say". It has the sweetest beat of all her songs and translates to 'I don't think we're meant for each other, sorry, bye bye.'
* FranzFerdinand's bouncy hit "Take Me Out" is [[http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2004/feb/16/popandrock based on the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife.]]
** And "The Fallen" is a rather chaotic song about the second coming of Christ, and how he would be lower middle class.
* {{Eminem}}'s "Superman" has a nice soft beat and sounds like a standard romance ballad and the lyrics lead you to believe that at first
--> Eminem: I know what you wanna hear...
-->'Cuz I know you want me baby I think I want you too...
--> Girl: I think I love you baby...
--> Eminem: I think I love you too...
-->I'm here to save you girl
-->Come be in Shady's world
-->I wanna grow together
-->Let's let our love unfurl
-->You know you want me baby
-->You know I want you too
-->They call me Superman
-->I'm here to rescue you
-->I wanna save you girl
-->come be in Shady's world...
--> Girl: oh boy you drive me crazy...
--> Eminem: Bitch, you make me hurl
** Also includes such wonderful lines like
--> Superman aint savin shit, girl you can jump on Shady's dick
--> Bitch if you died, wouldn't buy you life
-->But I do know one thing though
-->Bitches they come, they go/Saturday through sunday monday/Monday through sunday yo/Maybe i'll love you one day/Maybe we'll someday grow/Till then just sit your drunk ass on that fuckin runway hoe...
** And let's not forget "My Name Is", also by Eminem. It has an upbeat tune, and Eminem begins it in a friendly, somewhat silly voice...while talking about things like sticking nails through his eyelids and trying acid. Not to mention either stapling his teacher's nuts to a sheet of paper, or assaulting said teacher to get a better grade (depends if it's the clean version or the original).
* AmandaPalmer (of the Dresden Dolls) released "Oasis" as the first single off her solo album. It's a happy bouncy hi-energy crowd-singy little number about... uh... [[http://www.vimeo.com/2730706 rape, abortions and backstabby friends.]] Oh, and writing a letter to a certain British band...
** Palmer pointed out her blog that the LyricalDissonance is a big part of what makes it offensive, and if she were to sing the same words to a slow mournful tune it probably wouldn't have been banned from the radio.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C17yfGyJjM The video]] is even better.
** There's also "Bad Habit," which is a catchy, up-beat ear worm about self-harm.
** [[HowDidWeMissThisOne I can't believe there's no mention of]] "Coin Operated Boy". The verses and chorus seem to be about a happy relationship between a girl and her robotic boyfriend... But when it gets to the bridge... oh boy.
* [[TeamAmericaWorldPolice "EVERYONE HAS AIDS! AIDS AIDS AIDS!"]] Etcetera.
* "PDA" by Interpol has this written throughout the song. It's a cheery song about a psychopathic rapist/killer running a hotel who goes to jail after raping one of his tenants
* P!nk (or '{{Pink}}', if you prefer) has a bouncy, upbeat Top 40 song. It's called "Please Don't Leave Me". Wait, it gets worse. The song is about a violently abusive relationship - as sung from the point of view ''of the abuser''.
-->You're my perfect little punching bag...
** Especially when you see the music video. It's Pink going {{Yandere}} at its finest.
* Beck's "Girl" is a happy tune that sounds like it is about summer love, but is actually probably about a sniper tracking his next victim.
* The Killers write lots of bright-sounding tunes... with lyrics that may or may not match that tone. "Mr. Brightside" sounds like the name implies... but the lyrics are about a guy watching as the girl he likes is getting ready to sleep with another man. As a more recent example, "Spaceman" is an awfully cheery tune for a song about an alien abduction.
** "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine," where the narrator is going to kill the woman he loves because she has other things to do in her life than be with him constantly. He is then arrested and says he would never do such a thing because they were friends. Not to mention that words in the song repeat later in the CD and seem to imply that the man is completely out of his mind.
** "Midnight Show" doesn't immediately seem like this, because most of the lyrics make it sound like a standard romance song - except WordOfGod has stated it's the second song in the "murder trilogy." "Leave the Burbon on the Shelf" is about the narrator in a dysfunctional relationship with a girl named Jennifer. "Midnight Show" is about him using sexy promises to lure her to a secluded place '''to kill her and dump her body in the ocean.''' Then the above-mentioned "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine" is him being questioned by the police and denying it.
* LemonDemon's "Atomic Copper Claw" is a hyper song is sung by a paranoid person who believes he's being stalked by someone wanting to kill him, with the instrument the song is named after hiding under his long sleeves.
** Lemon Demon does this a lot. A few other examples:
*** "Dead Sea Monkeys," a cheerful, upbeat song about... dead sea monkeys.
*** "Gonna Dig Up Alec Guinness," perhaps the best example, a cheerful, 80's-sounding rock song about exhuming Alec Guinness and putting him on display for profit.
*** "Stuck," a slow, cheerful-sounding song with a lot of whistling about a person who is literally trapped in a song and wants to you put him out of his misery by skipping the track.
*** "Eyewishes," a catchy rock song with a great guitar riff about committing suicide.
*** "I Know Your Name," a catchy surfer-rock melody about an insane man who accosts random people and burns down a supermarket.
*** "Action Movie Hero Boy," a song about a dynamite-obsessed moron who blows himself up.
*** "The Saga of You, Confused Destroyer of Planets," a catchy little tune about blowing up millions of lives. "It's just a paradox, it isn't wrong."
*** "The Satirist's Love Song," a cheerful tune in which the narrator tells his girlfriend or significant other that their entire relationship was a work of satire.
*** "Bill Watterson," a song about stalking [[CalvinAndHobbes Bill Watterson]].
*** And then there's "The UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny", a happy little song about dozens of pop-cultural characters fighting a free-for-all BattleRoyaleWithCheese that devastates the Earth.
* "1985" by Bowling for Soup. An upbeat song that is actually about a girl who was a teenager in 1985, and the big plans she had never came to pass, certainly not the 80s tribute the video makes it out to be.
** On a similar note, their song "99 Biker Friends", the catchiest song about abusive boyfriends ever (though the end of the song has the singer planning on attacking the abuser, with the help of Chuck Norris, [[FiftyCent 50 Cent]], the A-Team, obscure 80s hair metal band Danger Danger, and a pair of prison guards. [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer No, that actually]] ''[[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer is]]'' [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer how it ends]])
* "Tarantula" by TheSmashingPumpkins: a dark song about being in love.
** Also "Today" a cheerful sounding song about suicide.
* Canadian musician Matthew Good has a few songs like this: "Moon Over Marin" (a cover of a Dead Kennedy's song) is a slow, somewhat dreamy kind of song about a guy who can't walk on the beach outside his house without a gasmask and hazard suit because it's so polluted. "Silent Army in the Trees" is a driving rock song about a military man holding his friends and watching them bleed, then getting home and still being haunted by the horrors of war. "Vancouver National Anthem" is, contrary to the title and upbeat music, is about how Vancouver is segregated between the rich and the poor, and everyone dies downtown.
* [[YourMileageMayVary Meant sarcastically or not]], Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" is a catchy ditty sung by a SpoiledBrat JerkAss who not only intends [[ClingyJealousGirl to steal another girl's boyfriend]], but have him "wrapped around her finger" because said girl is [[DieForOurShip "like, whatever"]]. And your 13 year old niece has probably been dancing to this all day.
** And her method of stealing said boyfriend? [[BeAWhoreToGetYourMan Being a better lay.]]
* A 2000s {{TNT}} example "Satellite", one of TNT's more mainstream songs, with a power pop feel to it. The lyrics talk about how material and shallow some people seem to be when rich and famous. Here's the song performed in playback in 2003 [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7dvQ0tZv6Y Enjoy]].
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7yfISlGLNU "I'm On a Boat"]] by TheLonelyIsland, is an angry and confrontational sound rap in pure "gangsta rap" style... [[StealthParody about being on a boat]].
* On a similar [[{{Incredibly Lame Pun}} note]], there's also [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NisCkxU544c "Like A Boss"]], which starts out as a corporate performance review done to the tune of a rap song. About halfway through, the lyrics [[{{Refuge in Audacity}} take a turn for the weird]].
* The Bright Eyes song "At the Bottom of Everything" has a happy-go-lucky folk tune and is sung rather joyously, but the introduction informs the listener that it's a story about a plane full of people that are plummeting to their deaths and who all simultaneously realize that their lives and goals were meaningless.
* "Up and Away" by Kid Cudi, total stoned apathy never sounded so jangly.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAJA-bz1uo0 "Paper Planes"]] by MIA seems pretty cheery going by the tune, but the lyrics seem to be sung from the point of view of a violent, drug-addled gangster.
** Ironically, the position is supported by the artist. It appears to be a typical "hustle" song about the artist's illegal operations and monetary gains. [[spoiler:It's really about inner-city taxi drivers who have to drive annoying people around in violent areas, but all they really care about is the fare.]]
** And the tune is sampled from "Straight To Hell" by The Clash, who, as noted way, way, further up on the page, use this trope a lot (the aformentioned song is another example).
* Metro Station's "Shake It" is a nu-wave rocker that at first sounds like it's about dancing, but a closer listen reveals the lyrics are really about IntercourseWithYou.
** "Disco" trumps it. Cheery dance beat, check, first lines of the chorus "Oh-oh, she's dancing/At the dico"... Next lines? "Oh-oh, she's dying/On the dancefloor."
* Black Eyed Peas's "Where is the Love?" A typical soul-song beat with "People killin', people dyin' / Children hurt and you hear them cryin' / Can you practice what you preach / And would you turn the other cheek"...
* ReginaSpektor's song "Two Birds" could also count. It may sound upbeat, even ''cute'', until you realize it's describing a relationship wherein one person seems to be afraid of commitment and continuously lies/makes excuses. What's more heartbreaking is that the other is oblivious to the lies and promises to never leave the other. The only thing keeping it from being a total downer is the last line, "''One tries to fly away, and the other...''" which implies that he ''might'' "fly away" too, but the outcome is never known.
** Regina Spektor seems to use this trope a lot in her songs. "Buildings" almost seems cheery until you realize it's talking about a husband with a wife suffering from possible depression (and an alcoholic as well) and she keeps promising to change, as the husband believes that if they can make 'buildings so tall these days' then she can overcome her problems. And "That Time" is a cheery song that talks about cute, normal things like reading only the backs of cereal boxes and deciding to kiss anywhere except the mouth... and also has a human tooth found on Delancey, a pigeon being eaten by a cat, a friend overdosing twice, and the narrator taking them to the ER while their hallucinating over drugs as well.
* Al Duvall, a blues musician InTheStyleOf [[OlderThanTelevision 1920s-era and older]] artists, is (while it isn't all he does) well known for light, happy, and wit-laden ditties that could all be set in a CrapsackWorld à la [[TheMarvelousMisadventuresOfFlapjack Flapjack.]] There's "Poppycock and Tommyrot," about a traveling salesman who packs up and leaves before his customers realize he's scammed them, "Mary Mack," about a shopkeeper who falls in love with the thief who's been raiding his store, "Slick Hamtree," which closes with a song about a man who can't do his job (farming chickens) while turning a profit, and "Dark Inside," a song about (among other things) binge drinking, work accidents, stalkers, wartime, and gambling oneself broke.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Foreign Language]]
* "Un Matin Tu Dansais", from the French rock opera of ''HunchbackofNotreDame'', is a duet that starts off with a beautiful, longing melody as Frollo describes to Esmeralda how he first fell in love with her, and then she sings of how Phoebus will save her (she's currently in a cage, condemned to die). Then the song strays toward much darker territory as he makes her an offer: love him and he'll save her. Yet as it goes from devotion to blackmail to attempted rape, the tune stays that same light, lovely melody, with only the desperation and fear in the actor's voices to reveal that they're really singing things like "choose the grave or my bed" and "I'll bite you like a dog".
* Finnish folk-pop group Värttinä sometimes exemplify this trope, especially on their earlier albums, which feature dizzyingly chipper songs about unhappy marriages, villages full of idiots, and the general wretchedness of life.
** "Matalii ja Mustii" is about a town where the girls are ugly, the boys are stupid, and the children are presumably below average. The [[LazyBum lazy]], [[ReallyGetsAround experienced]], [[LadyDrunk alcoholic]] narrator is not impressed. This song was featured on the Arthur cartoon.
** "Marilaulu" is about pouring boiling lead into gossiping old women's mouths, after cutting out their tongues.
*** Mind you, the gossip was about the narrator's [[BlackWidow habit of disposing of her unsatisfactory husbands]].
** "Kivutar" is about an evil goddess, and the black magic she is preparing to unleash on the world.
** "Iro" tells the story of a girl who never ever found a lover...the list goes on.
* Merengue singer and songwriter Juan Luis Guerra tends to include a song about social issues in each album he releases... and those songs also tend to be very catchy and upbeat, leading to dancers everywhere happily dancing to songs about people applying for an American visa as their last hope ("Visa para un sueño"), being confronted with high prices, higher corruption and lack of essential items ("El Costo de la vida"), or being victims of an truly awful medic care system ("El Niagara en bicicleta").
** He's not the only one, either! The Brazilian group Paralamas has songs like that as well, depicting [[CrapsackWorld the poverty and hopelesness of Brazilian low class people]] with happy, upbeat melodies. An example is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MEEkBnw8iw&feature=related "Alagados"]], which speaks about the hard life conditions in Rio ("The city, with its open arms in the postcards and its tightened fist in real life, denies you opporunities and shows you the face of evil.").
*** "Alagados"! It has an Spanish version by the very same group, and we can assure the message wasn't lost.
* French comedian trio ''Les Inconnus'' had a field day with this, usually in the name of [[AffectionateParody lighthearted satire]]. Their most notable piece is arguably [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WousdWP-5vY "Et vice et versa"]], a soothing, melancholic-sounding piece that could almost be mistaken for a genuine song...that is, unless you speak French, in which case the deep-sounding, hellenism-laden lyrics are nothing more than [[WordSaladPhilosophy hilarious pseudo-philosophical ramblings]] [[MeaninglessMeaningfulWords full of misused words]] [[WantonCrueltyToTheCommonComma and laughable grammar]] [[IceCreamKoan and mean absolutely nothing.]]
* The meaning of {{Rammstein}}'s biggest hit depends on its spelling. If it's "Du Hasst Mich" (You Hate Me), then the song is suitably angry. However, it's also been spelled, "Du Hast Mich" (You Have Me), making it a love song. The lyrics work either way.
** Taken as part of the larger sentence "Du hast mich gefragt und ich hab nichts gesagt" ("You have asked me and I have said nothing.")it's definitely NOT a love song. The song's chorus is a shouted "Nein" to a German wedding vow. (Made quite starkly apparent in meaning in the video) However, the progressing nature of the lyrics probably mean "du hast mich" is a doubled hate/have leading up to the rest. To muddy the waters the english translation takes the "hate" meaning only and alters all the rest, leading to idiots on youtube "correcting" the accurate tranlation.
*** There's another pun in said German wedding vow: read as ''Willst du bis der Tod, der scheide . . . ?'' it means "Do you want, until the death which would separate . . . ?" Read it as ''. . . bis der Tod der Scheide'' and it becomes "until the death of the vagina," since ''Scheide'' (literally "separation") is German for "vagina." Rammstein loves its wordplay.
** Rammstein also makes sure to prevent LyricalDissonance in their song "Amerika", by pointing out in English that "this is not a love song... I don't speak my mother tongue/no this is not a love song."
*** And yet [[MisaimedFandom some people still take it as such.]]
*** They played it straight, for irony value earlier in the same song. Listen to the opening version of the chorus -- in this song about American corporate/cultural dominance of the world -- and tell me it doesn't sound like a Soviet anthem.
**** Speaking of Soviet anthems.. "Moskau". The cheery female vocalist sings about Lenin and pioneers while the main lyrics praise the titular city.. by comparing it to an old whore.
* Die Toten Hosen's "Weihnachtsmann vom Dach" (Santa from the Roof) is a cheerful holiday tune with child-like, giddy vocals...about a child finding Santa Claus dead and swinging from a noose, along with a note saying he (Santa Claus) hopes he has not spoiled their Christmas with his suicide. It is, however, clearly intended as comedy.
* German punk rockers Die Ärzte seem to enjoy this trope immensely, as they are known for their satiric and sometimes plain weird songs. A very noteworthy example is "Baby", a song that appears to be an empowering ballad for vegetarians at the start... And then goes on for several verses with suggestions to eat people, instead of animals.
** Just one album later, the highly-upbeat song "Breit" has the protagonist praise the joys of doing drugs -- clearly including the fact that he's wasting his life and slowly loses control of his bodily functions.
----> ''Now I'm almost thirty and still alive / I'm still the coolest in this room / I drool a little and smell badly / Because I'm hanging around on this couch for years / Social contacts, I don't need / I'm stoned seven days a week'' (Translated)
** "De ce Plang Chitarele" is a song summed up pretty good with the title which translates roughly to [[spoiler:Why the Guitars Cry.]] But of course, being O-Zone, it's happy, upbeat and danceable.
** "Schlaflied" might qualify. It starts out all mellow and soothing and sweet and cute. Unfortunately, it's about an EldritchAbomination that ''comes to you in the night, gouges out your eyes, rips out your throat and drinks your blood.''
* The Italian song, "Teorema" basically teaches that you have to treat a woman bad to have her love you ('Take a woman, treat her badly' are the opening lyrics) in a sarcastic take of 'all girls love bad boys' with quiet music. The chorus says 'I'll never tell her that I live for her, I'll treat her badly, and she'll love me'.
* There is a Russian pop song by Natasha Korolyova, called "Malenkaya Strana" (The Little Country). Then somebody made a remix with different lyrics, and the song became "Yadernaya Voina" (The Nuclear War), about nukes, mutants, ash and death... sung in a little girl's voice to the same cutesy tune.
* The French-Spanish group Mano Negra has a song named "Mala Vida" ("Bad life"), which talks about a HenpeckedHusband who's [[DomesticAbuse heavily abused by his bitchy wife]] and threatens to leave her if she doesn't stop... with a rocky, upbeat tune. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWV2kM1laIc And a musical video]] [[RefugeInAudacity that thrives]] [[DeadBabyComedy on black comedy]].
** Their singer Manu Chao later went as a solist, and maintained the disonance alive.
* The French oldie "Je t'attendrai a la porte du garage" (I'll wait for you at the garage door), a supposedly funny song with a very light-hearted tune... that tells the story of a woman who has to raise her kids alone because her husband left. The title refers to what she writes to him: she'll wait for him at the garage door, and one day he'll finally come back home and everything will be alright. He does come back. Forty years later.
* The French punk song "Manu Chao" by Les Wampas sounds like a happy, upbeat, Ramones-like punk song. Then you look up a translation of the lyrics, and find it's a song lamenting that the members aren't rich, especially compared to certain other French "punk" artists.
* The Argentinian band Los Fabulosos Cadillacs has explored this trope with the song [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEdTPqo2hgc "Matador"]] (prominently featured in the closing credits to ''GrossePointeBlank''), which is a very danceable song about political assassinations in Latin America.
** Before that, they released "Mal Bicho", who is another danceable song who is a long call out to a shameless racist, openly insulting and mocking his beliefs. It has [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wctrVAyefms a controversial video]] featuring blood everywhere, [[TooSoon torture victims]], the band being killed during a "live" show, and [[RefugeInAudacity a effeminate dancing]] [[AdolfHitler Hitler]] as the torturer.
** A "lighter" example is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ6u2STHDLs "El Satanico Dr. Cadillac"]], a danceable and rhythmic song where the narrator laments how an old friend fucked up his own life.
* Venezuelan Ska band Desorden Publico lives and breathes this trope, but where it shows more is in their 1997 album ''Plomo Revienta'' (slang who would -roughly- translate as "buttload of gunshots"), which is an long view on how dangerous is living in Caracas (violence, crime, governmental indolence, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking bad love life]]...), and the perpetual alert state the city inhabitants live on because of it. All in the form of bouncy ska songs. The most memorable is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz7sh9JwS2I "Alla Cayo"]], a bouncy song with witty rhymes whose lyrics tell the story of three "normal" slum deaths: a petty murder of a thug because of his expensive Air Jordan shoes, a drug-related crime, and a innocent high schooler killed by a lost bullet during a gang battle. The last verse is in a funeral, with a mother loudly crying for her dead boy, but we don't know whose mother is this. The chorus it's so catchy you don't realize until later how cruel and ''detached'' really is:
--->''He fell there, he fell there, fell there, fell there''\\
''He fell there, he fell there, fell there, fell there''\\
''And they painted his {{chalk outline}} on the sidewalk (how pity!)''\\
''And they painted his chalk outline on the sidewalk (how pity!)''\\
''And they painted his chalk outline on the sidewalk...''
* The French song [[http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/gentiment+ je+ t%27immole/video/x20dw7_mai-lan-gentiment-je-timmole_music "Gentiment je t'immole"]] sounds like a soft ballad, until you listen to the lyrics, which include things like 'you scream like a whore, your skin comes off'
* Shakira's "Estoy Aqui" fits. This lighthearted, poppish tune fools many English-speaking listeners into thinking that it's a happy song... that is, until they look up the translation and discover that it's actually... an incredibly sad break-up song.
** She used to do some of those during her early career. From the same album, "Pies Descalzos" is a direct complain about moral hypocrisy, and "Se quiere, se mata" music is too upbeat for a song about an aborting teenager.
* France Gall and Serge Gainsbourg's "Les sucettes" is NOT a song about a girl who likes lollipops.
** But you probably won't know that until you hit puberty. The song sounds like a lullaby and you have to really pay attention to some of the verbs used to get that the dirty subtext is in fact text.
** Note that apprently, France Gall herself had no idea what the song was really about, making it a rare case of the singer herself not catching the lyrical dissonance (then again, it was written by Gainsbourg so she should've known better).
* Speaking of Serge Gainsbourg, his reggae cover of La Marseillaise (The French national anthem) called "Aux Armes, etc" definitely counts. As if a reggae tune for the national anthem of an European country wasn't strange enough, anyone who's read the lyrics of the song know they are extremely violent and gory.
* Julio Jarmillo is an Ecuadorian "pasillo" performer who has a wonderfull song called "Bodas Negras" it doesn't starts happy, but as the music advances it gets more cheerfull. It's a wonderfull love song to dance with...Except when you realize it talks about a guy that pulls out his ex-lovers skelleton out of the grave and dances, kisses it and finally marries it.
* Listen to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvTrNkMW0uo "Fumaza"]] by Los Pinguos. Doesn't it just make you want to dance? Read [[http://www.lospinguos.com/texto-fumaza-english.html this translation of the lyrics]]. Doesn't it just make you want to cry?
* The lyrics of many songs of the German band Blutjungs are a good example of LyricalDissonance unless you are a sick, sick person. The music of their songs is happy-sounding upbeat stuff while their lyrics are about killing children with poisoned candy on playgrounds, shooting your 15-year-old pregnant ex with a shotgun, eating the flesh off drowned bodies, brutally beating a skater to a horrible death because he made you drop your beer, slowly killing an elderly lady just to inherit her Porsche convertible, etc.
* Only the Spanish group No Me Pises Que Llevo Chanclas (something like "Don't step on me I'm wearing sandals") could write a song about the pain of losing a beloved pet (in this case, a singing canary) [[RefugeInAudacity and make it absolutely]] [[CrowningMomentOfFunny HILARIOUS]]. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfShb9u0m0g Here it is, the name is "Canario" ("Canary")]]
* One French dance track titled "Angelina" was a big hit in discos (especially in the Philippines), but the lyrics tell of a girl who's dying of an incurable disease.
* Mana and Santana's joint effort song "Corazon Es Peinado" a smooth salsa/guitar jam with lyrics that translate to:
''How it hurts to be forgotten/''//
''How my heart aches/''//
''How painful this life is/''//
''Without you by my side, love/''//
''My heart is pierced!"''//
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Japanese Language]]
* Happened a lot with Ayumi Hamasaki via ExecutiveMeddling. Her gimmick is that she writes her own lyrics (often based in the angsty experiences she had), but she rarely composes the music. While in the studio albums this trope is hardly noticeable, it become notorious in the Eurodance and Trance remixes of her first albums, where angsty songs about abandonment where given extremely happy new melodies. Memorable offenders are the remixes from "Trauma" and "Kanariya".
** One example from an actual album is "Memorial Address", a song about a sudden abandonment (implied to be because of the other person's death), who begins with a sweet and sad melody... and suddenly the music switch into a energetic rock tune.
* The 1963 song "Ue o muite aruko" by Kyu Sakamoto (better known to English speakers as "Sukiyaki") has a cheerful-sounding tune, but is in fact about a man whose heart is broken, and who walks in the rain looking upwards so that his tears are disguised by the rainwater running down his face.
* J-rock band Flow did a mostly upbeat ska cover of "Okuro Kotoba"... which is a song about painful goodbyes.
** Considering the title roughly means "Words of Farewell"... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin one should be prepared...]]
* Gackt's "Kono Dare mo Inai Heya de" (In This Empty Room) slowly builds to ninety seconds of cheerful humming reminiscent of "Hey, Jude"...as the increasingly angsty lyrics make it clear that the singer is ''losing his mind after his lover's murder''. Just to drive it home, the cheery music ends in a few ominous-sounding violin measures.
** "Kalmia". While having a rather soft melodic rock sound to it with some minor and basic guitar solos that don't really hint at anything evil, the translated lyrics depict hearing (and apparently seeing) headless dolls laughing while staring at an otherwise destroyed town from afar, and a recalling of an apocalypse of sorts wherein everything vanishes and gets sucked up into the sky in what sounds like a killer tornado/hurricane. All while Gackt sings along, his voice giving no hint of terror of the situation, or any hint for that matter that this isn't just another one of his kooky rock ballads. However, a botanist, or even a seasoned gardener could tell you that [[MeaningfulName the kalmia is a beautiful yet extremely poisonous flower.]]
* Miyavi has this with [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFCcQMJ6Z-c "Papamama Nozomare nu Baby"]]. It sounds deceptively like un upbeat victory-inspiring rebel anthem...here are the [[http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858549336/ lyrics]].
* cali=gari. All of it. "Mama ga boku o sutete papa ga boku o okashita hi" -- "The day mama abandoned and papa raped me".
* Shiina Ringo's "Queen of Kabukicho" is a delightful song about a girl whose prostitute mother abandons her and who subsequently becomes a prostitute herself.
* "Moonflower", sung by Tomokazu Seki, is a cheerful little number about being soul-crushingly isolated and hiding it.
* The hit track of the Japanese J-rock band Chatmonchy is "Hana No Yume," an upbeat bouncy song with a music video full of bright happy colors. Its lyrics, however, are full of sad, violent imagery, as in the refrain: "I cut my finger on a thin piece of paper / And red, red blood oozed out / Such a small blade, but it hurt, really hurt my fingertip."
* Japanese rock band L'Arc~en~Ciel's song "Feeling Fine": while an upbeat song musically, a translation of the lyrics point that it is likely about a couple after a breakup.
* Japanese folk-pop artist Miyuki Nakajima has a few:
** "Usotsuki ga Suki yo" ("I Like Liars"), a happy party tune about a woman chatting up guys while drunk and lying to them even though she'll be betrayed by them.
** The original version of "Yokorembo" ("Unrequited Love") is an upbeat, bouncy pop ditty about what the title implies.
** Also of note is the [[http://www.xiami.com/song/3455122/ji original version]] of "Awase Kagami" ("Self-Portrait in Two Mirrors"): RageAgainstTheReflection set to a pleasant jazzy tune.
* ''Puncolle Voice Actresses Legendary Punk Songs Collection'' is an album of female J-Pop singers covering various punk rock classics. Pretty much every single song falls into this category, like Rie Tanaka's cover of the Sex Pistols' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sidvycbl2Zk&feature=related&fmt=18 Anarchy in the UK]]. The melody and rhythm wouldn't seem out of place in a walk on the beach at sundown.
* JPop singer Utada had a song called "Hotel Lobby" that kinda runs into this trope. The melody is kinda upbeat, but when you listen to the lyrics, it's all about a prostitute and how much her life sucks. Yay.
* Dir en grey's song "embryo". While sounding like a perfectly tender ballad with a warming chorus, the lyrics (sung from a daughter's perspective) reveal that the singer's mother has hung herself to save herself from an abusive relationship with her husband, who has now turned to raping his daughter. She ends up eventually killing her father ''during another rape'', and yet manages to ''not abort the baby she is now carrying.''
** It should be noted that the song's lyrics were understandably changed to the singer's desire to join his mother in the afterlife, for its release as a single.
** It should also be noted that "Embryo" contains creepy whispering verses and almost an emo chorus. However, this trope is true to some of Dir en Grey's early upbeat and melodic stuff such as "Yurameki", "-I'll-", "Raison detre", "Wake", "Jessica", etc. The most perfect example is "Yokan" from their ''Gauze'' album (1999), this happy-sounding song with sad lyrics even got them to perform on pop-ish talk shows like ''Music Station'' and ''sitting next to frigging Ayumi Hamasaki'', the Empress of Pop herself.
* "Guchi" by Nakamura Ataru sounds like a traditional Japanese folk ballad, but it's about people complaining and the singer being extremely fed up.
* HelloProject shuffle group SALT5 released only one song, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtjTbRTuT9k "GET UP RAPPER"]], which is obviously a rap song. However, the lyrics are about such things as wanting to eat banana chips, wearing beige knickers and how women "blossom beautifully".
* Onyanko Club's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuK_XbEIMe8 "Sailorfuku wo Nugasanai de"]] is a catchy, upbeat song... about a girl who wants to have sex. The lyrics include such lines as "Mama and Papa won't know", "It's a bit scary but / being a virgin is boring" and "I want to try having sex". Oh, and the title translates to "Don't Take Off My Sailor Uniform".
* This is a major theme of the Japanese rock band Bump of Chicken. Prime examples are [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL-4Csgx0Y0 "Dandelion"]], a song about a lonely lion who... well, just watch the video; and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCdsSVdukXA "Wheel Song"]], a song about someone leaving and possibly never seeing them again. Most Bump songs are rather sad, but come across as happy. It's usually a shock to an English speaker who learns what the lyrics actually are.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqcfew2JCes This]] {{Vocaloid}} Kaito song sounds sweet and happy, assuming you ignore the title; even the look on Kaito's face is joyous! Then read the lyrics. Despite that, it's becoming a fan favorite for being so hilarious.
** In fact, a lot of the producers in the {{Vocaloid}} fandom are specialiced in this type of songs. Happy techo-dance breakup songs, bubblegum-pop {{yangire}} songs, peppy songs about death and destruction, you name it. And then there are the ones with FridgeBrilliance NightmareFuel...
** Take Len Kagamine's "The Riddler Who Can't Solve Anything", set to a fast, upbeat tune about murder and the potential idea that [[spoiler: Len]] is the killer.
*** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4ydivnfcno "Hetarenaide yo!"]] Listen to the first 1:50 or so, without looking at the lyrics. Sounds like a cute and innocent song, right? Now, listen to it from start to end while looking at the subtitles. [[spoiler:And then comes the SoundEffectBleep...]]
** There are countless examples, especially with Miku's songs. Take [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn2OVrck9jA&feature=related "Cactus and Mirage"]], a cute, upbeat-sounding song about a nurse that eventually falls in love with her infatuated, dying patient when it's already too late. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM_rzQx4p5Q "Saihate"]], another upbeat song that acts as a farewell message to a lover who has died. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1WhfIHOYxU "(It's not) World's End"]] is, once again, an upbeat song sung during the singer's last 5 minutes of life, requesting her love only recall her for five minutes on the day every year. Hatsune Miku's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s2Pk_AySTU "Left Behind City"]] song is about a girl who feels left behind in the world.
* わたしのココ's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4HZese8wXg "Like You"]] ([[NotSafeForWork Hide your children,]] [[LoudOfWar turn the volume down]] ''[[LoudOfWar low]]'' '''[[FalseReassurance and keep it there,]]''' bracing yourself for the 25-second mark) has a sweet and charming melody, that is, alongside the monstrous barrage of digital noise. It's about a girl who hates herself strongly and can't even bring herself to commit suicide. What's worse is that it's based on a cheery, uptempo instrumental done before their days as わたしのココ (titled "December"), and it's one of their less depressing works.
* Most Yaen songs are like this. For example, their 2004 song "HEAVEN'S RULE" might be best surmised as a song about a world of crime with victims and witnesses too afraid to do anything but look the other way- sung from the point of the criminal, all to a synth-laden V6-worthy noise-pop beat.
''I'm certainly not among the angels/''//
''Yeah, I'm just a plain old rat/...''//
''No matter who does what/''//
''It's the rule to pretend you don't see/''//
''This is the paradise where we enjoy that freedom/''//
''WELCOME TO THE HEAVEN/...''//
''This isn't a place for you to come to/''//
''NEVER COME BACK AGAIN/''//
* Also, see the 60s-70s psychedelic band THE MOPS, whose melodies sound groovy, if you don't know what "Goiken muyou" or "Orewo koroshitekure" really mean.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Unsorted]]
* {{REM}} dowes this in several of their songs:
** "Try Not To Breathe": Sounds like a relatively upbeat song, with lyrics that may suggest suicide or euthanasia.
** "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite": another upbeat, possible death song.
** Not to mention "Hollow Man", with a cheery, upbeat melody and the chorus
-->Believe in me, believe in nothing
-->Corner me and make me something
-->I've become the hollow man
-->Have I become the hollow man I see?
* The song "Lamette" ("Razor Blades") by Italian singer Donatella Rettore, is a cheery, danceable song about... cutting your wrists with razor blades, complete with 'plop plop' sounds, intended to be the blood coming out of the wounds.
* Pretty much every song ever written by TheShins, but especially the songs on their album ''Wincing the Night Away''.
* Though they have a reputation for [[EmoTeen songs of the sort]], Simple Plan's "I'm Just a Kid" is a somewhat [[{{Wangst}} angsty]] song sung by a unpopular school-age loser. Most people seem to fixate on that and not notice that the song's actual ''music'' is suprisingly upbeat and cheerful.
* The structure of Skunk Anansie's "Glorious Pop Song" sounds like just what the title suggets -- Complete with clapping parts and "nanana"'s... And the chorus goes "You're still a fucker/ You're still a fucker/ You're still a fucker/ To me". And that's not even indicating half the anger and bitterness of the rest of the lyrics.
* TheSmiths' "There is a Light that Never Goes Out", is all nice and upbeat cute-ish romantic with a really morbid chorus.
--->And if a double-decker bus
--->Crashes into us
--->To die by your side
--->Is such a heavenly way to die
--->And if a ten-ton truck
--->Kills the both of us
--->To die by your side
--->Well, the pleasure - the privilege is mine
* Not to mention "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now", "Girlfriend in a Coma" and the incredibly jaunty "Unhappy Birthday" which features the immortal line
--->I've come to wish you an unhappy birthday / Cos you're evil and you lie, and if you should die / I may be slightly sad, but I won't cry.
* The 1967 song "Sunday Will Never Be The Same" by Spanky and Our Gang has a upbeat tune with beautiful harmonies, but the lyrics describe how breaking up with her lover has forever destroyed the singer's enjoyment of Sunday morning walks in the park.
* Several songs by Sparks fall into this category, notably "Here in Heaven", which is sung from the point of view of the ''successful'' half of a broken suicide pact. [[NightmareFuel Think about it...]]
** Also of note is their 1974 single "Something For The Girl With Everything", a deceptively frothy and upbeat glam rock song which is actually about being blackmailed.
* BruceSpringsteen often employs this.
** "Born in the USA" sounds like it should be about how great being a U.S. citizen is... but it's about a man who's been beat down all his life, gets sent off to Vietnam, loses his brother (whose death also crushes a Vietnamese woman he was seeing), and ends up unemployable when he gets back. Some people who should have known better (George Will and Ronald Reagan among them) apparently didn't bother to listen to the rest of the song before talking about it.
** Similarly, "Born to Run" is all about how horrible New Jersey is and how badly Springsteen wanted to get out of there as a kid. Naturally, it's been nominated as New Jersey's official state song by politicians who haven't listened too closely to it.
** Then there's "Glory Days", an energetic, high-tempo rocker about.. getting older and realizing the best part of life has passed you by, leaving you nothing to do but reminisce while you wait to die.
** There's also "Lonesome Day," which sounds anthemic and badass, but the lyrics are more a SurvivalMantra for 9/11 widows and widowers.
** Don't forget "Hungry Heart". It sounds like a nice, upbeat 50s-style tune, but the lyrics are about a guy who got married, had kids, and then [[ParentalAbandonment ran away from his family]] because he stopped being in love with his wife.
* "Photograph," as sung by Ringo Starr, has lyrics about losing a loved one forever, but is performed almost cheerfully and in such a way as to encourage singing along, complete with dramatic string crescendo at the end.
* Stereolab's "Ping Pong" is a happy-sounding little song about wars depleting the global economy.
* Stereophonics do this a lot -- most effectively in "Local Boy In The Photograph" -- an uptempo rock song... about the anniversary of a friend's death, who committed suicide by standing in the path of a train. Ouch.
** Also with "Innocent", an upbeat, happy sounding song about how a girl called Jenny gets drunk and high one night and possibly accidentally kills herself.
* Sting's "Brand New Day" is a bright, shiny, upbeat song about getting caught up in memories of an ex from years ago, bumping into them in the street that same day, and trying (possibly succeeding) to rekindle that romance. Naturally, it's the current title song of ''The Early Show'' and is constantly used in commercials for ''The Next Big Thing''.
** It was also used in a promotional video for Compaq not long before the HP merger. "I'll sell the stock, we'll spend all the money" indeed.
----> [[{{DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything}} I'm a train and you're the station, I'm the flagpole to your nation]]).
** Sting's "Love is Stronger than Justice" sounds like it's about ThePowerOfLove, and the chorus leans that way too - but in the verses you're treated to vigilantism, polygamy, and fratricide. (Specifically, the seven brothers fight some bandits in return for brides, but there's only one girl for them to marry; they all marry her, then the narrator murders the other six)
*** Of course, the fact that the song is firmly in SarcasmMode is made clear in the chorus. Sting has some odd lyrics, but "love is a big fat river?" Seriously, Gordon?
* Stone Sour's "Through Glass" provides the listener with a light acoustic rock song with a good vocal melody and little aggression. Of course, the song is actually a scathing lashout on the plastic nature of the world of pop music.
* "A Good Idea" by Sugar is an uptempo pop-rock song about a man drowning his girlfriend in a river, seemingly ''at her own request''. Made even creepier when the lyrics jump from third person to first person for the last verse, and the narrator, who claims to have witnessed it all, cryptically confesses "sometimes I'm best left alone, and sometimes I see you in the water at night". It's performed in a similar style to the Pixies' "Debaser", and might even be an homage to that band's fondness for the trope.
* Sugar Ray poke fun at this with an album intro called "New Direction". The track's hard metal sound stands against lyrics like "Don't play ball in the house. Don't run with scissors. Be nice to cops."
* [[TheEighties Eighties]] legends Music/TalkingHeads also did a lot of these. Their lyrical style usually leads the careless listener to assume that the band is trying to put across a positive message; one must pay close attention to the lyrics to see the songs' true nature.
** The cheerful melody of "Don't Worry About The Government" counterpoints the lyrics, which sound similarly cheerful -- until you realize how intentionally, sarcastically inane they are.
** "Road To Nowhere," which implies that the inevitable death of everybody who's ever been born isn't such a depressing thing after all.
** "Psycho Killer," which dramatizes the title character's neuroses amid chunky guitar riffs. Not your typical pop song material.
** "Life During Wartime," a song about a cynic living during a violent revolution against the U.S., set to a very funky beat.
* Serj Tankian uses this trope a bit, notably in the song "Lie Lie Lie," which sounds like something you'd hear from a busker at a carnival, but portrays a broken suicide pact between lovers.
* The child abuse-themed "What's the Matter Here" by 10,000 Maniacs ''is'' disconcertingly cheerful; thus the maximum creepy points during the line sung from the father's point of view.
* ''{{They Might Be Giants}}'' have countless songs like this, including (WildMassGuessing ahoy!):
** "Four of Two" is a delightful polka song written for children, about a man who wastes his entire life waiting for a girl who stood him up.
*** The unrecorded version actually ended with the guy committing suicide in order to help pass the time.
** "I Palindrome I", a bright, cheery rock song about matricide.
** "No One Knows My Plan", a vibrant Latin Jazz piece about a convict plotting his revenge.
** "The Statue Got Me High", about a statue that hypnotizes you and then causes you to explode.
*** This song is (or can be interpreted without much difficulty as) a direct reference to the Monolith in ''[[TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey 2001: A Space Odyssey]]'', and the transcendence it forces upon the character [[spoiler:David Bowman]] at the end of the novel when it [[spoiler:destroys his body in the process of turning him into something approaching God.]]
**** Alternatively, this can be interpreted as a retelling of the classic [[DonGiovanni Don Juan]] tale, in which a {{Casanova}} is [[spoiler: dragged to hell by a vengeful statue]].
**** "Part of it is that it's the idea that the statue would be in a public square, a monument. Not necessarily a work of art, but something that's just utterly immobile and represents something that's in the past - just the idea of that blowing somebody's mind. It seems like one of the least likely things to make the top of your head come off, and that's what happens in the song." - John Linnell
** "Mink Car", about being run over by said car.
** "The Shadow Government", a bright rock song about a meth dealer having a bad day and then getting killed by a corrupt government official.
** "I'm Your Boyfriend Now", a soft rock ballad from the perspective of a stalker. It helps that the song title was originally a Freddy Krueger quote.
** "Turn Around", a song in the style of a 1950s crooner, but about zombies and things.
** "Sketchy Galore" could be mistaken for a sad love song. It's about a creepy neighbor.
** "Twisting", a catchy pop tune about the torments a random guy endures after his breakup; he can't even get his ex-girlfriend to care about him enough to want him to give her albums back.
*** It's actually a little worse than that. The ex-girlfriend is not just indifferent; she wants the guy to "twist in the wind" (i.e. suffer; the expression alludes to a hanged man). Not only do the lyrics suggest that she killed his goldfish, but they also imply that she tampered with his furnace in order to ''flood his house with natural gas'' ("Blew out your pilot light/and made a wish...").
**** Since all modern furnaces have fail-safes in case the pilot light goes out, she may simply be cutting off the heat to his house.
** "Lucky Ball and Chain", an up-tempo song about a guy [[RunawayBride whose fiancee walked out on him at the altar]].
** "Bastard Wants To Hit Me" is deceptively mellow for a song about a guy randomly threatened by a total stranger for no reason (or, [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory depending on how you interpret the song]], running in blind paranoid terror from someone they don't recognize).
** "They'll Need a Crane", a bright rock song about a tragic breakup, related largely in BuffySpeak.
** Their breakout hit "Don't Let's Start" has the words "No one in the world ever get what they want, and that is beautiful. Everybody dies frustrated and sad, and that is beautiful," sung to one of the most cheery tunes ever composed.
** "Kiss Me, Son of God", a perky little number that sounds like it belongs at the HappyEnding of a musical -- about a totalitarian, theocratic regime. ("I built a little empire / Out of some crazy garbage / Called the blood of the exploited working class...")
** "Spiraling Shape" is a rather cheery tune about the pointlessness of using drugs to make someone happier, which was used further for SoundtrackDissonance in the movie ''KidsInTheHall: Brain Candy''
** "Everything Right is Wrong Again"'s lyrics describe... well, {{Exactly What It Says on the Tin}}. It's the song referred to in said pagequote.
** Even songs that aren't about depressing subjects have moments of this. Any performance of "Birdhouse in Your Soul" will have concertgoers hopping gleefully while John Linnell sings about the possible death of "countless screaming Argonauts".
** And then we have "Damn Good Times" which is a happy, upbeat song about a girl who is a "natural dancer". So of course the music video [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw2XuTvbeQ8 involves the girl being stalked by vampires]] who [[LooksLikeOrlok look like Orlok]].
** Don't forget "The Bells Are Ringing" which at first hearing sounds like a positive, jolly, Christmas song but is actually about mind control:
--->''The bells are ringing and everyone's walking
--->With arms extended in a trance
--->Forgetting their washing
--->Neglecting the children
--->They're dropping all businesses at hand
--->A voice is telling them to act a different way
--->They tilt their heads so they won't miss what it will say''
** "Bed Bed Bed" is slightly more comedic than the other TMBG examples: it's a noisy, rocking song with irritating sound effects thrown in about going to sleep.
** "Skullivan" combines creepy distorted music and vocals and an ominous chorus repeating the line "When the Skullivan walks in the moonlit night" with banal lyrics about making tea and going to the video store to rent ''Tootsie''.
** "Piece of Dirt," can be interpreted as a song about alienation and painful introversion, which contradicts its upbeat, calming tone.
** "Thunderbird" is about a father's alcohol or drug addiction: "I know, I know, I said that I would quit/Alright I promise no more after this... We'll have fun fun fun till T-Bird takes her daddy away..."
*** The word 'thunderbird' in particular is a slang term that refers to cheap, low-quality wine.
** "Sleepwalkers", a cute-sounding children's song backed by a synthesized music box about... children sleepwalking across the country like mindless zombies.
** "Mr. Me", a very upbeat pop ditty with WordSaladLyrics in the verses, while the chorus, consisting of the line "he ended up really, really sad!" is sung quite gleefully, climaxing at the very end.
** "Fingertips", a montage of short (many around 15 seconds or so) "songs", contains the straight-sung line "I'm having a heart attack", repeated three times.
* Third Eye Blind's "Semi-Charmed Life" has a nice, upbeat pop-rocky tune, yet it's about a guy struggling with crystal meth addiction. Even more disturbing is the original (not recorded) version, wherein the chorus went, "I want nothing else," rather than "I want something else," implying that the protagonist doesn't even want out of his addiction.
* Venerable English songwriter Richard Thompson has done this on occasion. The best example is probably "Read About Love," an innocent-seeming upbeat dance tune with lyrics about a little boy who learns what "making love" is from magazines because his father won't talk to him about it; he ends up raping a girl because he thinks it's "supposed to feel nice" and doesn't know any better.
** His song "Bad Monkey" on his ''Sweet Warrior'' album is a ridiculously catchy song about drug addiction.
** And there's "Shane and Dixie", a peppy, dancable tune about the (unsuccessful) murder/suicide of the eponymous bank-robbing couple.
* "The Future's so Bright, I've Got to Wear Shades" by Timbuk 3 fits too, due to singing about an impending nuclear holocaust.
* The first few verses of "Sort of Haunted House" by Too Much Joy seems like a wistful love song, with an upbeat, albeit slightly creepy, tempo. Then we find out that it's about a man who killed his girlfriend and her lover, and then hangs himself. Puts a whole new spin on the chorus.
* Bouncy Tommy Tutone stalker song "Jenny (867-5309 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              867-5309      end_of_the_skype_highlighting)". Subverted in Zayra Alvarez's cover on ''Rockstar: Supernova'', where she made the creepiness explicit, bringing the performance into the headspace of the lyrics.
* The Tool song "Die Eier Von Satan" ("The Eggs of Satan") features [[EverythingSoundsSexierInFrench snarling German vocals]] making triumphant declarations to a cheering crowd while heavy guitars and industrial noises grind in the background. The result sounds disturbingly like a satanic Nazi rally nightmare. However, [[BilingualBonus the lyrics turn out to be a recipe for]] ''[[BilingualBonus hash cookies]]''. The recipe's name, "The Eggs of Satan" is also a juvenile pun, since "eggs" is a slang term for testicals in German. The singer repeatedly screams, "Und keine Eier!", meaning "And no eggs!", to explain that the recipe lacks literal eggs.
* Ultravox - "Dancing With Tears in My Eyes". An upbeat New Wave dance tune about one's last moments during a nuclear war.
* "Luka" by SuzanneVega is a peppy little song... about an abused little boy.
* TomWaits has a song called "Table Top Joe", that starts out with a relaxed, jazzy piano line. Once the words start, you learn that the eponymous Joe is a circus freak with no body below the waist. Even stranger is the fact that he was a real guy. Although, with a voice like Tom Waits', it may be difficult to trick people into thinking you're just being happy.
* {{Weezer}} did this quite a bit back in the 90s. One example is "No One Else", a catchy pop song about an obsessive, controlling boyfriend. Another is "Devotion", a lovely Beach Boys-esque love song about a girl the guy doesn't really love - he's just falling back on her because he can't have the girl he wants.
-->You never gave up devotion
-->Waiting for me, you'll always be my girlfriend
-->I, too, am waiting for you
-->I'll always be your friend
** What about the more recent [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrBx8fdEZPk "Beverly Hills"]]? It's a snazzy tune with a heavy amount of synth for a pop song, but the lyrics seem to be about a guy who feels out of place in Beverly Hills and sarcastically comments on his situation.
--->No I don't
--->I'm just a no-class beat down fool
--->And I will always be that way
--->I might as well enjoy my life
--->And watch the stars play
* "Rehab" by AmyWinehouse.
* "Band On The Run" by {{Wings}} is a perky, cheerful song... about a rock band who were imprisoned for some unstated reason (though one verse implies that the reason might be robbery) and have escaped. It's thus also an example of ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
* Warren Zevon liked to use this. Examples are "Excitable Boy", an upbeat song with electric guitar solos that tells the story of a mad killer who is apparently "just an excitable boy", and "Werewolves of London", a bright little tune about, well, werewolves. Not to mention "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner", which about...Roland...the...you get the idea.
** And Mr. Bad example, a bouncy almost carnival tune about a man who "opened up an agency somewhere down the line/To hire aboriginals to work the opal mines/But I attached their wages and took a whopping cut/And whisked away their workman's comp and pauperized the lot" This is not the only horrible thing the main character does.
* EmersonLakeAndPalmer's "Karn Evil 9: First Impression" has a melancholy beginning, but later becomes a cheerful upbeat song about the "greatest show on Earth" -- ie, human evil and cruelty.
* Intaferon's "Steamhammer Sam" is an upbeat honkytonk/rock fusion song about the plight of the many blue collar workers in Britain left unemployed in the '80s by Margaret Thatcher's economic policies. "Steamhammer Sam sits in the park all day and he gets drunk, watching the children play, he's very sad, no happy ending 'cause he went mad..."
* Nellie [=McKay=]'s song "Won't You Please B Nice" is a cheerful, perky love song being sung by a {{Yandere}} to the object of her deadly affection.
-->"If you would sit
-->Oh so close to me
-->That would be nice
-->Like it's supposed to be
-->If you don't, I'll slit your throat
-->So won't u please b nice?"
* "I Saw Her Again" by the Mamas & the Papas sounds pretty happy and light, but the lyrics...[[CreatorBreakdown are about an affair that happened within the band]].
* "Castles Made of Sand" by JimiHendrix has a lively rock backing for lyrics that are a collection of separate stories about failures -- an abusive boyfriend, a promising young man who dies in a war and a crippled girl who commits suicide by drowning.
** Similarly, his cover of "Hey Joe", a nice psychedelic song about a guy who kills his cheating girlfriend and flees to Mexico.
* {{U2}} usually avoids this, but their song "A Day Without Me" is a rather cheery song about someone contemplating suicide.
* Country Joe and the Fish have the "Feel-like-I'm-fixing-to-die rag" which is an upbeat carnival-style pitch... about the Vietnam War with satirical lyrics to boot. It's considered one of the greatest satirical songs of the '60's.
* TheMonkees' big hit, "Last Train to Clarksville". Upbeat tune, guy wants to get together with his girlfriend... "and I don't know if I'm ever coming home": he's been drafted.
** Clarksville (Tennessee) is the actual location of a massive U.S. Army installation that sent a few divisions to Vietnam; the Monkees claimed they were not actually aware of this until after the song became popular.
*** This is understandable since Clarksville ranks near Springfield as one of the most prolific names for cities in the U.S. and was likely chosen because it is so common.
** "Pleasant Valley Sunday" is also a very upbeat song about the emptiness of modern (well, modern in the 1960s) suburbia: "And Mr. Green, he's so serene, he's got a TV in every room..."
** "Cuddly Toy" is catchy song about a boy who tells a girl that she's just a slut, and he's done playing with her.
--->You're not the only cuddly toy
--->That was ever enjoyed by any boy
--->You're not the kind of girl to tell your mother
--->The kind of company you keep
*** [[ItGotWorse Even worse]]. One interpretation has the "cuddly toy" is a (likely male) weakling being [[PrisonRape sexually harassed]] by [[BadassBiker biker thugs]].
* Chris Isaak's "I Believe" is about a guy who broke up with his girl, and is now kind of sad about it. (So what else is new.) The ''tune'', however, is only one step removed from "I'm Walkin' on Sunshine".
* The GratefulDead's "Touch of Grey" is pretty much about how we have to deal with all the depressing crap in our lives, but is set to a cheery, light tune.
* Kaizers Orchestra are extremly fond of this trope. Not too weird, considering that TOM WAITS is their biggest inspiration and all.
** The best example in the Kaizers song catalouge is probably "Tokyo Ice Til Clementine". The song is probably their poppiest song (almost veering into bubblegum territory) and has an irresisteble sing-along chorus. But the song itself is about a man who kills another guy because he took a look at his girlfriend.
** Min Kvite Russer seems to be a little cheery ditty about a man confessing his love to someone. In this case the "someone" is a bottle of White Russian and he's actually lamenting about taking his own life.
* The {{Genesis}} song [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pxvSxv7O8M "Snowbound"]] is a gorgeously orchestrated song about hiding a dismembered body in a snowman.
-->''[[HighOctaneNightmareFuel Here, in a ball that they made,\\
From the snow on the ground\\
See it rolling away, wild eyes to the sky.\\
They'll never, never know...]]''
* "The Leader of the Pack" by the Shangri-las is a driving 60's rock tune about a pair of [[TeenageDeathSongs teenage]] StarCrossedLovers, ending with the boyfriend dying in a motorcycle accident immediately after their breakup.
* Morrissey's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nAMFWDuDEI&NR=1 "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get"]] sounds romantic in a vaguely melancholic way, but even the title of the song alludes to the stalkerish nature of it. It is rather jarring if you've only heard the tune before in the vastly less sinister ''BillNyeTheScienceGuy'' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJCqMsIs-uk&feature=related version]].
* "Skinned" by Blind Melon is an upbeat bluegrass-influenced number featuring banjo and kazoo. Lyrically, however, it's written from the perspective of Ed Gein, a RealLife serial killer infamous for [[RoomFullOfCrazy fashioning furniture out of corpses]] ("I'll make a shoehorn out of your shin/ I'll make a lampshade of durable skin"). And of course their hit "No Rain" is so bouncy and mellow you might not even pick up on the fact that it's about depression; later they'd record a much slower arrangement called "No Rain (Ripped Away Version)" that effectively eliminated the lyrical dissonance aspect.
* Everything But The Girl's "Hatfield 1980," a catchy trip-hop tune about a girl living in a seedy neighborhood. The title refers to the first time she was mugged and stabbed on the way home, and presumably it's happened several more times since ("Hatfield, 1980, I've seen my first knife, my first ambulance ride"). Off the same album is "Downhill Racer," another more house-ish sounding song about a famous artist on the decline.
* The Carpenters' "Superstar" is clearly about a naive young girl running into the musician she had a fling with, only to have the musician not know who she is. Someone forgot to give Luther Vandross (and Ruben Stoddard) the memo.
* "Attack of the Giant Ants," by Blondie. Lyrics concerning humanity being wiped out by a HordeOfAlienLocusts? Check. Upbeat salsa/pop melody? Check. Enough said.
** Ever really listen to the lyrics of [[StalkerWithACrush "One Way or Another"]]?
*** The melody is less cheery.
* "Legend of a Mind" by the Moody Blues is an upbeat soft-rock track -- about notorious drug pusher Timothy Leary. (At the time they believed he was praiseworthy.)
* "Wild World" by Cat Stevens (and [[CoveredUp by several artistes since]]) is a cheery little number about a parent warning his/her daughter, who's about to leave home, of all the dangers she faces out there.
* Italian but english-singing europop/dance singer Alexia has a song with very cheerful and dancey tunes, but quite depressing lyrics about a bad breakup. The song starts with the lyrics "I've never been so sad in all my life"; in the videoclip, she sings this line while ''smiling and dancing about''. Here, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKfTPMuJAlU see for yourself]].
* The indie-rock band Beulah made liberal use of this. For instance, the song "Popular Mechanics for Lovers" features upbeat, jangly guitars and lyrics lamenting the fact that the narrator had been passed over for a girl's affection by another man. It doesn't hurt that rather than the song title, the actual lyrics in the song are "Popular Mechanics for Broken Hearts could help me now".
* "I Can't Decide" by the ScissorSisters, made famous to geeks everywhere by its recent use in ''DoctorWho,'' is an excellent example. The bouncy, upbeat song's chorus actually starts, "I can't decide whether you should live or die..." and the middle eight describes various methods of murder.
** "Intermission" by the ScissorSisters (with EltonJohn) is a vaudevillesque tune cautioning the listener to make something of himself as soon as possible, since "not everyone has lambs to slaughter" and "we were born to die."
** "She's My Man" off the same album is arguably an example of this. And "Kiss You Off". And... pretty much every song on that album.
** And on their debut album, they did a ''disco version of "Comfortably Numb"''. The most disturbing part of the effect is how freakishly ''right'' it sounds.
** "I Don't Feel Like Dancing": an upbeat song about staying at home and being misrable.
* Neil Sedaka's "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" is a cheerful-souding song about the pain of breaking up.
* The Wonder Stuff's song "Don't Let Me Down Gently" has cheerful, happy-sounding music about someone who's desperate for his girlfriend to stay with him even though she doesn't love him (I think) and sado-masochistic relationships.
* Industry's "State of the Nation" is an upbeat dance track with cool synth chords, yet the lyrics are all about war. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZh1oiN5bJY One version of the music video]] tries to imply this by taking place around and inside a navy vessel full of (dancing) ensigns, but the party atmosphere and the fact that everybody's dancing only makes it look silly.
* Ken Laszlo's hit "Don't Cry" (not to be confused with a similarly named track by GunsNRoses) is an upbeat Italo Disco track that tells about a guy consoling a girl who got dumped by her boyfriend.
* "Lucky" by BritneySpears:
---> She is lucky
---> She's a star
---> But she cry cry cries in her lonely heart thinking
---> If there's nothing missing in my life
---> Then why do these tears come at night?
* "Tracy Took A Trip" by The Executive is a joyous sounding 60's psychedelic pop song about a failed actress committing suicide by drowning herself. The [[TheBeatles Beatles]] inspired horn section and harmony vocals add a lot to the dissonance.
* A lot of songs by The Indelicates are like this. "Flesh" is a pretty, soothing song about rape, plastic surgery, stripping, and feminist bitterness, and includes the c-word. Bonus points for dissonance within the lyrics:
-->Strip me and dissect me,
-->milk my tears and tap my bile
-->Hey doc can you take my skin
-->and melt it into plastic
-->Beauty isn’t truth, it’s just youth,
-->and it’s adaptive and it’s elastic…
-->And I love you, whoever you are, yeah, I love you.
-->Hey girls, we’re all the same, aren’t we
* Wire ''love'' putting bizarre or sinister lyrics to otherwise upbeat songs (often {{Ear Worm}}s), with their '80s run being a boon for this trope. Here are some of the better examples:
** "Outdoor Miner" is sweet, chiming, harmony-laden pop tune about a kind of inchworm that eats chlorophyll. [[WordSaladLyrics Or so they say]].
** "German Shepherds" is a quirky little ditty delicately laced with jazzy arpeggios and SceneryGorn, with one of the prettiest moments [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel detailing, in passing, the narrator's inability to break a dying bird's neck]].
** "Dot Dash" sounds a bit like The Buzzcocks, except that the lyrics seem to be about a fighter pilot crashing.
** "Map Ref. 41ºN 93ºW", generally agreed (amongst fans) to be Wire's CrowningMusicOfAwesome, is about cartography. Subtly subverted, though...
*** See also "'A Serious Of Snakes...'", in which we are treated to some incredibly arcane satire set to one hell of a tune.
** "Ahead" is about being deceived and manipulated. It is also an unbelievably catchy dance number.
** "Kidney Bingos" is, lyrically, faintly creepy and [[WordSaladLyrics borderline incomprehensible]], but this is easily ignored in favor of the utterly beautiful melody.
*** Ditto "Madman's Honey".
* [[TheEagles "Hotel California"]] is a soothing rock ballad that, [[EpilepticTrees depending on how you interpret it]], may be either about drug addiction, Hell, or prostitution.
* "Tyler" by The Toadies is quite optimistic and laid back, even after the part where the narrator ''breaks into his love interest's house through the kitchen window'' and gets drunk before going up to her room, where he then states that he ''hears the fear in her voice''. At least "Possum Kingdom" had suitably dark music to go with the lyrics.
* "Tik Tok" by {{Kesha}}. At first it seems to be about dancing, but it's actually about waking up hung over, going out, and getting drunk again.
* "Lifeline" by Papa Roach is a very upbeat and powerful rock track which tells of "the tough economic times America is facing" as band member Jacoby Shaddix put it (in particular, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_economic_crisis Financial Crisis that started in 2007]]).
* Kansas' "Song for America" is about how humans have completely destroyed the beauty of America. You wouldn't know by the quick, jolly sound and peppily sung lyrics:
-->Cross the sea there came a multitude, sailing ships upon the wave
-->Filled with visions of Utopia, and the freedom that they crave
-->Ravage, plunder, see no wonder, rape and kill and tear asunder
-->Chop the forest, plow it under.....
-->Highways scar the mountainsides, buildings to the sky, people all around
-->Houses stand in endless rows, sea to shining sea, people all around
-->So we rule this land, and here we stand upon our paradise,
-->Dreaming of a place, our weary race is ready to arise.
* Uncle Kracker's "Follow Me" doesn't seem to have any meaning at first, but it's actually about the singer having an affair with a married woman.
** "Swim through your veins/like a fish in the sea"? It's about heroin.
*** "I'm not worried 'bout the ring you wear, as long as no one knows, then nobody can care. I'm not the reason that you go astray..." Yeah, it's an affair.
* Many interpret the folky harmonies of Stephen Stills' "Love the One You're With" to mean that it's a song about communal love and appreciation for what we have around us. However, lines like "Concentration slip away, cause your baby is so far away" and "There's a girl right next to you, and she's just waitin' for something to do" suggest a darker meaning, that the song would seem to be celebrating unfaithfulness.
* "Used to Love Her" by GunsNRoses. A cheerful, upbeat song about [[MurderBallad how the singer murdered his girlfriend and buried her in his backyard.]]
** Wasn't it about his naggy mother and how he killed her, only to hear her continue to complain?
** Other songs in the same vein by Guns N' Roses are "Street of Dreams" and "Catcher in the Rye". The former is a up-tempo piano and guitar melody talking about how much he now hates the person he once loved, and the latter is about his insanity in the eyes of others. Shit, a lot of ''Chinese Democracy'' can be seen as being way too cheerful and bright for the lyrics they spew.
* "Maniac" by Michael Sembello sounds pretty ominous (in a cheesy 80's slasher movie theme music sort of way) for just being about a girl who loves to dance. As it turns out, this is because it was substantially rewritten for the ''{{Flashdance}}'' soundtrack: The original lyrics were inspired by the horror film ''Maniac'', and featured the refrain "He's a maniac, maniac, that's for sure, he will kill your cat and nail him to the door". A somewhat garbled copy of the song (which was written for personal giggles) was accidentally included on Sembello's demo tape for the producers of ''Flashdance'', and it was the only one they liked.
* Iggy Pop's "Lust For Life" -- a bouncy, happy tune about Iggy's life as a hard-living heroin addict. And going on the occasional Royal Caribbean Cruise, apparently.
* Pretty much any song by Maroon Five qualifies. For instance "Wake Up Call" is happy, upbeat sounding song about a man catching his girl in bed with another man, then killing the man.
** But "Makes Me Wonder" takes it to a completely different level. On the surface, it sounds like an upbeat BreakupSong, with the guy questioning why he'd ever fallen in love with the girl in the first place--and the first verse makes it almost certain that it is, at least ''partially'', exactly that. But look a little harder at some of the later lyrics:
-->Feels so good to be bad
-->Not worth the ''aftermath'', after that
-->After that
-->Try to get you back

-->I ''still don't have a reason''
-->And you ''don't have the time''
-->And it really makes me wonder
-->If I ever gave a fuck about you

-->Give me something to believe in
-->'Cause I don't believe in you
-->Anymore, anymore
-->I wonder if it even makes a difference to try
-->Yeah, so this is goodbye
[[indent:40:And then later they add in the line "You caught me in a lie/I have no alibi/The words you say don't have a meaning". By the way, the "don't have the time" part was italicized because with this song being released in 2007, the subject ''was'' running out of time to fix his mistakes. Yes, it's at least in part a song about GeorgeWBush and the War in Iraq, metaphorically comparing him to a bad ex.]]
* "Love Is Only A Feeling" by The Darkness. It sounds like an upbeat song, but it's really the [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism cynical]] inverse of "I Believe In A Thing Called Love".
** Except for the fact it sounds like a power ballad, and not upbeat at all.
** "Growing On Me" is a very upbeat song about love, right? Nope...actually about having an STD.
** "Holding My Own" is a downbeat song about a break up, right? Nope. Masturbation.
* Rick Springfield's "Jessie's Girl" is a bouncy, upbeat love song at first glance. It's got a great beat, snappy intelligent lyrics, the singer is pretty good, and you can dance to it! But then you realize what Rick is actually singing: that he's fallen in love with his best friend's girlfriend and wants to take her away from him. And it's not even that the best friend and the girlfriend have a rocky relationship, either. There's every indication that Jesse and the unnamed girl are perfectly happy together, yet Rick wants to break that all up and take her for his own.
* Rod Stewart's "Young Turks" is a power-driven dance tune that's easy to sing... as long as you don't mind singing about a paid of [[StarcrossedLovers down-on-their-luck teenagers]] who ran away from home to live a hardscrabble life rather than allow their parents to break them up. Sure, it's romantic in a twisted way, but being teen parents with no marketable skills sucks.
* "That Thing you Do" by The Wonders is an upbeat, Beach Boys-esque song about a guy lamenting his girlfriend leaving him.
** The Motion Picture film of the same name that chronicled the life of the band members revealed that the song was originally intended to have a slower beat, but the drummer sped it up for some reason to the surprise of the other band members, and they decided to keep it that way.
* Paul Simon did this in a few songs -- "Mother and Child Reunion" is, depending on your perspective, a weirdly overwrought song about a custody battle or a gutwrenching story about a dying child (although Simon claims he wrote it about a chicken-and-egg dish he saw in a Chinese restaurant); "You Can Call Me Al" is essentially about loneliness and futile introspection with an anvilicious shot of "it could be a lot worse" in the third verse; "Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard" is a rollicking happy tune about family rejection and unrest in poor neighborhoods.
* Virtually any song written or sung by Elvis Costello, either solo or with The Attractions, qualifies here. Certainly, all of his big hits include some form of lyrical dissonance, from "Alison" and "Radio, Radio" to "Veronica", "Everyday I Write the Book", "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", and his cover of the Burt Bacharach single, "I'll Never Fall in Love Again." Elvis is the master of lyrical dissonance!
** Some would argue that both the melody and lyrics of "Alison" are melancholy, though other examples would include "Goon Squad", "Two Little Hitlers", Oliver's Army", "I'm Not Angry" (one of the more obvious examples), and about 75% of the other songs not mentioned thus far on his first five albums.
* The Matchbox Twenty song "How Far We've Come", which has a cheerful, summer-pop sound and seemingly upbeat title, while the lyrics actually describe, in detail, the singer and the rest of humanity's despairing reaction to the TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.
* Rob Thomas (formerly of Matchbox 20) seems to be a master of this. His single "Her Diamonds" is very energetic and upbeat, as is his usual style. The lyrics are also in his usual style, in that it describes the subject's girlfriend breaking down and crying in her room, and he doesn't know how to make her feel better so he starts crying, too.
-->''And she says, "Ooh, I can't take no more."''
-->''Her tears like diamonds on the floor''
-->''And her diamonds bring me down''
-->'' 'Cause I can't help her now.''
** More than that: the song's actually about Rob Thomas's wife trying to deal with her (real-life) auto-immune disease.
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* DavidBowie's "Janine" is a poppy little love song, outwardly no different from "Letter to Hermione" or "An Occasional Dream," except from an AxCrazy man to a LoveMartyr.
-->Janine, Janine, you'd like to know me well,
-->But I've got things inside my head that even I can't face.
-->Janine, Janine, you'd like to crash my walls,
-->But if you take an axe to me, you'll kill another man,
-->Not me at all.

[[folder:New Wave]]
* {{a-ha}}'s 1989 album ''Scoundrel Days'' has at least three HUGE lyrical dissonance cases:
** The eponymous song has an energetic, rock-ish beat. Its lyrics talk about a madman who cuts his wrists open, has severe hallucinations and finally throws himself off a cliff in front of his neighbors. MindScrew to the max.
** The album also has also a poppy, almost cute song named "Maybe Maybe"... about a messy break-up that reaches its peak when the girl kills the guy by hitting him with her Rover.
** And the first single that came out, "I've Been Losing You". A rock song with gorgeous rhythm and effects... talking about a man who reflects about how, during a fight, he shot his girlfriend to death.

[[folder:Pop]]
* The [[TheCoverChangesTheMeaning Ace of Base cover]] [[OlderThanYouThink of the Tina Turner song]] "Don't Turn Around".
* "LDN" by Lily Allen borders on a LampshadeHanging. It's an upbeat song about how the back alleys in London are nowhere near as nice as the rest of the city...
** The music video lampshades the lampshade. In it, everything is all bright and perky and cheery as Lily goes skipping along-- at least until she's out of range, when everything reverts to its normal twisted self.
** Quite a few of Lily Allen's songs are like that. "Smile" is about a girl [[strike:getting revenge on her boyfriend]]systematically ruining her cheating ex's life, "Alfie" is about her brother doing drugs...
*** Perhaps most disturbingly, "The Fear" seems to contain references to her miscarriage.
--->I don't know what I'm meant to feel anymore...
** "Not Fair" is a rather upbeat, country-style song about how she is in a relationship with a man who is quite nice but unable to satisfy her sexually.
** "He Wasn't There" is a very bouncy pop song about her absentee father...
** Also "Fuck You" is a very upbeat, cheery song where Lily chews up intolerant people while dropping total of about 30 [[ClusterFBomb F-bombs]]
* Aqualung's song "Strange and Beautiful" sounds like a nice romantic ballad, but then you listen to the lyrics.
-->I've been watching your world from afar,
-->I've been trying to be where you are,
-->And I've been secretly falling apart,
-->I'll see.
-->To me, you're strange and you're beautiful,
-->You'd be so perfect with me but you just can't see,
-->You turn every head but you don't see me.
-->I'll put a spell on you,
-->You'll fall asleep and I'll put a spell on you.
-->And when I wake you,
-->I'll be the first thing you see,
-->And you'll realise that you love me.