Any music give you existential dread?

Any music cause you to have a existential crisis. Or at the very least reminded you of your mortality or your own insignificance.

Maggot Brain by Funkadelic comes to mind when thinking of my ephemerality.

Yes! I think about this all the time, actually. I’m sure it’s not healthy but I actually chase this feeling when it comes to my music taste. Radiohead does this to me a lot, especially with the songs How to Disappear Completely, No Surprises, Street Spirit (Fade Out), and Nude. Other bands/artists that give me this feeling are Elliott Smith, Pink Floyd, Frank Ocean, and Bon Iver.

Why does Nude give you existential dread?

Mainly because I feel like that song is very pessimistic about life. The lyrics:

Don't get any big ideas They're not gonna happen You paint yourself white And fill up with noise There'll be something missing And now that you found it It's gone Now you feel it you don't You've gone off the rails So don't get any big ideas They're not gonna happen You'll go to Hell For what your Dirty mind is thinking

This is one of those completely hopeless songs that makes me feel worse about my life and the way I think. I love this song though, it’s beautiful.

Wow. Interesting, I always thought Nude was about the futility of sex, given the lyrics:

Now that you've found it it's gone / Now that you feel it you don't.

I legitimately believed it was about the pointless nature of sex without procreation. And the passive nature of orgasm. But you're interpretation does bring new light for me looking at the lyrics:

You paint yourself white / And fill up with noise

Now I see the song as being a perspective on human nature. On how when we want something bad enough it can be debilitating to go without it. But once we have it. We lose the limerence we once had for the object of our affections.

Edited by KeironCioran on Sep 24th 2018 at 6:03:44 AM

Of course, music is always up to interpretation. I think this song could be seen as about sex or it could use the title “nude” in the sense that it’s open and honest about things. I love Thom Yorke as a songwriter.

I thought about it as a sex-related song at first, too. But for some reason, while I was listening to In Rainbows on the way home from my terrible fast food job one day, the lyric “don’t get any big ideas, they’re not gonna happen” just hit me like a truck.

Edited by mchlfx on Sep 25th 2018 at 12:04:57 AM

That sounds bad, but I can relate. I was in the backseat of a car having some fucked up combination of sensory overload and a panic attack when My Body's Made Of Crushed Little Stars by Mitski came on. Made me feel more like shit, but now Puberty 2 is a DID for me.

Edited by KeironCioran on Sep 25th 2018 at 7:55:40 AM

Depeche Mode- Fly On The Windscreen as its literally about how you can die at any moment

Nine Inch Nails- Right Where It Belongs as its pretty obviously about solipsism

Autechre- Windwind No lyrics but still seems really forboding somehow.

The entirety of Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume 2.

the refrain of the Depeche Mode being "come on, kiss me now" sorta ruins the vibe for me - I get what they're going for but it makes the whole thing seem like a weird pickup line. Like "death is inevitable, why not make out with me?".

A lot of The Residents.

Edited by MikeK on May 3rd 2020 at 9:18:08 AM

"Shiva" by the Antlers and, like, half of Mitski's discography. I'm not sure what it is about Shiva — it just gives off a very hopeless vibe.

The whole thing.

Music that is affiliated with poorly made products are my existential dread.

So, for example, this:

Genesis, "Watcher of the Skies."

This

Edited by mark76 on May 13th 2021 at 2:39:40 AM

Fixed

Edited by mark76 on May 13th 2021 at 2:21:51 AM

On Your Own, which is so bright-sounding and fun that you’ll forget that it’s about how we all end up dead eventually.

Edited by Routeferret on May 15th 2021 at 1:49:10 PM

Contract Melodram Patheticism from So 2005 by Locust Toybox.

After hearing it it youldn't even matter if you just tripped over and die. Don't forget to bring your own bedtime story with you because Death won't have one prepared. She is a bitter mule, unforgiving and cold.

Ballroom music from the 1930s.

Edited by YouSitTightBuddy on Jun 24th 2021 at 8:02:55 AM

“Enjoy Yourself (It’s Later Than You Think)” by Louis Prima… Way to go to rub it in, LOL

Edited by wossnim on Feb 28th 2024 at 5:58:55 PM