25 Songs About Abusive Toxic Relationships & Love Affairs
Millions of people all over the world get into relationships everyday but sadly not all of them get the fairly tale ending we all crave for. Some just get very toxic and unhealthy which is very hazardous to one’s health and wallet. Some of the signs that you may be in a toxic relationship include:
- Efforts are one-sided which leaves you emotionally and physically drained
- Disrespect, screaming and abuse
- Feeling unvalued, unheard
- Silent treatment
- Beginning to accept behaviors that were unacceptable
- Control issues
- High levels of anger, hostility, jealousy
- You can’t seem to do anything right
- Lack of trust
- Constant drama
- Passive aggression instead of open communication
Here are some songs you can listen to if you feel like you are in a toxic relationship:
1. Billie Eilish – Bored
This is a single from the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why and was featured in the last episode of the first season as a soundtrack. The main message is about a relationship that’s basically going nowhere and the video was inspired by being trapped in a relationship that is going nowhere. It is so toxic and one is treated so badly for such a long time that eventually you’re used to it.
The song is from the album The World’s a Little Blurry.
2. Eminem feat Rihanna – Love The Way You Lie
The two musicians reflect on their abusive relationship with their ex-partners (Kim & Chris Brown). The chorus was written by Skyler Grey in under 15 minutes and it was about her abusive relationship with the music industry.
The track became Eminem’s biggest selling single ever with over 12 million copies sold.
3. Rihanna feat Eminem – Love The Way You Lie Part 2
The song is part of Rihanna’s album Loud, released in 2010. It is a sequel to their original collaboration and instead looks at the situation from the female perspective with Rihanna taking lead.
Originally, Rihanna wasn’t for the idea of a song to compete with the original track but changed her mind when she hear the original broken down demo version of the song sung by Skylar Grey.
4. Taylor Swift – I Knew You Were Trouble
Taylor Swift goes ahead to express her guilt because she is in a relationship that is on its way to failure. She told MTV that it’s about the red flags she saw in a person before jumping into a relationship with them. You end up frustrated with yourself because your heart is broken yet you saw all the red flags.
The song is off the album Red released back in 2012 and spent seven weeks at the No 1 spot.
5. Selena Gomez – The Heart Wants What It Wants
The track sees Selena Gomez explaining her account of her relationship with Justin Bieber and tries to justify why she stayed with him for so long despite suffering in the relationship. She revealed that in that year, she had a problem with identity and was just trying to figure out what she was doing.
The song is off the album For You.
6. Carrie Underwood – Church Bells
The song is about a young woman by the name Jenny who marries a rich man. Many people thought they were perfect for each other. However, Jenny’s husband becomes a violent drunkard who constantly hurt Jenny and she ends up poisoning him as payback. He died and she went to the church for his funeral.
It is the fourth single from her fifth studio album Storyteller released in 2016.
7. Selena Gomez – Lose You To Love Me
The track is part of the album Rare which was released back in 2020. It was inspired by many things happening in Selena’s life and she wanted people to be hopeful that they will come out the other side a stronger and better version of themselves. Just like most tracks in the album, it is about her rocky relationship with her ex-boyfriend Justin Bieber.
Lyrically, it is about discovering your true self through having to let go of your lover. Selena states she gave her all but instead he tore her down instead and quickly rebounded in less than three months after their breakup.
8. Lady Gaga – Judas
Gaga stated that she sang about what a holy fool she is. This is because she has had moments in her life that have been so cruel and relationships that have also been cruel but she is still in love with Judas. This means that she still goes back to those things that hurt her.
The song was the second single from the album Born This Way.
9. Halestorm – I Miss The Misery
According to Halestorm in the song, perfect relationships can become boring. She doesn’t miss the actual person by the bad things that happened in the relationship that made it less boring.
10. Evanescence – Going Under
Amy Lee stated that going under is about coming out of a bad relationship. This is after getting to the point where you realize something has to change and you can’t go on living in the situation you are in.
She went through an abusive relationship for three years. She stayed in it for too long because music made her hang on longer since she could release her feelings through that.
11. Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa & Imagine Dragons – Sucka For Pain
This is a collaboration of various top-level artists that created the second single of the Suicide Squad movie’s soundtrack. They relate their trials and tribulations of self-destructive behavior such as tragic relationships, drug abuse etc. They take that pain since they care about their squad despite horribly treating each other sometimes.
12. Kygo, Selena Gomez – It Ain’t Me
This is an uptempo tropical house breakup song where we see Selena breaking up with her partner after she has had enough of him. He has been relying on her to comfort and help him through his alcoholism and depression. However, she now sees it as more of a second job and feels like she has been turned into a caretaker instead of a partner.
The cycle becomes too much for Selena and she isn’t able to deal with the problems of her lover.
13. Chris Brown feat Tyga & Kevin McCall – Deuces
The name Deuces originates from the slang for saying goodbye. The artists sing and rap about the toxic relationships with their exes and how good they feel to be finally out.
The song peaked at #6 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart and claimed the #1 spot on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
14. H.E.R – Hard Place
H.E.R finds herself stuck in between a relationship that is unhealthy and her own well-being. She is conflicted between leaving or staying with the partner that she deeply loves even though she isn’t good for you.
The song is from the album I Used To Know Her Part 2 released back in 2018.
15. Justin Bieber – Love Yourself
The song was co-written together with Ed Sheeran and it was about an amalgam of Justin ex Selena Gomez and one of Ed Sheeran’s exes. On December the 16th, it was nominated for two Grammy Awards: Song Of The Year and Best Pop Solo Performance.
Lyrically, the singer says he is comfortable with being single and leaving the relationship. He doesn’t need her in his life because she is narcissistic and probably needs him to gratify her vanity. His walls are now back up and he feels nothing plus regrets letting his guard down in the first place.
16. Shawn Mendes – Stitches
This is the sixth single off his debut album Handwritten released in 2015. It is about being in a relationship that is so abusive that you even get hurt physically. However, you love the person too much that you can’t live without them despite how much you are hurt.
17. Selena Gomez – Cut You Off
The mid-tempo track is from Selena’s third studio album Rare which was released back in 2020. The co-writer, Liza Owen, revealed that it was written about an a**hole boy whom she didn’t want to name. Many speculated it was Selena’s ex-boyfriend Justin Bieber.
Lyrically, the song is about moving on from a past relationship and feeling better for doing it.
18. Taylor Swift – It’s Time To Go
The track is from the album Evermore which was released in 2021. Taylor Swift stated that is about listening to your gut when it tells you to leave especially after a relationship turns sour.
The inspiration is from her experience with her former label Big Machine Records after their relationship turned sour. The two were in a legal battle for the ownership rights to the masters of her first six studio albums.
19. Avril Lavigne – I Fell In Love With The Devil
In an interview, Avril admitted that the song was inspired by the toxic relationship she was in during her battle with Lyme disease. She stated that she was really traumatized afterward and the song was really healing for her.
In the music video, we see her in a coffin.
20. Keri Hilson – Energy
The track is from her debut album In A Perfect World which was released in 2009. It talks about a love that had gone sour that she felt like it kept draining her energy till she became spent.
21. Sia – Hostage
The track was co-written with Nick Valensi who is a guitarist for The Strokes and is part of the album 1000 Forms of Fear. Lyrically, we see Sia in love with someone she doesn’t want to be in love with and feels trapped. She feels as if both of them would be better of out of the relationship but since she feels powerless to her partner she cannot separate herself.
22. Rita Ora – Poison
23. Maroon 5 – This Love
This is the second single off Maroon 5’s debut album Songs About Jane. The inspiration came about from Adam Levine’s break-up. He was trying too much to make the relationship with the girl work.
When Adam wrote the song, he was in a relationship that was ending at the time.
24. Kesha – Praying
This is a single from her 2012 album Warrior. It was directed at her long legal battle with producer Dr Luke who was her alleged abuser. At the time, she was barred from releasing new music.
Kesha stated that the song is about feeling empathy for someone else even if they hurt you or scare you.