14 Songs About Psychos
A psycho is a deranged or psychopathic person who is seen as unstable. If you are currently dealing with psychos in your life then here is a list of songs that resonate with such a situation:
1. Ava Max – Sweet But Psycho
The hit song peaked at #1 in 12 countries and peaked at #37 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In an interview with Idolator, Ava had this to say about the meaning behind song and how she drew inspiration:
I think for me personally, I have a lot sides to me. I think everybody has a lot of sides to them and it’s basically about a girl who’s not afraid to show all of her sides and her dualities, and about a guy loving all those sides. She’s a girl who’s misunderstood in the relationship, and she’s basically being told she’s psycho and she’s out of her mind when she’s feeling it, but really she’s an outspoken girl and she’s speaking her mind. And that’s how I am in real life.
2. Mariah Carey – Obsessed
This was the lead single off Mariah’s 12th studio album Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel. It singles about a guy who is obsessed with her and he was lying to everyone that they are sleeping together. She wards him off by telling him that even if he was the last man on earth, she still wouldn’t let him touch her. She calls him delusional and confused.
The song was directed to Eminem after he took multiple shots at Nick Cannon who at the time was married to Mariah Carey.
3. Taylor Swift – Black Space
Taylor Swift adopts a character where she combines various portrayals of her dating persona. The song starts from the first stages of love and proceeds to it being messy when her jealous, clingy, obsessive and abusive side comes out.
Speaking to GQ, Taylor Swift stated that she wrote the song from the perspective of a crazy but seductive and glamorous woman who is also nuts and manipulative. She says that is what the media has painted her as and had felt hurt by it. As time went on by she realized it was just kind of hilarious.
4. Green Day – Basket Case
The song is about Billie Joe’s struggles with anxiety before he was diagnosed with a panic disorder years afterward. He had actually started believing that he was going crazy. Armstrong commented, “The only way I could know what the hell was going on was to write a song about it.”
5. Halsey – Control
This is a personification of Halsey’s bipolar disorder and she describes it as one of the most difficult songs to write about and this made her feel like “wow, is this really what I think of myself?”. She was diagnosed when she was a teenager. In the track, she questions who is in control in the depths of her mind and acknowledges that her aura holds a dark presence that causes those around her to become fearful of her.
The uncertainty that comes with mental illness drives her to be on edge.
6. Muse – Psycho
This is the lead single from Muse’s Drones (2015). Their initial intention was to sample a speech from Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket but the lack of permission led to them doing their own version.
In the track, we see how the drill sergeant turns into a psycho so as to break the subject emotionally so she will listen to him any time and do anything he asks from her.
7. Melanie Martinez – Tag You’re It
It covers the topic of sexual assault, utilizing the children’s game “Tag” as a metaphor.
8. Eminem – Stan
In the song, Eminem corresponds with an overzealous fan who becomes increasingly unhinged as the story progresses. He becomes more unstable when Eminem doesn’t acknowledge him. “Stan” was added into the Oxford Dictionary as an informal noun and it is defined as “an overzealous or obsessive fan of a particular celebrity”
9. Miranda Lambert – Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
10. Evanescence – Snow White Queen
Amy describes a moment in her life when she was dealing with a crazed fan who became a stalker outside her house. This ended up forcing her to spend the night in a hotel.
11. The Police – Every Breath You Take
The song was perceived to be a love song but the lyrics are spoken from a character with sinister intent. Sting wrote this song after the divorce from his first wife. He wanted to write from a point where he was seen as sweet but ended up coming out as controlling.
12. The Creep feat Nicki Minaj & John Waters
This a song by SNL’s in-house rap parody group The Lonely Island and they dedicated this track to all the creeps out there. The hook of the song makes fun of all hip-hop songs about new dances.
13. Jason Derulo – Be Careful
The song is about a girl that Jason met while on tour and then proceeded to have a one-night stand with her. She ended up becoming obsessed with him and started stalking him. He started getting letters every other day claiming that him an her are meant to be and asking him so tell her he feels the same way or else she might end her life. She also started reaching out to his friends and family.
Jason deeply regrets taking this girl to his room and now has to have extra security. He is also warning people against what he did.
14. The Beatles – Run For Your Life
The lyrics in the song deal with an abusive relationship where the narrator implies that he is threatening to kill his girlfriend if she cheats on him.