The two I can think of are:
- It’s Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
Pumped up kicks
Under the bridge Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Came here to post pumped up kicks
Pumped up kicks fits this for me.
what do you mean? isn’t that just about the modern american dream?
Shooting up your school? What schools did you go to?
Shot up ones
It’s about pumping up your shoes before b ball at recess.
90% of ska/ska punk music is like this. A few examples:
“The Science of Selling Yourself Short” - Less Than Jake
“Beer” - Reel Big Fish
“Struggler” and “I Don’t Love You Anymore” - Bomb the Music Industry!
“The Last Bell I Will Ever Hear”, “1-800-ALARM-ME” and “Last on my List” - The Arrogant Sons of Bitches
“Ska Dream” and “Checkerboard Ashtray” - Jeff Rosenstock
“A Better Place, a Better Time” and “As the Footsteps Die Out Forever” - Streetlight Manifesto
Nearly Everything by Reel Big Fish. It’s all fun ska and mostly about social anxiety, broken hearts, and substance abuse. I love them.
I’ll have to listen to that one! “I Know You Too Well to Like You Anymore” fits the bill as well. A very ugly fight between a couple who hate each other but can’t live without one another.
Oops, I messed up my capitalization. I just meant nearly every song by them.
Absolutely this.
Hey Ya - Outkast
Y’all don’t wanna hear me, you just wanna dance…
Nice, I scrolled the comments hoping I’d find this one
Ghettomusick - Outcast
It is a really sharp critique of the rap industry at the time.
Pumped up kicks by foster the people
- OutKast - Hey Ya!
- Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - The Message
- Tones and I - Dance Monkey
- NENA - 99 Red Balloons
- The 88 - At Least It Was Here
- The Beatles - Help!
- R.A. the Rugged Man - Legendary Loser
- Theory of a Deadman - Bitch Came Back
- Atmosphere - The Best Day
- Atmosphere - Yesterday
- Gorillaz - DoYaThing (Full-Length)
- Eddy Grant - Electric Avenue
- Foster The People - Best Friend
- The Offspring - The Kids Aren’t Alright
- Tyler, The Creator - 48
- Bruce Springsteen - Born in the U.S.A
- KISS - Detroit Rock City
- Scissor Sisters - Laura
- The Dead South - In Hell I’ll Be In Good Company
Every Stromae’s songs.
It’s always funny to see non-french-speaking people being so hyped by Stromae’s songs, like they think it’s joyful af and all… While his songs lyrics are litterally about :- a man who drinks and dances a lot in order to forget his shitty life ( Alors on danse )
- a song about his father who was killed during Rwanda’s genocide ( Papaoutai )
- other songs about suicide, cancer, breakups, addictions, depression etc… But always with an upbeat melody !
I don’t speak a lick of French (I know enough Spanish to recognize some words if they are slightly similar, but that’s it) but still enjoy Stromae, although I’ve never found his music to be upbeat. I think, especially in Papaoutai, you can hear the struggle and sadness in the tone of the song and in his voice.
Born in the USA
Someone’s boat was blasting that at the 4th of July on the water. My brother in Christ, I understood the lyrics back in 1984. It’s a jammin’ tune, but damn.
You are my sunshine
The other night dear As I lay sleeping I dreamed I held you in my arms But when I woke up I was mistaken so I held my head and I cried You are my sunshine My ONLY sunshine
It doesn’t get any better from there
Edit: I will never understand how to format things the way I want them to sorry
Semi-charmed Life
Jonathan Coulton has a bunch of these. “I Feel Fantastic” “Betty and Me” “Blue Sunny Day” “Shop Vac” “Chiron Beta Prime” “Future Soon” off the top of my head. “Skullcrusher Mountain” and “Re: Your Brains” to a lesser degree.
I love Future Soon.
shop vac has been playing in my head on loop for a few weeks and it’s been more than a decade since i last heard it. it’s so depressing.
My boyfriend said he thought about me when we listen to Saturday Night by the Misfits. I’m like… do you want to murder me?..
The lyrics always sounded very murdery to me. I think they did an amazing job of making it sound romantic but bf read through the lyrics after that and hugged me when I got home and said he definitely didn’t want to murder me.
Edit: Ok this one is purely personal but I just got done with work and it came out on the playlist, Achilles Come Down by Gangs of Youth.
I learned this song from my daughter. I let her control the music when we’d drive to school and back but I immediately loved this song because unlike me, she has an amazing voice. This is one I only ever heard underneath her crystalline soprano while she sang along.
It was always so beautiful that I didn’t focus on the song so much as her. She made a haunting, sad song a beautiful, pleasant memory for me because now she’s had her license for a while, she’s doing her thing being an ambitious senior. I don’t get to listen to her sing anymore between my work and her school/social schedule.
I miss the days when I stayed up after a 12 hour shift to take her to school because I miss listening to her sing. I brain was fuzzy and that morning sun seared my eyeballs but I cherish every morning now because I don’t have many left. I acutally miss everything about my kids needing me now that one has been independent for quite a few years and the other two are almost independent. I’m listening right now and all I can hear is her voice.
Fuck that shit hits hard. Im going to be an empty nester soon. Fucking FUCK. Fuck does it hit hard. I should be proud. I am! Jesus am I. I don’t know how I was blessed with these people, bio and adopted, that’s how vlessed I am, but I don’t want to look the gift horse in the mouth. Fucking wow, am I proud. But really I’m sad, too.
/soliloquy
Rock-a-bye, baby
On the tree top
When the wind blows
The cradle will rock
When the bough breaks
The cradle will fall
And down will come baby
Cradle and all
We sing that shit to literal babies, what the fuck is wrong with us?
Talking Heads - Life During Wartime and Once in a Lifetime spring to mind.
It’s probably easier to list the Talking Heads songs that are not upbeat and depressing.
Bad Moon Rising by Creedence.
It’s about the apocalypse, but you wouldn’t know it from how upbeat it is.
If they didn’t use this song in True Blood or just about any other campy Mississippi delta monster/ slasher film, then they done messed up.
I could only make it through the first season of True Blood, having read all the books that were available at the time. I actually learned about the book series and the show from a SDCC panel (we wanted good seats for the panel immediately after the True Blood one). Watching as Charlaine Harris’s fans lost their everloving minds got me all curious.
Ah, rhe bathroom song.
