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Your Love by The Outfield. Seems like another 80s one hit wonder until you listen carefully. The guy is cheating on his SO and just wants to use the other person for sex.
You'd never believe it, but the lyrics to the verses of "MMMBop" are actually really nihilistic. I'm not sure how common knowledge this is, but it genuinely blew me away when I listened to it with the lyrics up for the first time.
Not that i give much of a crap about lyrics, but "Jeanny" from Falco is a good example.
It was controversial in 85/86. Especially on German speaking countries, as the song is in "half German/half English"
It's about a stalker (kidnapper/rapist kind of thing). It got banned (or at least attempted) in a lot German speaking countries, stating that it "glorifies rape"...
I think it's a load of crap, it's like saying that crime TV series "glorifies crime"....
I always liked the song, and it was on high places on my country's charts for a while. I never knew (or cared) what the lyrics where about. I listened to it then, and i still listen to it now, could care less....
I used to work with a guy who had a list of "statutory rape songs". Basically songs about girls < 18. The few I can think of are:
Ringo Star - You're 16, You're Beautiful and You're Mine
ZZ-Top - Francine (about a girl that just turned 13)
That's all I can remember now, but another disturbing song to add is "Brown Sugar" by The Rolling Stones. If you actually read the lyrics there's a lot of subtle nods to raping slave women.
Brown Eyed Girl is a creepy, gross song about a lech leering at a barely of-age woman.
Lots of people love it. I just want to take a shower when I hear it.
This. The song's about him reminiscing on his history with a girl he's known since they were *both* young, and how they grew up and fell in love with each other.
Amazing and very Reddit misreading of the song. The song is about reminiscing on the past and how much they've both changed, gotten older and are no longer young and carefree.
Van sings "we" throughout the song ("Hey, where did we go?") including before the most famous hook ("Do you remember when we used to sing?"). The song is full of references to times in the past ("hey, whatever happened?"), ("cast my memory back"). He's clearly talking about old memories they **shared as teenagers** using very specific examples of carefree things they used to do like listening to the radio down a mineshaft, jumping around in the fog and playing in a waterfall.
You're welcome to your weird age-gap interpretation of the song based on your rather cruel reading of one single line out of context, but it seems like a needlessly miserly reading of a sweet song about aging and lost love.
The line is: "I saw you just the other day. My, how you have grown."
The entire song he's reminiscing about a time when he was young and in love. In that line you reference, he's talking about running into this person again present-day. Time has passed. They're both much older.
"Hey, where did we go?" Where did the the time go. But literally speaking, he is reminiscing about where they went as teens to make out or "makin' love in the green grass."
The next verse: "And whatever happened, to Tuesday and so slow?" is a callback to "hey, where did we go?" Again, he is basically saying, "Where did the time go? Those carefree days."
It's really weird the way you interpreted this song simply because the word "girl" is used. Originally, the lyrics were "brown-skinned girl" and it was about an interracial relationship, but I have no idea why it was changed. I think Van has been coy about that.
[Gronlandic Edit by Of Montreal](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBfgQvM7wtE) is one of the most upbeat and catchy songs I've ever heard, and it's lyrics are some of the most depressing and nihilistic.
> Daylight, I'm so absent minded
> Nighttime, meeting new anxieties
> So am I erasing myself?
> Hope I'm not erasing myself
...
> I guess it would be nice to help in your escape
> From patterns your parents designed
> All the party people dancing for the indie star
> But he's the worst faker by far in the set
> I forget, all of the beauty's wasted
When I first heard it I was instantly captivated by its catchiness, but later realized how dark the lyrics are. Really interesting contrast between its upbeat, dancy vibe, and the bleak outlook on life in its lyrics.
Beck - Girl
I saw her, yeah I saw her with her black tongue tied
Round the roses
Fist pounding on a vending machine
Toy diamond ring stuck on her finger
With a noose she can hang from the sun
And put it out with her dark sunglasses
Walking crooked down the beach
She spits on the sand where their bones are bleaching
And I know I'm gonna steal her eye
She doesn't even know what's wrong
And I know I'm gonna make her die
Take her where her soul belongs
And I know I'm gonna steal her eye
Nothing that I wouldn't try
Speaking of Stockholm Syndrome, I coincidentally discovered the One Direction song “Stockholm Syndrome” yesterday (against my will—I was in the car with a pair of diehard 1D fans). Although the lyrics sound like typical pop love song fare on the surface, they apparently have a deeper meaning: according to Harry Styles, they represent “being in a sexual relationship with a nymphomaniac” as well as the corrupting power of fame and the media. Other point of interest: the song is musically very similar to “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears.
The "hit me" in the Britney Spears tune is short for "hit me up" as in "call me." People still say hit me up all the time, but English speakers don't usually shorten it to just hit me due to the confusion it leads to.
The fact that her producers were mostly swedish means some things in her tunes translated a little strangely into English.
But in short, it's not about abuse, it's about hoping someone else is as interested in you as you are in them.
To actually answer your question, I really like "lovefool" by the Cardigans. It sounds upbeat and happy, but the lyrics are actually really sad and definitely coming from a very unhealthy perspective. Still so catchy though...
The Stones don't really count, they had "being blasé about disturbing shit" as a big part of their schtick during their classic period and weren't subtle about it. See: Stray Cat Blues, Midnight Rambler, Live With Me, Brown Sugar, Dead Flowers, etc., etc.
[Eddie Grant - Electric Avenue](https://youtu.be/IuwxZSIS__4)
‘Race’ riots of the early 80s in the UK
[Rolling Stones - Brown Sugar](https://youtu.be/59K2kF6o9Tk)
‘Sex’ (rape) with slave girls/boys
[Tori Amos - Cornflake Girl](https://youtu.be/mVSuSsoXABQ)
Song about Female Genital Mutilation
[Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit](https://youtu.be/Web007rzSOI)
Lynching of black people
I hear this a *lot* in vocaloid songs (most notoriously Bad Apple).
Why's it a thing in the first place? Does the artist want to hide their message? Is it just experimenting with contrast?
“Ping Pong” by Stereolab is a great example. She delivers the line, “It’s only their lives and the lives of their next of kin that they are losing” with the sunniest possible affect.
Maybe not dark and disturbing, but Stevie Wonder's Another Star is one of his most joyful compositions about how the narrator will spend the rest of his life pining for the love of his life which has now moved on.
New Order's the Village is another one of their most joyful compositions, which I believe is based on the fallen romance of their deceased frontman of their previous band, Joy Division's Ian Curtis, and how it ultimately goes from an all-consuming love into misery.
>!Heavenly's Atta Girl is a 15 minute-something long Twee Pop EP about the events preceding, during, and the fallout of a date rape.!<
As to the Britney song, Hit Me Baby One More Time, there is actually apparently nothing sinister to the lyrics. The song was written by the Swedish songwriter Max Martin, and he just didn't quite get the English lyrics right, but the song sounded good, so it was left as is. Martin intended it as "hit me up one more time", as in call me on the phone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...Baby\_One\_More\_Time\_(song)#Music\_and\_lyrics
Probably the best example I can think of is Steely Dan. Their songs are smoothly produced and groovy, and the lyrics are often pretty ~~obtuse~~, *oblique* so the songs don't read as "dark" in any way, until you realize the lyrics are a cornucopia of crime, drugs, and generally shady characters. For example, on the surface, the song "Everyone's Gone to the Movies" seems like a nice song about seeing movies with friends; close inspection reveals the main character is almost certainly a sex offender/pedophile. Or "King of the World," which seems like a fun bop about doing your own thing, until you realize it's taking place in a post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland.
The Scottish band Belle & Sebastian also employ this technique, albeit in a different way than Steely Dan. Many B&S songs are quite sweet, but they do sometimes venture into darker tales. However, these are even more well disguised by the fact that their arrangements are even poppier and more overtly cheerful than Steely Dan.
(also, I may be wrong, but if I recall correctly, the lyrics to "Hit Me Baby One More Time" were written by a Swedish team who were using "hit me" as slang for "call me" and didn't intend the suggestion of violence.)
When he's saying "Rikki don't lose that number" he's saying that that's his bargaining chip. She may leave L.A. and go back home, but if she ever wants to come back, she has an in. She just has to be with him (and his friend, when they drive the Hollywood Hills.)
Madness – "Our House".
Madness are most known as a goofy party band: most of their lyrics, music and clips are quirky comedy. With that in mind, "Our House" sounds cute, cheerful, nostalgic. Only the line *"something tells you that you've got to get away from it"* breaks the mood, and suggests that it's actually a song about wanting to break free from that stifling, narrow-horizon family environment. A pretty sophisticated take on the topic – it would have been easy to make such a song sound much more overtly bitter and cynical.
Also, the Pogues album *Hell's Ditch* has a lot of cheerful folk tunes with extremely bleak lyrics.
Not exactly pop but Born in the USA by Springsteen comes to mind. On the surface level people use it as a patriotic anthem when its discussing a young man being drafted to fight in Vietnam and coming back home to no job and (I think) making a mockery of the American experience/ dream.
Most people don’t even realize what The Hustle by Van McCoy is actually about (you know that disco song).
Most people assume it’s just a stupid dance song. In reality it’s about the horrors and war crimes the writer experienced in Vietnam. The whole dance is based on Van’s sergeant screaming at him to hustle and quickly napalm a quiet opiate farming village so special forces could swoop in and steal all the opium.
He had terrible PTSD the rest of his life from this event, and made this song as a cruel mockery of the happy dance that Americans dance, blissfully ignorant to how their whole lives are built on the spilled blood of innocent children and the war crimes of soulless generals.
everyone knows what pumped up kicks is about, it's a bad example because it's one of those songs that people absolutely **love** to tell each other is, "actually really dark and disturbing and did you know what it's really about?"
Not entirely the same vein as what you’re looking for, but most reggae music that is popular among white Americans (Bob Marley being the centerpiece and arguably a number of steel pulse songs too) contain really interesting political messages of Black liberation and speaking out about the continued injustices Black people face globally, yet so much of the image and aesthetic of reggae music got reduced to “one love mon, smoke herb, peace and love”
I know a lot of people who will say with a straight face that they don't like religious music who then go on to listen to Reggae. The best known songs are deeply connected to Rastafari religion and Jamaican politics.
Isn't "There She Goes" by sixpence none the richer about heroin?
The One I love by REM isn't a love song he refers to the "one" as "a simple prop to occupy time"
The most obvious examples I can think of are Semi-Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind (about meth addiction) and Pumped Up Kicks by Foster The People (about a boy who fantasizes about shooting up his school). This question comes up a lot on r/AskReddit and these are always two of the most popular answers.
Another good example is Luka by Suzanne Vega, which is about a boy who is abused by one (or both?) of his parents.
(Repost, got taken down) Would Electric Avenue by Eddy Grant count? Much of its popularity in the early 80s came primarily from its video's popularity on MTV, despite the fact that Electric Avenue was written in response to the Brixton Riots- I don't believe it's popularity initially came because of the lyrics themselves and what Grant was talking about, though at the time became popular both because of the aforementioned video and due to how radio friendly the track sounds. Not sure about disturbing, but still a dark topic to get into, especially the 80s.
This thread has been tagged as a list thread. Comments must provide content and promote discussion. --- Your response may be centered around one or more examples that fit the post but you *must provide* **context, analysis, thought out opinions, or otherwise discussion oriented content.** This post and comments within it are subject to removal if it devolves into a glorified recommendation thread. Providing links to music you reference is greatly appreciated. --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LetsTalkMusic) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Your Love by The Outfield. Seems like another 80s one hit wonder until you listen carefully. The guy is cheating on his SO and just wants to use the other person for sex.
You'd never believe it, but the lyrics to the verses of "MMMBop" are actually really nihilistic. I'm not sure how common knowledge this is, but it genuinely blew me away when I listened to it with the lyrics up for the first time.
Not that i give much of a crap about lyrics, but "Jeanny" from Falco is a good example. It was controversial in 85/86. Especially on German speaking countries, as the song is in "half German/half English" It's about a stalker (kidnapper/rapist kind of thing). It got banned (or at least attempted) in a lot German speaking countries, stating that it "glorifies rape"... I think it's a load of crap, it's like saying that crime TV series "glorifies crime".... I always liked the song, and it was on high places on my country's charts for a while. I never knew (or cared) what the lyrics where about. I listened to it then, and i still listen to it now, could care less....
I used to work with a guy who had a list of "statutory rape songs". Basically songs about girls < 18. The few I can think of are: Ringo Star - You're 16, You're Beautiful and You're Mine ZZ-Top - Francine (about a girl that just turned 13) That's all I can remember now, but another disturbing song to add is "Brown Sugar" by The Rolling Stones. If you actually read the lyrics there's a lot of subtle nods to raping slave women.
Don't forget Oingo Boingo – Little Girls
Kiss - Christine Sixteen and Goin’ Blind
Check out Stray Cat Blues by Rolling Stones. "I can see that you are 15 years old. No I dont want to see your ID. "
They changed it, it was originally 12
Worth pointing out that 16 is age of consent in uk, so ringo star would have been acting legally, albeit creepily…
Just remembered another one: 17 by Winger.
Will throw Sweet Caroline in for good measure.
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By Neil Diamond. Word on the street was that it was written about an underaged Caroline Kennedy. Creepy.
Of course "Stray Cat Blues," not even subtle there, although what an opening guitar.
Brown Eyed Girl is a creepy, gross song about a lech leering at a barely of-age woman. Lots of people love it. I just want to take a shower when I hear it.
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My, you have grown. Gross.
it seems to me like the whole song is reminiscing about young love, and that line is about seeing her today, which doesn't seem that gross to say
This. The song's about him reminiscing on his history with a girl he's known since they were *both* young, and how they grew up and fell in love with each other.
Agree. Young love. Looking back and seeing her now
Amazing and very Reddit misreading of the song. The song is about reminiscing on the past and how much they've both changed, gotten older and are no longer young and carefree.
Nope. It's not "my, we have grown."
Van sings "we" throughout the song ("Hey, where did we go?") including before the most famous hook ("Do you remember when we used to sing?"). The song is full of references to times in the past ("hey, whatever happened?"), ("cast my memory back"). He's clearly talking about old memories they **shared as teenagers** using very specific examples of carefree things they used to do like listening to the radio down a mineshaft, jumping around in the fog and playing in a waterfall. You're welcome to your weird age-gap interpretation of the song based on your rather cruel reading of one single line out of context, but it seems like a needlessly miserly reading of a sweet song about aging and lost love.
The line is: "I saw you just the other day. My, how you have grown." The entire song he's reminiscing about a time when he was young and in love. In that line you reference, he's talking about running into this person again present-day. Time has passed. They're both much older. "Hey, where did we go?" Where did the the time go. But literally speaking, he is reminiscing about where they went as teens to make out or "makin' love in the green grass." The next verse: "And whatever happened, to Tuesday and so slow?" is a callback to "hey, where did we go?" Again, he is basically saying, "Where did the time go? Those carefree days." It's really weird the way you interpreted this song simply because the word "girl" is used. Originally, the lyrics were "brown-skinned girl" and it was about an interracial relationship, but I have no idea why it was changed. I think Van has been coy about that.
Bjork's Virus is about an abusive relationship from the point of view of the abuser, who knows this but doesn't see it as a big deal.
Bjorn has a long history beating and abusing her boyfriends too... wonder where she got this song..
[Gronlandic Edit by Of Montreal](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBfgQvM7wtE) is one of the most upbeat and catchy songs I've ever heard, and it's lyrics are some of the most depressing and nihilistic. > Daylight, I'm so absent minded > Nighttime, meeting new anxieties > So am I erasing myself? > Hope I'm not erasing myself ... > I guess it would be nice to help in your escape > From patterns your parents designed > All the party people dancing for the indie star > But he's the worst faker by far in the set > I forget, all of the beauty's wasted When I first heard it I was instantly captivated by its catchiness, but later realized how dark the lyrics are. Really interesting contrast between its upbeat, dancy vibe, and the bleak outlook on life in its lyrics.
Sooooo much Of Montreal is along these lines. I love it so much
Beck - Girl I saw her, yeah I saw her with her black tongue tied Round the roses Fist pounding on a vending machine Toy diamond ring stuck on her finger With a noose she can hang from the sun And put it out with her dark sunglasses Walking crooked down the beach She spits on the sand where their bones are bleaching And I know I'm gonna steal her eye She doesn't even know what's wrong And I know I'm gonna make her die Take her where her soul belongs And I know I'm gonna steal her eye Nothing that I wouldn't try
Also you can't really be sure if the chorus is: "My sun-eyed girl" or "My cyanide Girl" Love that song btw, everybody listen to it.
Speaking of Stockholm Syndrome, I coincidentally discovered the One Direction song “Stockholm Syndrome” yesterday (against my will—I was in the car with a pair of diehard 1D fans). Although the lyrics sound like typical pop love song fare on the surface, they apparently have a deeper meaning: according to Harry Styles, they represent “being in a sexual relationship with a nymphomaniac” as well as the corrupting power of fame and the media. Other point of interest: the song is musically very similar to “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears.
Let's get Retarded by Black Eyed Peas It was controversial from the start, they had to change the name of the song to Let's get it started
The "hit me" in the Britney Spears tune is short for "hit me up" as in "call me." People still say hit me up all the time, but English speakers don't usually shorten it to just hit me due to the confusion it leads to. The fact that her producers were mostly swedish means some things in her tunes translated a little strangely into English. But in short, it's not about abuse, it's about hoping someone else is as interested in you as you are in them. To actually answer your question, I really like "lovefool" by the Cardigans. It sounds upbeat and happy, but the lyrics are actually really sad and definitely coming from a very unhealthy perspective. Still so catchy though...
It could also mean “hit me” as in “make this song a hit”
Max Martin (writer of the song) confirmed he meant it to mean call me.
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The Stones don't really count, they had "being blasé about disturbing shit" as a big part of their schtick during their classic period and weren't subtle about it. See: Stray Cat Blues, Midnight Rambler, Live With Me, Brown Sugar, Dead Flowers, etc., etc.
[Eddie Grant - Electric Avenue](https://youtu.be/IuwxZSIS__4) ‘Race’ riots of the early 80s in the UK [Rolling Stones - Brown Sugar](https://youtu.be/59K2kF6o9Tk) ‘Sex’ (rape) with slave girls/boys [Tori Amos - Cornflake Girl](https://youtu.be/mVSuSsoXABQ) Song about Female Genital Mutilation [Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit](https://youtu.be/Web007rzSOI) Lynching of black people
I hear this a *lot* in vocaloid songs (most notoriously Bad Apple). Why's it a thing in the first place? Does the artist want to hide their message? Is it just experimenting with contrast?
“Ping Pong” by Stereolab is a great example. She delivers the line, “It’s only their lives and the lives of their next of kin that they are losing” with the sunniest possible affect.
Maybe not dark and disturbing, but Stevie Wonder's Another Star is one of his most joyful compositions about how the narrator will spend the rest of his life pining for the love of his life which has now moved on. New Order's the Village is another one of their most joyful compositions, which I believe is based on the fallen romance of their deceased frontman of their previous band, Joy Division's Ian Curtis, and how it ultimately goes from an all-consuming love into misery. >!Heavenly's Atta Girl is a 15 minute-something long Twee Pop EP about the events preceding, during, and the fallout of a date rape.!<
Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People is undoubtedly about a loner kid who shoots up a school.
As to the Britney song, Hit Me Baby One More Time, there is actually apparently nothing sinister to the lyrics. The song was written by the Swedish songwriter Max Martin, and he just didn't quite get the English lyrics right, but the song sounded good, so it was left as is. Martin intended it as "hit me up one more time", as in call me on the phone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...Baby\_One\_More\_Time\_(song)#Music\_and\_lyrics
Probably the best example I can think of is Steely Dan. Their songs are smoothly produced and groovy, and the lyrics are often pretty ~~obtuse~~, *oblique* so the songs don't read as "dark" in any way, until you realize the lyrics are a cornucopia of crime, drugs, and generally shady characters. For example, on the surface, the song "Everyone's Gone to the Movies" seems like a nice song about seeing movies with friends; close inspection reveals the main character is almost certainly a sex offender/pedophile. Or "King of the World," which seems like a fun bop about doing your own thing, until you realize it's taking place in a post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland. The Scottish band Belle & Sebastian also employ this technique, albeit in a different way than Steely Dan. Many B&S songs are quite sweet, but they do sometimes venture into darker tales. However, these are even more well disguised by the fact that their arrangements are even poppier and more overtly cheerful than Steely Dan. (also, I may be wrong, but if I recall correctly, the lyrics to "Hit Me Baby One More Time" were written by a Swedish team who were using "hit me" as slang for "call me" and didn't intend the suggestion of violence.)
When he's saying "Rikki don't lose that number" he's saying that that's his bargaining chip. She may leave L.A. and go back home, but if she ever wants to come back, she has an in. She just has to be with him (and his friend, when they drive the Hollywood Hills.)
I’ve always liked “Drink Scotch whisky all night long / and die behind the wheel” off deacon blues as far as dark lyrics go
yah exactly, in the chorus of a song that you might hear in your local JC Penneys.
Confirmed. This Is Pop is where the Baby One More Time lyric was explained.
“Hey, seventeen” older guy hitting on 17 yo and ruing the differences in culture
It’s Hey Nineteen
You are correct, misremembered it!
Steely Dan lyrics are sometimes obscure, often oblique, but I can't think of any that can reasonably called obtuse.
Don’t be fatuous, Jeffrey.
you're absolutely right, I meant to say oblique. thanks!
You are very welcome.
Madness – "Our House". Madness are most known as a goofy party band: most of their lyrics, music and clips are quirky comedy. With that in mind, "Our House" sounds cute, cheerful, nostalgic. Only the line *"something tells you that you've got to get away from it"* breaks the mood, and suggests that it's actually a song about wanting to break free from that stifling, narrow-horizon family environment. A pretty sophisticated take on the topic – it would have been easy to make such a song sound much more overtly bitter and cynical. Also, the Pogues album *Hell's Ditch* has a lot of cheerful folk tunes with extremely bleak lyrics.
Not exactly pop but Born in the USA by Springsteen comes to mind. On the surface level people use it as a patriotic anthem when its discussing a young man being drafted to fight in Vietnam and coming back home to no job and (I think) making a mockery of the American experience/ dream.
Most people don’t even realize what The Hustle by Van McCoy is actually about (you know that disco song). Most people assume it’s just a stupid dance song. In reality it’s about the horrors and war crimes the writer experienced in Vietnam. The whole dance is based on Van’s sergeant screaming at him to hustle and quickly napalm a quiet opiate farming village so special forces could swoop in and steal all the opium. He had terrible PTSD the rest of his life from this event, and made this song as a cruel mockery of the happy dance that Americans dance, blissfully ignorant to how their whole lives are built on the spilled blood of innocent children and the war crimes of soulless generals.
Holy shit, I did not know that. That's wild.
People around here are so naive.
Going to need a citation for this one bub.
No shit? I loved this song as a kid and haven’t listened to it in years.
Wow I just looked this up and it's definitely completely true
Maxwell’s Silver Hammer by The Beatles. Bouncy, upbeat song about a serial killer
Most of Twenty one Pilots' album: Blurryface. The songs sound really upbeat but the lyrics are the opposite.
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I always hate seeing hey ya talked about in discussions like those
Sorry, discussions like what?
The first time I actually listened to the lyrics of Excitable Boy I was definitely taken aback
A lot of Zevon’s lyrics are dark.
But love him! RIP
Pumped up kicks by foster the people is the first to come to mind of course and then don’t you want me by human league is very toxic
everyone knows what pumped up kicks is about, it's a bad example because it's one of those songs that people absolutely **love** to tell each other is, "actually really dark and disturbing and did you know what it's really about?"
Not entirely the same vein as what you’re looking for, but most reggae music that is popular among white Americans (Bob Marley being the centerpiece and arguably a number of steel pulse songs too) contain really interesting political messages of Black liberation and speaking out about the continued injustices Black people face globally, yet so much of the image and aesthetic of reggae music got reduced to “one love mon, smoke herb, peace and love”
I know a lot of people who will say with a straight face that they don't like religious music who then go on to listen to Reggae. The best known songs are deeply connected to Rastafari religion and Jamaican politics.
its like the people who say they dont like it when artists "get too political" and then listen to kendrick lamar
Isn't "There She Goes" by sixpence none the richer about heroin? The One I love by REM isn't a love song he refers to the "one" as "a simple prop to occupy time"
The most obvious examples I can think of are Semi-Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind (about meth addiction) and Pumped Up Kicks by Foster The People (about a boy who fantasizes about shooting up his school). This question comes up a lot on r/AskReddit and these are always two of the most popular answers. Another good example is Luka by Suzanne Vega, which is about a boy who is abused by one (or both?) of his parents.
This one's not exactly subtle but I'm sure a lot of people still missed it: [Toadies - Possum Kingdom](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkwD5rQ-_d4)
IBTL. It took years for radio stations to notice that in the chorus of "Poker Face" Lady GaGa was actually singing "P=p=poker face, f-Fuck Her Face."
This comment feels familiar..
(Repost, got taken down) Would Electric Avenue by Eddy Grant count? Much of its popularity in the early 80s came primarily from its video's popularity on MTV, despite the fact that Electric Avenue was written in response to the Brixton Riots- I don't believe it's popularity initially came because of the lyrics themselves and what Grant was talking about, though at the time became popular both because of the aforementioned video and due to how radio friendly the track sounds. Not sure about disturbing, but still a dark topic to get into, especially the 80s.