Obsession Song: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''"This is one of those love songs that crosses that narrow divide between 'romantic' and 'deeply disturbing.' You know, the difference between 'I always want to be with you' and 'I want to wear your skin like a sweater."''|''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]''}}
 
The Obsession Song is like a love song written by a [[Stalker with a Crush]] or a [[Yandere (disambiguation)]]. Most examples simply involve [[Mad Love|obsessive love]] with heavy overtones of [[Stalking Is Love|stalking]] and possessiveness, but some take it to such extreme lengths that it sounds like the singer is planning on [[I Have You Now, My Pretty|raping you]], killing you, and [[Mummies At the Dinner Table|keeping your corpse under their bed]].
 
The Obsession Song falls into two basic varieties, although many have elements of both:
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* [[Bruno Mars]]' "sad" singles are all about this. Both [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR6iYWJxHqs ''Grenade''] and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xknW3A5LhZ0 ''Talkin' to the Moon''] depict a man who whines and obsessively laments over a dead relationship to the point where he turns into a [[Stalker with a Crush|stalker,]] [[Love Makes You Crazy|driven]] [[Ax Crazy|crazy]] in [[All Take and No Give|hopes that his former significant other would notice such behavior]] and [[Love Redeems|take him back]]. Both songs take the Passive element described at the top of the page.
* [[Evanescence]] has ''Taking Over Me'' which falls into the Passive category.
** ''Away From Me'' also applies to passivity.
** ''Farther Away'' is strictly passive
** "Lithium" (Darling come to bed, anything is better then to be alone)
* [[Radiohead]]'s "All I Need."
** Also "Creep". According to Thom Yorke, it's about a drunk guy following around a woman he's attracted to, lacking the self-confidence to actually approach her. However, many listeners think it's a straightforward unrequited-love song from the perspective of a guy with self-esteem issues... [[Death of the Author|which is perfectly reasonable from the lyrics themselves]], ''except'' that it provides no explanation for the line "she's running out the door", making it a bit of a [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick]]. In fairness, that's the least intelligible part of the song, so a lot of people probably didn't even know that's what he was saying.
*** Going by the "unrequited love song from the POV of a guy with self-esteem issues" interpretation, "she's running out the door" could mean that said guy attempted to admit his feelings but only succeeded in scaring her.
** "You", also off of Pablo Honey, is another example.
* [[Billy Joel]] tried his hand at this one more than once. "All For Leyna" is a pretty good example of a passive one.
* About 50% of every Latin American bolero (as in the musical genre) song ever. If it was sung by Los Panchos, Julio Jaramillo, or La Lupe (among many, ''many'' others), chances are that they are singing one of those. Most of them are from the passive type, in the line of "I've shaped my whole life around you and now I don't have anything else, so why don't you love me back? Why? WHY?"
* [[Muse (band)|Muse]]: Undisclosed Desires.
* Children of the Monkey Machine and Dani took the [[Final Fantasy VIII]] love song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qcW0oiLKHg Eyes On Me] and remixed it into [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMdV3EERK50 Obsession].
* Die Ärzte's "Bitte, Bitte".
{{quote|I have a gift for you. I love you, I give you me. Don't ask me, you know why. From now on I'm your property. You hurt me, what more do I want? I am the servant, you are the master. From now on I belong only to you. Please, please, let me be your slave.}}
* Perfect-[[Vanessa Amorosi]]
{{quote|''I pray with the sounding of you faith''
''My colours bleed to one''
''Nothing grows when your love is gone'' }}
* [[The Veronicas]]: Could've Been, Let Me Out.
* Matchbox Twenty has this little song called:"Disease"
{{quote|"I can't live without you, tell me what I'm supposed to do about it"
"You drove me to the fire and left me there to burn"
"Every little thing you do is magic, oh, but all my life it was tragic/beautiful girl, I can't breathe" }}
* Adorable has a song called [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRsTbZLbjBY "Obsessively Yours"] which seems to be about obsessive love from a distance
{{quote|I haven't got you, or dishonourable intentions
All I hold is a photograph of my magnificent obsession }}
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*** And then made predictably terrifying by [[Marilyn Manson]].
**** Arguably kicked up a creepy notch by [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAFbYN_8e7g "Diamanda Galas]
* [[The Police]]'s "Every Breath You Take" is one of the most famous [[Obsession Song|Obsession Songs]], if not ''the'' most famous.
** Probably the most famous one you'll ever [[Isn't It Ironic?|dance to at homecoming]].
** "Can't Stand Losing You" is another. A classic case of [[Lyrical Dissonance]].
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** Don't forget ''No Pussy Blues'', complete with it's own kind of [[Madness Mantra]] ("''she just didn't want to''")
* Portishead - "All Mine"
* [[Lisa Germano]]'s [[Nightmare Fuel|"...a psychopath"]] is a ''very'' aggressive [[Obsession Song]] sung from [[Inverted Trope|the perspective of the stalkee]].
** Which features an ''actual 911 call.''
* Pretty much any line from Animotion's "[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Obsession]]" could work as a page quote for this trope.
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''There's no escaping from me'' }}
** And ''Haunted'' which seems to be a ''ghost'' doing this.
** ''The Other Side'' and ''Even In Death'' is this to a dead person. Extremely aggressive musically.
* As the name implies, Assemblage 23's "Let Me Be Your Armor"'s protagonist is very chivalrous, but it's [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] that his love is [[My Beloved Smother|a bit more possessive]] than most. That or its about an eerily overprotective parent. Either way its obsessive, controlling, and downright creepy.
* The Toadies' "Tyler": It starts out seeming like an ordinary romantic song about a man who's looking forward to being with his beloved again after a long time apart. Then in the last verse the narrator breaks into her house, and it becomes readily apparent that something else is going on...
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* [[Elvis Costello]]'s "I Want You", which contains heavy doses of both passive and aggressive.
* Morrissey also likes this trope, with quite a few of his songs (both solo and with [[The Smiths]]) falling into the passive category, although he has some more aggressive ones as well, most notably "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get."
** "Jack The Ripper"-- the original version is significantly creepy, too.
* [[Garbage|Garbage's]] "#1 Crush" is a perfect example of the passive variety.
** Only at first. It becomes increasingly aggressive over the course of the song.
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* "Ingrata", from [[Caf Ã]]© Tacuba, [[Alternate Character Interpretation|can be interpreted]] as either a man berating a woman who just used him and get away by claiming to love him until he got fed up, or a creepy obsssed stalker towards a girl who tried to live her life and in and attempt to calm him she said that she loved him with no sucess. Either way, at the end of the song the singer announces that he's going to shot the woman "so you can get hurt too", and ends "Even if I'm sad for not having you anymore / I'm going to stay with you in your funeral"
* "I Know You're Out There Somewhere", Moody Blues.
* Stabbing Westward has a few of these: "What Do I Have to Do?", "Shame", "You Complete Me" and "Waking Up Beside You", among others.
** ''Darkest Days'' was practically an obsession [[Concept Album]].
* Several comedy bands have variations on this including "Stalker Song" by Tripod and the reversed trope "Stalker Girl" by The Arrogant Worms.
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* The appropriately titled "[[Obsesi Ã]]³n", by bachata group Aventura, is a kind of verbal confrontation between a [[Stalker with a Crush]] (male singer) and the object of his affection (female voice, chorus), where the boy believes that his increasingly invasive, controlling ways are acceptable forms of showing love, and isn't clued by the fact that the girl has been avoiding him as he becoming creepier, and that she's saying quite directly in the chorus that whatever he feels, isn't truly related with love...
* "You Can't Change That", Ray Parker Jr.
* [[Depeche Mode]] - "It's No Good".
* [[Devo]]'s "I Desire" comes off as one (if you don't miss it due to [[Lyrical Dissonance]]) even ''without'' the knowledge that it's based on a poem written by real life [[Stalker with a Crush]] [[wikipedia:John Hinckley Jr|John Hinckley Jr]].
* Although possibly not intended as one, Alison Krauss' "Baby, Now That I've Found You" does come off as an [[Obsession Song]] if you [[Lyrical Dissonance|pay attention to the lyrics]].
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But I must admit there is a part of me that thinks we <s> might</s> <s> could</s> ''should'' get on. }}
* Depending on interpretation, Lou Christie's freakishly catchy "Lightning Strikes" is either a mild but smarmy type 2 or a combination of both -- it probably wasn't intended that way, but there's a clear subtext of a [[Casanova Wannabe]] pursuing an utterly uninterested woman.
* [[JacksJack's Mannequin]] gives us "What Gets You Off" and "Miss California".
* 'I Touch Myself' by Divinyls. Not only is it about some uhh [[A Date with Rosie Palms|"quality time with oneself",]] it's also about being incredibly obsessed/devoted to them.
* Parachute's "Ghost". It seems passive at first, then it sounds more like the thoughts of an erotomanaical stalker who is trying to tell the victim that they are always together, whether they realize it or not. I honestly have no idea whether or not this was meant to be taken in that context.
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* As if there wasn't already enough [[Foe Yay]] in Disney's ''[[The Great Mouse Detective]]'', Ratigan designs his [[Death Trap]] with a [[Musical Trigger]] with "a sprightly tune I recorded especially for" Basil, with lyrics such as "You followed me, I followed you -- we were like each other's shadows for awhile."
* Several [[Muse (band)|Muse]] songs, such as "Sing for Absolution", "Endlessly", and "Hysteria".
** "Space Dementia" describes a weird [[Tsundere]] version: "You make me sick / But I adore you so..." That is, if it's not just talking about [[Space Madness]]. (Although there's always the possibility that it's both.)
* "Don't Leave Home," by Dido.
* The Legendary Pink Dots ''[[Incredibly Lame Pun|love]]'' this trope, with "Obsession" and "Thursday Night Fever" (see also [[Yandere (disambiguation)]]) being crowning examples of the passive and aggressive types respectively.
** Their song "True Love" is also a good (if still [[Nightmare Fuel|rather frightening]]) example of the passive variety, with the lyrical speaker telling the object of his affection that he'll do all kinds of dangerous or harmful things for her (including [[Eye Scream|plucking out his eyes]] "because love is blind"). It's made even worse when the last lyrics of the song abstractly suggest she's abusive or apathetic towards him.
* [[Taylor Swift]]'s "You Belong With Me" could be interpreted as this.
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* [[Tegan and Sara]]'s song "Knife Going In" contains the line "On the night I die I swear I'll sleep outside your window." Also "Living Room" seems to be about stalkerish behavior.
* Offspring's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zfUFXzbx9k "Special Delivery"] is pretty blatant with the stalker theme.
* "Jævel av en tango" by [[Kaizers Orchestra]]. The lyrics, translated, go like this:
{{quote|But, for Señor Flamingo
The situation was a win-win situation
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* Queensryche has "Walk in the Shadows" and "Gonna Get Close to You", surprisingly from the same album.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9sxy9Lgpug Torn Apart] gets bonus points for being about desperate lust towards ''two'' women at the same time.
* Maroon 5's "Cant stop" , in which he obsesses over a girl so much he "wakes up making love to a pillow".
* Keroleen by the scottish indie pop band Bis
{{quote|She is my heroine (Wanna! See Her! Wanna! BE HER! Don't go! NEAR HER!)}}
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... What does it ''mean?'' }}
* "Macauley [[Mc Culkin]]" by The Fall of Troy. The narrarator gets progressively more [[Axe Crazy]] as the song goes on.
* [[The Veronicas]] ''Everything'' and ''I Can't Stay Away'', both have shades of both.
* ''Until You're Mine'' by [[Demi Lovato]] is rather passive.
{{quote|''Wanted something out of reach''
''It's killing me, you're all I see, yeah'' }}
** and rather aggressive
{{quote|''Forget about fate and just hold me''}}
* [[Evanescence]]: ''Surrender, Farther Away'' and ''Anything For You'' fall into both catagories.
* [[Emilie Autumn]]: ''Opheliac'' has shades of both types...[[Driven to Suicide|The water rises up again ]]...AND diva/metal screaming!
* 'Love the Way You Lie' by Eminem and Rihanna has shades of both.
{{quote|'''Passive:''' Just gonna stand there and watch me burn/ well that's alright because I like the way it hurts/ Just gonna stand there and see me cry/ well that's alright because I love the way you lie