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These iconic 90s hits take on a chilling new meaning when you know what happened later... Join us as we examine songs that now induce shivers due to tragic deaths, disturbing revelations, and dark twists of fate. From upbeat anthems with devastated creators to innocent lyrics from disgraced stars, these tracks sound completely different with hindsight.
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00:00Did you say, no, this can't happen to me? Did you rush to the phone to call?
00:09Welcome to WatchMojo. And today, we're looking at 20 pieces of music that,
00:14in light of dark events that occurred after their release, now induce chills.
00:18Will I spill and I don't let go?
00:23Runaway Train, Soul Asylum. This 90s alternative rock track began as Soul Asylum's song about loss
00:32and despair. But once it featured missing youth, it turned into something much bigger than music.
00:46It became a lifeline for families, helping some reunite with their loved ones.
00:50That should have been pure victory, right? But it gets darker.
00:55While some miners were found, others had fallen victim to horrific crimes.
01:01Runaway Train, never going back. Long way on a one-way track.
01:09A few returned to situations they wanted to escape from in the first place.
01:12Tragically, some weren't even found at all. What was meant as an act of kindness became a
01:18haunting reminder of real consequences. Now, when we hear Dave Pierner's voice,
01:23we don't just feel sadness. We feel the weight of stories filled with loss and heartbreak.
01:30Runaway Train, never coming back. Runaway Train, tearing up the track.
01:37Killing in the Name. Rage Against the Machine.
01:41In 1991, Rodney King was brutally beaten by police officers, sparking outrage across the U.S.
01:47Then, Rage Against the Machine channeled their own fury into Killing in the Name,
01:52a song that tore into police brutality and systemic racism.
01:56Killing in the Name.
02:02It was raw, powerful, and a rallying cry for people who felt the system was against them.
02:08More than 30 years later, we're seeing the same headlines, the same pain, and the same protests.
02:13In 2020, George Floyd's death showed just how little has changed. If the outrage then,
02:25and art as powerful as this song, couldn't change things, it says a lot about how deeply
02:30rooted the problem is. The most disturbing part? This song continues to be relevant, even today.
02:36No Rain. Blind Melon. Even though it was inspired by depression and the feeling of isolation,
02:49Blind Melon's No Rain isn't entirely a dark anthem.
02:52And all I can do is just pose a T for two and speak my point of view.
03:00In fact, the upbeat rhythm, the playful lyrics, and the visuals of a mocked girl in a B costume,
03:06who eventually finds others just like her, gives it a hopeful vibe. That hope fades away when you
03:12remember that lead singer Shannon Hoon died of an overdose just a few years after its release.
03:17And it rips my life away, but it's a great escape.
03:23That's not even all. His loss hits even harder, especially since the band never truly recovered.
03:29They couldn't find a replacement for him and eventually disbanded four years after his death.
03:34What was once a quirky anthem about surviving gray days, now carries the weight of real loss.
03:39So stay with me and I'll have it made
03:43Jeff Buckley, The Last Goodbye
03:48When Jeff Buckley wrote The Last Goodbye, it was simply a heartbreak song,
03:53never meant to foreshadow anything.
03:54At the time, he was very much alive and building a promising career after the release of Grace,
04:09but in May 1997. After his band joined him in Memphis, he went for a spontaneous swim in Wolf River
04:16and never came back. His body was discovered weeks later by passengers on a riverboat.
04:21I'll only make you cry since our last goodbye
04:26The death was ruled as accidental drowning. And just like that, the singer was gone at only 30.
04:35Now, Last Goodbye is more than a song about heartbreak. It's an unintentionally chilling
04:39farewell to an artist who left far too soon. Little wonder many now view it as a bad omen.
04:45And the memories of our sides said it's over
04:51Live forever
04:58Oasis
04:59You and I are gonna live forever. Ironic, isn't it?
05:03We see things I'll never see
05:06You and I are gonna live forever
05:08Oasis' most optimistic anthem came from brothers who couldn't even stand each other.
05:14The Gallagher clashes were legendary, a whirlwind of insults, fistfights, and ego battles.
05:19Back in 1994, one infamous blowup allegedly involved a tambourine being thrown, and that was only the beginning.
05:27The feuding only escalated, dragging on throughout the years until their inevitable split in 2009.
05:34Baby, I don't really wanna know
05:40You got it gross
05:42So I just wanna play
05:45So, while Live Forever beams with hope, it's hard not to hear the shadows of the brothers' chaos echoing behind the lyrics.
05:52Thankfully, the band reunited and started a concert tour in 2025.
05:56And we hope, this time, they live forever.
06:01You gotta live forever
06:05Bittersweet Symphony
06:07The Verve
06:08Doesn't a song feel darker once you learn the drama that followed it?
06:11That's exactly the case with The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony.
06:14On the surface is a song about life's struggles wrapped up in soaring strings.
06:28But behind the scenes, it turned into a nightmare.
06:31The Verve had sampled an orchestral version of a Rolling Stones track and thought they'd
06:36cleared the rites.
06:37What they didn't realize was that Alan Klein, the Stones' former manager, held the publishing
06:42power.
06:43No change, I can't change, I can't change, I can't change, I can't change.
06:47Klein swooped in and stripped the band of its royalties.
06:50For years, the song's success was a bitter joke, loved worldwide, yet profitless to its creators.
06:58It wasn't until 2019 that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards finally returned the rights and royalties
07:04to Richard Ashcroft.
07:05Hurt by Nine Inch Nails is already a dark song about self-harm and depression.
07:21Some interpret it as the protagonist giving up, while others view it as a choice to keep
07:26living.
07:27Either way, it cuts deeper once you learn about Trent Reznor's struggles with substance
07:38use disorder, depression, and nearly losing his life.
07:41Suddenly, Hurt feels less like a song and more like a raw reflection of Reznor's reality.
07:47Then came Johnny Cash's cover, stripped down with sincerity and weighted down by the theme
08:02of time passing away.
08:04His performance almost feels like farewell, and it resonates even more knowing his own
08:18history with substance use disorder.
08:20character.
08:21Tragically, Cash died just a few months later, making this one of his most heartbreaking songs.
08:26And you could have it all, my empire of dirt.
08:35Doll Parts.
08:36Pull.
08:37When Courtney Love wrote Doll Parts, it was meant to capture the ache of unrequited love
08:43and fear of rejection.
08:44Yeah, they really want you, they really want you, they really do.
08:51Frankly, we would have preferred it to remain that way.
08:55Unfortunately, after Kurt Cobain's death, the song gained a far darker edge.
09:00Suddenly, the lyrics felt less like a confession and more like a glimpse into grief and loss.
09:06Yet the song's legacy is complicated.
09:08Someday you will act like I.
09:13Cobain and Love's tumultuous marriage was widely known.
09:16In the years after his death, conspiracy theories swirled with some accusing love of
09:21being involved.
09:22While never proven, those suspicions, coupled with Cobain's tragic end, might affect how
09:27listeners understand Doll Parts.
09:29Today, it's a song layered with controversies, tragedy, and the messy entanglement of love
09:35and pain.
09:40The Reflecting God, Marilyn Manson.
09:45Many listeners probably interpret Marilyn Manson's The Reflecting God in different ways.
09:49Something's clear, though.
09:50It's provocative and unsettling no matter what meaning you take from it.
10:04The song itself is already steeped in controversy, but in light of the allegations that surfaced
10:10against Manson beginning in 2018, the song took an even heavier weight.
10:14Wake up more I see and understand what I'm getting.
10:20Several women, including his former fiancée Evan Rachel Wood, came forward with allegations
10:26of abuse.
10:27While he was cleared of the criminal charges, the wave of allegations probably reshaped how
10:32many see both the artist and his work.
10:34For someone who presented himself theatrically as godlike, how much of that persona seeped into
10:39his real life.
10:46Just the title of this track already feels ominous, even if it wasn't about taking one's life.
10:53After Michael Hutchinson's death, fans couldn't help but see it as an eerie foreshadowing.
10:58His downward spiral began in 1992, after a violent altercation left him with a head injury.
11:12From there, a lot changed about him, and the spiral deepened with substance use disorder
11:17and mounting pressure.
11:18By 1997, Hutchins was found dead in his Sydney hotel room, with the coroner ruling it as death
11:28by hanging.
11:29With such a tragic end, some of us may never see this song as just a sexy tune.
11:36It's forever tainted by what came after, especially since it was the last song Hutchins performed
11:41before his death.
11:42Ominous.
11:43Indeed.
11:44Don't you see the color of the texture turning your world around again?
11:53Come As You Are – Nirvana
12:04The frontman Kurt Cobain was widely noted for his dark, often cryptic songwriting style.
12:10This, combined with his keen instinct for Beatle-esque pop hooks, captivated the public's imagination,
12:16along with the tight musicianship of bassist Chris Novoselich and drummer Dave Grohl.
12:21Come As You Are is a shining example of this, combining all of the above traits and executing
12:27them masterfully.
12:28Cobain's 1994 passing devastated not only the band's fans, but music fans en masse,
12:35who looked to the Washington native's lyrics for answers.
12:39Once again, Come As You Are stood out within Nirvana's discography, largely for its tragically
12:45prescient hook, in which Cobain declared that he didn't have a gun.
12:49Age ain't nothing but a number – Aaliyah
12:57We have just two words that will answer any questions you might have.
13:08R. Kelly
13:09Teenage R&B slash pop prodigy Aaliyah was taken on by the Pied Piper himself in a mentor-mentee
13:16relationship that very quickly deteriorated into something much more sinister.
13:28The two secretly wed while working on Aaliyah's debut album, which shares its title with this
13:33song in 1994.
13:35The marriage was annulled the following year by her parents due to her age at the time.
13:40Knowing that leads modern-day listeners to hear age ain't nothing but a number in a different,
13:46wildly off-putting light.
13:48Here I am, and there you are.
13:53Bump and Grind – R. Kelly
13:56But my body, my body's telling me it hurts.
14:02Remember Kelly from the last entry?
14:05As you might have guessed, he managed to get himself into even more trouble than when he convinced
14:10an underage girl to marry him.
14:19While 1994's Bump and Grind might have worked as a playful, if deeply corny, plea to shed a
14:25potential lover's inhibitions, Kelly's misconduct in the following decades makes the song read
14:31as a serial abuser's manifesto.
14:33Accused of nearly 30 years worth of disturbing misconduct, the R&B giant was indicted and
14:39arrested on federal racketeering and human trafficking charges in 2019, making Bump and Grind
14:46an endurance test for listeners.
14:48Robert.
14:4930 years of my career!
14:51Y'all trying to kill me!
14:54You're killing me, man!
14:57This ain't not about music!
14:59Nutshell – Alice in Chains
15:02Much like Kurt Cobain, his contemporary Alice in Chains frontman Layne Staley struggled with
15:17substance use disorder and ongoing mental health issues.
15:21This was reflected in his songwriting, which often resulted in raw, vulnerable lyrics like
15:27Alice in Chains was found in Nutshell, a deep cut from the band's 1994 EP, Jar of Flies.
15:32The singer later passed away from an overdose in 2002, making Nutshell's already intensely
15:38personal lyrics hit even harder.
15:40Tragically, Staley wouldn't be the last founding Alice in Chains member to lose his life in such a way.
15:55Original bassist Mike Starr died in 2011 also of an overdose.
16:01Jerry Cantrell, the band's guitarist and alternate lead singer, now dedicates performances of Nutshell to his fallen bandmates.
16:10I feel better there
16:14Suicidal Thoughts
16:16The Notorious B.I.G.
16:23Even during his lifetime, Biggie Smalls made Death an integral theme of his music.
16:29This is evident from the titles of his two albums, 1994's Ready To Die and 1997's Life After Death.
16:37For a clear example of this, look to this pitch-dark track from the former album.
16:48Biggie describes his own hellish version of It's A Wonderful Life, in which the rapper fantasizes about and considers his own death.
16:57The hip-hop icon was gunned down just over two weeks before the release of his second record, making Ready To Die, B.I.G.'s only album to be released during his lifetime.
17:08Forgive me for my disrespect, forgive me for my lies, but maybe mother's eight months, her little sisters too, who's to blame for both of them?
17:15So Many Tears
17:16Tupac
17:17Back in elementary, I thrived on misery, left me alone, I grew up amongst a dime-breed
17:24Much like his contemporary arch-rival, Biggie Smalls, Tupac Shakur seemed to be preoccupied with death and dying.
17:33This was most commonly in the context of the Los Angeles gang violence he so often lamented, but he often contemplated his own passing.
17:42So Many Tears stands out in the rapper's catalogue in its crystallization of themes the influential performer often covered.
17:50Notably, the song features Pac bluntly addressing his personal desire to end his life, as noted by Rolling Stone's Chio H. Coker.
18:03So Many Tears deals with the senseless violence that marked his childhood, but with the internal demons that threatened to consume him, snapping at his conscience like hellhounds on a bluesman's trail.
18:15My life is in denial, and when I die, baptized in eternal fire, shed so many tears.
18:21Pretty noose
18:22Soundgarden
18:23Soundgarden
18:24I caught the moon today, pick it up, show it away.
18:30In what emerged as a heartbreakingly common pattern for grunge frontmen, Soundgarden and Audioslave lead singer Chris Cornell's death was untimely.
18:40The Black Hole Sun vocalist took his own life after a 2017 concert in Detroit.
18:46While Audioslaves later, like a stone, might hit harder for Cornell's fans who are still mourning, Pretty Noose catches its eye due to its unfortunate association with the method by which Cornell ended it all.
18:59However, beside that, the song otherwise bears no indication of ideation.
19:13Cornell once described Pretty Noose as being about an attractively packaged bad idea, something that seems great at first, and then comes back to bite you.
19:22Morphine
19:29Michael Jackson
19:30While King of Pop Michael Jackson had experimented with heavier styles of music before, Morphine stands out as a groovy, distorted, almost industrial jam that almost recalls Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails.
19:51In line with Jackson's songwriting during the 90s, Morphine is a scathing indictment of media scrutiny regarding his well-documented personal life, acting as an impassioned plea for privacy on the singer's parts.
20:04While already a difficult listen at the time of its release, it took an even darker layer following Jackson's 2009 death, the result of acute propofol intoxication.
20:22This was later ruled as involuntary manslaughter on the part of Conrad Murray, his personal physician.
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20:52Satisfy You
20:53Diddy featuring R. Kelly
20:55He don't understand you like I do
21:00Somehow, two of the biggest figures in 90s hip-hop and R&B turned out to be two of the most sinister villains of the decades since.
21:09And in an entirely predictable yet super creepy turn of events, their collaboration, Satisfy You, has aged, well, about as well as you might expect, which is to say, like milk.
21:21When it hurt, I eat the pain, girl.
21:23Caress your frame, get them worries off your brain, girl.
21:25I'm in your corner, do what you want, it's your pain, girl.
21:28Over a barely-tweaked instrumental sample of I Got Five on it by Looney's, Kelly and Sean Diddy Combs desperately plead with a romantic interest to break up with her significant other.
21:39Knowing the extent of the musician's misconduct will have you shuddering after the fact, particularly Combs' assertion that I'm the feeling that you can't leave.
21:48Which of these songs is the most disturbing to you now?
22:00Let us know in the comments section.
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