"O Superman", "Brutus", and "Saint Bernard": Offputting, Terrifying, and Genius
New age of music? Or just popular on scary story Tik Toks?
Electronic music began in 1953 and continues to grow and expand, especially with the recent rise of AI. I am a dance choreographer and electronic music can be really fun to choreograph to, as it's not as widely used as showtunes or piano music. I made it challenge for myself to listen to songs that brought out strong emotions in me so that I could become a better choreographer. I came across "Saint Bernard" by Lincoln when a true crime Tik Tok came across my For You page a couple years ago. I liked the song but it truly terrified me. Probably because of the story being told on top of it. However, I didn't really look too deeply into the song. I just knew it would make a great contemporary dance and that the song made me feel so unsettled. I just kept scrolling. However, years have passed and trends have come and gone, and three songs have stuck with me. It's widely known that music brings emotion out in everyone, so what makes a song feel "scary"? Why are these songs emotions so different from their actual meaning? I'm picking these songs to pieces and disecting their meaning and the sounds that trigger our fear. Deep diving into the intetion versus the connotation.
"Saint Bernard" by Lincoln
This song (link in first paragraph) is some heavy, heavy rock. Which feels odd to say because it really lacks much instrumentally. When you first hear their lead singer, Lincoln Lutz, start singing the first verse, you're almost transported back to the very early 2000's. Lincoln has that real punk-rock/emo voice that really scratches any metal-head's brain. However, it's honestly a really clean song, which sets it apart from most alt-rock bands. But this isn't what makes it off putting. The drum beat, which is the only music for about the first 40 seconds of the minute and 43 second song. However, at about the 43 second mark, the clapping intensifies and some raspy bass is added.
This raspy bass, I believe, is what sets in a feeling of anticipation in the listener's brain when listening. The bass acts almost as an echo for Lincoln's voice as he sings. The sequence between each beat is the same as a waltz. So, listeners are greeted with a stripped down, emo waltz and then 43 seconds in, they are introduced to an eerie echo. It gives a very intense feeling that can only be described as "ooh, this feels weird, something is off, I can tell, but I don't know what it is". It's almost the musical equivelant of the uncanny valley phenomenon (this takes place often times in movies or museums when your brain sees something and you know it's fake but it looks so real you're left feeling unbalanced and creeped out. Here's a link, if you want to check it out but please be aware it's weird). So, let's take a look at a famous waltz in comparison to our emo waltz.
"The Nutcracker"by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is one of the most iconic waltz style songs of all time. Have you ever noticed during the bridge to the chorus, you're expecting that huge cresendo to happen? This is the exact thing that makes "Saint Bernard" so subtly terrifying. As Lincoln sings the first few verses, listeners are anticipating a cresendo. They are expecting all the instruments to come in and for Lincoln to belt that chorus. Because based on the song so far, the pattern has been adding more and more instruments to come in. The human brain loves to pick up on patterns and anticipate the future, but when the anticipation becomes a let down, the results cannot be expected. In "Saint Bernard", we can see this happen in real time. The music pauses right as our singer says, "Saint Bernard sits at the..." and we sit on the edge of our seats ready for something big to happen. However, it's not the change that throws us off. It's the lack of change that throws us off. The exact same clap and bass comes in and Lincoln sings at a slightly lower pitch, if that. It's genius. And, if you're like me, you're sitting there processing what you're hearing and the song ends, after the first chorus...what? And you look up the lyrics and realize they snuck the first chorus in without anyone noticing.
Altogether, it's a really intimidating song. Lincoln has a deep and strong voice. The clapping is an extremely unwelcoming factor. Throw in some musical notes that strengthen in intensity throughout the entire song and boom you've got a terrifying song that you hate to love and hate to stop listening to even though it keeps getting stuck in your head. This song feels so strong, as it discusses a man's relationship with God. This man is frustrated, confused, and is looking for answers. He's been let down by those who he's supposed to be able to turn to. This song portrays "church hurt" quite well. Listeners can hear this frustration with the intensity of the song.
"Brutus" by the Buttress
Oh boy, this song truly is something of nightmares. Starting out with a growing electric sound that slowly gets louder and louder, then coming to an abrupt stop followed by the voices of what sounds like a group of women. Their voices are eerie and haunting, constant and unchanging. It truly sounds like a song out of a horror movie. Similarly to "Saint Bernard", "Brutus" encorporates tones of electrified heavy metal, giving the song an extremely heavy tone to it. Listening to this song almost feels like carrying the weight of an elephant on your back. It's dark and booming. Throughout the song, listeners can hear cackles of the women from the beginning of the song. It adds a tone to the song that says, "something wicked this way comes". On top of the music our lead singer, Bethany Schmitt, raps over the song with a story about Brutus, and his jealousy of Julius Ceasar. Except, in this case, Brutus is a woman.
Alright, so upon research, I did not realize The Buttress's style is horrorcore (click the link over Bethany Schmitt's name). It's extremely fitting for this song, it's terrifying. I have not listened to any other songs but I do highly reccomend giving them a listen if this type of music is something you are interested in checking out. When listening to "Brutus" you can hear notes that would qualify as elements from horror movie songs. There are various violin screeches and high intesity instrumental sounds. Not to mention the scary women's choir throughout the song. This song is scary, because it's supposed to be. The intention was to inflict feelings of fear just like when watching a horror movie. I did not realize "horrorcore" was a type of music, learn something new everyday. However, I do not think I will be exploring that too much (I'm a scaredy cat...). Based on my mostly uneducated opinion, I don't think this type of music will become popular anytime soon, I think it's just going to be more of an underground genre for a niche group of people to enjoy. I think music is great for every feeling but most people want music just for the basic emotions and nothing much past that. So, while I understand that some people might enjoy this, I think this song is just a one-hit wonder of a sort.
"O Superman" by Laurie Anderson
This song is the onion of all songs. Onions have layers upon layers and this song has meanings upon meanings. I have listened to this song quite a few times. Do not let the length of the song scare you, listen to all of it and embrace the lack of comfortability in it.
So, let's start by examining the music. "O Superman" is a very techno-electric song. Most of the song contains elements from a synthesizer and every voice in the song sounds like a robot (but I can confirm, it is a human voice). The song lacks humanization and I think that's part of what makes it so terrifying. Even in songs that we don't like, there is something we can all resonate with and we associate electronic noises with anything except emotion. We also hear laughing throughout almost the entire song. A constant, monotone, "ha ha ha" throughout the entire song and not much else. The way I envision it in my head is a robot, making music, and pretending it know what feelings are. The idea of a robot being able to feel kind of scares me because emotions are so intricate, we can't just create those. So, I think the music is a big part of what makes it scary.
Now, who's ready to be super confused? Becuase I know I wasn't! When you listen to the lyrics, you hear a lot of different lines and they don't really make much sense. Especially not put thogether. There's a lot of references to "mom" and "mom and dad". There's also a part in the song dedicated to pretending to be an answering machine, "hello...is anybody there" or "please start speaking after the tone". It's an odd song. But upon listening to it, this is what I decided the song was about:
It's someone who might be a bit older, looking back on their life. The random lyrics are so random because they are references to memories from their childhood. The references to "mom and dad" and "is anybody home" are a cry out for how much they miss their parents. And as they go through the song they are just talking about how times have changed throughout the years. The reason the song is so robotic is because it's referring to the technological advancements over the years. To our speaker (because they don't sing much) the world feels cold and emotionless. Technology has taken places where people should be. The woman's voice that sounds robotic throughout the entirety of the song is supposed to represent laughing that has lost its emotion. That's why laughing is mentioned so often throughout the song. The emotions have faded with the past and nothing feels genuine, not even the sound of laughter. Everything is distorted, in a sense. If you listen closely throughout the song there's birds chirpping. This would be to reference the lack of nature in the world. With so many skyscrapers and metropoliton cities and no forests or access to nature (think of "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. In the story, the districts are locked in by a fence, preventing them from going out and seeing nature). This is what I envisioined the song to be about. Sure, the lyrics didn't make sense, but that's no big deal. However, upon further research, I learned that this song has a much much different meaning.
"O Superman" has nothing to do with emotions, or memories, or changes in the world. This song was intended to be a piece of art for a much larger project that Laurie Anderson created to be about life in America. "O Superman" was a piece intended to be a message for the American government. This message was to not rely so heavily on military power and technology. This song was written after the U.S. tried to rescue hostages from Iran when the plane and helicopter crashed. This is the link I found this information from. I highly encourage you all to go through and read the meaning behind each lyric, it's simply fascinating to me how different the real meaning and the meaning I thought of differed. Knowing this, the song takes on a somewhat more eerie tone, as it truly applies to real life in a less emotional and more serious way.
In Conclusion...
Overall, all music might hit people in different ways. It is amazing to me the wide range of emotions that people might feel when listening to these songs. Music is so special and unique because everyone feels things differently, it just makes music so personal. I love it. Let me know what you think about these songs, and if there's anything you would like me to talk about next time, feel free to let me know. But until then, best wishes,
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