Artists and musicians from every genre have long used art to explore the more sinister aspects of human experience. They do so by portraying these feelings through spellbinding lyrics and eerie arrangements. In anticipation of Halloween, artists including Diamanda Galás, Nick Cave and John Carpenter listed their favorites for the most terrifying music ever created. This included songs that inspire dread, suspense, and the otherworldly. This sonic adventure explores scary scores, from movie soundtracks to the opera house. It highlights ways that sound can be used to shape feelings and move audiences into more disturbing spaces.
Among the notable contributions is Diamanda Galás’s latest album, Schrei x, which showcases her unique ability to infuse music with themes of guilt and sin. Her artistry, marked by never heard before vocal acrobatics and volcanic emotional eruption transforms rooms and hearts from the first note. All in all, it’s yet another perfect showcase for Galás’s immaculate ability to craft mood pieces that drip with dread and oppression.
John Williams’s iconic Main Title Theme From Jaws, composed in 1975, is essential for the jumpy trip through terrible tunes. Its haunting melodies have enchanted generations of audiences. The score uses very minimalist synthesizers and strings to recreate the primal simplicity of a shark’s cerebral cortex. Williams’s injunction has become shorthand for cinematic tension, successfully frightening audiences with a pair of notes.
The Power of Sound in Horror
Really this effect just touches the tip of the iceberg in terms of sound’s contribution to horror film. John Carpenter’s minimalist soundtrack for the original Halloween is still considered the gold standard of horror soundtracks. It is brilliant in its simplicity and very deep psychological effect, distilling the very essence of fear with its unsettling soundscapes. In fact, Carpenter has described the unique quality of horror movie score music, saying,
“There’s nothing scary about this movie.” – John Carpenter
This declaration hints at an astonishing opposite. The ability of audio can sometimes overshadow aesthetic factors in developing concern.
Herbie Hancock’s contribution to creating truly haunting music shouldn’t be overlooked either. He composed Paint Her Mouth for the Death Wish soundtrack, demonstrating his genius in creating evocative sounds that resonate deeply with listeners. Hancock always works wonders with little, including a unique snare drum sound that punctuates the tracks. Here’s how we see, in horror especially, that sometimes less is more.
Similarly, Krzysztof Penderecki’s opera The Devils of Loudun draws inspiration from Aldous Huxley’s work, exploring themes of possession and madness. Penderecki’s avant-garde aesthetic, marked by jarring chords and sudden, grating shifts in tempo and form, creates an atmosphere of confusion and fear. All at the service of telling that creepy tale, of course, but highlighting Penderecki’s incomparable command of eerie sonorities.
Cultural Reflections in Artistic Expression
The world of scary music is huge, with tons of other artists and musicians bringing their scary vibes to the table. Sloppy Jane’s new album, Jesus and Your Living Room Floor, is overflowing with this feeling. Overall, it really serves to beautifully encapsulate that feeling of hopelessness mixed with dread. This ballad is the latest in a growing body of modern songs that handle subjects like death and despair with moving words and chill-inducing harmonies.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds contribute heavily to this genre with their song Stagger Lee. The lyrics take a deep look into themes of violence and morality, summing up the core of our human darkness. In a striking statement, Cave famously declared,
“I’ll crawl over 50 good pussies just to get one fat boy’s asshole.” – Nick Cave
This controversial lyric is a perfect case in point, serving as an example of Cave’s unflinching resolve to face the dark side of life through song.
Animated kids musical series Sparky’s Magic Piano gives a life to a one Foot, talking virtual piano. This special piano talks to Sparky using a voice generated by a tube-based vocoder known as the Sonovox. It’s a captivating, original approach that combines an otherworldly, dreamlike quality with a playful, slightly sinister mood to remind you that even kids’ songs can be haunting. The series contrasts ways in which sound can create a sense of play as well as a sense of unease, connecting disparate emotional worlds.
The Evolution of Horror Music
Just as horror moves forward each year, so too does the music score and enhance the genre. Each of these artists represents a piece of the puzzle that goes deeper with understanding how sound creates worlds and feelings in this genre. This combination of fantastic visual storytelling with an incredible auditory experience creates an immersive world that is the hallmark of today’s best horror.
In 1994, Diamanda Galás joined forces with Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones to record The Sporting Life. This partnership is a testament to the incredible blending of cultural sounds, all while expressing deep and haunting subjects. Their collaboration fuses Galás’s clarion wail with Jones’s instrumental virtuosity, creating urgent music that dares to go into difficult emotional territory.