Month: October 2014

Modern Halloween Playlists

calvinbremer , , ,

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A lot of Halloween festivities contain oldies, but a lot of times it’s kinda jumbled when it comes to modern songs making Halloween playlists. Moves Like Jagger doesn’t really scream “scary” unless you’re talking about being two inches from Mick Jagger’s face. That could be terrifying.

I’ve compiled this list of classics (Thriller, Ghostbusters, The Time Warp, etc.) with a mix of more modern songs that have an eerie or dark feel to them. Most of them aren’t exact songs for Halloween, but they do contain themes of death, fear, and horror.

  1. Mad House – Rihanna (Rated R)
  2. This Is Halloween – Danny Elfman (The Nightmare Before Christmas OST)
  3. Zombie – Natalia Kills (The Perfectionist)
  4. A Nightmare on My Street – DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince (He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper)
  5. The Horror – Savant (Alchemist)
  6. Paranoid – Kanye West (808’s & Heartbreaks)
  7. Disturbia – Rihanna (Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded)
  8. Thriller – Michael Jackson (Thriller)
  9. Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) – Marilyn Manson (Smells Like Children)
  10. Creepshow – Kerli (Love is Dead)
  11. The Time Warp – Various Artists (The Rocky Horror Picture Show OST)
  12. Kidnap the Sandy Claws – Korn (Nightmare Revisited)
  13. Make Me Wanna Die – The Pretty Reckless (Light Me Up)
  14. Mama – My Chemical Romance (The Black Parade)
  15. Lacrymosa – Evanescence (The Open Door)
  16. Ghostbusters – Ray Parker, Jr. (Ghostbusters OST)
  17. Tigerlily – La Roux (La Roux)
  18. Funhouse – P!nk (Funhouse)
  19. Animal I Have Become – Three Days Grace (One-X)
  20. Black Widow (Radio Edit) – Iggy Azalea & Rita Ora (The New Classic)

Although you don’t have to have your playlist in this order, this arrangement felt the most natural to me. Rihanna’s Mad House is a minute-and-a-half intro with a grumbling bassline and spooky grunts basically welcoming the playlist. From there it leads directly into the Tim Burton version of This Is Halloween to introduce the holiday. The classics are spread evenly throughout so that you don’t have everyone rushing to pull off Thriller moves and then not be up to doing The Time Warp immediately after. Everyone always anticipates the classics and it’s more fun to space them out.

What songs do you have on your Halloween playlist?

(Fun fact: My username is taken from a lyric in Disturbia) 😛