My Interesting (If Worrying) Music Tastes
I just discovered a new subgenre of music I love - “I know you’re cheating on me, and I’m going to fuck you up for it.” The songs are sooo good! Whew. I love angry women.
Now, they often promise violence and vandalism, which I don’t endorse, but… there’s just something so wondrous and fascinating about (female) righteous anger. Truly!
Here are some examples of such songs:
“Don’t Hurt Yourself” by Beyoncé feat Jack White
The opening line is her yelling “Who the FUCK do you think I am?” I stan so hard. Her voice is so deep and pissed off on the song - I love it. Queen. She also says, later in the song, “Bad motherfucker, God complex. I motivate yo ass, call me Malcolm X!” Which is, yeah. There’s an important monologue in the song too. And then at the end: “This is your final warning; you know I give you life. If you try this shit again, you gon’ lose your wife.” Yup - I know Jay Z shuddered when he heard that. Don’t Hurt Yourself always has me wanting to swing on my hypothetical cheat of a boyfriend (even though I never would in real life); the live version and music video, especially. The studio version is heat too; I know the studio engineers were nervous while she recorded the song. (Unrelated, the thing she did with her voice at the end of the live version is just SO beautiful she’s a *real* vocalist)
“I See Red” by Everybody Loves An Outlaw
Everybody Loves An Outlaw is a band whose music incorporates a variety of genres - rock, country, alt - and a female lead singer. I See Red is their most popular song, and I lovee it. It’s about a woman catching her male partner cheating on her with another woman, and being so mad - seeing red - that she resolves to kill him for his infidelity.
The chorus of the song:
I see red, red, oh red, oh
A gun to your head, head, to your head, oh
Executioner style, and there won't be no trialDon't you know that you're better off dead
All I see is red, red, oh red
Now all I see is red, red
Also, I particularly love the cover art because I find it so descriptive.
I think it concisely tells the story of the song. We can assume the man is the one in the suit on the cover, and that’s the woman standing in front of him, wearing what looks like lingerie (presumably for him), and as she’s standing in front of him, her behind on his crotch (presumably, she is pleasing him), we see her gripping a gun in her front (but he can’t), because right after this she plans to kill him. Superb use of imagery, I think.
Before He Cheats by Carrie Underwood
A woman discovers her husband is cheating on her; the song opens with her thinking with rage that he’s probably with his blonde mistress, buying her a drink, teaching her how to play pool… then her thoughts switch to a sinister one: her husband does not know that “I dug my key into the side of his pretty little souped-up four-wheel drive
Carved my name into his leather seats
I took a Louisville slugger to both headlights
I slashed a hole in all four tires”Maybe, next time, he’ll think before he cheats.
They are so few though songs with this theme though - female artistes need to make more songs like this, or I will have to step in myself.
(There’s some misogyny and sexism in some of these songs, which is unfortunate, but… I overlook them! I can overlook and forgive certain instances of misogyny from women…)
“I know you’re cheating on me, and I’m going to fuck you up for it” is a sub-subgenre of a genre I like to call Vengeful Woman/Female Rage/Unhinged Woman, which I equally love. There’s just something inside me that lives for women making angry art or expressing anger in art. It doesn’t have to be anger about the patriarchy, or anger at men; it can even be bitterness at another woman.
I guess I do because anger is so pathologised in women. Being disagreeable is not feminine, and if you’re not feminine then you’re a wrong woman. So I like it when women scorn that rule and express annoyance anyway. I just really love “bitter” women lol. There are a couple on Twitter I particularly like reading from.
So here are some Vengeful Woman song recommendations!
good 4 u by Olivia Rodrigo
Easier Than Lying by Halsey
I Did Something Bad by Taylor Swift (“If a man talks shit, then I owe him NOTHING” period!!!)
Misery Business by Paramore (sung by Hayley Williams)
WTF Do I Know by Miley Cyrus
Look What You Made Me Do by Taylor Swift (All I think about is karma…)
Sorry by Beyoncé
no body, no crime by Taylor Swift (A fave!!! Amazing storytelling by the songwriting queen)
Roaring 20s by Flo Milli
I Hate Boys by Christina Aguilera
So What by Pink
STFU! by Rina Sawayama
Nightmare by Halsey
Boomerang - Live by Yebba
Bops all through the list!
I also made a Spotify with these songs:
Listen and tell me your favourites?
(Also, I kind of wonder if this newsletter has made y’all wonder if I am actually a psychopathic man hater LOOOL)