Columbine High School Massacre in Modern Culture - Music

Music

References to the shootings have appeared in popular music.

• Underground rap artist Ill Bill released an album which includes the song "The Anatomy of a School Shooting".Template:Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The Anatomy of a School Shooting

• Christian rock band Superchick wrote the song "Hero", referencing to school bullying and a boy coming to school with a gun. The song is about spreading kindness to prevent suicide and murder.

• Christian ska band Five Iron Frenzy wrote a song called "A New Hope" about what happened at Columbine. The band is from Denver CO and band member Micah Ortega's sister was one of the students trapped in the choir room during the massacre.

• Members of KMFDM, one of the bands to which Harris and Klebold were avid fans, had formed a group called MDFMK and wrote a song called "Witch Hunt".

• The massacre inspired Finnish symphonic metal group Nightwish to write "The Kinslayer" for their Wishmaster album (1999). The song references the victims (9 men, 4 women) and shooters and contains a conversation between Nightwish singer Tarja Turunen and guest singer Ike Vil that are supposed to be a conversation between one of the killers and one of his victims.

• Underground Rapper Denace (also knowing as "Nasty" ) wrote the song "Change The Road" inspired by the massacre. The song tells the story of two the killers both from different worlds but both commit the crime due to being bullied.

• Rapper Eminem references the massacre in his 2000 album The Marshall Mathers LP, in songs "Remember Me?", "I'm Back", and "The Way I Am".

• Napoleon referenced it at the end of a Outlawz song "The Good Die Young" on Still I Rise, not to be confused with the D12 song released on D12 World approximately 5 years later.

• In 2000 the Insane Clown Posse and fellow label mates Twiztid wrote the song "Bad Rep" for side project Dark Lotus.

• Singer-songwriter David M. Bailey wrote and recorded a song, "One More Day", which discusses the shootings.

• In 2004, shots of surveillance footage of the Columbine shooting spree appeared in the music video for "Alert Status Red" by Matthew Good.

• Filter's 2002 album, The Amalgamut, is social commentary with one song ("Columind") displaying a portrayal of the Columbine shooting.

• Contemporary Christian Musician Michael W. Smith released This Is Your Time in 1999, which was inspired by the Columbine massacre; especially the title track "This is Your Time", which is about the mistaken belief that Cassie Bernall was asked if she believed in God, when in fact this exchange happened with survivor Valeen Schnurr.

• Christian songwriter and artist, Brad Richardson wrote "A Colorado Columbine" featured on the Lullaby for Columbine CD released in 1999. The song was inspired by a blanket of snow that fell on the morning after the Columbine shooting. The song evokes a spirit of cleansing and hope in the aftermath of America's deadliest school shootings.

• Nu-metal band Limp Bizkit made reference to the Columbine shooting in their song "Head for the Barricade".

• The band The Calling has a song called "One By One" was inspired by many school shootings, including The Columbine Massacre.

• The band Flyleaf has a song entitled "Cassie", which is about the mistaken belief that Cassie Bernall was asked if she believed in God, when in fact this exchange happened with survivor Valeen Schnurr.

• The band Korn has a song about a bullied teenager who dreams of killing his tormentors called "Thoughtless" on the 2002 album Untouchables .

• Frank Ticheli visited the school after the massacre, and wrote an alma mater for the school after discovering that the school did not have one. The song was later self-quoted in "An American Elegy", a piece written for band.

• Marilyn Manson put out an entire record that incorporated reflections concerning the shooting of Columbine: Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death). It was the band's first album since the Columbine High School massacre. The album focuses on America's celebrity culture, its obsession with guns and its fascination with death and martyrdom, and especially the fame - driven by the national media - which violent death can bring. Songs such as "Disposable Teens" and "The Fight Song" were directly written about the Columbine incident. The slower, thought-provoking "The Nobodies" concluded the work.

• A song called "Leave Me Alone" by goth band The Crüxshadows was remixed as the "Leave Me Alone (Shaft 20/20 Mix)" to incorporate audio clips from the anti-goth segment of the ABC newsmagazine show 20/20 that aired the day after the shooting.

• The band Pitchshifter has a song entitled "As Seen On TV".

• Alice Cooper's Brutal Planet album, released in 2000, includes a song "Wicked Young Man" which explicitly refers to the Columbine massacre.

• In the Chumbawamba song, "Everything You Know Is Wrong", the lead character (the song is from the point of view of the man in the background of conspiracies) makes reference to both Columbine and the two semi-associated events, the Waco Siege and the Oklahoma City bombing.

• The Chumbawamba song "We Don't Want to Sing Along", was based on the Columbine incident with the protagonist first learning how to make a bomb in an internet chat-room and is abandoned by a friend who dismisses the idea of action.

• In the song "Loyal To the Game (Remix)" on the Tupac album Loyal To the Game, rapper DJ Quik refers to the event.

• The Game mentions the massacre on the G-Unit remix of the song Hate It Or Love It on 50 Cent's album The Massacre.

• Columbine students Jonathan and Stephen Cohen wrote a song called Friend Of Mine (Columbine), which briefly received airplay in the US after being performed at a memorial service broadcast on nationwide television. The song was pressed to CD, with the proceeds benefiting families affected by the massacre, and over 10,000 copies were ordered. Shortly following the release of the CD single, the song was also featured on the Lullaby for Columbine CD.

• The video for Montgomery Gentry's song You Do Your Thing contains a few brief clips of Columbine High School during the massacre.

• Amanda Palmer, one half of The Dresden Dolls, performed "Strength Through Music" during the 2007 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It is a song about Columbine. She stated it was written some time earlier, though she did not clarified the time frame. Strength Through Music is on her first solo CD Who Killed Amanda Palmer, and she also did a music video version of it shot in Lexington High School, Massachusetts, her alma mater. The video has a spoken mode-setting preface.

• In 2008's Ice Cube's "Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It" video, clips of Columbine can be seen.

• The song "Teenagers" by the band My Chemical Romance is partly based upon school shootings and teen violence.

• Michale Graves' song "Nobody Thinks About Me" makes many references to Columbine.

• The song "Ready To Die" by Andrew W.K. is about orchestrated and "revenge" shootings.

• SITD's song Laughingstock largely refers to Columbine.

• Mindless Self Indulgence make reference to Columbine in their song "Mastermind" from their 2008 album, If.

• P.O.D in their song Youth of the Nation, was inspired by the Columbine and Santana school shooting.

• Swedish punk band "Atlas Losing Grip" reference the shooting in their 2008 song "All In Vain" off their "Shut The World Out" album. In the last half of the song the clip of Patti Nielson's 911 call can be heard in the background of the music and the song ends with a gunshot.

• French black metal band "Nocturnal Depression" recorded a song entitled "Bonus (Hidden Track)" dedicated to the tragedy on their album "Soundtrack for a Suicide - Opus II".

• American hip-hop artist Tyler, the Creator makes a reference to the shootings as well as the Virginia Tech massacre in his song Yonkers.

• Rapper Nicki Minaj makes a reference to the shootings in her song Roman Reloaded featuring Lil Wayne.

• American band Foster the People arguably referenced the Columbine Massacre in the song Pumped Up Kicks.

• Rapper Krizz Kaliko most recently made a reference to the shooting in the song "Created a Monster" on his 2012 album Kickin' and Screamin'.

• Rapper Tyler The Creator makes a reference to the Columbine school shooting in the song Yonkers (song)