World Trade Center in Popular Culture - Music

Music

(Alphabetically by artist)

A

• "New York, New York" is a song composed and performed by American alt-country musician Ryan Adams. The song's music video shows Adams performing in front of the city's skyline, and features the World Trade Center visible from across the East River in Brooklyn. It was filmed just four days before the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Because of this, profits of the video went to a 9/11 charity. A message was written at the end of the video giving tribute to those who lost their lives.
• AC/DC used the World Trade Center in the video for "Shake Your Foundations".

B

• The cover of the Beastie Boys' sixth studio album, To the 5 Boroughs, is a drawing featuring the Twin Towers in a compressed New York skyline. This album was released in 2004.
• The World Trade Center appears in the music video for Blondie's hit "Heart of Glass."
• The back cover for the album How I Spent My Summer Vacation by The Bouncing Souls shows the Twin Towers, among other buildings, burning and being destroyed. This album was released in May 2001.
• The band Breaking Benjamin filmed their 2009 single "I Will Not Bow" in the World Trade Center Building 7.
• The towers are seen in Brooks & Dunn's music video "Only In America". The song was later featured in the beginning of Oliver Stone's film World Trade Center with the towers in the background.

C

• Eurodance group Corona prominently features the Twin Towers on the cover of their worldwide hit, "The Rhythm of the Night".
• Rap group The Coup released an album in late 2001 called Party Music, whose original cover depicts explosions in the towers set off by a detonator. The cover was changed after the 9/11 attacks.

D

• The Dave Matthews Band was set to film a music video for their song "When the World Ends" from the album Everyday. The music video was supposed to feature lead singer Dave Matthews climbing a ladder to the top of a giant tower. The video idea and single were shelved after the 9/11 attacks and replaced by the more uplifting song "Everyday".
• A promotional video for Depeche Mode's song "Enjoy the Silence" features the band performing the song on the observation deck of the South Tower. This video is not the official music video for the song. The Twin Towers can also be seen in the background of the cover of the band's single "In Your Room" and in the official music video for the song "It's No Good".
• The music video for "Worst Comes To Worst" by Dilated Peoples contains a shot with the Twin Towers in the background. The video was filmed before the attacks, but was released afterwards with a disclaimer stating that the artists meant no disrespect by including an image of the World Trade Center.
• The video of Dinosaur Jr.'s "Feel the Pain" was filmed with the World Trade Center as a backdrop.
• The cover for the album The Dirtchamber Sessions Volume One by Liam Howlett of The Prodigy shows a counter with three rows of numbers. Second row is the numbers "0090". Third row is "1101". This album was released in 1999.
• New York based Progressive metal band Dream Theater's song "Sacrificed Sons" from their 2005 album Octavarium is a tribute to the rescue workers who died during and after the attacks. Their 2001 live album Live Scenes from New York was recalled, as it showed the NYC skyline, including the WTC, in flames. The album was released on September 11, 2001.

E

• Eminem highlights the World Trade Center attacks in his song "My Dad's Gone Crazy" from the Eminem Show album. The lyrics are "More pain inside of my brain, than in the eyes of a little girl inside of a plane, aimed at the World Trade..."

F

• The World Trade Center can be seen throughout Glenn Frey's music video "You Belong to the City", which was part of the soundtrack for Miami Vice.
• The North tower is seen burning on 9/11 in I Cry by Flo Rida.

G

• Vince Gill's 1995 "When Love Finds You" video had several scenes of the towers.
• They are seen in the background during a scene of the "Paradise City" music video by Guns N' Roses.

I

• I Am the World Trade Center is a music group active since 1999. After the September 11 attacks, the group briefly went by the name "I Am the World".

J

• The towers appear several times in Janet Jackson's 1995 music video of "Runaway". They appear in the background as Jackson and her backup dancers dance atop the Manhattan Bridge and later when she flies around the towers.
• Rapper Jay-Z pays tribute to the dead of 9/11 attack in album Blueprint 2, features the World Trade Center in his music video "Dead Presidents", and mentions "Long live the World Trade" in his 2009 hit "Empire State of Mind".
• Alan Jackson's 1994 "Gone Country" video had them featured in a flyover scene.
• In the Jefferson Starship music video "We Built This City", the World Trade Center appears several times as part of a changing background of various landmark buildings during the last two minutes of the video.
• "Janet jackson" Video lets wait awhile the beginning scene shows the lights of the World trade center and at the very end of the video it shows a clear shot of the world trade center from Brooklyn

K

• One of the barhops from the pub Hogs and Heifers in downtown Manhattan walks near the globe where the Twin Towers stood in The Kentucky Headhunters' 2001 "Louisiana Coco" video.

L

• The ska punk band Leftover Crack featured the world trade center attacks on their album Flip World Trade and also refer to their previous album, Mediocre Generica, as "...the tower toppling Mediocre Generica." as it was released on the 11th of September 2001.
• In John Lennon's music video Whatever Gets You Through The Night in the beginning the twin towers are shown in the background.
• Lil' Kim's music video for her 1996 debut single "No Time" features her and P. Diddy riding up and down the World Trade Center escalators while rapping. Kim makes a reference to the video in her 2005 single "Whoa" were she says "...told you I'm the same female dog from the escalator...".
• The group Limp Bizkit feature the World Trade Center in their music video for the song "Rollin'" (2000). The band is shown on the South Tower, staging portions of the music video on its rooftop observation deck. The end of the video features a gradually distancing helicopter shot of the towers.
• In Linkin Park's 2007 single "What I've Done" the video features many clips of global issues; a brief shot of the Lower Manhattan skyline is shown with the Twin Towers. Scenes of 9/11 are shown later in the video.

M

• The Twin Towers are shown in two of Madonna's music videos: "Papa Don't Preach" and "Ray of Light."
• Heavy metal Band, Meshuggah's Album Contradictions Collapse Album art has the World Trade Center on it.
• Martina McBride's "Wild Angels", released in 1995, showed the tower in a wide shot of the video.
• The towers appeared prominently in Neal McCoy's 1994 video "The City Put the Country Back in Me."
• During Megadeth's live concert DVD Rude Awakening, Dave Mustaine dedicates their performance of "A Tout Le Monde" to the lives lost on September 11. The concert was shot in 2001, after the attacks.
• The song "Open Letter to NYC" includes Mike D referencing to The Twin Towers and pays homage to New York City.
• Rapper Pete Miser wrote a song titled "Might Be" which mentions the events of September 11, 2001. The song is featured on Pete Miser's album Radio Free Brooklyn which was released in 2002.
• In the official video by the English group Muse, "Invincible" they enter in an "It's a Small World" attraction, as the video goes forward, there's scene the Twin Towers appear burning after the planes crash.
• The My Chemical Romance song "Skylines and Turnstiles" was written as a tribute to the 9/11 attacks. Gerard Way witnessed the attacks firsthand from a ferry.

N

• The towers make an appearance in Nana's 1998 music video "Remember The Time".
• The song by The Notorious B.I.G., "Juicy", released in 1994, features the lyrics "blow up like the World Trade" in a reference to the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. When the verse was sampled for the Jay-Z song "A Dream" in 2002, the words "World Trade" were omitted.

O

• The World Trade Center appears behind and to the left of the Empire State Building on the front cover to the Oasis album Standing on the Shoulder of Giants.

P

• An extremely quick glimpse of the World Trade Center can be seen in Phil Collins' video, "Take Me Home".

R

• The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center briefly appear twice in the music video to R.E.M.'s 1989 single "Stand".
• Quite a few shots of the World Trade Center are found in The Rolling Stones' music video for "Anybody Seen My Baby", the most notable of which is seen right at the start.
• In the Kevin Rudolf song "N.Y.C." Nas raps and mentions the towers: "The illest city on the planet, towers came down, Wall Street barely standing."
• The Twin Towers are shown several times in the background in Reel 2 Real's music video I Like to Move It.
• Artist Mason Ruffner's music video for "Dancin' On Top Of The World" has the band doing exactly that.

S

• Sade's music video for "Cherish the Day" features the Twin Towers in the background while she is singing on top of a skyscraper.
• The band, Savage Garden, featured the World Trade Center in their music video, "To The Moon and Back", which appeared as the first track in their self-titled debut album.
• Famed singer Bob Seger includes a view of the World Trade Center and Lower Manhattan in the music video for "Fire Inside".
• Will Smith wrote a song titled "Why", which in the first verse of the song mentions him and his son watching the attacks on TV.
• The video for the Spice Girls song "2 Become 1", released in 1996, features numerous night-time shots of the World Trade Center, from differing angles, throughout the duration of the clip.
• In Bruce Springsteen's Song "Darlington County" (Born in the U.S.A. - released 1984) a lyrical reference to the Trade Center is made: "...Our pa's each own one of the World Trade Centers for a kiss and a smile I'll give mine all to you..."
• In Al B. Sure's music video "Nite and Day", the towers are shown.
• On Supertramp's album cover "Breakfast in America", the towers are shown as a pile of white cereal boxes on a huge breakfast tray. Released in 1979, the album was the group's most popular, and sold over 18 million copies.
• On 16 April 1998 Spiritualized played the highest recorded concert in history in the restaurant atop the World Trade Center.

T

• The song "The Evil Has Landed" by American Thrash metal band Testament from their 2008 release The Formation of Dangation was written about the 9/11 attacks. It includes lyrics such as "The towers got hit, a steel bird with wings of destruction".
• Filmed in the NYC area, the video titled "Scenario" by A Tribe Called Quest featuring Leaders of the New School (with Busta Rhymes) briefly shows the Twin Towers in the background. The towers are also seen in their video "Electric Relaxation."

W

• Stevie Wonder's video for his 1985 hit song "Part-Time Lover" shows the Twin Towers in the background at night while he is singing.

Y

• The Yellowcard song "Believe" on the album Ocean Avenue was written as a tribute to the 9/11 attacks.

Z

• The towers can be seen in Zhane's "Vibe" music video.

The towers can also be seen in The Statler Brother's music video "You've been like a mother to me.