It could be argued that music’s main purpose is to make us feel something. Many times, this is split into the categories of happy (major) and sad (minor). However, it often creates the entire spectrum of feelings, sometimes without us even noticing. I was recently listening to a certain musical (I’ll reveal all later) and was confronted with a piece of music that has made me feel uneasy since I was a child. It just so happened to be Halloween season – could there be a better time to explore scary scores than this?

Read on, if you dare!

Creepy Compositions

There are many techniques composers and songwriters use to denote fear and suspense when creating music. Below are a few of the most common:

• Dissonance – A lack of harmony among musical notes. These clashes often create a sense of harshness that can provoke tension within the listener.- This is very commonly used in horror films, for example, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film Psycho. One of the most famous scenes in horror (the shower scene) is accompanied by The Murder, composed by the legend Bernard Herrmann. It uses an X-cell – four chromatic notes (E flat, E, F, and F#).
• Minor chords and pulsating rhythms – Often perceived as sombre or dark.
• Unpredictable structure – Songs that end on an unfinished cadence, come to a sudden crescendo, and suddenly stop are a layered and jarring way to create anxiety in a listener.
• High-pitched sounds – Sustained or dramatic high notes can put our brains on edge. Our brains prefer repetition in songs and like to be able to guess where the next section is going. Disrupting this can cause small amounts of stress.
• Disorienting rhythms – Like the above, inconsistent tempos and rhythms can unsettle us.

Why do these emotional responses occur?

• Evolutionary response – Certain sounds trigger our fight-or-flight response. This instinct has been used since the dawn of time to detect danger and is so strong that it can override the context of the situation we’re in – for example, watching a film safely on the sofa.
• Context – A sound might not be inherently scary but can become scary through association with the context we’re hearing it in.
• Conditioning – Similar to context but a little more ingrained. Think of an air raid siren – if you didn’t associate it with impending danger, would it spark a fear or anxiety reaction?
• Amygdala activation – Scary music stimulates the amygdala, the part of the brain that functions as an early warning system for protection.
• Emotional amplification – If you listen to a song while already in an anxious or sad mood, the music can worsen it.

War of the Worlds – Bass line from Horsell Common and the Heat Ray

Written in 1975 by Jeff Wayne, inspired by the novel of the same title by H. G. Wells, it follows a journalist as he navigates an invasion from Mars.
Horsell Common and the Heat Ray finds our protagonist in the presence of a cylinder from the sky. As the lid begins to unscrew, a sinister, creeping 12-note bass riff, played by Herbie Flowers, gradually builds tension. The layering of the synth, played in semitone intervals, creates  a feeling of dread that has always dug a pit in my chest. Richard Burton (our narrator) uses his deep baritone voice to keep the audience on tenterhooks.
“…and then the lid fell off.”
This piece of music has struck fear in me since I can remember. The story itself doesn’t scare me, but that bass line is one of the most effective in horror, in my opinion. My dad eventually clocked onto my fear and learned it on the guitar to tease me. Even now, if I’m listening to it as dusk approaches, I’ll turn it down a few notches.

Comfortably Numb – Pink Floyd

Another song used in a film that made me uneasy growing up. Released in 1980 by Pink Floyd as part of their album The Wall, which provided a narrative to their film of the same name. As the film isn’t the most suitable for a seven-year-old, I didn’t have the context for this song until I was in my teens. Despite this, the echoing, layered voices put me on edge. I remember listening to it in the car and thinking it was about aliens abducting someone.
In reality, Pink, a washed-up, depressed rock star, is found unconscious in his apartment by dodgy doctors who administer “just a little pin prick” before forcing him on stage, disoriented and drugged. It’s now one of my favourite songs of all time, but the undertones of David Gilmour’s dark, ethereal voice, screams, and the use of a Big Muff Fuzz pedal give the guitar solo a gritty, distorted quality that amplifies the emotional intensity.

Boots – Rudyard Kipling

Published in 1903 and later recorded by Taylor Holmes in 1915, Kipling wrote Boots based on the gruelling infantry marches during the Second Boer War – the army would cover hundreds of miles during the campaigns across South Africa.
The tempo of the words is meant to mimic the sound of the marching it describes, eventually becoming increasingly faster and unhinged with “Try, try, to think of something different, stop me going lunatic!” Due to its relentless, repetitive rhythm, it’s used to disorient and exhaust soldiers in the U.S. military’s SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) training, subjecting them to psychological stress and simulating hostage situations.
I was surprised that I hadn’t heard this recording until the teaser trailer for 28 Years Later was released in 2024. It’s one of the best uses of sound in any trailer I’ve ever experienced. The combination of the audio and visuals is so powerful that I felt anxious the rest of the morning, even warning my partner when recommending he watch it. It’s a masterpiece.

The Best Music Makes You Feel

As Halloween rolls around each year, I’m reminded that the things that frighten us aren’t always monsters or ghosts – sometimes, they’re melodies and memories. Music has the uncanny ability to crawl under our skin, to tap into instincts older than language itself. Whether it’s a dissonant string section or a creeping bass line, those sounds that go bump in the night remind us that fear can be beautiful – especially when it comes with a good beat.

Happy Halloween.