Was there an artist or band who scared you as a child?

Question

I have a couple...

1. I was petrified of KISS growing up, which I don't think is all that uncommon. It was nothing about the music - it was just the makeup. I really do believe that my fear of clowns now stems from them.
2. And this one sounds strange, but the Psychedelic Furs, and vocalist Richard Butler in particular, freaked me out. After I saw the "Love My Way" video as a child for the first time I had a dream that night that he tried to kidnap me, and the song was playing the whole time. I could never watch it again growing up, though seeing him now makes me laugh.

How about you? Was there any musical act that scared you, either by their music, their appearance or maybe a video they did, when you were little?

Bogwoppit - good call.

lovnrckets - from a kid's perspective I can understand that. And clowns ARE creepy!

Joe - LOL! That was pretty scary.

rukrym - I just looked up the "War of the Worlds"...I never knew they did that!

smeelola - good point! Gene Simmons is scary no matter what.

huevo - too true. :)

MachPen - music and scary movies...it gives me chills! I've have songs that do the same for me too!

Answer 1

Ozzy was it for me. I heard the stories of satanic worship and biting a head off a bat as a kid and it freaked me out. I will say though that it's nowhere near my fear as an adult of Brittany Spears.

Edit: Great point, Mach. Those covers didn't help soften the image of him either.

Answer 2

..... You named so many bands I like already lol Well I'll try... Owl City Alex Goot Rise Against Sum 41 Atreyu Eagle Eye Cherry Dead By April Angels And Airwaves Sky Sailing Swimming With Dolphins Faber Drive Every Avenue A Rocket To The Moon A Skylit Drive We The Kings Yellowcard Simple Plan tobyMac From First To Last Parachute 3OH!3 Relient K Thousand Foot Krutch Mayday Parade School Boy Humor Boys Will Be Boys Never Shout Never Stereo Skyline The Maine Three Doors Down The Script Lifehouse Shinedown Falling Up The Summer Obsession Acceptance Amber Pacific Anberlin Nickelback Hawthrone Heights LIGHTS The Offspring Secondhand Serenade Fort Minor Story Of The Year The Last Goodnight Air Traffic Red Jumpsuit Apparatus Ephixa InnerpartySystem Crossfade Pillar The All American Rejects Breaking Benjamin We Are The In Crowd Cute Is What We Aim For Postal Service Vertical Horizon I tried my best to name the bands you haven't already listed. Some are good, some are bad. I'm just trying to beat you in the song count lol Some of my favorites from this list are: Alex Goot, Owl City, Angels And Airwaves (Tom of Blink-182 side project I believe), Rise Against, Sky Sailing, Sum 41, Dead By April, Every Avenue, Sky Sailing (Adam's old project), and Atreyu. Edit: Just added a few more, and I'm gonna make the list look longer :D

Answer 3

Well, I can vividly remember being absolutely terrified by the video for Michael Jackson's "Thriller" when I was a kid. Scared me senseless. Especially the part where he turns into a zombie. Scary stuff!

Edit:
Ha, didn't see Joe's answer earlier. Guess I look pretty unoriginal now. Better try to think of another one... ooh, I know. When I was a kid, my dad had a vinyl of "War of the Worlds", which was even scarier than "Thriller", although I suppose that doesn't really count, since it's not a band.

* Yeah, I just looked it up on Wiki to see who it was by. Some guy called Jeff Wayne, who I've never heard of :)
Actually, I think the record is in a box somewhere in the attic with a bunch of my dad's old vinyls. I'll have to rescue them one of these days!

Answer 4

I remember being really scared by the video to "Another Brick In The Wall" by Pink Floyd when it was on Top Of The Pops. That scary puppet teacher thing and all the kids going into the mincer. I love it now though.

Answer 5

The closest a group ever came to scaring me might have been Blue Oyster Cult. The song Don't Fear The Reaper had the opposite effect on me. It gave me nightmares of The Grim Reaper. After that song, BOC didn't frighten me anymore.

All clowns are creepy. :)

Richard Butler probably had you on the hit list right after capturing Molly Ringwald, too funny.

Answer 6

Marilyn Manson

Answer 7

My mind is drawing a blank right now, but the only one I can think of is probably Alice Cooper -- he scared me...LOL...maybe it was that crazy running eyeliner of his.

I can tell you though, there were certain songs that scared me.
Everytime I heard that oldies song "Blue Moon" come on the oldies radio station my mom used to listen to .... my heart would begin racing because it'd remind me of the movie "American Werewolf in London", which just scared the bejeezus out of me as a kid.

I second the clown phobia thing. I hate clowns! If I were a kid, The Insane Clown Posse would have given me nightmares.

Answer 8

Guess what, Gene Simmons used to scare me too. But the really neat thing is, KISS is my #1 favorite band. I cannot believe I feared them.
KISS rules!

Answer 9

Michael Jackson's Thriller video sacred the living crap out of me as a kid for years, especially the werewolf part at the beginning and I haven't watched it ever again! I am 33 now and would not want to watch it!!!

Answer 10

Haha, the singer from Men at Work freaked me out in the "Who Can It Be Now", video.