Nobody actually wants the apocalypse to happen, but as a culture, we’re fascinated with it all the same. We devour TV shows and movies like the Walking Dead, The Last of Us, Fallout, Night of the Living Dead, Army of the Dead, 2012, Mad Max, Night of the Comet, War of the Worlds, and so many more. There are even plenty of post-apocalyptic movies you can watch with your kids.
The end of the world has also seeped into popular culture, for sure, and that includes music as well. While you’re doing your preps, here’s a list of musical inspiration, ranging from the goofy to the grim to the catchy to the peppy to the weird. Hopefully you’ll find some songs to enjoy on this post-apocalyptic soundtrack!
- Sheldon Allman: Crawl out Through The Fallout. A cheerful-sounding country western song from 1960.
- Klaus Nomi: Total Eclipse. Hauntingly operatic and strange, just like Klaus Nomi was.
- The Postal Service: We Will Become Silhouettes. Check out the trippy video, you can find it on Youtube!
- David Bowie: Five Years. Oh, David Bowie, I miss you. This song is about getting the news that the Earth has only five years left, before some unnamed catastrophe wipes us all out.
- Kate Bush: Breathing. Ok, this one is a little slow, it’s pretty and all, but it’s not my favorite. However it definitely fits in the post-apoc genre.
- Nena: 99 Red Balloons. An absolute classic, I’ve listened to both the English and the German version so many times. I love 80s music. Was I alive in the 80s? SHUT UP, that’s what!
- The Ramones: Blitzkrieg Bop. High-energy weirdness! More 80s
- Tom Waits: The Earth Died Screaming. The title is pretty self-explanatory. Tom Waits is a folksy singer with a wonderfully growly voice.
- Tom Waits: Cold Cold Ground. Another grim song with strong TEOTWAWKI vibes.
- Muse: Apocolypse, Please. They’re an alternative/grunge rock band and this song has a despairing ‘end of the world’ tone to it.
- Europe: The Final Countdown. The guys in that band had some serious hair. The song doesn’t specifically mention the apocalypse, it’s left to our imagination what the final countdown could be for.
- George McCelvey (who?): Radiation Baby (My Teenage Fallout Queen). A silly parody song from 1964.
- Imagine Dragons: Radioactive. A more modern take on nuclear war.
- Matt Maltese: A man spends the last night on earth with his lover. Hauntingly sad lyrics.
- R.E.M.: It’s The End Of The World As We Know It. The leader singer of R.E.M. said that he sang this song after having dreams about the end of the world.
- The Doors: The End. This song initially started out as a song about a breakup, but it evolved into something more than that, according to Jim Morrison. It’s got a very doomy end-of-it-all feeling.
- Prince: 1999. Remember when everyone thought that all computers would crash at the end of 1999? Nope, the world’s still here…for now.
- Creedence Clearwater Revival: Bad Moon Rising. I love everything by this band, including this song. Yet another Vietnam-era song speaking to the fears of the time.
- The Clash: London Calling. One of the original punk bands sings about the collapse of civilization. Many people back in the 1980s thought punk rock WAS the collapse of civilization.
- Fishbone: Party at Ground Zero. A ska band’s take on the end of the world as we know it!
- Barry McGuire: Eve of Destruction. Written in 1965. A lot of heartfelt, anguished songs were written during the Vietnam war era of social unrest. Unfortunately the social unrest is still with us.
- Jonathon Coulton. Re: Your Brains. A goofy song about the zombie apocalypse. It’s very catchy; try getting it out of your head after you listen to it!
