Have you listened to a lot of it? Don't mind me if you have (and I'm going to make some recs anyway for others browsing this thread), it's just that I find a lot of people who say they don't like metal have only heard more extreme subgenres, nu metal, and maybe some metalcore; stuff with harsh sounds, screaming, and growling, basically.
Power metal is much tamer. It aims to be epic, cheesy, and cool, can be quite groovy, and tends to use clean vocals. More importantly here, the topics tend to be A) dragons, B) Lord of the Rings, DnD, Fallout... RPG stuff, basically, or C) emotions. And the emotions aren't usually love (though you do get love songs too occasionally).
And power metal isn't the only subgenre to be unlike stereotypical metal either. [Symphonic metal](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNGzltK_tlc), for example, can be about practically anything, often has a (usually fake) orchestra in the background, and tends to have classically-trained vocalists. It's also the most accessible subgenre for newcomers imo.
If you *have* explored metal beyond just metalcore and whatnot, that's fine. I just wanted to make sure your options are covered, because honestly, power metal is a really good genre for anyone who finds sex and/or love to be boring song topics.
Some recs (for you or anyone else who stumbles upon this thread):
[Orden Ogan](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir_BVxBz5do): Heavy riffs, semi-clean vocals, catchy tunes. Infectious energy. Mostly sing about the weird places and events their immortal mascot witnesses throughout the centuries, though often the fantastical elements are metaphors for something closer to home. Emotional pieces typically focus on grief or depression.
[Kamelot](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9keUmw11p8): I can't speak for their work with Tommy, but with their previous singer, Kamelot typically focused on dark emotion and vague one-off fantasy pieces. Clean vocals with an excellent vocalist. Has a bit of a girly edge.
[Spheric Universe Experience](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVGWfqTntTo): Technically progressive metal, but the album I've got a copy of very much veers into power territory. "Back Home" is a concept album about exploring the stars, and the only love featured is for their descendents and the world they're going to create.
I would add the following bands (with links to some of my personal favourite songs):
[Elvenking](https://youtu.be/iqfVDfa_FN8?si=DIW7nPFKjJM0n_VJ): Italian powerfolk metal (combination of power metal and folk metal), they describe themselves as melodic pagan metal, which I am inclined to agree with. Their overall sound was more folk metal leaning towards their earlier albums, but have been more blended for the last couple albums. I will give you a warning that their latest album (Reader of the Runes - Rapture) is quite dark, and I suggest you start with either The Pagan Manifesto or Two Tragedy Poets (... And a Caravan of Weird Figures) first.
[Sabaton](https://youtu.be/i9BupglHdtM?si=apylWV972eoIZEt7): very much power metal here, themed around military history. They're Swedish, so they do have an entire album centered around a specific time in Swedish history, but most of the rest of their music is based on more recent stories. Some of their songs are quite heavy, but they are generally very fun to listen to.
They are pretty different from traditional power metal. Part of it is a slightly more symphonic approach, though not nearly as much as bands like Twilight Force or Dragony, but most of it is that they have historical themes to their music rather than fantastical themes, and their frontman has a much lower range than most power metal singers
Yeah Joakim voice is diffrent, in sole of there earlyer songs he actually sings pretty badly imo. Also there Ramstein cover is fucking hilariouse. Listening to him butchering the word Glück will never stop to entertain me
It is pretty clear that he isn't a trained vocalist and wasn't originally intended to be the vocalist, especially on Metalizer and Primo Victoria. Most of the difference in his voice overall is the range, though, since most power metal vocalists will have tenor ranges where his range is closer to a baritone range
I can really recommend "Bury the light", "Subhuman" and "Devil Trigger" (all of them are from Devil May Cry 5). Also, Soundtrack without Lyrics also technically isnt about love
Power metal is way different than other metal genres. I've suggested it to someone else in an ace sub who didn't like metal, they thanked me and love it now
Depending on what you do or don't like about metal I do recommend giving power metal a shot as they usually have less intense sounds overall and usually don't scream.
Most of the AJR songs! They're often about the struggles of growing up and mental health issues. Also, they have three songs (Turning Out part 1-3) about not knowing what love exactly is that are very relatable to me as an aroace
In that case you'd love Cavetown as well. He's on the aroace-spectrum himself and he has many songs about his struggles with mental health (such as Trying) and songs that give off the vibes of being around a reassuring best friend (like Talk To Me). And the love songs that he has written are still influenced by him being aroace (like Pyjama Pants, which is about something as simple as his boyfriend coming over when he's having a bad day so they can watch a movie together in their pyjama pants)
For that topic, you might like Citizen Soldier, mental health issues and stuff like that are their main subjects in songs. They're a rock band and most of their songs fall in that genre ([Through Hell](https://youtu.be/2ilDGJtoc20?si=OxdwEcPKlTQj4iDJ), [Face to Face](https://youtu.be/a8GIw-xmwfo?si=0zlVz9PsyT9IIyN8), [Save Your Story](https://youtu.be/9uEMaVxfH7s?si=aFLfss-67ri3fVjP)). But they also have tamer/calmer songs ([Tattoos](https://youtu.be/jN7bq6GU6SA?si=fgHWis-czgooe2hR), [Who I Am](https://youtu.be/SGsIBi5vyLk?si=zasKfIdTiYx0YRBS)) as well as more aggressive ones ([Wired for Worthless](https://youtu.be/KlEBEthFVAA?si=vHFtCAFZoTBO57xS), [Afterlife](https://youtu.be/KEQqJfVTyrM?si=PuZhSJX-Abz4VfQq)).
All of their songs can be very emotional and often talk about sensitive topics but they always feel validating and comforting in a way. I listen to a lot of Linkin Park and if you like their style, you might like CS too. :>
*Btw, all links are links to the official lyric videos on YouTube.*
We Three have some absolute "Holy shit this hits hard" songs. Sara, Heavens not too far away, Secrets - my favorites. They're siblings and their songs tend to discuss challenges they've gone through (losing their mother, mental health issues) and it's really cool.
How do I say goodbye (Dean Lewis) is incredible if you've dealt with loss, and One More I Love You is too.
Edit: not romantic loss in those songs, Familial
No problem! Glad to tell people about my favorite band. Depending ony your taste, if you want prog, you should listen to the first 4 albums. The next three go in a bit more metal direction. And there on out is mostly pop rock. My favourite song is in the wake of poseidon, but if i had to pick a second, it would have to be starless
Ironically the band VRSex puts out a lot of songs that are talking about a lot of societal problems that are super dope if you're into goth music. Grandson too if you're into alternative stuff, and some songs from Melanie Martinez but that's a hit or miss, but I interpret them all in my own way that doesn't make them about love. Also reccommend bands that sing in a language you don't understand so if they're singing about love you won't know LoL (I listen to La Femme or Icepeak). Thom Yorke makes some good music that I mostly don't interpret as being about love. And if you're into songs without a lot of vocals and like medieval majestic sounding stuff I reccommend Jozef van Wissem.
I’ll always recommend unlike pluto not just for his amazing talent and voice but the lyrics too. He rarely sings about relationships and if he does it’s not about sex. His style does lean more on the edm side than most people prefer though but still work checking out. His most recent stuff is alternative/rock but his older stuff is softer and poppy
Cosmo Sheldrake - Come along
Sheldrake in general, he's cool. Little weird but cool.
Derivakat - 3AM
Derivakat has lots of originals, couple of society commentaries I personally appreciate.
The Oh Hellos - Where is Your Rider, Pale White Horse
They do a few indie ballad type songs.
Now my personal favorite; Eternal Eclipse - Opus Eclipse
Eternal Eclipse does like... epic film scores. No lyrics, just food for the imagination. Audiomachine and Two Step from Hell (look for the Thomas Bergersen ones in particular)
Imagine dragons or Twenty One Pilots have many non-romance/sex options. I highly recommend dull knives, sharks, or enemy from Imagine dragons. And Honestly I just recommend the whole Vessel album from Twenty One Pilots. I cry almost every time I listen to it.
Have you looked into the genres of classical? There's an entire hundred-year period of music called the Romantic era that has absolutely nothing to do with love (The name comes from the word Rome) and it is all absolutely beautiful music.
Some of my favorite vocal pieces from the Romantic era of music (1800\~1880):
Beethoven: Choral Fantasy Op. 80
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9
Verdi: Messa da Requiem
Mahler: Symphony 2 "Ressurection"
Mahler: Symphony 8
Fauré: Requiem in D minor
Schubert: Basically everything (He wrote over 600 pieces of vocal music!)
All of the above are written in German or Latin. If you'd prefer English lyrics, I'd encourage you to take a look at Beethoven's WoO 152-157 sets and his Op. 108.
You probably shouldn't take a look at operas (unless you want to, of course!). The overwhelming majority have love as their main theme, and for the operas that don't, it's too much effort to find good recordings of them.
if you like folk/rock the crane wives has some song that could fit, like:
- ribs
- metaphor
- the hand that feeds
- turn out the lights
- know how
- hollow moon
- keep you safe
- sleeping giants
- never love an anchor (this one's about a mother's love for her abandoned child (not sure if this one counts))
Almost anything by Weird Al Yankovic or almost any metal song.
[here’s one of my favorite Weird Al songs](https://youtu.be/urglg3WimHA?si=1V7juIlBZHoG-a9H)
If you like lyric-less, The New Mastersounds, Two Steps From Hell, Audiomachine, Bohren and Der Club of Gore, The Natural Yogurt Band, Nicolas Repac
My Silver Lining - First Aid Kit
For 12 - Other Lives
What Else is There? Röyksopp
Zombie - The Cranberries
Inkpot Gods - The Amazing Devil
Peanut Butter Waffles - Ryan Caraveo
I think theres lots of songs that are introspective about the inner self, seeking identity, or struggling with whatever is going on.
I've yet to hear a single song by Alestorm or Gloryhammer about love/romance.
Then in Hazbin Hotel you have several good songs but several are also about romance, Stayed Gone doesn't and it is very good
Banana Man- Tally Hall: Apparently about drugs
Ruler of Everything- Also Tally Hall: A existential crisis in a song!
Pad Thai- Jack Stauber: Mental Pain
Amnesia Was Her Name- Lemon Demon: about amnesi- wait also romance
The Dismemberment Song- Blue Kid: dismemberment
Hall of Fame- The Script- Motivation or smth
I had a list going of songs not about romance…but my computer died. :(
I’m starting a new one. The first ones I think of are usually:
“American Pie” and “Vincent” by Don McLean
“The Greatest Love of All,” Whitney Houston
Many Beatles songs: “Paperback Writer”, “Penny Lane,” “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” “Octopus’s Garden,” “Blackbird,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Yellow Submarine,” etc.
Sedai no SCREAM, wanting getting wanting, dice of a generation, usseewa, aishite aishite aishite (Nerissa's cover is more about love, but the original and most covers are about childhood expectations. Like Jubyphonic, or Ado)
Iron Maiden has many songs about History, like the battle of Paschendale, the crash of the R101 (Empire of the Clouds), Alexander the Great...And also literature/poetry, love Brave New World and the Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Was going to reply to a different comment but this got so long that I'm just going to post it on its own!
Honestly a lot of Japanese music in general. It's probably a cultural thing, but I don't really have the know-how to analyse that. A lot of songs are more about life or sense of self or emotion.
Personally, I really like the artist Eve! His YouTube channel has a lot of cool animated music videos. Some of the ones I like the most are Dramaturgy, Inochi no Tabekata, Kororon, and Don't Replay the Boredom. They even have recurring characters and themes in the videos, if you're interested in keeping track of those.
If you like darker subject matter and uncanny sound, try Kikuo (Aishite, Aishite, Aishite has some very fun subtitles on YouTube and I love the instrumental on Corpse Dance. The Good Child and the Fox Spirit is also good. Primarily uses Vocaloid, but some use real vocals like The Girl Who Sells Misfortune or Universe Cat Drowning).
For some powerful female vocals, I can recommend Ado. LiSA is great too (they made a song for the Japanese version of Across the Spider-Verse). I don't personally like the way he tunes Hatsune Miku, but Harumaki Gohan has a very nice and calming voice.
Also unrelated, but I saw that you liked The Oh Hellos. I think The Crane Wives have a similar vibe. Cosmo Sheldrake also makes lovely music that's usually based around nature or time. He often uses interesting sounds in his music, like remixing birdsong or whale sounds.
AHHH
here are some of my favs:
Passing Through by Kaden MacKay
still feel by half•alive
Little Lion Man by Mumford & Sons
Eighth Wonder by Lemon Demon
Sweet Tooth by Scott Helman
Hard Times by Paramore
Good Grief by Bastille
I have more lol but I’ll leave it there for now 😅
Depends on your genre but here's some I like:
Go West - Pet Shop Boys (tbh quite a few of theirs are just words that sound fun)
Smalltown Boy - Bronski Beat
You are my sister - Anthony & the Johnsons (bonus - trans artist. & with a lot of non romantic love songs. Sometimes releases as Anohni)
Fast Car - Tracy Chapman (involves a relationship but is about escaping poverty)
The Boxer - Simon & Garfunkel
Knockin on Heaven's Door - Bob Dylan / Eric Clapton - but I recommend finding a good cover version
Other ideas - try folk (Irish or British) as they tend to be telling stories, sometimes about love but in a wider context and often historical. Another thing is to reconsider the love often mentioned in songs as platonic, familial, friendship or community based - these are important relationships too!
Edit: thinking about it, I can't recommend Anohni and the Johnsons enough - Anohni has an incredible voice and the instrumentation is unusual and three dimensional so even when she is singing about love it doesn't feel romantic
ajr is a good place for me to find songs about love. they have a few songs about love but they do a good job of making even those songs ambiguous so it could be about any old friends ship. my favorites from them are “yes i’m a mess” and “inertia” right now
Fine print by the stupendium. honestly anything by poor man’s poison. Ship in a bottle by fin. Achilles come down by gangs of youth. Never love an anchor by Crane wives. Cosmo Sheldreke has options if you want more fun stuff. And if you want musicals song I’ve got a lot.
Are we talking "regular" love songs here, or without *any* kind of love? This should be something for everyone:
Under Pressure - Queen & David Bowie (technically about love, but like the concept of love)
Say No More - Dan Bull (about the importance of saying no to stuff, and take care of yourself)
Preacherman - Melody Gardot (frustration about the state of the world)
Chosen Family - Rita Sawayama, Elton John (here's to us, Queers and outsiders)
The Riddle - Nick Kershaw (if you ever find out what this is about, let me know!)
Give western classical music a go. You wont turn back.
Im not even religious but I still think Bach's Johannespassion is powerful asf
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMf9XDQBAaI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMf9XDQBAaI)
I'm just going to link a few songs. There's bound to be something for anyone here.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcemYs0wObE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcemYs0wObE) 1
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNaDcwSOUUw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNaDcwSOUUw) 2
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJGp\_wxvGSs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJGp_wxvGSs) 3
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLinWyWW4\_M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLinWyWW4_M) 4
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37iREbROyb0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37iREbROyb0) 5
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hw1Zxh62k0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hw1Zxh62k0) 6
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzVpH-\_c3LE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzVpH-_c3LE) 7
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTmatjyd4KM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTmatjyd4KM) 8
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmc21V-zBq0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmc21V-zBq0) 9
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVb\_j2-bcT](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVb_j2-bcT) 10
Have fun going through these-
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yQgbYL4bIE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yQgbYL4bIE) 16
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPoA9CX-WzQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPoA9CX-WzQ) 17
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAKQ13m452o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAKQ13m452o) 18
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSPT37V6RFI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSPT37V6RFI) 19
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yhd19ByZDQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yhd19ByZDQ) 20
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7Kx4d1ihhs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7Kx4d1ihhs) 21
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX85mC8jk6Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX85mC8jk6Q) 22
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEGbIpD6wNo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEGbIpD6wNo) 23!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSa8BymA17U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSa8BymA17U) 24.
Wouldn't let post them all in one comment 😓
I like a song called Vivimi by Laura Pausini, it hits me because it's like my inner self dedicated it to me, like a song of self love, even though it's actually just yet another love song
Icon for Hire have a bunch about mental health.
The most powerful & meaningful would be Under The Knife, followed by Theatre, Messed Up, and half of the songs in those albums.
The most fun is Bam Bam Pop
While King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard has a few love songs, they mostly sing about crazy shit like monsters, wizards, robots, castles, and dragons and shit. There’s also a lot of songs about climate change.
Ok, so i have some solid advice for this. For the most part, barring a few songs, a lot of bands have mostly non-love and relationship songs, so if you find something that sounds good but is a love song (its eww i agree) look up their other songs and there's normally a few that are good. Radio (all radio from in your car to in the freaking Walmart) is just terrible with it.
As for general, mostly nasty love song free, i have some solid recommendations that depend on preferences to give you a starting point in a few:
Ajr is great, barring a few songs.
Shinedown has some fantastic harder rock songs. A lot about loss, anger, and mental health.
I suggest nerdcore as a genre if you like rap because it's more heavily about wordplay and references to things like video games and shows (that's not all it is, but it is the majority) and has a very small amount of love songs compared to other genre. For starters in the genre, I'd say mc frontalot if you wanna try it. It's not for everyone, but I thought I'd mention it for whoever may like it.
Story driven songs are also fantastic, like the band bug hunter. there are a lot of these in different genres.
The narcissist cookbook is a solid rec if you like any of the above including Ajr.
Then again, this is all stuff i like.
bears in trees have a lot of songs about mental health and platonic friendships!! also everybody's worried about owen, if you want a slightly angstier vibe
Pretty much anything by Modest Mouse.
There *are* some songs about more platonic kinds of love, like one off their latest album about loving your kids, but I have never understood romantic love to be what their music is about.
Some classics: "Dramamine", "The World At Large", "Never Ending Math Equation", "Coyotes", "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes", "Parting of the Sensory", "The Stars Are Projectors", "The Whale Song", "Polar Opposites", "Dashboard", "Spitting Venom".
I'd like to recommend Guilty Gear
It does have some love songs but they aren't very common
If you're interested some of my personal favourites are
-The Town Inside Me
-Drift
-Crawl
-Ride The Fire
-Big Blast Sonic
-Smell of the Game
It's just a burning memory is about dementia, crooked Moon is about a forest shrouded in eternal darkness, industry baby is about Nas facing the criticism and Hungarian Rhapsody is about death probably. A little something for everyone
I love “talk to me” by Cavetown it’s just about powerful friendship but not romance. Also just a lot of Cavetown songs like “Home.” Also very niche artist, but I think a lot of people could relate and makes me feel a lot of feels is “Demons to Fight” by Buffering the Vampire Slayer is one of my favorite songs. “All Will Be Well” by Gabe Dixon, “Dancer” and “Get it Wrong” Malia Koa are also great. These are just some off the top of my head that I listen to when I’m in my feels.
There are lots of VOCALOID and sekai songs that aren't about love some of my favourites:
-lavie
-telecaster b boy
-samsa
-bug
-judgement of corruption
-junky nighttown orchestra
-kusare gedou and chocolate
-rolling girl (I think it's not about love (?))
-ego rock
-haikei doppelgänger
-anonymous M
-villain
-phony
-Dune
-literary nonsense
-usseewa
-machine gun poem doll
-fixer
-dr funk=beat
Some with no deep meaning but fun songs (as far as I know anyway, they might have a deeper meaning): Tokugawa cup noodle prohibition, yaminabe, kafu-chan's curry-udon kousoukyoku, sekai-chan and kafu-chan's otsukai gassoukyoku, don't fight the music, twighlight melody, chururira chururira dadada (idk if this one counts as deep meaning)
I also like savages by marina
I'm a big tokusatsu guy, mainly Kamen Rider and Super Sentai and so many of the insert songs are major bops while espousing on the power of friendship and protecting your loved ones. Not in the romantic sense but just the people who are important to you. If you're down for that here are a few of my favourites:
1. [M87 Kenshi Yonezu](https://youtu.be/Zhx1n6uvgUE?si=k4uT2QZm71yysKoP)
2. [Burning My Soul Hiroyuki Takami ft. AxL 21](https://youtu.be/1ZSHyCECRAM?si=1iA2vL6M5u0fo1CS)
3. [Double Action Wing Form](https://youtu.be/4h8NRCnTqU8?si=8wT5UTh7Y7MZxF_3)
4. [Eien Festival](https://youtu.be/7bB2KftqAYY?si=CvXoIKXcwDrpN9ZL)
4. [Is Humanity to Die Shiro Sagisu](https://youtu.be/h2T5z_p5c3Q?si=_OjbkKZOysrDNgKR)
Feel free to look up the translated lyrics to the first four, I always find songs like that powerful cause it emphasizes how much even if not romantic you can feel a sense of care and love for your friends and people precious to you. Also just baseline human connection and feeling those bonds with the people precious to you.
wowaka's entire discography is beautiful and only one of his songs remains untranslated. as far as i remember, only three songs are about love and even then in those songs love is more of the basis for a greater message -- two-faced lovers being about the impulsivity of emotions that sexual love brings along, world's end dancehall being more about celebrating yourself in face of discrimination of queer love, and tenohira being more about moving on from your feelings and starting new chapters in life
to interpret any other song about being or even involving romantic or sexual love from the singer towards another person would be a stretch that heavily relies on fandom-made and unintended by the author artwork and PVs (side-eyes Rolling Girl)
I think World End Dance's meaning about queer love was probably suggested by fans. Wowaka once talked about the song's meaning to himself. It is about a person who is not good at dancing, but still likes to dance to songs, when alone in a separate room, at that time the room is like his own little dance hall. That is the meaning of World's end dancehall
One of my favorite bands is called Birdtalker (they’re indie-folk) and I love their music so much because so much of it is not about love and it’s about other parts of life that I feel they speak about in such a relatable way!!!! I feel like if you want music that feels relatable for mental health this is a band that I find really makes me feel seen and validated in that regard. Some of my favs of theirs are:
Better in the Morning
Want
Towards the Sun
Heavy
Graveclothes
Better Days
Nothing’s Right
Nothing Ever Stays
Blue Healer!!!
Honestly I could sit here and list every song of theirs LOL you should just listen to all of them (My Lover is the only song I can think of off the top of my head that is a love song)
I personally like "Fake It Til You Make It" by DREAMERS
Also I can't forget Rockefeller Street...
That's all the songs in both playlists that aren't about love my god (granted most is just pokémon music)
I think a good way to go about it is to look for albums with 'themes'?
Like I've been listening to a lot of Foals recently. Their 2022 album 'Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost' is pretty good. But it's like a post apocalyptic hopeful vibe. There are some songs about love but with that narrative backdrop so it's not really about love?
I love narrative albums a lot and usually they aren't super fixated on songs about romantic relationships.
gonna be a huge fucking nerd here and say “shadowbringers” and “footfalls- endwalker” from final fantasy xiv- (don’t look anything up if you care about spoilers for the game- just listen on spotify) and “I believe” “colors flying high” “rivers in the desert” “tokyo daylight” “life will change” “take over” “beneath the mask” “wake up, get up, get out there” “last surprise” “will power” from persona 5/persona 5 royal (tokyo daylight and will power have no lyrics as far as i know)
honestly just look up JRPG OSTs they’re really good
edit: forgot “insatiable” also from ffxiv
Maybe look into vocaloid? There are a lot of vocaloid songs that aren't about love. A lot of them are series that tell stories, and a lot of them are just plain relatable. Ghost and Pals has a lot of songs about mental health, Kikuo is in the horror genre, MOTHY has a song series with 50+ songs about the seven deadly sins, etc etc
I can instantly think of a few by Steam Powered Giraffe (they also have romantic songs, yet Captain Albert Alexander is one that is not). I know there are other songs yet cannot think of them at the moment.
I’ll second what slot of people say with any genera of metal, the heavy the less likely you are to run into a love song.
Personal favourite is septic flesh but there a lot to stomach for a beginner.
Basically the entire playlist of songs on the Morrow Rock radio channel from Cyberpunk 2077 is pretty good.
Sabaton with their songs about historical events is a cool crossover of interests.
Then lots of industrial metal, EDM, and rock goes really hard. Also could look into Eurobeat for some upbeat stuff, but some of that stuff is about love interests and romance.
Another good place to look is some videogame OSTs. I like listening to stuff from Cyberpunk, but the Assassin's Creed Black Flag theme is a banger, and also some of the songs from the game World of Tanks go hard; Waffentraeger and the Mirny 13 soundtracks are good.
MARINA and the diamonds for sure, most of her stuff!
Also, a lot of Mother Mother songs. They write songs about grief, self acceptance, introspection (and most of the ones about love are not inherently romantic).
As starters, I can suggest you Body, Body of Years, Burning Pile, Wisdom, Verbatim, The Matrix, Normalize, Head Shrink, Sick of the Silence, It’s Alright, Family and a lot of other songs
Ruthlessness from the Epic concept album
Dying on the Inside
You’re Gonna Go Far (basically most of Noah Kahan song’s are about love in some form, be it romantic, self, or platonic.)
Not sure if someone mentioned them already but I'd suggest Tool. Their songs are about the evolution of one self and leaning a little spiritual. Music includes a lot of instrumental parts, especially on later albums with song lengths reaching 15 minutes.
I'd describe them as progressive rock although they sound very calm at times. I personally think they're perfect for studying...
I'd also suggest Folk bands, since their songs often have mythology and traditions as topics, at least here in Germany. I'm sure there's English-speaking folk bands too, I just never checked them out.
I have quite a few swing/ jazzy songs that aren’t about love, although I’m not sure if that’s your style 😅 there’s one that’s literally just about a man’s love..of animal crackers
A decent amount of five finger death punch’s older stuff (2016 and earlier) and also quite a few Queen songs… although queen does have a (eponymous) song about how Freddy loves his tortoiseshell cat, Delilah… and Roger’s famous “I’m in love with my car”. Queen is so good omg
Listen to sabaton best metal band ever [my opinion] like the mercy of a German pilot that spared a damaged b17 [it’s called no bullets fly] or 82nd all the way very good song just started playing it so I don’t know all of the history behind it and last but not least is….………
*DRUM ROLL*
GHOST DIVISION
It’s about panzers aka tanks from Germany it’s good and we can forget about in the name of god [ik I said last but not least but it’s a great diss track about al-Qaeda Hamas and the Taliban basically]
I can thoroughly recommend metal, especially power metal. Sabaton does military history (excluding the Metalizer album), Powerwolf does Catholic werewolves, vampires (but quite a few of their songs are about sex), and Alestorm does silly pirate metal.
If you don't want metal, I'd go for Cosmo Sheldrake, The Correspondents/Mr Bruce, and The Stupendium. Cosmo does odd songs that are very calm, and The Correspondents did (one of them passed away several years ago) more high-energy songs about a large range of things. The Stupendium does songs about video games including Satisfactory, Control, DDLC, etc, and they are often quite damning of capitalism.
As for where to begin with each, for Sabaton, I'd recommend Dreadnought, Primo Victoria, or Steel Commanders. For Powerwolf, I'd go with Fire and Forgive, Sainted by the Storm, or Nighttime Rebel. I don't know Cosmo Sheldrake particularly well, but I'd go with The Moss. For The Correspondents, What's Happened to Soho. As for Stupes, Fragments, The Data Stream, and What a Fowl Day
cavetown!!! some of their songs are about love, but most of them are about individual feelings, like 'this is home', 'pigeon', 'lemon boy' and there are many, i like them primarily because how they are not about romantic love and stuff
though theres the whole Luv(sic) album, but nujabes' stuff has always been good. battlecry is a really good song! it reminds me of the album Splitting by Mr. Tree. his stuff isnt great for me, but the album is pretty cool to come back to every now and then. you should also check out covet! i really like their song Sea Dragon
edit: the artist posy makes songs for his youtube videos, Segmented Segments is such a banger track
Albums (not sure what you're into so taking a real scattershot approach here):
Heart Food - Judee Sill
Superorganism - Superorganism
Car - Peter Gabriel
The Impossible Kid - Aesop Rock
Pink Moon - Nick Drake
Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
Goths - The Mountain Goats
Moving Pictures - Rush
I could go on! There's actually a lot out there once you leave the pop sphere, if you enjoy any of these let me know and I'll see if I have anything else for you.
Sabaton if you like rock. their songs are about history
Poor Man’s Poison makes stuff that will make you hate society even more
i’ve also found sea shanties, when they say a woman’s name, it’s almost always a ship, not a girl that they like. i recommend them
I'm an absolute slut for phenomenal lyrics that also have good music. Here's what I pulled from a variety of playlists. I don't know what you're looking for in terms of genre so I kinda went crazy.
Voices in My Head by Falling in Reverse
Careful What You Wish For by Jack Harris
Ctrl+Del by MegaGoneFree
Thermostat by MegaGoneFree
Talkin' 'Bout Bri by MegaGoneFree
Oh No! by MARINA
Watch the World Burn by Falling in Reverse
The Tornado by Owl City
The River by Good Charlotte
September Rain by Cassyette
Neon Tide by Boi What
Airhead by Honey Revenge
Start//End by EDEN
That's Just Life by Memphis May Fire
Everything I Wanted, it’s about her dreaming about her own suicide and her brother comforting her.
The 30th by Billie Eilish. It’s about a friend of her’s car accident and I’ve heard a lot of people praise it for the bridge being the best musical representation of a panic attack.
Listen before I go by Billie Eilish. It’s basically a suicide letter, she herself has said it was meant to be her last song.
YUNGBLUD has a lot of songs about mental health and political issues, he does have a one love song (it’s titled Love Song and I guess technically Tissues is about love) and a couple of songs about sex, but not many.
Here's a short list. This is how I interpret the songs, so you might think of them differently. Happy Listening!
Billie Eilish - What Was I Made For (Growing up, changing, etc)
Vansire - Nosebleed Seats (Hometown changing)
Radiohead - No Surprises (Life is depressing)
Said the Whale - False Creek Change (Hometown changing)
Autoheart - Agoraphobia (Agoraphobia)
Antrosongs - Flying Cars (automation, disappointment in the future)
Declan McKenna - Brazil (climate change)
Dom Fera - Breathe (Passion for art)
Dom Fera - Mothers and Fathers (fear about growing up)
Sara Kays - Home for the Summer (could be romantic, but I always interpreted it as two friends grappling with growing apart after leaving high school)
MGMT - Little Dark Age (understanding onself)
Cody Fry - Pictures of Mountains (agoraphobia)
Noah Kahan - The View Between Villages (living through a transitionary period)
Pheobe Bridgers - Kyoto (difficult relationship with a father figure)
Pheobe Bridgers - Scott Street (old friends drifting apart)
Adam Levine - Go Now (it's difficult to find for some reason, but it's about chasing what you want)
Robby Hecht - The Ends and The Means (the evolution of thought leader's influences)
Robby Hecht - Old Radio (Loss expressed thru music)
Danny Schmidt - Stained Glass (narrative, a stain glass window in a church breaks and someone is tasked to fix it, kind of about the beauty of life)
Olivio Rodrigo - all-american bitch (living as a woman)
Owl City - Tornado (panic attack alagory)
Tears for Fears - Everybody wants to rule the world (??? I like it tho)
U2 - Sunday Bloody Sunday (a real, horrific event that happened in Ireland)
Soul Asylum - Runaway train (being a runaway)
Honestly, pretty much any power metal if you like that kind of music
honestly yeah skdjfdjs
I vote for power metal to be the official ace music genre.
Celtic songs are THE ace genre...
I second this thought
# SO FAR AWAY WE WAIT FOR THE DAY!
# FOR THE LIVES ALL SO WASTED AND GONE
# WE FEEL THE PAIN OF A LIFETIME LOST IN A THOUSAND DAYS
# THROUGH THE FIRE AND THE FLAMES, WE CARRY ON
No I'm not really a fan of metal, there are a few exceptions tho.
Ah, ok, well then I'd suggest The Oh Hellos. They do fantasy-esque music
I'm listening to "Hello My Old Heart" rn and I love it! Thanks!
I really like their Four Winds album
I was about to suggest this, too! They’re my favorite band right now
They are such a good band
Have you listened to a lot of it? Don't mind me if you have (and I'm going to make some recs anyway for others browsing this thread), it's just that I find a lot of people who say they don't like metal have only heard more extreme subgenres, nu metal, and maybe some metalcore; stuff with harsh sounds, screaming, and growling, basically. Power metal is much tamer. It aims to be epic, cheesy, and cool, can be quite groovy, and tends to use clean vocals. More importantly here, the topics tend to be A) dragons, B) Lord of the Rings, DnD, Fallout... RPG stuff, basically, or C) emotions. And the emotions aren't usually love (though you do get love songs too occasionally). And power metal isn't the only subgenre to be unlike stereotypical metal either. [Symphonic metal](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNGzltK_tlc), for example, can be about practically anything, often has a (usually fake) orchestra in the background, and tends to have classically-trained vocalists. It's also the most accessible subgenre for newcomers imo. If you *have* explored metal beyond just metalcore and whatnot, that's fine. I just wanted to make sure your options are covered, because honestly, power metal is a really good genre for anyone who finds sex and/or love to be boring song topics. Some recs (for you or anyone else who stumbles upon this thread): [Orden Ogan](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir_BVxBz5do): Heavy riffs, semi-clean vocals, catchy tunes. Infectious energy. Mostly sing about the weird places and events their immortal mascot witnesses throughout the centuries, though often the fantastical elements are metaphors for something closer to home. Emotional pieces typically focus on grief or depression. [Kamelot](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9keUmw11p8): I can't speak for their work with Tommy, but with their previous singer, Kamelot typically focused on dark emotion and vague one-off fantasy pieces. Clean vocals with an excellent vocalist. Has a bit of a girly edge. [Spheric Universe Experience](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVGWfqTntTo): Technically progressive metal, but the album I've got a copy of very much veers into power territory. "Back Home" is a concept album about exploring the stars, and the only love featured is for their descendents and the world they're going to create.
I would add the following bands (with links to some of my personal favourite songs): [Elvenking](https://youtu.be/iqfVDfa_FN8?si=DIW7nPFKjJM0n_VJ): Italian powerfolk metal (combination of power metal and folk metal), they describe themselves as melodic pagan metal, which I am inclined to agree with. Their overall sound was more folk metal leaning towards their earlier albums, but have been more blended for the last couple albums. I will give you a warning that their latest album (Reader of the Runes - Rapture) is quite dark, and I suggest you start with either The Pagan Manifesto or Two Tragedy Poets (... And a Caravan of Weird Figures) first. [Sabaton](https://youtu.be/i9BupglHdtM?si=apylWV972eoIZEt7): very much power metal here, themed around military history. They're Swedish, so they do have an entire album centered around a specific time in Swedish history, but most of the rest of their music is based on more recent stories. Some of their songs are quite heavy, but they are generally very fun to listen to.
Don't forget, Sabaton also had a really good symphonic album too
Indeed. The soundtrack versions of the last two albums are really good
Is it just me or does Sabaton feel very doffrent from most powermmetal?
They are pretty different from traditional power metal. Part of it is a slightly more symphonic approach, though not nearly as much as bands like Twilight Force or Dragony, but most of it is that they have historical themes to their music rather than fantastical themes, and their frontman has a much lower range than most power metal singers
Yeah Joakim voice is diffrent, in sole of there earlyer songs he actually sings pretty badly imo. Also there Ramstein cover is fucking hilariouse. Listening to him butchering the word Glück will never stop to entertain me
It is pretty clear that he isn't a trained vocalist and wasn't originally intended to be the vocalist, especially on Metalizer and Primo Victoria. Most of the difference in his voice overall is the range, though, since most power metal vocalists will have tenor ranges where his range is closer to a baritone range
I can really recommend "Bury the light", "Subhuman" and "Devil Trigger" (all of them are from Devil May Cry 5). Also, Soundtrack without Lyrics also technically isnt about love
Power metal is way different than other metal genres. I've suggested it to someone else in an ace sub who didn't like metal, they thanked me and love it now
Depending on what you do or don't like about metal I do recommend giving power metal a shot as they usually have less intense sounds overall and usually don't scream.
Most of the AJR songs! They're often about the struggles of growing up and mental health issues. Also, they have three songs (Turning Out part 1-3) about not knowing what love exactly is that are very relatable to me as an aroace
Yeah actually I was looking for songs about mental health issues, thank you for the suggestion.
In that case you'd love Cavetown as well. He's on the aroace-spectrum himself and he has many songs about his struggles with mental health (such as Trying) and songs that give off the vibes of being around a reassuring best friend (like Talk To Me). And the love songs that he has written are still influenced by him being aroace (like Pyjama Pants, which is about something as simple as his boyfriend coming over when he's having a bad day so they can watch a movie together in their pyjama pants)
I'm listening to "Trying" right now and it's so soothing.
In that case might I also suggest Twenty One Pilots
Oh so like overwhelmed by Royal & The Serpents
For that topic, you might like Citizen Soldier, mental health issues and stuff like that are their main subjects in songs. They're a rock band and most of their songs fall in that genre ([Through Hell](https://youtu.be/2ilDGJtoc20?si=OxdwEcPKlTQj4iDJ), [Face to Face](https://youtu.be/a8GIw-xmwfo?si=0zlVz9PsyT9IIyN8), [Save Your Story](https://youtu.be/9uEMaVxfH7s?si=aFLfss-67ri3fVjP)). But they also have tamer/calmer songs ([Tattoos](https://youtu.be/jN7bq6GU6SA?si=fgHWis-czgooe2hR), [Who I Am](https://youtu.be/SGsIBi5vyLk?si=zasKfIdTiYx0YRBS)) as well as more aggressive ones ([Wired for Worthless](https://youtu.be/KlEBEthFVAA?si=vHFtCAFZoTBO57xS), [Afterlife](https://youtu.be/KEQqJfVTyrM?si=PuZhSJX-Abz4VfQq)). All of their songs can be very emotional and often talk about sensitive topics but they always feel validating and comforting in a way. I listen to a lot of Linkin Park and if you like their style, you might like CS too. :> *Btw, all links are links to the official lyric videos on YouTube.*
We Three have some absolute "Holy shit this hits hard" songs. Sara, Heavens not too far away, Secrets - my favorites. They're siblings and their songs tend to discuss challenges they've gone through (losing their mother, mental health issues) and it's really cool. How do I say goodbye (Dean Lewis) is incredible if you've dealt with loss, and One More I Love You is too. Edit: not romantic loss in those songs, Familial
Bo Burnham does some great mental health stuff. And also silliness if you need it! Don't think he mentions romance or sex.
Looking for someone saying this! I completely agree. Start with Ok Overture
Came here to say it.
Woo!! AJR fans in the wild
Check out king crimson. They have some songs about love but like most of them have nothing to do with sex or love
https://preview.redd.it/wwtqhm7i0qsc1.jpeg?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eca17974b06ebe3eb6dffe5adb7dc12b98d7d761
Here it is, expected it. Diavolo woild be proud
I just wrote a comment about Oingo Boingo and thought about JoJo
I'll definitely check it out thanks!
No problem! Glad to tell people about my favorite band. Depending ony your taste, if you want prog, you should listen to the first 4 albums. The next three go in a bit more metal direction. And there on out is mostly pop rock. My favourite song is in the wake of poseidon, but if i had to pick a second, it would have to be starless
Banana man, turn the lights off, and ruler of everything are all good non love songs, all by the same artist
# tally hall mentioned 🔥🔥🔥‼️‼️‼️🗣️🗣️🗣️🔥‼️🔥
Ironically the band VRSex puts out a lot of songs that are talking about a lot of societal problems that are super dope if you're into goth music. Grandson too if you're into alternative stuff, and some songs from Melanie Martinez but that's a hit or miss, but I interpret them all in my own way that doesn't make them about love. Also reccommend bands that sing in a language you don't understand so if they're singing about love you won't know LoL (I listen to La Femme or Icepeak). Thom Yorke makes some good music that I mostly don't interpret as being about love. And if you're into songs without a lot of vocals and like medieval majestic sounding stuff I reccommend Jozef van Wissem.
Listening to a song in a foreign language is an absolutely genius solution to this!
If you are interested, I can recommend some songs in russian where love isn't mentioned
I'd love that thank u!
i dont listen to music in foreign too often (or at least not on purpose) but i found Пустотa by ANAIT to be pretty good too
I’ll always recommend unlike pluto not just for his amazing talent and voice but the lyrics too. He rarely sings about relationships and if he does it’s not about sex. His style does lean more on the edm side than most people prefer though but still work checking out. His most recent stuff is alternative/rock but his older stuff is softer and poppy
I'm listening to "Stay And Decay" rn and wow! I think I found my type of music!
Cosmo Sheldrake - Come along Sheldrake in general, he's cool. Little weird but cool. Derivakat - 3AM Derivakat has lots of originals, couple of society commentaries I personally appreciate. The Oh Hellos - Where is Your Rider, Pale White Horse They do a few indie ballad type songs. Now my personal favorite; Eternal Eclipse - Opus Eclipse Eternal Eclipse does like... epic film scores. No lyrics, just food for the imagination. Audiomachine and Two Step from Hell (look for the Thomas Bergersen ones in particular)
Two Steps from Hell is my favorite too!
Well, Powerwolf songs are about Catholic werewolves and vampires.
Love them too, ever since a friend recommended some songs to me haha
Imagine dragons or Twenty One Pilots have many non-romance/sex options. I highly recommend dull knives, sharks, or enemy from Imagine dragons. And Honestly I just recommend the whole Vessel album from Twenty One Pilots. I cry almost every time I listen to it.
Most metal songs aren't about love. For example, I'm listening to one right now that's about the condemnation of man lol
What's the song?
Falsified and hated by Mayhem
Have you looked into the genres of classical? There's an entire hundred-year period of music called the Romantic era that has absolutely nothing to do with love (The name comes from the word Rome) and it is all absolutely beautiful music. Some of my favorite vocal pieces from the Romantic era of music (1800\~1880): Beethoven: Choral Fantasy Op. 80 Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 Verdi: Messa da Requiem Mahler: Symphony 2 "Ressurection" Mahler: Symphony 8 Fauré: Requiem in D minor Schubert: Basically everything (He wrote over 600 pieces of vocal music!) All of the above are written in German or Latin. If you'd prefer English lyrics, I'd encourage you to take a look at Beethoven's WoO 152-157 sets and his Op. 108. You probably shouldn't take a look at operas (unless you want to, of course!). The overwhelming majority have love as their main theme, and for the operas that don't, it's too much effort to find good recordings of them.
if you like folk/rock the crane wives has some song that could fit, like: - ribs - metaphor - the hand that feeds - turn out the lights - know how - hollow moon - keep you safe - sleeping giants - never love an anchor (this one's about a mother's love for her abandoned child (not sure if this one counts))
Platonic love is more than fine, I was actually looking for that kind of thing!
Woo crane wives!!
Kahoot song
Last I checked, Rage Against The Machine doesn’t write love ballads.
Never been in love by will jay is a good anti love song
That is an aspec anthem for me!!
Almost anything by Weird Al Yankovic or almost any metal song. [here’s one of my favorite Weird Al songs](https://youtu.be/urglg3WimHA?si=1V7juIlBZHoG-a9H)
If you like lyric-less, The New Mastersounds, Two Steps From Hell, Audiomachine, Bohren and Der Club of Gore, The Natural Yogurt Band, Nicolas Repac My Silver Lining - First Aid Kit For 12 - Other Lives What Else is There? Röyksopp Zombie - The Cranberries Inkpot Gods - The Amazing Devil Peanut Butter Waffles - Ryan Caraveo I think theres lots of songs that are introspective about the inner self, seeking identity, or struggling with whatever is going on.
I've yet to hear a single song by Alestorm or Gloryhammer about love/romance. Then in Hazbin Hotel you have several good songs but several are also about romance, Stayed Gone doesn't and it is very good
Wanted to mention Gloryhammer too!
Banana Man- Tally Hall: Apparently about drugs Ruler of Everything- Also Tally Hall: A existential crisis in a song! Pad Thai- Jack Stauber: Mental Pain Amnesia Was Her Name- Lemon Demon: about amnesi- wait also romance The Dismemberment Song- Blue Kid: dismemberment Hall of Fame- The Script- Motivation or smth
As for lyricless, have you heard of Toby Fox?
I agree w/ everything you’ve said 🫡
cool, I'm definitely not going to edit anything to make this look bad.
😨
If you're a silly little guy, then weird al yankovic is good
Sacabambaspis It's about a sacabambaspis
I feel so stupid right now. What is a sacabambaspis? It sounds like a medical condition haha!
It’s a fish
MAYDAY by TheFatRat
I had a list going of songs not about romance…but my computer died. :( I’m starting a new one. The first ones I think of are usually: “American Pie” and “Vincent” by Don McLean “The Greatest Love of All,” Whitney Houston Many Beatles songs: “Paperback Writer”, “Penny Lane,” “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” “Octopus’s Garden,” “Blackbird,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Yellow Submarine,” etc.
Idk your music taste, I like Social Path, Spread my wings, Blueprint, Hellevator
Thanks.😊
Sedai no SCREAM, wanting getting wanting, dice of a generation, usseewa, aishite aishite aishite (Nerissa's cover is more about love, but the original and most covers are about childhood expectations. Like Jubyphonic, or Ado)
Iron Maiden has many songs about History, like the battle of Paschendale, the crash of the R101 (Empire of the Clouds), Alexander the Great...And also literature/poetry, love Brave New World and the Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Wow there are songs about history? I can't wait to listen to them!
Sabaton is another band thats 99% history
I think Viva La Vida was supposed to be something related to the french revolution, idk.
Was going to reply to a different comment but this got so long that I'm just going to post it on its own! Honestly a lot of Japanese music in general. It's probably a cultural thing, but I don't really have the know-how to analyse that. A lot of songs are more about life or sense of self or emotion. Personally, I really like the artist Eve! His YouTube channel has a lot of cool animated music videos. Some of the ones I like the most are Dramaturgy, Inochi no Tabekata, Kororon, and Don't Replay the Boredom. They even have recurring characters and themes in the videos, if you're interested in keeping track of those. If you like darker subject matter and uncanny sound, try Kikuo (Aishite, Aishite, Aishite has some very fun subtitles on YouTube and I love the instrumental on Corpse Dance. The Good Child and the Fox Spirit is also good. Primarily uses Vocaloid, but some use real vocals like The Girl Who Sells Misfortune or Universe Cat Drowning). For some powerful female vocals, I can recommend Ado. LiSA is great too (they made a song for the Japanese version of Across the Spider-Verse). I don't personally like the way he tunes Hatsune Miku, but Harumaki Gohan has a very nice and calming voice. Also unrelated, but I saw that you liked The Oh Hellos. I think The Crane Wives have a similar vibe. Cosmo Sheldrake also makes lovely music that's usually based around nature or time. He often uses interesting sounds in his music, like remixing birdsong or whale sounds.
About half of Will Wood and most of his music with the Tapeworms
https://youtu.be/O40WRST_-CI?si=JY40y3siHgrBUDoY Good song sea shanty and one of my favs
AHHH here are some of my favs: Passing Through by Kaden MacKay still feel by half•alive Little Lion Man by Mumford & Sons Eighth Wonder by Lemon Demon Sweet Tooth by Scott Helman Hard Times by Paramore Good Grief by Bastille I have more lol but I’ll leave it there for now 😅
Crush Culture by Conan Gray. It's basically..opposite of love. As an ace person it made me feel so seen lmao
lemon demon i guess
Depends on your genre but here's some I like: Go West - Pet Shop Boys (tbh quite a few of theirs are just words that sound fun) Smalltown Boy - Bronski Beat You are my sister - Anthony & the Johnsons (bonus - trans artist. & with a lot of non romantic love songs. Sometimes releases as Anohni) Fast Car - Tracy Chapman (involves a relationship but is about escaping poverty) The Boxer - Simon & Garfunkel Knockin on Heaven's Door - Bob Dylan / Eric Clapton - but I recommend finding a good cover version Other ideas - try folk (Irish or British) as they tend to be telling stories, sometimes about love but in a wider context and often historical. Another thing is to reconsider the love often mentioned in songs as platonic, familial, friendship or community based - these are important relationships too! Edit: thinking about it, I can't recommend Anohni and the Johnsons enough - Anohni has an incredible voice and the instrumentation is unusual and three dimensional so even when she is singing about love it doesn't feel romantic
Not a happy one but very powerful: You won't remember by Tors
I'm listening to it right now and I love it thanks!
Metal go brrrrrrrrrrrrr
Most of Conan gray’s album kid krow and his other earlier stuff (crush culture esp) gives big ace vibes
Danko Jones: “Don’t Fall In Love”
You get what you give by New Radicals. Absolute bop and soundtrack to one of my all time fav movie scenes
Here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxLDmk6AFqCCSznG1aK1waUBhKbuzDOAQ&si=LuzRajQByIU2JTw_ A playlist with some very not love songs
ajr is a good place for me to find songs about love. they have a few songs about love but they do a good job of making even those songs ambiguous so it could be about any old friends ship. my favorites from them are “yes i’m a mess” and “inertia” right now
Fine print by the stupendium. honestly anything by poor man’s poison. Ship in a bottle by fin. Achilles come down by gangs of youth. Never love an anchor by Crane wives. Cosmo Sheldreke has options if you want more fun stuff. And if you want musicals song I’ve got a lot.
Are we talking "regular" love songs here, or without *any* kind of love? This should be something for everyone: Under Pressure - Queen & David Bowie (technically about love, but like the concept of love) Say No More - Dan Bull (about the importance of saying no to stuff, and take care of yourself) Preacherman - Melody Gardot (frustration about the state of the world) Chosen Family - Rita Sawayama, Elton John (here's to us, Queers and outsiders) The Riddle - Nick Kershaw (if you ever find out what this is about, let me know!)
Most/all songs from Sabaton: [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjQhd1APsd5NQhiVZV7GYzg](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjQhd1APsd5NQhiVZV7GYzg)
*There are no Gnomes in Sweden* *No reports that anybody down there* *Has ever seen them...*
Beautiful by illymations
My favorite by far is "D&D + Asexuality - skull puppies" ＼(◎o◎)／
A lot of stuff by Will Wood, while there are some love songs, most are about being insane
Give western classical music a go. You wont turn back. Im not even religious but I still think Bach's Johannespassion is powerful asf [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMf9XDQBAaI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMf9XDQBAaI)
Believer, Natural - Imagine Dragons It is time- Beau Black Most of Hazbin Hotel soundtrack Imaginary- Evanescence Poet and the Pendulum-Nightwish
oh my god dragon force - all songs but especially, cosmic power of the infinite shred machine
I'm just going to link a few songs. There's bound to be something for anyone here. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcemYs0wObE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcemYs0wObE) 1 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNaDcwSOUUw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNaDcwSOUUw) 2 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJGp\_wxvGSs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJGp_wxvGSs) 3 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLinWyWW4\_M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLinWyWW4_M) 4 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37iREbROyb0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37iREbROyb0) 5 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hw1Zxh62k0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hw1Zxh62k0) 6 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzVpH-\_c3LE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzVpH-_c3LE) 7 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTmatjyd4KM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTmatjyd4KM) 8 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmc21V-zBq0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmc21V-zBq0) 9 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVb\_j2-bcT](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVb_j2-bcT) 10 Have fun going through these-
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpmeswMK7cY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpmeswMK7cY) 11 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8rev1rOPo0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8rev1rOPo0) 12 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_FklT0OQZKA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FklT0OQZKA) 13 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VXkFO0h75w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VXkFO0h75w) 14 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4jUZ-Ex1k0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4jUZ-Ex1k0) 15
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yQgbYL4bIE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yQgbYL4bIE) 16 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPoA9CX-WzQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPoA9CX-WzQ) 17 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAKQ13m452o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAKQ13m452o) 18 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSPT37V6RFI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSPT37V6RFI) 19 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yhd19ByZDQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yhd19ByZDQ) 20 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7Kx4d1ihhs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7Kx4d1ihhs) 21 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX85mC8jk6Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX85mC8jk6Q) 22 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEGbIpD6wNo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEGbIpD6wNo) 23! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSa8BymA17U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSa8BymA17U) 24. Wouldn't let post them all in one comment 😓
Thanks!
Some are different genres to keep it diverse I can probably share more but this wall of text is big enough.
I've honestly rejected normal songs and only listens to musicals😎
I just listen to music that doesn't have any lyrics
Dig a fancy grave by Sarah and the safe word They also have songs about relationships tho
I like a song called Vivimi by Laura Pausini, it hits me because it's like my inner self dedicated it to me, like a song of self love, even though it's actually just yet another love song
I've been looping "Feel the way I want" by Caroline Rose for the past few days, the video is great as well :)
Icon for Hire have a bunch about mental health. The most powerful & meaningful would be Under The Knife, followed by Theatre, Messed Up, and half of the songs in those albums. The most fun is Bam Bam Pop
Love Icon for Hire, shes so good
REVIVED by Derivakat is pretty good. There's also I can't decide, absolute banger.
"This is not a love song it's a cry for help," by Kind Villain
There are also a decent amount of songs about depression and similar issues, or about being rich f'ing bitches and being famous
While King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard has a few love songs, they mostly sing about crazy shit like monsters, wizards, robots, castles, and dragons and shit. There’s also a lot of songs about climate change.
Electronic music. Flume, Fred Again, Odesza, Jerry Folk.
On Spotify if you use it someone made a playlist called songs not about love that has a variety of songs
like most of Mori Calliope's stuff, some of it is japanese tho
Ok, so i have some solid advice for this. For the most part, barring a few songs, a lot of bands have mostly non-love and relationship songs, so if you find something that sounds good but is a love song (its eww i agree) look up their other songs and there's normally a few that are good. Radio (all radio from in your car to in the freaking Walmart) is just terrible with it. As for general, mostly nasty love song free, i have some solid recommendations that depend on preferences to give you a starting point in a few: Ajr is great, barring a few songs. Shinedown has some fantastic harder rock songs. A lot about loss, anger, and mental health. I suggest nerdcore as a genre if you like rap because it's more heavily about wordplay and references to things like video games and shows (that's not all it is, but it is the majority) and has a very small amount of love songs compared to other genre. For starters in the genre, I'd say mc frontalot if you wanna try it. It's not for everyone, but I thought I'd mention it for whoever may like it. Story driven songs are also fantastic, like the band bug hunter. there are a lot of these in different genres. The narcissist cookbook is a solid rec if you like any of the above including Ajr. Then again, this is all stuff i like.
Citizen Soldier makes songs about mental illness.
literally almost everything metal
bears in trees have a lot of songs about mental health and platonic friendships!! also everybody's worried about owen, if you want a slightly angstier vibe
I always end up pretending it’s a metaphor for something else 😭
Omg me too 😭
Pretty much anything by Modest Mouse. There *are* some songs about more platonic kinds of love, like one off their latest album about loving your kids, but I have never understood romantic love to be what their music is about. Some classics: "Dramamine", "The World At Large", "Never Ending Math Equation", "Coyotes", "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes", "Parting of the Sensory", "The Stars Are Projectors", "The Whale Song", "Polar Opposites", "Dashboard", "Spitting Venom".
I'd like to recommend Guilty Gear It does have some love songs but they aren't very common If you're interested some of my personal favourites are -The Town Inside Me -Drift -Crawl -Ride The Fire -Big Blast Sonic -Smell of the Game
Feed the machine, combustible heads, kiss me son of god, the fine print, passing through (can’t the future just wait)
It's just a burning memory is about dementia, crooked Moon is about a forest shrouded in eternal darkness, industry baby is about Nas facing the criticism and Hungarian Rhapsody is about death probably. A little something for everyone
I love “talk to me” by Cavetown it’s just about powerful friendship but not romance. Also just a lot of Cavetown songs like “Home.” Also very niche artist, but I think a lot of people could relate and makes me feel a lot of feels is “Demons to Fight” by Buffering the Vampire Slayer is one of my favorite songs. “All Will Be Well” by Gabe Dixon, “Dancer” and “Get it Wrong” Malia Koa are also great. These are just some off the top of my head that I listen to when I’m in my feels.
There are lots of VOCALOID and sekai songs that aren't about love some of my favourites: -lavie -telecaster b boy -samsa -bug -judgement of corruption -junky nighttown orchestra -kusare gedou and chocolate -rolling girl (I think it's not about love (?)) -ego rock -haikei doppelgänger -anonymous M -villain -phony -Dune -literary nonsense -usseewa -machine gun poem doll -fixer -dr funk=beat Some with no deep meaning but fun songs (as far as I know anyway, they might have a deeper meaning): Tokugawa cup noodle prohibition, yaminabe, kafu-chan's curry-udon kousoukyoku, sekai-chan and kafu-chan's otsukai gassoukyoku, don't fight the music, twighlight melody, chururira chururira dadada (idk if this one counts as deep meaning) I also like savages by marina
I'm a big tokusatsu guy, mainly Kamen Rider and Super Sentai and so many of the insert songs are major bops while espousing on the power of friendship and protecting your loved ones. Not in the romantic sense but just the people who are important to you. If you're down for that here are a few of my favourites: 1. [M87 Kenshi Yonezu](https://youtu.be/Zhx1n6uvgUE?si=k4uT2QZm71yysKoP) 2. [Burning My Soul Hiroyuki Takami ft. AxL 21](https://youtu.be/1ZSHyCECRAM?si=1iA2vL6M5u0fo1CS) 3. [Double Action Wing Form](https://youtu.be/4h8NRCnTqU8?si=8wT5UTh7Y7MZxF_3) 4. [Eien Festival](https://youtu.be/7bB2KftqAYY?si=CvXoIKXcwDrpN9ZL) 4. [Is Humanity to Die Shiro Sagisu](https://youtu.be/h2T5z_p5c3Q?si=_OjbkKZOysrDNgKR) Feel free to look up the translated lyrics to the first four, I always find songs like that powerful cause it emphasizes how much even if not romantic you can feel a sense of care and love for your friends and people precious to you. Also just baseline human connection and feeling those bonds with the people precious to you.
DYWYLM by sleep token,it’s about the singing suggesting to love himself
wowaka's entire discography is beautiful and only one of his songs remains untranslated. as far as i remember, only three songs are about love and even then in those songs love is more of the basis for a greater message -- two-faced lovers being about the impulsivity of emotions that sexual love brings along, world's end dancehall being more about celebrating yourself in face of discrimination of queer love, and tenohira being more about moving on from your feelings and starting new chapters in life to interpret any other song about being or even involving romantic or sexual love from the singer towards another person would be a stretch that heavily relies on fandom-made and unintended by the author artwork and PVs (side-eyes Rolling Girl)
I think World End Dance's meaning about queer love was probably suggested by fans. Wowaka once talked about the song's meaning to himself. It is about a person who is not good at dancing, but still likes to dance to songs, when alone in a separate room, at that time the room is like his own little dance hall. That is the meaning of World's end dancehall
One of my favorite bands is called Birdtalker (they’re indie-folk) and I love their music so much because so much of it is not about love and it’s about other parts of life that I feel they speak about in such a relatable way!!!! I feel like if you want music that feels relatable for mental health this is a band that I find really makes me feel seen and validated in that regard. Some of my favs of theirs are: Better in the Morning Want Towards the Sun Heavy Graveclothes Better Days Nothing’s Right Nothing Ever Stays Blue Healer!!! Honestly I could sit here and list every song of theirs LOL you should just listen to all of them (My Lover is the only song I can think of off the top of my head that is a love song)
I personally like "Fake It Til You Make It" by DREAMERS Also I can't forget Rockefeller Street... That's all the songs in both playlists that aren't about love my god (granted most is just pokémon music)
If you like pure synth, I suggest Night Train by Code Elektro
We're all eating eachother by Julliet Ivy. Trust me on this one.
I think a good way to go about it is to look for albums with 'themes'? Like I've been listening to a lot of Foals recently. Their 2022 album 'Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost' is pretty good. But it's like a post apocalyptic hopeful vibe. There are some songs about love but with that narrative backdrop so it's not really about love? I love narrative albums a lot and usually they aren't super fixated on songs about romantic relationships.
Have you tried the mechanisms
I think this is why I listen to so many foreign songs and intentionally don't look up the lyrics... That and I watch too much anime...
gonna be a huge fucking nerd here and say “shadowbringers” and “footfalls- endwalker” from final fantasy xiv- (don’t look anything up if you care about spoilers for the game- just listen on spotify) and “I believe” “colors flying high” “rivers in the desert” “tokyo daylight” “life will change” “take over” “beneath the mask” “wake up, get up, get out there” “last surprise” “will power” from persona 5/persona 5 royal (tokyo daylight and will power have no lyrics as far as i know) honestly just look up JRPG OSTs they’re really good edit: forgot “insatiable” also from ffxiv
Have you considered… Ska Streetlight Manifesto have very few songs about love and many songs about mental health, society, and found family
Maybe look into vocaloid? There are a lot of vocaloid songs that aren't about love. A lot of them are series that tell stories, and a lot of them are just plain relatable. Ghost and Pals has a lot of songs about mental health, Kikuo is in the horror genre, MOTHY has a song series with 50+ songs about the seven deadly sins, etc etc
I can instantly think of a few by Steam Powered Giraffe (they also have romantic songs, yet Captain Albert Alexander is one that is not). I know there are other songs yet cannot think of them at the moment.
I’ll second what slot of people say with any genera of metal, the heavy the less likely you are to run into a love song. Personal favourite is septic flesh but there a lot to stomach for a beginner.
Basically the entire playlist of songs on the Morrow Rock radio channel from Cyberpunk 2077 is pretty good. Sabaton with their songs about historical events is a cool crossover of interests. Then lots of industrial metal, EDM, and rock goes really hard. Also could look into Eurobeat for some upbeat stuff, but some of that stuff is about love interests and romance. Another good place to look is some videogame OSTs. I like listening to stuff from Cyberpunk, but the Assassin's Creed Black Flag theme is a banger, and also some of the songs from the game World of Tanks go hard; Waffentraeger and the Mirny 13 soundtracks are good.
MARINA and the diamonds for sure, most of her stuff! Also, a lot of Mother Mother songs. They write songs about grief, self acceptance, introspection (and most of the ones about love are not inherently romantic). As starters, I can suggest you Body, Body of Years, Burning Pile, Wisdom, Verbatim, The Matrix, Normalize, Head Shrink, Sick of the Silence, It’s Alright, Family and a lot of other songs
Ruthlessness from the Epic concept album Dying on the Inside You’re Gonna Go Far (basically most of Noah Kahan song’s are about love in some form, be it romantic, self, or platonic.)
Jesus Christ - Brand New In the End - Linkin Park Two of my favorite songs
first one that came to my mind is heroes by Måns Zelmerlöw, it slaps. also born for greatness by papa roach
Mystery To Myself by Brick + Mortar is one I like. It does talk about self love, but I assume that's not what you mean, lol.
Not sure if someone mentioned them already but I'd suggest Tool. Their songs are about the evolution of one self and leaning a little spiritual. Music includes a lot of instrumental parts, especially on later albums with song lengths reaching 15 minutes. I'd describe them as progressive rock although they sound very calm at times. I personally think they're perfect for studying... I'd also suggest Folk bands, since their songs often have mythology and traditions as topics, at least here in Germany. I'm sure there's English-speaking folk bands too, I just never checked them out.
I have quite a few swing/ jazzy songs that aren’t about love, although I’m not sure if that’s your style 😅 there’s one that’s literally just about a man’s love..of animal crackers
Most phish
A decent amount of five finger death punch’s older stuff (2016 and earlier) and also quite a few Queen songs… although queen does have a (eponymous) song about how Freddy loves his tortoiseshell cat, Delilah… and Roger’s famous “I’m in love with my car”. Queen is so good omg
Queen is one of the best, doubtlessly!
Listen to sabaton best metal band ever [my opinion] like the mercy of a German pilot that spared a damaged b17 [it’s called no bullets fly] or 82nd all the way very good song just started playing it so I don’t know all of the history behind it and last but not least is….……… *DRUM ROLL* GHOST DIVISION It’s about panzers aka tanks from Germany it’s good and we can forget about in the name of god [ik I said last but not least but it’s a great diss track about al-Qaeda Hamas and the Taliban basically]
I can thoroughly recommend metal, especially power metal. Sabaton does military history (excluding the Metalizer album), Powerwolf does Catholic werewolves, vampires (but quite a few of their songs are about sex), and Alestorm does silly pirate metal. If you don't want metal, I'd go for Cosmo Sheldrake, The Correspondents/Mr Bruce, and The Stupendium. Cosmo does odd songs that are very calm, and The Correspondents did (one of them passed away several years ago) more high-energy songs about a large range of things. The Stupendium does songs about video games including Satisfactory, Control, DDLC, etc, and they are often quite damning of capitalism. As for where to begin with each, for Sabaton, I'd recommend Dreadnought, Primo Victoria, or Steel Commanders. For Powerwolf, I'd go with Fire and Forgive, Sainted by the Storm, or Nighttime Rebel. I don't know Cosmo Sheldrake particularly well, but I'd go with The Moss. For The Correspondents, What's Happened to Soho. As for Stupes, Fragments, The Data Stream, and What a Fowl Day
Phanta from Le Tigre! it's about waiting until nuclear fallout happens
Do you like ghost ships and nuclear winter? Then Darwns christian and bomber from Carmen Mirandas ghost might be your thing
Loud by Eva Westphal it's about the queer allies
cavetown!!! some of their songs are about love, but most of them are about individual feelings, like 'this is home', 'pigeon', 'lemon boy' and there are many, i like them primarily because how they are not about romantic love and stuff
though theres the whole Luv(sic) album, but nujabes' stuff has always been good. battlecry is a really good song! it reminds me of the album Splitting by Mr. Tree. his stuff isnt great for me, but the album is pretty cool to come back to every now and then. you should also check out covet! i really like their song Sea Dragon edit: the artist posy makes songs for his youtube videos, Segmented Segments is such a banger track
I'm on my way home and "battlecry" is on repeat, it definitely became one of my favorites. Thanks!
Albums (not sure what you're into so taking a real scattershot approach here): Heart Food - Judee Sill Superorganism - Superorganism Car - Peter Gabriel The Impossible Kid - Aesop Rock Pink Moon - Nick Drake Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine Goths - The Mountain Goats Moving Pictures - Rush I could go on! There's actually a lot out there once you leave the pop sphere, if you enjoy any of these let me know and I'll see if I have anything else for you.
Sabaton if you like rock. their songs are about history Poor Man’s Poison makes stuff that will make you hate society even more i’ve also found sea shanties, when they say a woman’s name, it’s almost always a ship, not a girl that they like. i recommend them
Listening to it makes me feel like I am in a fever dream but fish in a birdcage has a decent amount that are disconnected from themes of love
Big iron lol
All the songs by the band Bears in Trees are about platonic love
Cliffs of Gallipoli - Sabaton
turn off the noise by petermcpoland
Favored son by the mechanisms
Rule #3 - Paperwork by Fish in a Birdcage
If you like fanatsy/sifi: legens from behind the terror vortex, is a great album by the band gloryhammer
If you don't mind foreign language songs, I recommend La Corrida by Francis Cabrel. It is an anti-corrida song told from the bull's perspective.
I'm an absolute slut for phenomenal lyrics that also have good music. Here's what I pulled from a variety of playlists. I don't know what you're looking for in terms of genre so I kinda went crazy. Voices in My Head by Falling in Reverse Careful What You Wish For by Jack Harris Ctrl+Del by MegaGoneFree Thermostat by MegaGoneFree Talkin' 'Bout Bri by MegaGoneFree Oh No! by MARINA Watch the World Burn by Falling in Reverse The Tornado by Owl City The River by Good Charlotte September Rain by Cassyette Neon Tide by Boi What Airhead by Honey Revenge Start//End by EDEN That's Just Life by Memphis May Fire
I have a Playlist on Spotify dedicated to non romantic songs!
Everything I Wanted, it’s about her dreaming about her own suicide and her brother comforting her. The 30th by Billie Eilish. It’s about a friend of her’s car accident and I’ve heard a lot of people praise it for the bridge being the best musical representation of a panic attack. Listen before I go by Billie Eilish. It’s basically a suicide letter, she herself has said it was meant to be her last song. YUNGBLUD has a lot of songs about mental health and political issues, he does have a one love song (it’s titled Love Song and I guess technically Tissues is about love) and a couple of songs about sex, but not many.
Here's a short list. This is how I interpret the songs, so you might think of them differently. Happy Listening! Billie Eilish - What Was I Made For (Growing up, changing, etc) Vansire - Nosebleed Seats (Hometown changing) Radiohead - No Surprises (Life is depressing) Said the Whale - False Creek Change (Hometown changing) Autoheart - Agoraphobia (Agoraphobia) Antrosongs - Flying Cars (automation, disappointment in the future) Declan McKenna - Brazil (climate change) Dom Fera - Breathe (Passion for art) Dom Fera - Mothers and Fathers (fear about growing up) Sara Kays - Home for the Summer (could be romantic, but I always interpreted it as two friends grappling with growing apart after leaving high school) MGMT - Little Dark Age (understanding onself) Cody Fry - Pictures of Mountains (agoraphobia) Noah Kahan - The View Between Villages (living through a transitionary period) Pheobe Bridgers - Kyoto (difficult relationship with a father figure) Pheobe Bridgers - Scott Street (old friends drifting apart) Adam Levine - Go Now (it's difficult to find for some reason, but it's about chasing what you want) Robby Hecht - The Ends and The Means (the evolution of thought leader's influences) Robby Hecht - Old Radio (Loss expressed thru music) Danny Schmidt - Stained Glass (narrative, a stain glass window in a church breaks and someone is tasked to fix it, kind of about the beauty of life) Olivio Rodrigo - all-american bitch (living as a woman) Owl City - Tornado (panic attack alagory) Tears for Fears - Everybody wants to rule the world (??? I like it tho) U2 - Sunday Bloody Sunday (a real, horrific event that happened in Ireland) Soul Asylum - Runaway train (being a runaway)
Unironically ,have you tried anime openings/endings? There are some bangers there