Ask Lemmy

99 Luftballons is upbeat and fun, and about some balloons inadvertently kicking off a cataclysmic war that leaves the world in ruins.

Foster the People - Pumped Up Kicks

Semi-Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind is the usual one I see brought up.

Push by Matchbox 20 and Possum Kingdom by Toadies are arguable ones.

Also, Richard Cheese covers a lot of raunchy and dark stuff in a vegas lounge singer style. Rape Me sung in a cheesy upbeat tone is a trip.

Hey Ya by Outkast.

Also pretty much everything I have ever heard by Steely Dan.

People forget that Today by The Smashing Pumpkins is literally about suicide.

Rockin in the Free World by Neil Young

hey ya -- Outkast It's about relationships that aren't working out, but you still stay together.

" thank God for Mom and Dad / for sticking two together cause we don't know how"

Then later

" are we so in denial when we know we're not happy here? / y'all don't want to hear me, y'all just want to dance"

Pumped up kicks fits this for me.

Born in the USA

Pumped up kicks by foster the people

Hey Ya - Outkast

90% of ska/ska punk music is like this. A few examples:

"The Science of Selling Yourself Short" - Less Than Jake

"Beer" - Reel Big Fish

"Struggler" and "I Don't Love You Anymore" - Bomb the Music Industry!

"The Last Bell I Will Ever Hear", "1-800-ALARM-ME" and "Last on my List" - The Arrogant Sons of Bitches

"Ska Dream" and "Checkerboard Ashtray" - Jeff Rosenstock

"A Better Place, a Better Time" and "As the Footsteps Die Out Forever" - Streetlight Manifesto

Pumped up kicks

Under the bridge Red Hot Chilli Peppers

pumped up kicks

Every Stromae's songs.
It's always funny to see non-french-speaking people being so hyped by Stromae's songs, like they think it's joyful af and all... While his songs lyrics are litterally about :

• a man who drinks and dances a lot in order to forget his shitty life ( Alors on danse )
• a song about his father who was killed during Rwanda's genocide ( Papaoutai )
• other songs about suicide, cancer, breakups, addictions, depression etc... But always with an upbeat melody !

The Macarena I'd about a woman cheating on her BF getting drafted into the military with 2 other guys

Which is pretty intense for a song they taught to kids in grade school

Talking Heads - Life During Wartime and Once in a Lifetime spring to mind.

It's probably easier to list the Talking Heads songs that are not upbeat and depressing.

Pick any Smiths song

Bad Moon Rising by Creedence.

It's about the apocalypse, but you wouldn't know it from how upbeat it is.

• El Fusilado - Chumbawumba. A happy clappy sunshiney recounting of the life and times of one Wenceslao Moguel, a soldier of Pancho Villa's who was captured, executed by firing squad, and lived to tell the tale. Short version: He got knocked down, but he got up again.
• Scarborough Fair - Folk; often associated with Simon and Garfunkel. I'm stretching the definition of "upbeat" here, but it baffles me that this is counted by anyone as a love song. It's a song about two ex-lovers expressing how much they hate each other by assigning each other impossible tasks as conditions for taking them back. He says "tell her I'll take her back if she sews me a shirt with no seams, washes it in a dry well and hangs it to dry on a vine with no thorns." She says "O RLY? Well you tell him that if he finds an acre of land between the ocean and the beach, sews it all with one seed and reaps it with a leather scythe, I'll take him back. And I'll even make him his damn shirt." It's a bitter song.
• Another Day In Paradise - Phil Collins. Again I'm stretching the definition of "upbeat," it's slow in tempo, kind of heavy, but it has that big sexy hook, manages to feel kind of breezy, it feels designed for first dances at wedding receptions, and the refrain is "It's just another day for you and me in paradise." It feels like a competitor to Fields of Gold by Sting. It's not! The verses are about the humanity crushing power of abject poverty.

Jonathan Coulton has a bunch of these. "I Feel Fantastic" "Betty and Me" "Blue Sunny Day" "Shop Vac" "Chiron Beta Prime" "Future Soon" off the top of my head. "Skullcrusher Mountain" and "Re: Your Brains" to a lesser degree.

Glory Days by Bruce Springsteen. It's about realizing that you've peaked and your best days are behind you.

Hey Ya

David Bowie - Five Years Tennessee Ernie Ford - 16 Tons Iron Maiden - 2 Minutes to Midnight

And about half of Pink's oeuvre.

I don't like Mondays by boomtown rats

https://open.spotify.com/track/7JFoeg0arawADjGcz9gBnq

Quite a chill and happy song about a school shooting

Plenty of ABBA songs... Maybe Chiquitita?

Semi-charmed Life

Little talks - of monsters and men
It sounds very chill and upbeat but it’s about the loss of a loved one

You are my sunshine (The Dead South do an excellent job illustrating how dark the song really is)

No Rain by Blind Melon... literally a song about deep depression with upbeat music

Flagpole Sitta - Harvey Danger?

Not entirely upbeat, but people always play Linger by the Cranberries like it’s a love song. Most definitely isn’t.

I Am A Rock by Simon and Garfunkel

A winter's day  
In a deep and dark December

I am alone  
Gazing from my window to the streets below  
On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow
I am a rock I am an island

I've built walls
A fortress deep and mighty
That none may penetrate
I have no need of friendship, friendship causes pain
It's laughter and it's loving I disdain
I am a rock I am an island

Don't talk of love
Well I've heard the word before
It's sleeping in my memory
I won't disturb the slumber of feelings that have died
If I never loved I never would have cried
I am a rock I am an island

I have my books
And my poetry to protect me
I am shielded in my armor
Hiding in my room safe within my womb
I touch no one and no one touches me
I am a rock I am an island

And a rock feels no pain
And an island never cries

Billy Idol - Dancing with Myself Loneliness masked as liberation.

Bulletproof - La Roux Emotional numbness disguised as empowerment

Some Linkin Park songs (Bleed it out, Up from the Bottom, etc.)

There's so many such songs...