History Main / MurderBallad

* Music/{{Buttress}}: "Brutus" is about the protagonist's descent into jealousy-driven murder of her best friend; quoting her "this death will be art". As much as it pains her, she feels justified and harbors no remorse because there's no peaceful alternative for trying to correct a systemic issue--misogyny and a patriarchal society--that has denied her everything.

* Dean Brody's "Cattleman's Gun" has a preacher move into a town that's terrorized by a cattleman, who was a "rattlesnake on the trigger," killing those that went up against him. One day, he burns down a farmer's home. The farmer challenged him in retaliation. The farmer is killed, in front of his young sons. The cattleman asks if anyone else wants to try, only for the preacher to open the church doors, saying that he had a ticket to send the cattleman to Hell, with a hollow-point to give him the ride. As it turns out, the preacher was faster than the cattleman.

* "Zeven Steken" (which is Dutch for Seven Stabs)- Laïs. This Flemish group sings about a girl who is murdered by the boy who impregnated her.
* "Tom Dooley" - The Kingston Trio, who got it from Appalachian singer Frank Proffitt. Based on the murder of Laura Foster by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Dula Tom Dula]] in North Carolina in the 1860s.
* "You Can't Chop Your Mother Up In Massachusetts" - Chad Mitchell Trio
* "Weela Wallia" - unattributed, but famously performed by the Clancy Brothers.

* "The St. Stephen's Day Murders" - The Chieftains with Music/ElvisCostello
* "Down By The River" - Music/NeilYoung

* "Knoxville Girl" - An Appalachian murder ballad, the singer murders "the girl I loved so well" for no apparent reason.

* "John Hardy Was A Desperate Little Man" - The Carter Family.

* "Frankie and Johnny" - Recorded at least 256 times though there are slightly different versions. In the Music/JimmieRodgers version, a woman named Frankie murders her lover Johnny after finding him making love with another woman. She is to be executed by the electric chair though the Warden, like the bartender Frankie meet before the murder, tells her man done her wrong.

* Another alt-country example: "Billy Prichard" by Slobberbone has a father warning his daughter to stay away from the title character, who he says murdered her brother... The twist comes when the point of view shifts to the daughter, who reveals that [[spoiler: her father accidentally shot his own son in an attempt to kill Billy, then blamed the murder on his intended victim. And then the last few lines imply that the father is now going to kill his daughter for what she knows.]]

* "no body, no crime" by Music/TaylorSwift's ''Music/{{evermore|2020}}'' is told from the perspective of a woman whose best friend, Este, suspects her husband is cheating on her and intends to confront him. Soon after, Este goes missing, and her husband takes up with another woman. The narrator ''knows'' he killed her, but with no body, there isn't proof of a murder... [[{{Revenge}} so she takes matters into her own hands]], dumping his body in the ocean and Este's sister providing an alibi. The cops think the guy's mistress did it, while the mistress knows the truth, but no one can prove anything and no arrests are made.

** "John of Ditchford" is about brigands killing a nobleman. [[spoiler: And the nobleman's son beheading the last member of the gang after he'd claimed sanctuary and was on his way to banishment.]]
* "Sunny Came Home" by Shawn Colvin although [[LyricalDissonance the meaning isn't immediately clear because of how peaceful the song sounds.]] WordOfGod confirms that it is a murder ballad.

** "Transmaniacon MC" tells the story of Altamont - from the point of view of the Hell's Angels whose actions made it so memorable.

* "18 And Life" by Skid Row is about a couple bored kids who go out drinking when one of them turns eighteen. They find a gun and one shoots the other on a dare. The killer's so dulled from the world around him that he doesn't even register the trial til his sentencing.