History Music / SonicYouth

* [[YourCheatingHeart Yr Cheating Heart]]: Moore had an affair, the discovery of which ended his marriage to Gordon and the band itself.

** On one side of the scale you have "Winner's Blues" from ''Experimental Jet Set, Trash, and No Star'', a simple acoustic guitar track that rests comfortably at a 1. On the other is the intense noise freakouts of releases like ''TV Shit'', much of their early [[PostPunk No Wave]] era, and sections such as the [[CarefulWithThatAxe screaming section]] of "Mildred Pierce", reaching up to a 10 or an 11. [[BrokeTheRatingScale Then there's]] ''[[BrokeTheRatingScale Silver Session For Jason Knuth]]'', which is just guitar feedback and occasionally drum machines, making it like ''Music/MetalMachineMusic'' in that whether it qualifies as an 11 or not depends on if you consider it rock music at all.

* StylisticSuck: the cover of "Addicted To Love" from ''The Whitey Album'' is just Kim singing over a pre-recorded karaoke version of the song. The official music video cost [[NoBudget $20 to make]] - Kim simply stepped into a "video booth" at a Macy's and mimed the lyrics over various ChromaKey StockFootage backdrops.

* 1987 - ''Sister''

[[FalseReassurance As much as you've hurt me]]

* {{Yandere}}: "Pacific Coast Highway" is an almost textbook example.

Drawing on a wide variety of influences ranging from proto-punk acts like Music/TheStooges and the Music/VelvetUnderground and HardcorePunk to avant-garde musicians Glenn Branca, Rhys Chatham, and Music/JohnCage, Sonic Youth's early career was spent largely being a SensoryAbuse NoiseRock band and struggling with lack of recognition and cycling through a succession of drummers. Notably, the band sparred with music critic Robert Christgau over a dismissive review (renaming their song "Kill Yr Idols" to "I Killed Christgau with My Big Fucking Dick" in concert), had a disastrous debut in UsefulNotes/{{London}} ending in instrument destruction ([[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity which paradoxically got rave reviews]]) and released a mediocre debut suffering from horrible production, ''Confusion Is Sex,'' that hardcore fans love but everybody else tends to ignore.

* UserfulNotes/EsperantoTheUniversalLanguage: Used on ''Invito al Cielo''.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: "[[SprawlTrilogy The Sprawl]]" and "[[Literature/PatternRecognition Pattern Recognition]]" are Creator/WilliamGibson references (and they have several other references to him). "Rain King" may be one to Creator/SaulBellow's novel ''Literature/HendersonTheRainKing'' (which also inspired Music/CountingCrows' otherwise unrelated song of the same title). ''Sister'' is named in honor of Creator/PhilipKDick's fraternal twin, who died shortly after her birth; her death haunted Dick for his whole life. "Mildred Pierce" is one to, well, ''Literature/MildredPierce''. The bonus track "Literature/WhereTheRedFernGrows" (included on a reissue of their self-titled EP). And so on.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: "[[SprawlTrilogy The Sprawl]]" and "[[Literature/PatternRecognition Pattern Recognition]]" are Creator/WilliamGibson references (and they have several other references to him). "Rain King" may be one to Creator/SaulBellow's novel ''Literature/HendersonTheRainKing'' (which also inspired Music/CountingCrows' otherwise unrelated song of the same title). ''Sister'' is named in honour of Creator/PhilipKDick's fraternal twin, who died shortly after her birth; her death haunted Dick for his whole life. "Mildred Pierce" is one to, well, ''Literature/MildredPierce''. The bonus track "Literature/WhereTheRedFernGrows" (included on a reissue of their self-titled EP). And so on.

* PissTakeRap: "Master-Dik", "Into the Groovey".

The judge'll rot in hell!

* AuthorAppeal: Kim likes writing songs about Karen Carpenter, for some reason.

* IncrediblyLamePun: ''Master-Dik'', ''Whores Moaning'', ''The Whitey Album'', "Society Is a Hole" (a play on the phrase "society as a whole").

** That said, each has at least one MomentOfAwesome; "The Burning Spear" and "Shaking Hell", in particular are classic Sonic Youth. Even ''NYC Ghosts & Flowers'' has the [[TearJerker unbelievably sad]] title song.

* TakeThat: "Youth Against Fascism" is 3 and a half minutes of Thurston insulting UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush (''Yeah, the president sucks/He's a war pig fuck/His shit's out of luck'' etc. etc.), "Kim Gordon and the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream" lampoons MariahCarey, "Peace Attack" is a mellower but still pretty ripshit pissed indictment of UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush. "I Killed Christgau With My Big Fucking Dick" is self-explanatory.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: "[[SprawlTrilogy The Sprawl]]" and "[[Literature/PatternRecognition Pattern Recognition]]" are Creator/WilliamGibson references (and they have several other references to him). "Rain King" may be one to Creator/SaulBellow's novel ''Henderson the Rain King'' (which also inspired Music/CountingCrows' otherwise unrelated song of the same title). ''Sister'' is named in honour of Creator/PhilipKDick's fraternal twin, who died shortly after her birth; her death haunted Dick for his whole life. "Mildred Pierce" is one to, well, ''Literature/MildredPierce''. The bonus track "Literature/WhereTheRedFernGrows" (included on a reissue of their self-titled EP). And so on.

* ViewersAreGeniuses: Their work may qualify in many cases. Their lyrics often read like WordSaladLyrics to the uninitiated, but many of these cases are actually subtle literary references that will simply 'look'' like word salad to readers unfamiliar with the works in question. Their music also often qualifies between the unusual compositional techniques, inaccessible and often abrasive songwriting and arrangements, musical vocabulary inspired by works often well off an average rock fan's radar, and so on.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: "[[SprawlTrilogy The Sprawl]]" and "[[Literature/PatternRecognition Pattern Recognition]]" are Creator/WilliamGibson references (and they have several other references to him). "Rain King" may be one to Creator/SaulBellow's novel ''Henderson the Rain King'' (which also inspired Music/CountingCrows' otherwise unrelated song of the same title). ''Sister'' is named in honour of Creator/PhilipKDick's fraternal twin, who died shortly after her birth; her death haunted Dick for his whole life. "Mildred Pierce" is one to, well, ''Literature/MildredPierce''. The bonus track "Literature/WhereTheRedFernGoes" (included on a reissue of their self-titled EP). And so on.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: "[[SprawlTrilogy The Sprawl]]" and "[[Literature/PatternRecognition Pattern Recognition]]" are Creator/WilliamGibson references (and they have several other references to him). "Rain King" may be one to Creator/SaulBellow's novel ''Henderson the Rain King'' (which also inspired Music/CountingCrows' otherwise unrelated song of the same title). ''Sister'' is named in honour of Creator/PhilipKDick's fraternal twin, who died shortly after her birth; her death haunted Dick for his whole life. "Mildred Pierce" is one to, well, ''Literature/MildredPierce''. And so on.

** There are also a bunch of other songs on their B-sides, side releases, live albums, and so on. Evidently, different band members had different opinions about brevity versus [[IncrediblyLamePun sprawl]]; some members evidently tended to favour concision, while Moore has commented, "If I was the leader [of Sonic Youth] as much as everyone says I am, every song would be 20 minutes long." Also, as seen in the lists above, some albums have a lot more of this than others; some didn't have a single track break the six-minute mark, while others (''Daydream Nation'', ''A Thousand Leaves'', ''Murray Street'', ''Sonic Nurse'') have around half their songs qualify or sometimes even more.

** ''Washing Machine'': "Washing Machine" (9:33), "The Diamond Sea" (the album version on ''Washing Machine'' is 19:35, and was edited down from an even longer '''25:50''' version included as a single B-side, though it was also edited down to 5:15 for the A-side)

** ''The Eternal'': "Anti-Orgasm" (6:08), "Antenna" (6:13), "Massage the History" (9:43).
** There are also a bunch of other songs on their B-sides, side releases, live albums, and so on. Evidently, different band members had different opinions about brevity versus [[IncrediblyLamePun sprawl]]; some members evidently tended to favour concision, while Moore has commented, "If I was the leader [of Sonic Youth] as much as everyone says I am, every song would be 20 minutes long."