SIX-WORD ECO-HORRORS

EXTENDED PLAY PLAYLISTS (EPs)

Nuclear New Mexico

1. "Radioactive" - Imagine Dragons: (no explanation needed)

2. "Disarm" - The Smashing Pumpkins: As the name suggests, “Disarm” by the Smashing Pumpkins, is a song about convincing someone to put down their weapons. While the music is likely about disarmament as a metaphor for emotional conflict, the parallels between the themes of disarming a person who is harming someone defenseless and the themes of the reading are salient.

3. "Main Theme" - Fallout 4: “War.  It never changes.” This song talks about how the scarcity of resources lead to war. People get scared and lead to great innovations and discoveries. But the rise of injustice, injustice, anger, and despair lead to conflict. War will always be present, no matter how big or small. It is inevitable. 

4. "Truth" - Seether: This song mirrors the betrayal Nuevomexicanos experienced. “If I gave you the truth, would it keep you alive?” reflects withheld dangers of radiation, while “I’ve failed you” echoes the government’s neglect of them. The song’s themes of deception, guilt, and suffering align with the Nuevomexicano’s pain and fight for justice.

5. "Hysteria" - Deaf Leopard: Hysteria is a state of extreme excitement, fear, or anger that is hard to control. Some may have been excited to test the bomb, while some were fearful during this time of war or angry about the injustice to those in New Mexico.

6. "Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground" - Willie Johnson: This track is a harrowing blues song performed by a blind Black blues singer from Texas. This emotional song features melancholic humming over a slide guitar, evoking feelings of pain and death. The title of this track is in reference to Johnson's lived experiences of homelessness and neglect and in the South. He died in 1945, at age 48, of pneumonia from sleeping in the wet remains of his burned out home. No hospital would admit him because he was black. This song serves as an anthem for all people who experienced injustice and suffering.

7. "Cancion Ingles" - Jacobo Maestas: A New Mexico folk song representing the type of music people would have listened to. 

Three Mile Island

1. "Harrisburg" - Midnight Oil: This song was written about the Three Mile Incident

2. "Radiation Funk" - Maxwell: This song was written about the Three Mile Incident

3. "Radioactive" - Imagine Dragons: (no explanation needed) 

4. "1979" - The Smashing Pumpkins: The Institute of Nuclear Powers Operations was founded in 1979

5. "Try Not to Breathe" - R.E.M.: This song's themes of trying not to breathe and trauma are aligned with events characterized by destruction and turmoil

“Artists are the gatekeepers of truth. We are civilization’s radical voice.”

~Paul Robeson