50 Best Rock Songs About Pushing People Away
Rock Songs That Capture the Feeling of Pushing People Away
There’s a strange pulse to distance. Not the physical kind, but the slow pull when someone starts to fade from your orbit. You tell yourself it’s for peace, for space, for clarity, but it still hums in the background like feedback from an amp that won’t turn off. Some tracks sound like that moment before you say you need time. Others catch what comes after, when the silence stretches longer than you thought it would. These songs lean into the ache of pushing people away, or maybe being the one left behind, depending on how you hear them.
It’s messy in the way people actually are. You can tell when a track tries too hard to sound cool while hiding something raw underneath. Some of these aren’t even literally centered on distance or isolation, but the feeling bleeds through anyway. A riff that sounds too sharp, a chorus that trips over its own words. The lyrics might talk around the thing instead of naming it. That’s what makes them land. They fit the same emotional pocket as pop, rock, country, and R&B songs that pretend to be fine until the second verse cracks open the truth.
These songs don’t promise resolution. They sit with the static, the push and pull, the weight of keeping people at arm’s length because it feels safer that way. They leave you somewhere between guilt and relief, unsure which one wins. Here are the best rock songs that capture the feeling of pushing people away.
Top 10 Pushing People Away Rock Songs
1. 'Hurt' by Nine Inch Nails
2. 'Breaking the Habit' by Linkin Park
3. 'I Hate Everything About You' by Three Days Grace
4. 'Wish You Were Here' by Pink Floyd
5. 'With Or Without You' by U2
6. 'Runaway Train' by Soul Asylum
7. 'Distance' by Dream Theater
8. 'Shadow of the Day' by Linkin Park
9. 'Glycerine' by Bush
10. 'The Kill' by Thirty Seconds to Mars
Rock Music About Keeping Others at a Distance #11 to 20
11. 'Fade to Black' by Metallica
12. 'Numb' by Linkin Park
13. 'Here Without You' by 3 Doors Down
14. 'Seize the Day' by Avenged Sevenfold
15. 'Jeremy' by Pearl Jam
16. 'Black Hole Sun' by Soundgarden
17. 'High and Dry' by Radiohead
18. 'Every Breath You Take' by The Police
19. 'Love Bites' by Def Leppard
20. 'Drive' by Incubus
Songs on Emotional Withdrawal in Rock #21 to 30
21. 'My Own Worst Enemy' by Lit
22. 'Better Man' by Pearl Jam
23. 'I Miss You' by blink-182
24. 'Otherside' by Red Hot Chili Peppers
25. 'Save Me' by Unwritten Law
26. 'Tired of Being Alone' by Al Green
27. 'Mad World' by Tears for Fears
28. 'Last Resort' by Papa Roach
29. 'Crawling' by Linkin Park
30. 'The Man Who Sold the World' by David Bowie
Rock Songs Addressing Relationship Barriers #31 to 40
31. 'Far Away' by Nickelback
32. 'Isolation' by John Lennon
33. 'Hate Me' by Blue October
34. 'The Way I Am' by Eminem
35. 'The Sound of Silence' by Simon & Garfunkel
36. 'Dear Prudence' by The Beatles
37. 'Losing My Religion' by R.E.M.
38. 'I Want You to Want Me' by Cheap Trick
39. 'Creep' by Radiohead
40. 'Behind Blue Eyes' by The Who
Rock Songs About Self-Destruction #41 to 50
41. 'Lithium' by Nirvana
42. 'Going Through Changes' by Black Sabbath
43. 'My December' by Linkin Park
44. 'Don't Speak' by No Doubt
45. 'Adam's Song' by blink-182
46. 'Skinny Love' by Bon Iver
47. 'The Only Exception' by Paramore
48. 'In Too Deep' by Sum 41
49. 'Love, Hate, Love' by Alice In Chains
50. 'Go Your Own Way' by Fleetwood Mac
© 2025 Carson McQueen
