100 Best Songs About Being Trapped
Songs that Sound Like You're Stuck With No Way Out
There’s a mood that creeps in when things start closing in. The air feels heavier, everything gets louder or too quiet, and your brain keeps running the same loop like it’s trying to find an exit that isn’t there. You sit on a couch that doesn’t feel like yours, or stare through a windshield that doesn’t lead anywhere good, and some song clicks in the background. Not to cheer you up. Not to rescue the moment. But to sink into it the same way you are. These tracks don’t float above the feeling, they drag a chair into it.
No fake sunshine here. These voices crack, the beats drag, the lyrics lean hard into the itch of being stuck. Trapped in a city, in a job, in a version of yourself you’re not buying into anymore. There’s sweat on the walls and no real breeze, just pop, rock, country, and R&B songs that sit tight inside that pressure. The kind of songs where you almost want the second verse to never end because at least someone out there understands the noise in your head. No fast-forward. No bright side.
The tension builds but doesn’t break. There’s a groove in feeling boxed in, strange as that sounds, and these tracks hold their breath inside it. You’re not moving on. Not yet. These are the best songs that lock in that stuck feeling and leave it buzzing in your chest.
Top 10 Trapped Songs
1. 'Let Down'—Radiohead
2. 'I'm Stuck'—Noah Cyrus
3. 'Nowhere to Run'—Martha and the Vandellas
4. 'Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again'—Bob Dylan
5. 'Trapped by Love'—Manu Chao
6. 'Rusty Cage'—Soundgarden
7. 'Message in a Bottle'—The Police
8. 'Baker Street'—Gerry Rafferty
9. 'Trapped'—Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
10. 'Trapped in a Box'—No Doubt
Essential Music for Feeling Confined #11—30
11. 'I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free'—Nina Simone
12. 'Truck Got Stuck'—Corb Lund
13. 'Chains'—Nick Jonas
14. 'Stuck With You'—Huey Lewis & The News
15. 'Nowhere to Go, Nowhere to Be'—Kenny Chesney
16. 'Stuck'—Norah Jones
17. 'Stuck in a Moment'—U2
18. 'Better Man'—Pearl Jam
19. 'Sick Boi'—Ren
20. 'Stuck In My Head'—Sleep Theory
21. 'Time To Pretend'—MGMT
22. 'Don't Stop Believing'—Journey
23. 'Leaving On A Jet Plane'—Peter, Paul and Mary
24. 'I'm Like A Bird'—Nelly Furtado
25. 'Escape'—Kehlani
26. 'Running Up That Hill'—Kate Bush
27. 'Escape From Love'—Eva Simons and Sidney Samson
28. 'Escapade'—Janet Jackson
29. 'Freedom'—Pharrell Williams
30. 'Escape'—Journey
Exploring Music About Feeling Stuck #31—50
31. 'Eye Of The Tiger'—Survivor
32. 'Shake It Off'—Taylor Swift
33. 'How To Disappear Completely'—Radiohead
34. 'Breaking Free'—Post Malone
35. 'Feeling Trapped'—Lyrical Minds
36. 'Feeling Caged'—Breathing Mess
37. 'Passing Through a Screen Door'—The Wonder Years
38. 'Be My Escape'—Relient K
39. 'Garden State'—Senses Fail
40. '45'—The Gaslight Anthem
41. 'Weightless'—All Time Low
42. 'Century'—Youth Fountain
43. 'Life A Fate Worse Than Death'—Settle Your Scores
44. 'Stuck'—Allister
45. 'Longview'—Green Day
46. 'Just Living'—All
47. 'No Traffic'—All
48. 'So You Say'—No Pressure
49. 'Nausea'—Jeff Rosenstock
50. '5,4,3,2,1'—Thursday
Soundtracks for Confinement #51—75
51. 'Motivation'—Sum 41
52. 'Heart Attack'—Sum 41
53. 'Motivation Proclamation'—Good Charlotte
54. 'Staring at the Sun'—The Offspring
55. 'Life in Slow Motion'—Trophy Eyes
56. 'Burning Out'—Chief State
57. 'Life Sucks, Let's Dance!'—Reel Big Fish
58. 'My Standard Break From Life'—Alkaline Trio
59. 'Sink'—Lake Rana
60. 'Something's Gotta Give'—All Time Low
61. 'The Good Life'—Weezer
62. 'Cage'—The Xx
63. 'Caged'—Metallica
64. 'Prisoner'—The Weeknd featuring Lana Del Rey
65. 'Behind Blue Eyes'—The Who
66. 'Fences'—Paramore
67. 'Locked Out of Heaven'—Bruno Mars
68. 'Jailhouse Rock'—Elvis Presley
69. 'The Sound of Silence'—Simon & Garfunkel
70. 'House of the Rising Sun'—The Animals
71. 'Stuck In A Rut'—The Kinks
72. 'Walls'—Tom Petty
73. 'Bound to You'—Christina Aguilera
74. 'Escape (The Pina Colada Song)'—Rupert Holmes
75. 'In the Cage'—Genesis
Anthems of Breaking Free #76—100
76. 'Freedom'—George Michael
77. 'Born to Run'—Bruce Springsteen
78. 'I Want to Break Free'—Queen
79. 'Breakaway'—Kelly Clarkson
80. 'Unwritten'—Natasha Bedingfield
81. 'Defying Gravity'—Idina Menzel (from Wicked)
82. 'Go Your Own Way'—Fleetwood Mac
83. 'Free Fallin''—Tom Petty
84. 'On the Run'—Pink Floyd
85. 'Runaway Train'—Soul Asylum
86. 'Renegade'—Styx
87. 'The Wanderer'—Dion
88. 'Escape Route'—Breaking Benjamin
89. 'Get Out of My Head'—Panic! At The Disco
90. 'Locked Up'—Akon
91. 'Freedom! '90'—George Michael
92. 'Cage the Elephant'—Come a Little Closer
93. 'Behind These Hazel Eyes'—Kelly Clarkson
94. 'Stuck Like Glue'—Sugarland
95. 'I Don't Want to Miss a Thing'—Aerosmith
96. 'The Great Escape'—Boys Like Girls
97. 'No Surrender'—Bruce Springsteen
98. 'Don't Fence Me In'—Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters
99. 'Unchain My Heart'—Ray Charles
100. 'Ring of Fire'—Johnny Cash
© 2025 Carson McQueen
