Twitter / X users are aghast after learning that the "sinister" song playing in a user's shared Uber was actually Billy Joel's classic '80s bop "Uptown Girl."

On Saturday, 25-year-old @plumjae first tweeted about being in a cab and hearing "a song" with the "most sinister vibes ever," later sharing a clip from Joel's official music video, saying that she was "scared" and that she "did not like the energy this song brought into the car."

The Twitter user's claim about being creeped out by "Uptown Girl," which was once the number-one song across countless countries around the world, was met with both laughs and incredulity online, mostly by people finding themselves utterly confused about how someone not only didn't know the song but also found it deeply unsettling.

really obsessed with this person who not only didn't know the song uptown girl was also scared of it https://t.co/vP32I3NkNR

— shivcel (@misterrmisery) January 4, 2025

Other Twitter users put on their thinking caps, tracing through a history of popular 21st-century horror tropes and noting that a younger person raised on these films might come to associate any upbeat vintage doo-wop-esque jingle with the sinister and uncertain. At least, that's the theory @Caol_MacCormaic put out on Sunday.

I think I’ve figured this out. My new hypothesis is that ironic use of old-timey sounding music in horror movies has subconsciously trained young people to associate doo wop, Motown, and other (esp. non-rock) music from the 50s/60s with murder. https://t.co/rolX7UpDx4

— kyle (@Caol_MacCormaic) January 5, 2025

It's strange to imagine that a beloved 1980s pop song recorded in a major key, played in convenience stores across America and even covered on Glee could ever be construed as nefarious, but here we are.

https://t.co/jSV8leTWtk pic.twitter.com/8JYs2thvQt

— john (@john_wilddog) January 5, 2025