Whether it was a lullaby sung by a particularly tuneful parent, or a white noise machine masquerading as a fluffy sheep, when we’re tiny humans, sound helps us to get to sleep. Fast forward to adulthood, and I’m sure many of us find it impossible to head into the land of nod without some form of background noise. Perhaps it’s Dream FM, playing soulful tunes to lull you to rest, or simply a favourite film or TV show you’ve seen a hundred times. Or, if you’re like me, it’s the soothing sound of a true crime podcast.
Over the last couple of years, true crime content has dominated all forms of media. Every week there seems to be a new Netflix documentary airing, covering cases ranging from conning Casanovas to malevolent multi-murderers. As a nation, nay - a people - we have become obsessed with learning about the darkest, most depraved aspects of humanity. So why the heck is that?
It’s probably partly due to the same reason we can’t help but slow down when we see a car crash on the motorway - morbid fascination. We want to know exactly what has happened to the unfortunate motorists, perhaps so we can avoid it happening to us or just so we can feel better about our own lives. True crime fascinates us because we convince ourselves that by digesting as much information as we can about past crimes, we‘ll have the knowledge to prevent anything similar happening to us. If we can spot the signs of a serial killer, we can avoid becoming a footnote in their biography. It also provides us with the bar with which we can measure our experience against. Whatever happens during your day - spilling coffee down your favourite t-shirt, losing your front door keys - at least your heart is still beating. A bad day doesn‘t seem as bad when you compare it to being a victim of the Night Stalker.
I’ve always been obsessed with true crime, but I’m not surprised that the genre has gained more fans in the last few years. During those long months of lockdown, it provided the perfect escapism for people when they were going slowly insane stuck at home. Again, it put things into perspective any time we became frustrated or bored of baking banana bread. For those on furlough whose brains were turning to mush from a lack of stimulation, attempting to figure out ‘whodunnit’ was the ideal way to keep their neurons firing. And while being able to solve a crime and wrap it up in a neat and pretty bow is incredibly satisfying, there’s also something irresistible about an unsolved crime. The mystery and unknowns provide us with countless hours of rumination and entertainment as we go over the details on our minds whole thinking that maybe WE could be the person to solve it. After all, the mystery of the Somerton Man was solved just the other week after more than 70 years.
So as long as they keep the content coming, I’ll carry on consuming it. Because no matter how sleep deprived I am, at least I haven't been kept in a toy box and tortured. Regardless of how many times I’ve been puked or pooped on, I’ll be happy that my remains haven’t been found on a shallow grave on the side of the highway. Positivity is key right?