• Pokémon the Series: "The Time Has Come (Pikachu's Goodbye)" and "Together We'll Make A Promise".

• Safe Havens: Bambi is a professional singer. Her agent, Jenny, wants her to produce some of these because they're big money makers. Initially, it didn't go over so well because Bambi sang about her breakup with Gerald, which had been an amicable one once they realized they weren't compatible anymore. Eventually, she did produce an album full of these songs...after she had been catfished by the dodos.
  Samantha: "Ground Sushi", "Chum Bucket", "Benihana My Love"...
  Jenny: There's real pain there.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

• Eurobeat Brony's "Fly" is a filk based on episode "Griffon the Brush-Off". It's about not wanting anything to do anymore with one's former lover.

• Turning Red: 4*Town's "1 True Love", cowritten by Billie Eilish and her brother FINNEAS, is about missing one's true love, the person who stole your heart and to whom you always return ("I drove by your house 10, 000 times last year") in tears.

• The Wedding Singer: There's an unfinished breakup song that the protagonist wrote after his girlfriend cheated on him the night before their wedding.

• Crazy Ex-Girlfriend:
  • "It Was A Shitshow" is Greg singing to Rebecca about how he genuinely loves her, but by god that relationship was bad for the both of them.
    "We're Jerry Springer, not Casablanca."
  • "You Go First" is an 80s style Power Ballad Distant Duet between Rebecca and Paula after their fall-out, parodies this type of song, with both singing about how sorry they are and how everything's their fault, and they want to be friends again, just as soon as the other apologises first.
• Hee Haw: Roy Clark's "Thank God and Greyhound" starts out wistful over an abusive lover ("You shamed me till I feel about one inch tall \ But I thought I loved you and I hoped you would change"), then switches mid-chord to something far more cheerful as the singer thanks the heavens his ex is gone ("That load on my mind got lighter when you got on").
• Pushing Daisies: Olive Snook reprises Olivia Newton-John's "Hopelessly Devoted To You", because she knows it isn't presently working out with her partner but harbors hopes for the future.

• Ariana Grande:
  • "thank u, next", though it lacks the anger usually associated with this sort of song. It's less "I'm glad you're gone, I'm so over it" and more, "it's for the best that we broke up, but I learned a lot, so thank you for our time together."
  • "Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored".
• Avenue Beat: "I Don't Really Like Your Boyfriend" has the singer telling her friend to break up with her controlling boyfriend because she deserves better.
• Backstreet Boys:
  • "All I Have To Give", and "More Than That", both of which at least present the partner in question as treating her badly, both mentioning him making her cry in the first line.
• Dany Calvario: "Esa amiga" is about a girl whose partner (a man in the lyrics, a woman in the MV) cheated on her with a close female friend who was never just a friend (as the chorus puts it: "No era una amiga esa amiga"), causing their relationship to fall apart. Now Dany is crying in a bathtub with her heart broken, warning the new woman not to trust her unfaithful ex-partner. Another secret suitor will come for her as well.
• Mariah Carey:
  • "Always Be My Baby" is a variant, saying "I don't mind if you leave, because I know you'll come back." Forever is another variant, where she acknowledges the time between them is over but if he ever wants her back then all he has to do is call her back. Butterfly is, yet another, example. Its main message is very similar to Always Be My Baby except it's more, "If you truly love me, you will come back but, until then, I have to set you free."
  • "H.A.T.E.U." is an odd variation where she wants to hate her ex, but can't because she misses him.
• Daniel J: "A Girl Like You," which is about a man who is in love with someone who has a boyfriend. He doesn't care and wants her to be his girlfriend instead.
• Daniel Romano: "Old Fires Die" is about a presumably once-happy marriage that burned out.
• Eminem:
  • "We Made You" is a version of this in which a Loony Fan attempts to persuade all the female Tabloid Melodrama protagonists of 2009 to ditch their significant others to date him, including in cases of Incompatible Orientation.
  • "Bagpipes From Baghdad", which starts out with Slim expressing jealousy over his ex (Mariah Carey) marrying Nick Cannon, and threatening to drink blood out of his neck. However, the subtext is that he's warning Nick that Mariah is a drunken, promiscuous psycho, which becomes explicit when he, in one of his most misogynistic moments, steps out of character in the final verse to wish Nick "luck with the fucking whore". Ouch.
  • "Cleanin' Out My Closet" is a breakup song with his abusive mother, who had just attempted to sue him for $10m dollars over saying she does drugs in "My Name Is", and who then released a diss track against him. Eminem brings up her childhood abuse against him, then declares he's dead to her. (A decade later, he came to regret it, and released "Headlights" as an apology.)
  • "How Come" is about him falling out with D12 over his extreme success compared to the rest of the group.
  • "Stepping Stone" is his breakup song with D12, in which he admits that the group lost its reason to exist after the death of its founder, Proof.
  • The third scenario in "Guilty Conscience" is about a construction worker, Grady, murdering his wife and the man she was cheating on him with.
  • "Kim", in which Slim/Marshall drives his wife out into the woods and slits her throat.
  • In "Space Bound", Slim/Marshall's girl, who he no longer wanted anyway, attempts to leave him (while not explicit in the lyrics, the music video suggests she's cheating), so he snaps her neck and kills himself.
  • "Love The Way You Lie" doesn't quite get to this stage, but ends with Slim/Marshall threatening his girl that if she ever leaves him, he'll tie her to the bed and set the house on fire. However, its Spiritual Successor "Tragic Endings" ends with Slim/Marshall getting burned to death by his girl in revenge for trying to leave him.
  • "Black Magic" is about Slim being under the thumb of, and eventually killing, his bad girlfriend.
  • "Superman" is about Slim banging groupies he despises, but his boast that he's doing so much better "ever since I broke up with whats-her-face" is totally unconvincing, showing the song as the pathetic On the Rebound behaviour it is.
  • In "Puke", Slim's so pathetically angry at his "fucking cokehead slut" ex that he derails uncontrollably into Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head.
    It's not that I still love you, and that I still want you back!
    It's just that when I think of you, it makes me wanna yack! Ya-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ack!
  • "Stronger Than I Was" is a song often believed by fans to have been written from the perspective of his wife, Kim, whom he infamously murdered on several of his older songs.
  • "Bad Husband" is an extremely belated apology to his prime Muse Abuse target and off-again-on-again-off-again Destructive Romance partner, "Kim".
• Glass Animals:
  • "Gooey", in which the singer announces their departure from an Adult Child partner and disillusionment with their naïve and lackadaisical ways.
  • "Agnes" is a Grief Song about drifting apart from a friend who's succumbed to substance abuse and poor mental health. While it can sound like a more conventional breakup song, "Heat Waves" is also intended to be about processing the loss of a friend.
• Green Day: "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" was originally a romantic breakup song expressing Billie Armstrong's frustration after his girlfriend left him. However, the song gained a Misaimed Fandom that viewed it as a nostalgic and sentimental farewell between people who have known each other for years, most especially at high school graduations. Green Day eventually embraced this alternative interpretation.
• Human Nature:
  • "He Don't Love You" makes a good case for their partner being controlling and borderline abusive.
    "Do you know his friends? Girl do you know the score?
    Don't you think it's strange, they don't know who you are?
    He takes you out to somewhere new, then he leaves you alone
    And if you talk to anyone then he tells you to go.
    Your forgive him then, he does it again.
    Tell me how long will you take it?"
  • "Don't Say Goodbye" ("There's no reason why/this part of us should die./Don't say goodbye.")
  • "Last to Know" ("I don't know why I keep hanging on./Even love's got the message, and it's already gone./Tell me why/am I always the last to know?").
  • "Wishes" ("Sometimes I wish that I could turn back time/I'd kick myself 'cause I was way out of line.")
• Imagine Dragons:
  • "Amsterdam": The singer apologizes for his problems and/or behavior leading to the end of the romance, but reminds her that now she has a chance of finding someone better.
  • "Pantomime": The singer spends a lot of time telling the ex not to touch him, and also boasts that he's become rather popular among her friends. However, he also says that he loves her "part time", instead of not at all, and also notices her crying over the lack of emotional commitment in her current relationship. The bridge seems to tell her that it's her choice whether or not to leave her current lover.
  • "Shots" fluctuates between the singer wishing he and the lover stayed together, and him admitting that maybe he'd screw up their relationship again.
• Hobo Johnson: "Happiness" is about Hobo's girlfriend leaving him due to his comments about her career, while he regrets his actions and wishes her success without him.
• The Killers:
  • The infamous Murder Trilogy is, as the name implies, a three-song arc spinning a tale of this. "Leave the Bourbon On the Shelf" centers on the leaving, "Midnight Show" centers on the killing, and "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine" is the ex-boyfriend's misleading account of events given to the police afterwards.
  • "Smile Like You Mean It" is an unusually positive example of this, about the process of moving on after a breakup: namely in that said process, as the song's title might indicate, can be a matter of "fake it 'til you make it."
• Gladys Knight and The Pips: "If I Were Your Woman" is about a woman trying to convince a man to leave his abusive girlfriend/wife for her.
• Mon Laferte's songs are meant to be cathartic and healing, for they speak about the worst of heartbreaks. As she puts it, "it's better to expose the wound and [thus] heal, rather than sweep it under the rug". Nevertheless, each song takes a different stance on romantic breakups. "Tu tanta falta de querer", for instance, focuses on missing a partner who clearly fell out of love. Similarly, "Otra noche de llorar" is about the inability to move on and forget someone trying their damnedest to pretend otherwise. By contrast, the lyrics of "Aunque te mueras por volver" tell the opposite story—it's the former lover who wishes to return to her arms, but Laferte, though still promising support and caring, has already let him go.
• Avril Lavigne:
  • "Girlfriend" is a song about a woman trying to steal another's boyfriend. According to Avril, it's supposed to be comedic, and you're not supposed to agree with the singer.
• Lobo: In "How Can I Tell Her", the narrator asks his new lover for advice on how to break up with his old one.
• Lou Bega: "Boyfriend" is about a man who's attracted to a woman with a boyfriend. He tries to convince her to leave.
• Mario: "Let Me Love You" is about a man telling a woman that he'd treat her better than her unfaithful lover.
• Maroon 5:
  • "Figure It Out" and "Feelings" are about men who are in affairs (the former) or trying to have affairs (the latter) with women who have boyfriends. In each case, the man tries to convince her to leave her boyfriend.
  • "Nothing Lasts Forever" and "Better That We Break" are both about looking at dying relationships and accepting that, even if it's painful to consider, the only healthy option one and one's partner might have is to end things.
• Bruno Mars: "When I Was Your Man." A lovely ballad about how he should have paid more attention to her, but at least she's with someone who is doing for her now what the singer should have been doing for her all along.
• Reba McEntire: "Every Other Weekend," a duet with Kenny Chesney, describes a divorced couple who only have brief contact with each other when they exchange kids. They're still in love with each other and regret their divorce, but are convinced the other has moved on and say nothing. The video takes the emotions to another level. The song has no timeline beyond the present. The video takes place over ten years, with the kids growing from preschoolers to teenagers. Both parents are still in love with the other and want to be a family again, both saying nothing.
• Melanie Martinez:
  • "Pacify Her" is about the Villain Protagonist trying to convince her crush to break up with his girlfriend.
  • "Alphabet Boy" and "Dead To Me".
• Shawn Mendes: "Treat You Better" is about a man who thinks he can be a better boyfriend to a woman than her current, possibly abusive, one.
• Kate Nash: "Foundations".
• Nelly: "Dilemma" is about a man who's debating whether he should try to date a woman who has a family already.
• *NSYNC:
  • "Girlfriend" follows in the footsteps of the Backstreet Boys' songs on this subject: "Hey girl, is your boyfriend treatin' you bad? Ditch him for me, cuz I can treat you better."
• La oreja de Van Gogh: Un susurro en la tormenta must be the band's album with the greatest number of songs about broken relationships, which goes in tune with its thorny feelings theme.
  • "Como un par de girasoles": The two lovers are equated to sunflowers at night. Without the sun (their romantic feelings), they are left hanging low, without a direction. The singer also questions, multiple times, whether someone, something, could salvage their relationship, only to come to the conclusion that she and her partner are done.
  • "Abrázame" is about a girl reminiscing when she and her partner loved each other and lamenting how his/her heart doesn't beat for her anymore and how the whole affair no longer makes her feel as if she's soaring. She asks for a last hug before they part ways.
    "Si a un centímetro de mí
    No se arrodilla tu corazón
    Entonces no lo quiero
    [...]
    Nuestra estrella se cayó
    Y nos partió la casa en dos
    Camino del infierno"
  • "Galerna" is a break-up song from the perspective of a failed marriage's daughter. Long after they signed for their divorce, the kid thinks about all the damage her parents' problematic relationship did to her. She points out how neither parent made an effort for the other and all the pain, loneliness, and hopelessness it brought her.
• Sam Hunt: "Break Up in a Small Town" has shades of this in the chorus, but the main hook of the song is that he keeps running into her and being tormented by her memory because they live in a small town and are likely to cross paths.
• The Script:
  • "Breakeven" is mostly about the man's Heel Realization, and how he wishes his ex to be happy with her newfound love.
• Ed Sheeran: "Sunburn", primarily about the narrator's regret that an old relationship didn't work out: "We never even tried / We never even talked / We never even thought in the long run." The new-girlfriend-who-reminds-him-of-the-old is a secondary aspect of the song.
• Rick Springfield: "Jessie's Girl" is about a man in love with his friend's girlfriend.
• Studio Killers: "Jenny" is about the (female) singer trying to convince the girl of her affections to leave her current boyfriend.
• They Might Be Giants: "Take Out The Trash".
  "Girl, why not take out the trash
  And once you get him out
  Tell him not to come back again?
  Girl, put that cat in the bin
  After what he said
  After everything he did."
• The Vamps: "Cheater" is a song about a guy explaining to a girl that her boyfriend has another girlfriend behind her back and that she should be with him instead. Depending on how the lyrics are read, it's also implied that the singer is cheating with the girl behind her boyfriend's back as well.
• The Weeknd: "Out of Time", in which the singer returns to a partner he ran out on after doing some work on unpacking his intimacy issues, only to find himself needing to accept she's fallen for someone new.

• Chess: Inverted Trope in "Heaven Help my Heart". The singer enters a relationship knowing that it will end with the guy leaving her, despite all that she's done and how much he loves her.
• Cross Road: "Hanarereba Hanareruhodo ni Ai" ("To love you, I have to leave you"), sung by Elisa Bonaparte, who is confused and distraught after leaving her lover, violinist Niccolo Paganini, because his contracted devil told her that her love was killing Niccolo.
• Dreamgirls: "Hard To Say Goodbye, My Love" is sung by the Dreams when they're about to disband. They really hate the idea of going their separate ways, so the girls do their best remind each other they'll always share mutual love and care.
• Hamilton: "Burn" is about Eliza's real-life destruction of her and Alexander's love letters in the wake of the Reynolds affair, with the specific intent of ruining any attempts he could make to redeem himself in the public eye.

• Portal 2: Few would see the mortal enemies GLaDOS and Chell's relationship as romantic, but the original soundtrack "Want You Gone" is a perfect example of a 'Don't want you back' kind of song.
• River City Girls: "Rich" about breaking off a relationship that's built on being paid because Screw the Money, I Have Rules!:
  "I don't care what you pay,
  Just watch me walk away.
  If cash is your reason
  you won't keep anyone."

• Total Drama World Tour:
  • Sierra sings an angry breakup song after Cody shoots her down once too often—Sierra and Cody were never really a couple in the first place, except in Sierra's diseased mind. The lyrics of "Oui, my Friends" are about a boy who she thought loved her, but then turned out not to reciprocate her feelings. Sierra then proceeds to sing about how all boys are just out to get girls and use them. Or as she puts it, 'Break your heart and chew it up and spit it out and step on it and throw it down a sewer, call it names, and then, laugh!'.