| Hysteria | |
| Cover: | Muse_hysteria_cd.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Muse |
| Album: | Absolution |
| B-Side: | Eternally Missed |
| Released: | [1] |
| Studio: | Grouse Lodge (Westmeath, Ireland) |
| Genre: | |
| Length: | 3:47 |
| Label: | East West |
| Composer: | |
| Lyricist: | Matt Bellamy |
| Producer: |
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| Prev Title: | Time Is Running Out |
| Prev Year: | 2003 |
| Next Title: | Sing for Absolution |
| Next Year: | 2004 |
"Hysteria" is a song by the English rock band Muse, released on December 1, 2003 as the third single from their third studio album, Absolution (2003). It was produced by Muse and Rich Costey.
"Hysteria" reached number 17 on the UK Singles Chart and reached number 9 in the US on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. In 2012, "Hysteria" was voted the best Muse song by readers of NME.[2] The bassline was named the sixth-best of all time by MusicRadar in 2011.[3]
The artwork for the 7" cover was chosen by competition, and the winner was Adam Falkus.[4] The runner-up images are included in the DVD version of the single. The song was performed regularly during the tour in support of Absolution. The song also appears on the live videos Absolution Tour and HAARP. A demo and a live version appeared on Absolution XX, the 20th-anniversary Absolution reissue.[5] The song was featured in the video game Fortnite Festival.[6]
The music video for "Hysteria" was inspired by the hotel-trashing scene from Pink Floyd – The Wall (1982). It takes the form of a short narrative depicting a man (played by Justin Theroux) awakening inside of a hotel room and, through non-linear chronological elements, discovering that he both stalked and eventually met with a prostitute with whom he was obsessed (played by Hayley Caradoc-Hodgkins). This encounter ends violently.
An alternate video was created for the release of the single in the U.S., which features the band playing in front of a green screen; with white blood vessels, a woman's face, red, grey and black circles overlapping, and lightning. This video is also used in the UK before the watershed, as the original video was deemed unsuitable for children.[7]