2020-12-16:
Lavender Town Syndrome

Content warning: suicide

The early Pokémon games for the Gameboy included a village called Lavender Town, which has a calm chiptune background music, featuring deliberate atonality and binaural beats.

According to an urban legend, this music compelled the suicide of about 200 Japanese children in the spring of 1996. Allegedly, the music harmed children's brains in a way adult brains were immune to. Other alleged symptoms were nosebleeds, headaches, and becoming aggressive.

There is no proof for this legend. Nevertheless, Nintendo later changed the music to reduce high frequencies in the music.