Five days down, twenty-five to go! Even though I created the questions for my song-a-day questionnaire, I’m already finding some of them to be a bit difficult to answer. Hence the challenge part of this experiment, I guess!
The intent of my question-setup was to encourage myself to think carefully through an eclectic assortment of music. However, I’m finding that when I’m a bit under pressure, my brain automatically defaults to what I’ve currently been listening to, and it’s a challenge (word of the day!) to break out of that mode. And through this challenge, I do want to showcase the fun music I enjoy, but not sacrifice honesty for some kind of insincere aesthetic. Does that make sense? If not, it’s cool. I’ve got 25 more days to figure it out. đŸ˜‰
Alright, here we go! Days 1-5 of my Song-a-Day Challenge!
Name a song that……..
Day 1: Once you hear it, it will be stuck in your head for an entire day
“Red Red Wine” by UB40
I don’t get the hiccups often. The day that I do get the hiccups though, I have them all day. Sure, there is a point in the process when the diaphragm relaxes and the hiccuping ceases, but inevitably an hour later, the hiccuping will start up again. This is how those few days of the year go; on that day, I am aware of the struggle, but I’m confident that it will end when I fall asleep, and the next day it’ll be like nothing ever happened. That’s the best analogy I can come up to help get across what it’s like for me on the days when our radio station (yes radio station, look it up) plays Red Red Wine. Or when Red Red Wine is played in a commercial or TV show. The main difference is I hear Red Red Wine more often than I get the hiccups, but the feeling is still pretty similar.
Day 2: Was the gateway to a lot of the music you currently enjoy
Tie between…
“Last Nite” by The Strokes
“Birdhouse in Your Soul” by They Might Be Giants
Yes, only Day 2 and already a tie. I get why you’re angry, but hear me out. To choose only one of these songs would basically be like saying half of me is more important than the other half of me. It would be like having two children but only celebrating one of them. It would be like saying “yeah I’ve got two eyes but that seems excessive” whilst scooping one of my gratuitous eyes out of my skull. So you see the quandary I was in. It was best to bend the unwritten yet understood rules.
I won’t let it happen again.
Day 3: Reminds you of one of your closest friends in life:
“Mushaboom” by Feist
This song was released in 2004, and 2004 was the year I started college. Looking back, I realized that I subconsciously gave myself permission to take social risks during my freshman year, to try to “find my own”, since as a teenager I had always felt a little awkward and never quite “fit it”. Out of that relationship quest I gained a very important and formative friendship that always (then and now) seems to strike a healthy balance of fun and seriousness, with a side of interesting music. She played me this song during one of our first times hanging out in the student union on campus, and to this day, hearing Mushaboom always reminds me of being 18 and being optimistic and hopeful about life and friendships.
Day 4: Isn’t overtly religious, but feels inspirational in a spiritual sense
“Everlasting Arms” by Vampire Weekend
If I could just choose the entire Modern Vampires in the City album, I would–but as we’ve already established, I’ve already broken one rule this post. Here’s the thing.. I think I’m using the word “inspirational” more in terms of inspiring me to dwell on spiritual things, versus “inspirational” in the “uplifting” sense. I don’t think this song or this album is uplifting at all, but it’s grappling with religious tradition and beliefs in a way that is vulnerable and honest. I doubt Ezra Koenig would care for the comparison (I don’t think he reads this blog, so I’m in the clear), but when he writes about God, he truly in my opinion is a modern psalmist, in a very Davidic sense. This song captures the tension of fear/doubt with crying for help and safety in the midst of it. It’s all very beautiful and hits the core of me.
Day 5: You enjoy that’s in a different language
“Dragostea Din Tei” by O-Zone
I wish had a better answer for this, one that showed how aware I am of the contributions to music that other countries have to offer. Instead, you’re stuck with this blast from the not too distant past that borders on novelty due to its internet fame. Again though, this song brings me back to really happy-go-lucky college freshman days when YouTube was basically just the Numa Numa video, when my monstrosity of a cell phone was to be used only for long-distance calls to my family, and when The Facebook wasn’t so infuriating and evil.
Side note, “Dragostea Din Tei” is SUPER fun in Just Dance! Seriously.
What do you think, sirs? Check back in next Friday for Days 6-12!
1) Songs don’t really get stuck in my head because I never know the words, so if one gets stuck in there it has to be really repetitive. The one that did this most recently was “Look What You Made Me Do” by Taylor Swift… ugh.
2) I could go so many different ways with this question, but I’ll go with the one that I feel introduced me to “indie rock,” so that would be “Float On” by Modest Mouse.
3) The song “Rubbernecker” by Danielson Family will always remind me of one of my very good friends from college, even though he mainly played the music video of it for laughs.
4) This one was easy, as I feel like the song “Acrobat” by U2 describes my spiritual experience so much of the time.
5) I also have a decided lack of good songs to choose from in the realm of foreign language music, so I’ll go with one of my favorites from Just Dance as well, “Daddy” by Psy.