During my first semester of college, I was the only one of my girlfriends who had a car. Of course, this made me the bee’s knees.
It also meant I was usually the designated driver when we jam-packed for make the journey to and from parties. There are a bajillion reasons why being the only sober gal in a crowd of drunks is less desirable than a root canal, there I always had one reprieve: my car, my tunes.
Or so I thought.
Let me tell you, drunk people don’t hold back.
“Ugh, your music is so depressing. What’s wrong with you?” (Ummm. I can’t really relate to being “up in the club, VIP” or hard life on the streets, but we’ve all had unrequited love.)
“Why don’t you have any T-Pain?!” (It was 2007 and “Buy You a Drank” was poppin’.)
“I’m beginning to think you’re an angry lesbian on the inside!” (I think one friend had it with my collection of Feist, Fiona Apple and Ani DiFranco.)
Thus, the “Make Other Bitches Happy” playlist was born. Filled with the likes of Usher, Lil Wayne, Nelly, Pitbull and other artists whose names don’t mean all that much to me, the playlist did exactly what its name entails.
Though I’ve made newer iterations with less hostile names, I’ve started to realize that being out of the college atmosphere has a lot of perks. For one, I’m remembering that – gasp! – there actually are more than five songs of each genre on the radio.
For two, I got ready to go out Friday night while listening to Jewel’s amazing 1995 album “Pieces of You” after “Who Will Save Your Soul?” was stuck in my head. I belted my heart out to her songs, filled with sadness and social commentary.
“This is awesome!” I thought. “I can listen to whatever I want and no one will complain that it’s not the latest Chris Brown song.”
And awesome it was, as I relived every heartbreak I’ve ever had and pondered how little I could have understood the lyrics when I was all of seven years old. But my glory was short-lived.
“Can’t we put on something else?” my boyfriend said as he walked into the room. “This isn’t really music that’s getting me pumped to go out.”
