Pick Your Playlist: Reflection or Distraction?

Music always serves a purpose. Whether you want to listen to something because it matches what’s going on in the world and you need to sit with those emotions or you need to listen to a song with a catchy hook for simple and bliss distraction. Whatever your position in this divided climate, we can probably all agree any distraction is welcomed. The beauty of music is that it provides both comforts for when you need them; reflective songs that match our mood and songs that distract us and bring us into a different mind set. A distraction playlist doesn’t even have to be happy or uplifting, just like a song for the times doesn’t have to be depressing. There can be a range of emotions from hope to angst across both playlists. Both playlists are equally important, evolving, and self serving.

Kate Voegele’s newest single Anxious is straightforward, describing a feeling the world has become far too familiar with since March. In a sad, but comforting way anxiety is a common thread throughout these times. We experience empathy for our neighbors and empathy is unifying. However, we can never truly understand someone else’s anxiety or how they are holding up in a situation. Which is a sentiment visually and lyrically expressed in Alexander 23’s latest song Brainstorm in the first two verses: How bad is the weather in your head?/You say the building’s burning down/but I see no smoke down from the ground. We need to really check in on people because our point of view might be completely opposite from what is going on in someone’s head.

Switching to the distracting playlist a song that I’m obsessed with, Mood by 24kGoldn, says it perfectly: we play games of love to avoid the depression. Sometimes we just need someone else’s drama as a distraction from our own reality. These next favorites of mine fall into this category.

Hate The Way by G Easy & Blackbear I hate the way I always miss you I know I’m crazy but you're sick too/I thought I was the one with all the issues. The video is well done, depicts a toxic relationship with drugs and two individuals.

Baby, I’m Jealous Bebe Rexha Ft. Doja Cat went from beautiful to ugly cause insecurity told me you don’t love me. We have all been in that position where we get stuck looking through pictures of someone we like or an ex. If I could rap these verses like Bebe and Doja I could feel better about my own insecurities, but at least I have their verses as a catchy distraction.

You Broke Me First by Tate McRae I don’t really care how bad it hurts when you broke me first. I appreciate the attitude in this song. Who are you to be upset about something you caused?

Flipping back to our times, our country is broken and divided right now. Unlike Tate McRae’s attitude to someone who ruined a relationship, these days there isn’t a point in saying who started it and not caring about the effect on others. The point is to acknowledge where we are, how we got here, and use our voices to become united again. Alicia Keys and Brandi Carlile collaborated on a beautiful song with an incredible timely message about using our voices for change. A Beautiful Noise doesn’t just refer to the exquisite sound these two create when they sing and play piano together, but it is the power and change that can spark from using our voice, from marching hand in hand, and from voting: now we have a choice cause I have a voice/ it’s loud, it is clear, it’s stronger than your fear, it’s calling out the wrong. I could quote every line and each one will be a valid feeling we all need to hear, believe, and act on. The video is a must see and the song is a must listen.

America, America divided we fall/America, America we’re better than this. No more direct or truer words make up the next important song of our time Better Than We Found It by Maren Morris. Will we sit on our hands, do nothing about it or will we leave this world better than we found it. Just like Alicia and Brandi, Maren is pleading for action. We have built Hell for ourselves and our kids. I might not be a mother like Maren, but this song became more than a letter to her son; it became a letter to our country: that we need to be better at uniting, because we can’t go on like this. The letter to her baby boy Hayes at the end of the video was also so sweet.

For the last 9 months of this year it truly feels like it is the year the world stopped turning. Our lives were turned upside down and the world that we used to know changed forever. Which is why JP Saxe & Julia Michaels duet If the World was Ending encompasses this sentiment perfectly. This song can float between both playlists. We are living through the end of our old worlds. Nobody can predict what the new normal will look like, but we can day dream about the people we want to come over as we say goodbye to pre Covid world and navigate the new world. This song is my coping mechanism and my fantasy distraction all in one. We can always wonder about how different people’s love and presence will change our moods. Which leads me to my next distraction song Wonder by Shawn Mendes. I wonder what it would be like to be loved by you. We really have to rely on our imaginations and dreams these days because as Avenue Beat coined F 2020. If you are smart, you have been socially distancing and isolating from others, which is a very unnatural concept for people. Demi Lovato and Marshmello remind us of that in their song It’s OK Not To Be OK. Cursing, frustration, anxiety, finding love in someone or in the little wins, it is all okay and valid to be everywhere on the emotional spectrum these days.

It is okay especially because at least we are surviving. Thank you Bastille for your song Survivin because it pretty much sums up my 2020 outlook and my first response when people ask how are you: what can I say? I’m survivin’ and I’m gonna be fine, I think I’ll be fine.

If that lyric only slightly comforts you, turn to Rachel Platten’s song Soldiers: We made it through then came the sun and now our hearts will beat as one. Rachel’s angelic voice and piano on the outro of these words really linger and hopefully give you the hope for our future that you need.

If that ballad doesn’t move you, maybe the R&B feel from Ariana Grande on her song Just Like Magic will put a beat in your step. Ari’s new full album Positions was created from a place of healing and love. That is in contrast to the pain that inspired her previous work on Thank U, Next. The whole project falls under the distraction playlist if you are looking for a track list full of funny, yet sexy, loving, empowering, and hopeful themes. Just Like Magic is my favorite bop because it talks about manifesting and attracting the future we want. I still believe in hard work to get where you want to be in life, but this song is about giving off positive energy and hopefully attracting the people and the things you want in your future. Just like magic middle finger to my thumb then I snap it/good karma, my aesthetic/keep my conscience clear that’s why I’m so magnetic.

So much has been taken out of our control this year that I don’t mind believing in a little magic for what’s next. My personal magic is music. Whether it is distracting me or making me reflective we all need it day in and day out. May these playlists help in your music/magic discovery and serve you in whatever way you need them to.

~ Rockin Rox