Challenge:Â Choose an emotion (happy, sad, excited, hyper, sleepy, surprised, inspired, ect..) and then choose three songs that elect that emotion. Name emotion, the song, and why it makes you feel that way.
*variation: I created a twitter account for my superhero Khatykra and wrote from her point of view
Emotion: Homesick
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Even though I don't have distinct memories of them, this song always makes me homesick for my biological parents. https://t.co/mxhQixCKEA
For this writing assignment, I decided to pick lyrics from songs that related to love. I wanted to get the perspective on love from my boyfriend, not just me. So for this, we each picked a song. First, I picked a song that made me think of him. Secondly, my he picked a song that reminded him of me. Finally, we picked one together that made us think of our relationship.
My boyfriend said these lyrics remind him of me every time he hears it. Brad Paisley – Little Moments https://t.co/kIRxxWRsyc
When I was first looking to get a car when I was 16 it needed to fit three criteria. It had to be vintage, Japanese, and rear-wheel drive. I had plenty of options that could fit such as Toyota Supras, AE86 Corolla’s, MR2’s, Celica’s, Nissan S12’s, S13’s, S14’s, and pretty much any old Datsun. But no I didn’t get any of those. Found on the side of the road with a for sale sign was a 1986 Nissan 300ZX just begging me to take it home. So I did.
It was love at first sight. This car was the embodiment of the 80’s. It was so quirky, so “rad”, and so gimmicky it was as if I had just time traveled. All the way from it’s bright green Nightrider digital dash, to the “Bitchin Betty” warning voice was perfect. It had all the right looks, the protractor perfect angles and a square body hiding the most 80’s feature I loved, the pop up headlights.
I had the car and was driving it around but now I needed to get the feeling of driving. Driving this car was so much more raw, and a purer driver experience than a normal sedan. The steering was heavy, the exhaust note came into the cabin at a perfect volume, the manual transmission was the direct connection between me and machine, and the T-Tops let in the perfect amount of moonlight when driving at night. What else did I need? Like any 80’s movie worth it’s salt I needed something that people could remember, a soundtrack. Top Gun had Kenny Loggins’ Danger Zone and Berlin’s Take My Breath Away, and the Breakfast Club had Don’t You (Forget About Me). Â
The three songs that best represent my soundtrack are Kavinsky- Nightcall, Com Truise – Brokendate, Timecop1983 – Tonight
Why these songs? These songs are created with a piece of the 80’s. They use similar chord progressions, sounds, and most importantly that 80’s synthesizer that is most recognizable. These songs and many like them completed the trifecta of sensory input being visually, tactilely, and audibly. Â Together this was my release from reality, my freedom, and where I went to think. Why do drugs when I could drive?
It’s easy to dehumanize secret agents. Are we pathological liars? Yeah. Are we obsessive? Sure. But we’re all just human beings (until singularity). One of my favorite past times is listening to music, especially when I’m filling out a mission satisfaction survey or mission information file. They tend to be tedious and boring, so I intentionally listen to songs that illicit some sort of emotion (not easy to do for a spy). Today, I decided to choose three songs that made me feel nostalgic, and share them:
Speed of Sound by Coldplay : This song brings with it many memories. When everyone else was into Clocks, for some reason this song stuck with me even more. I used to listen to this it while reading Eragon, which was one of my favorite experiences with a book. I loved the line: “How long am I gonna stand with my head stuck under the sand?” because I was at a foundation building time in my life.
Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls: Again, this song was tied to one of my favorite book reading experiences. It seems that low tempo, alternative rock was perfect for me when I read books. My favorite line is at the very beginning: “You’re the closest to heaven that I’ll ever be and I don’t want to go home right now.” I’m guessing the book I was reading had a budding romance somewhere in it.
All-Star by Smash Mouth: This song reminds me of elementary school. It seemed like every kid in my class was singing the catchy lyrics. The upbeat tempo of the song made it fun to dance to, and we listened to it before soccer games often. Although at the time, neither me nor any of my friends really wondered what the lyrics were about.
Well there you have it. I’m just happy to be finishing up all the paperwork (nobody even knows why we have to fill these things out after every mission…), but it was nice to reminisce on some wonderful memories. It just goes to show, spies love nostalgia, too !
For my first assignment, I chose to let fate choose what assignment I do. I clicked the random button and it took me to the assignment from the writing assignments called Emotional Lyrics. This assignment seemed interesting so I stuck with it.
I have never really thought about what songs caused certain emotions, or what I listen to when I am feeling a certain way so I had to explore through my Spotify. I am the type of person that creates a playlist about every couple months, and that’s all I listen to from then on.. until I create a new playlist. So I never really have all time favorites. I just have my favorites from sets of playlists since the type of music I listen to tends to change a lot.  I started out by picking my 3 emotions. I went with basic ones, hyper, sad and happy.
For Happy, I chose Breezeblocks by Alt-J.
When I am happy, I listen to Breezeblocks by alt-J. I have fond memories of that song with my family in the car #WritingAssignments2043
I chose this song because every time I listen to it, it reminds me of winter break when I was in the car with my family and we were listening to it and every time the guitar (or is it bass? or are they using their voices? I honestly don’t know. but it’s the part that’s like da-ra-ra) part happened, we would all imitate the beat with our hands. It’s a nice memory so when I listen to breezeblocks, I get happy.
For Hyper, I chose A-YO by Lady Gaga
When I am hyper, I listen to A-YO by Lady Gaga. I really like to sing along to it. #WritingAssignments2043
This song immediately calms me down when I listen to it. Not because of the lyrics, but the beat and her voice. It just puts me in a calm mood and makes me forget because I am focusing on the beat.
Those are the songs that I listen to when I am feeling certain emotions. They will definitely change in a month or two when I create a new playlist but for right now, those are my go-to.
Choose an emotion (happy, sad, excited, hyper, sleepy, suprised, inspired, ect..) and then choose three songs that elect that emotion. Name emotion, the song, and why it makes you feel that way. This can be done in three seperate tweets to allow for character count. Have fun with this!
