Going back to school in 2020 feels sort of what I imagine going back to school during the Great Depression was like – gloomy. Distressing. Futile. But luckily for us, we have something the 1930s college students didn’t: music streaming services.
It’s only prudent we use the godsend tools of Spotify and Apple Music to feel a little better about all the chaos of online classes and COVID-19 uneasiness. For me, that means blasting the happiest songs in my playlists and forcing my roommates to dance with me.
If you’re interested in doing the same, consider the following tracks, both dance-worthy and therapeutic, to listen to this week:
The Middle – Jimmy Eat World
This song has been my favorite musical pick-me-up for years, purely for the rush I feel every time that guitar hits in the chorus. And no matter who you are, no matter where you’re going, no matter what life-changing pandemic is playing out around you, everyone can always use a reminder that “everything, everything will be just fine.”
Sir Duke – Stevie Wonder
Happiness might be harder to come by these days, but it can always be found in a Stevie Wonder song. Pandemic or not, school tends to give us more than enough reason to want to escape for a while. I do so by turning on this jazz-infused banger, because like Stevie says, “music is a world within itself with a language we all understand.”
Juice – Lizzo
Did anyone else inexplicably come out of quarantine with severely depleted self-confidence? Yes or no, allow Lizzo’s royal pop highness to inflate your ego for just three minutes and 15 seconds today with this self-love anthem. You deserve it. And for even more serotonin, watch Harry Styles’ cover of “Juice” here.
Dance, Baby! – Boy Pablo
Remember in the first Deathly Hallows movie when Harry and Hermione took a break from hunting horcruxes to dance together? That was a good idea. Boy Pablo’s sunshiny guitar and angsty lyrics are the perfect soundtrack for putting 2020’s Voldemort-like tendencies on pause and dancing away our fears.
Vienna – Billy Joel
If the stress of papers, tests and remembering to mute yourself on Zoom has already begun eating you alive, take a breather with this classic. For those of us who value productivity as an indicator of success, all of these lost opportunities and canceled plans can diminish our self worth. “Vienna,” however, is a gentle reminder there is so much more to life than our ambitions, both failed and successful.
Good luck this semester, Hoosiers.
