Black mascara & Women’s History Month
It’s International Women’s History Month, the first month of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and the month of St. Patrick’s Day, the Ides of March, and Pi Day. I tried to cram all of that into this month’s 1.0 version of the playlist. This month, I wanted to highlight a rebellious energy, but especially a feminine rebellious energy—more so than the previous two months.
There are several first-time artists this month: RAYE, The La’s, LISA, Hayley Williams’ solo stuff, CHUNG HA & SUNMI, and Madonna, as well as a lot of repeats. Part of the reason that I wanted to repeat songs this month was a chance to revise my former playlists, recontextualizing them with songs that I never featured but were relevant or popular at the time. Or maybe the old song was a lesser-known single of a newly popular artist. It’s a kind of revisionist history to make me seem like I was a lot cooler and my musical tastes were moving forward, which is not at all true!
The male artists I included were mostly intentional. As I’ve been listening a lot to MUTEMATH this year, and their song “Chaos” seems to be a theme of this year, I included one of their songs in this playlist about what happened to Mardi Gras. That was mostly coincidental for the New Orleans-based band. The three bands I also include because they are celebrating their 20th anniversary of their iconic albums. I bumped the title track from Anberlin’s sophomore album from the January playlist to make way for a new song. Their good friends Copeland also released an album in 2005. This month, Copeland and Anberlin are on the Never Take Friendship Personal Tour with Copeland opening with In Motion. Mae’s The Everglow and In Motion were released this month, 20 years ago, this month.
Other male artists symbolize the seasons. Post Malone’s “Circles” represents Pi Day. Sufjan Stevens’s “Video Game” represents the Ides of March, the day Julius Caesar was assassinated. Hippo Campus’ “Way It Goes” symbolizes the end of winter— a song about a hipster gathering on the day of the last snowfall in Wisconsin. Noah and the Whale follows with the title track from their second album, symbolizing the rebirth of the first days of spring. Finally, BTS adds “Spring Day” as the weather gets better.
Here’s the playlist as of March 5th:
- “Black Masscara.” By Raye
- “Busy Woman” by Sabrina Carpenter
- “Salty” by CHUNG HA (청하) ft. Sunmi (선미)
- “Chaos” by Mutemath
- “Never Take Friendship Personal” by Anberlin
- “There She Goes” by The La’s
- “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga
- “I” by Taeyeon ft. Verbal Jint
- “Moonlit Floor” (Kiss Me) by LISA
- “Manic Monday” by The Bangles
- “Florida!!!” By Taylor Swift ft. Florence + The Machine
- “Cinnamon” by Hayley Williams
- “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan
- “Circles” by Post Malone
- “Video Game” by Sufjan Stevens
- “Running Out of Time” by Paramore
- “Linger” by The Cranberries
- “I Blame the World” by Sasha Alex Sloan
- “Way it Goes” by Hippo Campus
- “The First Days of Spring” by Noah and the Whale
- “Hung Up” by Madonna
- “Choose the One Who Loves You More” by Copeland
- “Butterflies” by Hearts2Hearts
- “Kill[h]er” by Stand Atlantic
- “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None the Richer
- “Spring Day” by BTS
- “Goddess” by Pvris
- “Candy Necklace” by Lana Del Rey ft. John Batiste
- “The Everglow” by Mae
- “Not Strong Enough” by boygenius
Listen to the playlist on AppleMusic.
Mixtapemotions 