(Photo: ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, photographer unknown.)

1. “Territory”, Sepultura, Chaos A.D., 1994, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, Groove metal
2. “Haunted”, Laura Les, Haunted, 2021, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A, Hyperpop
3. “Puerto Rico”, Eddie Palmieri, Sentido, 1973, New York City, New York, U.S.A, Salsa
4. “Re: Re: (Single vers.)“, ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, Re: Re:, original: 2004, rerecorded: 2016, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, Alternative rock
5. “I Will”, Mitski, Bury Me At Makeout Creek, 2014, New York City, New York, U.S.A, Indie rock
6. “Cyber Stockholm Syndrome”, Rina Sawayama, RINA, 2017, London, England, United Kingdom, Alternative pop
7. “National Park”, Gō Ichinose, Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver: Super Music Collection, 2009, Tokyo, Japan, Video game music, Soft rock
8. “It’s Okay To Cry”, SOPHIE, OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES, 2017, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, Experimental pop, Hyperpop
9. “rises the moon”, Liana Flores, recently, 2019, Norwich, England, United Kingdom, Folk music
10. “Low Lands”, Gojira, Magma, 2016, Ondres, Landes, France, Progressive metal

To many, music exists as a medium to express and confront their emotions. Artists are able to convey their emotions to create a deeper experience for a listener through the lyrics, song structure, melodies, performance, and other aspects of songwriting. My playlist is built around songs that I find expertly demonstrate, and are built around one or several emotions. I will examine what the artists create and emphasize within their songs that make these tracks as richly emotional as they are. I have attempted to group them by the emotions they generally focus on, starting with music that deals with anger and aggression, then moving towards music that deals with love through several different angles, and finishing with songs that inspire feelings of nostalgia, loss, comfort, and melancholy. Note that some songs may feel like they could exist in one part of the playlist along with another because they mix several emotions throughout the song. 

Aggressive songs begin this playlist as they give it the immediate burst of energy that will be needed as the playlist progresses through slower and mellower music. Beginning with “Territory” by Sepultura, a groove metal song about the band’s anger and disgust at politicians who use racism and hatred to justify wars. Much like we discussed in Kelley Tatro’s essay (2014), the shouted vocals of guitarist Max Calavera are key to expressing the anger he feels. Built around heavily distorted guitars and polyrhythmic drumming, it feeds into the “collective catharsis” Tatro describes (ibid.). Listeners, whether at a concert or in their own rooms, are able to join in this “rage” and release it through a physical action, such as headbanging or moshing, They can also take inspiration from the lyrics and fight to change the oppressive systems and people who create these problems in the first place.

Following this is the song “Haunted” by Laura Les, one half of the hyperpop group 100 Gecs. Her song, while also aggressive, goes about it differently than “Territory” does. Short and concise at 1:41 in length, like most songs in this internet born genre, Les uses autotune as a way to amplify her vocal abilities and to give herself a higher pitched voice. The song begins with some synthesizer notes playing over a bass line, before it explodes into an energetic track, with Les screaming nearly indiscernibly as added effects distort her voice. Her verse then details the suffering she is going through, with many sleepless nights and insecurities fueling her frustration. While not focused on a larger societal issue, “Haunted” provides a similar outlet as “Territory” does, allowing for listeners of both to embrace the anger they hold within themselves.

Moving away from anger towards songs about love, “Puerto Rico” by Eddie Palmieri keeps the energy going as Ismael Quintana sings about the wonders and beauty of the island. Here, much of the emotion is expressed through the lyrics. Such as with the opening lines “Isla linda y bonita, con sus aguas benditas,” where Palmieri says the waters of the island are “holy” and hailing it as beautiful in two ways, both in a matter of fact and endearing way. But the lyrics only cover half of this, as the track as a whole is an uplifting and energetic piece of salsa music built around Palmieri’s piano.

Next comes my top song of 2021 based on my Spotify Wrapped, “Re:Re: (single vers.)” by ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION. This version of the song is the single, re-recorded version of the original song, which was released in 2004. Re-recorded along with the entire album it came from, it was used as the opening for the anime Erased. It worked perfectly as the opening for that anime, as it details a love lost to time and the desire to return to the past to change past mistakes. All of this is done over an alternative rock instrumentation that has the guitars play very beautiful, yet somber melodies that explode into raucous riffs when reaching the choruses, emphasizing the heartbreak and escapism that lead singer and rhythm guitarist Masafumi Gotoh is experiencing. The song itself is very tight rhythmically, yet also free flowing with the electric guitars and electric bass playing their own independent parts, with the rhythm guitar and bass rarely overlapping one another like is typical in a standard rock song. 

While the melancholic mood of the lyrics of the last song were hidden by the music, and language if you’re not a Japanese speaker like me, this song takes a much more direct approach to the pain experienced by the artist. “I Will,” by Mitski, details what she desires to hear from someone else if she were to be in a relationship with them. She herself describes this as a love song written about no one since there was no one at the time to be written about. Beginning with a bass guitar and soon joined by drums, Mitski begins singing about what she wants to be told, such as “I will take good care of you”, and “I will see your body bare and still I will live here”, sung in a voice that is steeped in emotion, almost to the point of crying. This peculiar dynamic between the positivity of the lyrics and the depressing tone of the vocals and music reminded me of the sheikh’s explanation of his importance in the first few pages of Gill’s reading. He believed that dealing with depression and other mental illnesses meant that some suffering and embracing of it is necessary to overcome it (Gill 155). Not only does Mitski embrace these negative emotions in this song, but this song is often used for just that by her audience.

“Cyber Stockholm Syndrome” by Rina Sawayama in a way morphs the previous two tracks’ approaches to expressing the emotion the artist is attempting to convey. Talking about how constant internet usage has lead her to isolate herself and embrace the fake reality that the internet provides, Sawayama pits these lyrics about losing touch with reality and only feeling fulfilment with online encounters with pop music, namely taking inspiration from the late 90s and early 2000s era of pop music, and even with stadium rock in the bridge and outro of the song. These elements create a song that is both equally melancholic and uplifting—while she laments the stranglehold that the internet holds on her and her self-image, she sings athemically in the bridge over reverb drenched drums about herself flying across the sky and warning not to burn out. I feel this song has grown an even greater significance with the Covid-19 pandemic as most people were forced to embrace the internet as they had almost no other option of communication with others, leading to the present issues we face with reentering society and creating/strengthening these bonds we form with others when people have been made socially inept with essentially a year without in person social communication.

With the pandemic also came a lot of regression to older media that people enjoyed when they were younger. One of these media forms for me was the Pokémon series, where the next track, “National Park” by Gō Ichinose, once again became a favorite for me over the first half of the pandemic. This song is from the video games Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver and is played in an area called the National Park. Here lies the source of my escape from the harsh realities of the pandemic. This entirely instrumental song is mainly piano based and leads with a melody that evokes a somber feeling, but one that is nostalgic, reminding me of my early years, when the biggest concern I had in a day was what dinner was gonna be and what would be the next Pokémon I caught. The piano in the second half becomes replaced by guitars as they create a very uplifting and energetic ending that encapsulates the feelings of nostalgia the song presents.

“It’s Okay to Cry” by SOPHIE is marked by its buildup to an emotional crescendo, with the majority of the song being led by 80s-inspired synths and the soft crooning of SOPHIE, until the end where the last chorus is sung by both SOPHIE and guest singer Cecile Believe amongst loud drums and blasts of noise. Lyrically, SOPHIE is attempting to comfort someone, some suspect herself, by saying she will unconditionally accept them and that simply, “it’s okay to cry”. The atmosphere of the song supports the lyrics by using the synths and piano chords to increase the emotional tension, and then using the noisier outro to release that buildup, almost in a way mimicking the buildup to crying.

Here we reach the most serene song on the playlist “rises the moon” by Liana Flores. Built simply around an acoustic guitar and vocals, this song to me resembles a lullaby, Flores’s smooth vocals over the guitars provide a very calm and comfortable atmosphere. The lyrics are enhanced by the structure as well, as she uses the change from day to night and summer to fall as metaphors for weathering changes in life, with the moon being a constant in all of it. She ends the choruses by saying “Breathe, Breathe, Breath”, holding the “-eath” on the last breath, serving as a reminder for the listener to calm themselves and assure them that despite the difficulties of life, they will be ok in the end.

To round out this playlist, I chose the song “Low Lands” by Gojira. It mixes the aggression and emphasis on vocal delivery from the beginning of the playlist, with the embrace of negative emotions from the middle, and the usage of a song’s atmosphere and structure to highlight certain emotions within the song. This song is split in three ways, between the energetic and melodic first part, the aggressive and heavy middle, and the sparse outro. It and its parent album, Magma, were made in the aftermath of the death of vocalist and rhythm guitarist Joe and drummer Mario Duplantier’s mother. The band embraced the pain of these two members and sought to create an album that both pushed the band into new musical territory and would help them cope with their loss.

Listening to this playlist in full brings about what I believe to be an encapsulation of different artists, genres, songwriting methods, and experiences. All of these artists have their own ways of conveying their emotional message to the listener, and their work demonstrates how to create music that is profoundly emotional. Now when you are wondering why a song moves you so deeply, you can understand the ways in which an artist builds their songs to affect you in that way.

Oscar Zetino is a second year undergraduate at the University of Chicago. Oscar will be majoring in History and is exploring the possibility of another major or minor. He is avid listener of music and plays guitar in the spare time they have. 

Bibliography

1. Tatro, Kelley. 2014. “The Hard Work of Screaming: Physical Exertion and Affective Labor Among Mexico City’s Punk Vocalists”. Ethnomusicology, Vol, 58, No. 3, pgs 431-453.
2. Gill, Denise. 2017. Melancholic Modalities: Affect, Islam, and Turkish Classical Musicians. Oxford University Publishing, pgs 154-182.