Wong 1 Alex Wong Professor Libertz ENG 2100 The Playlist of My Life (Draft 1) You’re running out of time sings Rosé, South Korean-New Zealand main vocalist for the sensational K-pop girl group Blackpink, as I muster the strength to expel the words from my mind onto a Word document while I scream the lyrics to her new solo song “On the Ground.” In addition to her unique voice and her goddess-like visuals in the “On the Ground” music video, the lyrics of the song pertains to my life to some extent; drawing me to the song and her lyrics about how “everything [she needs] is on the ground.” Throughout my life, including this moment, music has played an important role by defining certain phases throughout my life as my music tastes evolves and as my life goes on. The instrumentals, the lyrics, and the tone of the singer’s voice in each song can express a plethora of different emotions, just like a human can, and a story or a theme in the music. Personally, I use music to express my emotions since I can connect to the lyrics and the message embedded in the song. Therefore, the playlist of my life, or the music I listened to, illustrates certain phases and emotions I went through in my lifetime by correlating directly with my personal evolution. As I sat in the car when I was younger, my earliest recollection of music making its mark on my life were Cantonese songs while my family and I made our way to Chinatown from Long Island every Saturday. Slowly, we started listening to Z100, New York’s #1 hit radio station, and by 3rd grade, I had a huge Taylor Swift phase that would define the rest of my elementary school years as I went from “Fearless” to “Red” hoping for the day I turn 22. Wong 2 However, while sitting in Los Angeles traffic in the summer 2013 listening to the radio, a majestic voice, that was not Taylor Swift’s, with house beats in the background came out the speakers. At that time, the overall sound drew me to the song and reminds me of my trip to Los Angeles since I did not know the artist of the song until I came back to New York to discover Lana Del Rey, the “Summertime Sadness” singer from the remix I heard over the summer. After that revelation, I continued to listen to Del Rey because of the allure her nostalgic and majestic voice had, which led me to listen to her “Born to Die: The Paradise Edition” album at the start of middle school. In Lana Del Rey’s “Born to Die: The Paradise Edition” album, she draws out a nostalgic, cinematic sound as she sings about love, sex, drugs, and death. For certain songs in her album, she incorporated a music video to add to the sensory experience and meaning of her song to illustrate the story and meaning she wants the listener to comprehend. Specifically, in her song “Summertime Sadness,” she alludes to suicide throughout the music video as it opens with a somber “remember, I’ll always love you, bye” before the ominous orchestral music starts the song off. Later in the music video, she spreads her arms out, like Jesus Christ on the stake, before taking a plunge to her death because her lover has also plunged to her death by jumping off a bridge. In her lyrics, she also explicitly states “I know if I go, I’ll die happy tonight” which the music video perpetuates with the suicidal theme throughout the song as the two girls fall towards their death. Overall, “Summertime Sadness” portrays a depressing emotion as the overtones of love and suicide from possible seasonal affective disorder as the lyrics draw out the hot, sweltering summer and her delivery of the lyrics illustrates a depressed, young girl undaunted by death. Wong 3 “Summertime Sadness” and Del Rey’s album represents the phase of my life where I went through depression going through middle school and the start of high school because of my struggle to accept my sexual orientation and fit in with society. The melancholy and nostalgic sounds the album resonated with my depressed and sadistic emotions since the lyrics, the musical components, and the music video told a story of someone who was troubled with her own issues through a vintage camcorder and a cinematic, lyrical composition. As high school moved forward, I eventually got a driver’s license towards the end of junior year just like I always talked about, but “driver’s license” by Olivia Rodrigo did not come out yet; hence, my inability to process heartbreak while driving, in addition to never having my heartbroken yet either. As I drive and listen to music through the rest of junior year and that summer, Lana Del Rey continued to dominate my playlists as I would listen to “Brooklyn Baby” nonstop to draw out a nostalgic ‘60s aesthetic while I drove a 2015 Toyota Sienna through Brooklyn. However, a fateful shift in my playlist and attitude occurred that summer. I accidentally stumbled onto a new song that would change my perception on music and my entire outlook moving forward. BLACKPINK! the four girls shouted in the start of the colorful music video while the powerful beats in the background drove the song to the dance break at the end. Contrary to Lana Del Rey’s music and her album that I listened to earlier in my life, Blackpink, a South Korean girl group consisting of four members (Rosé, Jennie, Jisoo, and Lisa), had music with a more upbeat energy which transitioned my personality from depressed to slightly more outgoing and optimistic after Blackpink became a part of the playlist of my life. Blackpink’s music can express different moods such as playful and sorrowful, but they tend to focus on an empowering, powerful, and confident energy in at least one song per EP or Wong 4 album. From Blackpink’s latest album released in October 2020, their lead single, released four months prior to the album’s release, “How You Like That” exuberates that empowering and confident energy. The song illustrates a message of hopefulness and confidence when facing dark situations as it opens with imagery of falling and desperation. The pre-chorus of the song then reminds the listener that in a dark place, shine like the stars and light up the sky; then kiss it goodbye and rise above the situation and into the sky. Prior to the outro at the end, the lyrics “Look up in the sky/It’s a bird, it’s a plane” alludes to a quote from Superman that ends the song with a message of power and an image of soaring high. The allusion to Superman also juxtaposes the imagery of falling and desperation in the first verse to relate to the overall message of the song, the hopefulness and confidence to rise in dark situations. “How You Like That,” because of its message and amazing vocals, portrays an attitude where I soar out of my dark situation and fly above with the bright stars through the pandemic and the rest of the dreadful summer of 2020. The hopefulness and confidence I took from this song allowed me to move forward with my life from the predicaments I faced over that summer and continue towards enjoying my life and making it in New York. In that same summer, despite the predicaments, the song inspired me to enjoy that summer with biking excursions in the city, spontaneous late-night drives where I can listen to the song repeatedly, hanging out with close friends, and successfully executing part one of my master plan: becoming a transfer student at Baruch College to stay in my hometown. How you like that summer 2020? To this day, “How You Like That” still provides the motivation I need to pick myself up and not get daunted by dark situations like my depression which “Summertime Sadness” and Del Rey’s album represented for me in my past. Today, I can see her album as a work of art rather Wong 5 than a stark reminder of my struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts because of Blackpink and their music that helped me gain the confidence and positive energy I need to move forward. To me, music is the everything I need on the ground because it represents a concept so simple yet gratifying, that it makes me happy without my strive to fly with the stars and achieve a need to fit in. The music I listen to gives me a sense of meaning since songs have defined my life through the many experiences and lyrics that explains how a certain point in my life was; hence, the playlist of my life that illustrates a story of change from my adolescent years of Cantonese music to my college years with Rosé’s “On the Ground” as I expel the last of my words onto this Word document. .