Art Feeds Art: What I'm Listening to Now

If you’re like me, music is an essential part of most of your days. I have been making carefully curated playlists since the days of burning mix CDs (with questionably downloaded music...) on the family computer. Nowadays, these are chaotically compiled playlists on Spotify, but the energy and enthusiasm remain the same. What am I listening to these days, you ask? 

Here’s a sampling from my playlist that’s getting the most airtime lately:

- “Little Girl Gone,” CHINCHILLA - a rec from an online friend, and it’s an absolute banger. Yell-singing “Say that again, I didn't quite hear you / Messed with the wrong bitch in the wrong era / I been at work and I got my badge of honor / Honey, I've changed so much since I last saw you” is incredibly cathartic.

- “Woman,” Kesha feat. The Dap-Kings - I don’t even know how I stumbled on this one a few years ago, but any song that contains the line “I’m a motherfucking woman, that’s right / I don’t need a hand to be holding me too tight, ' I'm a motherfucker.” wins me over immediately.

- “Raising Hell”, Kesha feat. Big Freedia - Another Kesha song that I don’t know how I found. Excellent, no notes. Let's raise hell together.

- “Rebel Girl”, Bikini Kill - A classic! An excellent beat, perfect for shout-singing along to. If you don't know it yet, you're in for a treat.

- “I Am Woman”, Helen Reddy - Another classic. Very different from Rebel Girl, but perfect for singing to in your car and feeling empowered!

- “Not Ready to Make Nice”, The Chicks - Yeah, this one was about George W Bush originally, but damn if it doesn’t still make me sing at the top of my lungs and feel angry about lots of injustices.

- “Dickhead”, Kate Nash - I think this one I found as a recommended add to this playlist. With a song title like “Dickhead,” how can you pass it up? Contains the lines, “Why you being a dickhead for? / Stop being a dickhead. / Why you being a dickhead for? / Always fucking up situations.” How can you not love it?

- “Rich, White, Straight Men”, Kesha - Unhinged, amazing, perfection. Go listen to it right now.

- “Bad Girls”, MIA - “My chain hits my chest when I’m bangin’ on the dashboard, / My chain hits my chest when I’m bangin’ on the radio” is a line that you can’t not move to. Just try.

- “SUPERBLOOM”, MisterWives - I really feel like several of these songs make excellent use of horns, and this is a prime example. If you want to feel great and happy and optimistic, this is the song.

- “Pink Pony Club”, Chappell Roan - I mean, do I have to say anything else about this? It’s an earworm and a most-played song for a reason.

Any guesses about the energy I have been bringing to the world recently? The title of this playlist is “It’s a Woman’s Rage, Not A Girl’s Anger,” based on a fave t-shirt from my women's college alma mater. These are the songs that get me pumped up, singing loud, and ready to take up space in the world – they’re also heavily related to the themes of my work lately (surprise, surprise!). 

What’s on your playlist lately? Let me know in the comments, or email me & let me know what else I should be listening to right now.