In the hallways, as well as class, River Hill students can typically be found with earbuds in and an iPhone on hand. Ignorantly blissful and unaware of their teacher’s instruction or the loud voices of high schoolers talking over one another in the hallway. Personally, I use music as a way of meditating and as soon as I hit shuffle on my playlist, all of my anxieties seem to disintegrate. Sadly, on the first day of my senior year, my playlist was not “fire” enough for me to make it through the day.
I decided to ask other students what songs helped them to get through their first day back at school. I expected most people to reply with a rap song but was pleasantly surprised when the answers were quite diverse.
“Oo, that’s a good question. I love the new Ariana Grande song “God is A Woman”, replied Vlada Rauner, when asked what their favorite genre of music is.
The responses were mixed, varying from alternative to trap. Overall, most respondents favorite back to school tunes had depressing themes on the first day of school. Will Tarpine said his favorite for the day was Lucid Dreams by Juice WRLD, which I’ve heard many high schoolers comment was one of the hottest ‘feels’ songs of 2018.
Another student, Mariah Campbell, responded that their favorite song for the first day was titled How to Fight Loneliness by a band called Wilco. I’d never heard of it, but the title seemed to hold a sad theme — so I looked up the lyrics. Sure enough, they were about how people try to fit in by changing their outside appearance in an attempt to feel less lonely. I asked why the respondent liked the song, to which they replied they “related to it”. When I listened to it, I found I could too.
Music is influential, especially in the lives of high schoolers who haven’t figured their lives out yet.
