Parsons Playlists: Graduation

Welcome back to Parsons Playlists! Today’s playlist is curated by Music Library student manager Eliana (class of 2024) and features some tunes for upcoming graduation festivities.

Graduation

Graduation

Graduation is here, along with the bittersweet emotions that come with it. Whether you’re thrilled, inconsolable or indifferent, here’s a playlist to remind you how far you’ve come and how much there is to look forward to.

Green Day – “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)”

Keane – “Somewhere Only We Know”

The Head and the Heart – “Rivers and Roads”

Macklemore – “Good Old Days”

Harry Styles – “Canyon Moon”

Hannah Montana – “I’ll Always Remember You”

Queen – “Don’t Stop Me Now”

ABBA – “Slipping Through My Fingers”

Taylor Swift – “You’re On Your Own, Kid”

Adele – “When We Were Young”

Phoebe Bridgers – “Scott Street”

Fleetwood Mac – “Landslide”

Noah Kahan – “You’re Gonna Go Far”

Here is a link to the whole playlist on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU94rco57ZexfNkMoIV2Ip91qkDJqyCij&si=R3y9TrYYMFbPthZW

Parsons Playlists: Songs That Feel Like Thanksgiving

Welcome back to Parsons Playlists! Today’s playlist is curated by Music Library student manager Eliana (class of 2024) featuring some music for your Thanksgiving enjoyment.

Songs That Feel Like Thanksgiving

cornucopia

Christmas is around the corner, but we can’t forget about thanksgiving just yet. While there’s not really any mainstream thanksgiving-themed music, here are some songs that remind me of home and the holidays.

Khalid – “Winter”

Jack Johnson – “Better Together”

Adele – “Hometown Glory”

Philip Phillips – “Home”

Noah Kahan – “Homesick”

The Lumineers – “Sleep on the Floor”

Taylor Swift – “Tis the Damn Season”

Harry Styles – “Canyon Moon”

Rascal Flatts – “Bless the Broken Road”

John Denver – “Take Me Home, Country Roads”

Billy Joel – “Vienna”

Here is a link to the whole playlist on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU94rco57ZewIBys_UumxkWIABkdzJCeH&si=q9_JGAIuZ9XZkxld

Parsons Playlists: “Best Live Performances”

Welcome back to Parsons Playlists! Today’s playlist is curated by Music Library student manager Eliana (class of 2024) and features a selection of songs recorded live.

Best Live Performances

There’s an endless number of incredible live performances, but these are some of the ones that top my list. I suppose being able to see the real thing would be better but a YouTube video is a close second, right?!?

Audience enjoying live music at a concert

Kelly Clarkson – “A Moment Like This” (American Idol winning performance from 2002) – A true cultural reset

Michael Jackson – “Billie Jean” (Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever at Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, California on March 25, 1983) – An even bigger cultural reset

Rihanna – “Love on the Brain” (Live at Global Citizen Festival 2016) – Performance I would have traded my left kidney for to see live

Miley Cyrus – “Heart of Glass” (Live from the iHeart Festival 2020) – The rockification of Hannah Montana

Soshana Bean – “She Used To Be Mine” from Waitress (From Club Broadway.com 2019) – The storytelling makes this a 15/10

Queen – “Bohemian Rhapsody” (Live Aid 1985) – No description necessary

Beyoncé – “At Last” (For Barack and Michelle Obama – Inaugural Ball January 20, 2009) – A defining historical moment that never fails to bring tears to my eyes

Keala Settle – “This Is Me” from The Greatest Showman (2017) – BTS you need to see

Ben Platt & Broadway Cast – “You Will Be Found” from Dear Evan Hansen – (From The Today Show April 2017) – Best of Broadway off of Broadway

Ariana Grande – “One Last Time” (From One Love Manchester June 2017) – Bravery and resilience highlighted in a single performance

Olivia Rodrigo & Joshua Bassett – “Just For A Moment” (Live Performance Vevo 2020) – Didn’t age well but the irony only adds to the heartbreak of the performance

Bruno Mars covers Adele’s “All I Ask” (The Live Lounge BBC Radio 1 November 2016) – Fun fact, Bruno wrote this song. And he kills it.

Here is a version of the whole playlist on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU94rco57ZexFIivdsXLUDb4weJss_Niy

Parsons Playlists: Remembering the 2010s

Welcome back to Parsons Playlists! Today’s playlist features music from the 2010s curated by Music Library student manager Deisy (class of 2024).

Remembering the 2010’s

As you drive down the road listening to the radio, all of a sudden that one song comes on! As it plays, memories of the past flood into you as you smile from the past nostalgia. Well this playlist will transport you back to the decade of the 2010’s, what are some good memories that will come up for you?

Adele – “Rolling in the Deep”

Lorde – “Royals”

Rihanna – “We Found Love”

Carly Rae Jepsen – “Call Me Maybe”

Beyoncé – “Formation”

Lil Nas X – “Old Town Road”

Billie Eilish – “bad guy”

The 1975 – “Love It If We Made It”

Ariana Grande – “thank u, next”

2010s playlist

Frank Ocean – “Thinkin Bout You”

Cardi B – “I Like It”

Frank Ocean – “Pyramids”

Mark Ronson – “Uptown Funk”

Cardi B – “Bodak Yellow”

Miley Cyrus – “Wrecking Ball”

Luis Fonsi – “Despacito”

Fetty Wap – “Trap Queen”

BTS – “Dynamite”

Here is a link to the full playlist on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU94rco57ZezafAB3OZuJtyVQF1lSvTNS

Arachnophonia: Adele “21”

Editor’s note: Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about items in the Parsons Music Library‘s collection. All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.

Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by Music Library student worker, Diego (class of 2021) and features English singer-songwriter Adele’s 2011 studio album 21. Thanks, Diego!

Adele

21

Valentine’s Day was this month, and with that there are usually two types of people, those who have reason to celebrate the holiday, and those who celebrate the day afterwards, when all the candy is marked 50 percent off at the store. That being said, I think we can all agree on the fact that there is music that can be listened to in order to enjoy the holiday to its finest. It is hard to call out a certain artist for making love songs, as there are a lot, a lot, A LOT of love songs that have been made throughout history, just like there are a lot for us lonely people as well. However, without any regret, we can take a look at Adele for the sake of love/breakup songs. Specifically, we can look at 21, one of her most famous albums to date.

Released in 2011, 21 was a way for Adele to tell her story about an unsuccessful relationship that she experienced. Having released 19 just two years prior, Adele had already begun to build a very devoted fan base that rushed to pre-order and buy her album. Little did anyone know that this would be one of the best sold albums in history. The album itself was widely praised both by professional critics and the general population. It peaked at number 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and had singles that remained on the US album charts for 24 weeks. 21 ended up becoming the bestselling album of both 2011 and 2012.

Adele 21

Moving on to the songs on the album, as you listen to some of the songs, you notice that she seems to go through all of the themes everyone attributes to after a breakup, from anger to loneliness, regrets, and finally the acceptance of what has happened. For example, the song “Rumor Has It” is in response to all the rumors that surrounded the breakup of Adele and her partner at the time. “Rolling in the Deep” was written to insult Adele’s ex-lover for making negative remarks about her after the break-up. As a whole, her entire album tells different aspects of Adele’s relationship, and its subsequent failure. While it does give off a solemn vibe, the album as a whole makes it sound like the opening of a new door in Adele’s life, and after taking the hard road of coping with the breakup, and the fallout from it, she is ready to move on to someone new. The song “Someone Like You” is one of the last songs in the album, a song which Adele describes as one that made her feel free and liberated.

I had to write it to feel OK with myself and OK with the two years I spent with him. And when I did it, I felt so freed.

And that’s what this album is about! It is about being able to make it past a breakup and coming out stronger because of it, it is about learning to forgive those who have hurt you, and it is about cherishing what you have before it’s gone. Adele’s 21 isn’t just for those who have gone through a bitter breakup, or those who miss what they once had, but instead it’s a reminder that there is a such thing as happiness out there, and maybe you already have it, or maybe it’s out there looking for you.

Adele - Rolling in the Deep music video still