Every song I’ve referenced by CJ Q. '23

By my count, there are 61 times I’ve referenced a song in one of my posts. I made a Spotify playlist if you want to listen to them all:

I’ve had to make some substitutions to some songs not on Spotify.

Stats

• This is my 173rd post, so there’s an average of one song every 2.8 posts.
• The song mentioned the most is fun. – At Least I’m Not As Sad (As I Used to Be), which is mentioned 3 times. The other two songs mentioned more than once are The Fray – How to Save a Life and Reese Lansangan – No Snow, both mentioned 2 times.
• The artist represented most is fun., which again shouldn’t be a surprise as I wrote a blog post named fun., with 6 distinct songs. The runners-up are Cheats and Munimuni, both with 3 songs.
• There’s 5 songs that are explicitly covers: Minsan, My Body Is a Cage, Dear Kuya, Mamma Mia, and Hurt.
• Of the 57 distinct songs, 41 are in English, 14 are in Tagalog, 1 is in Mandarin, and 1 has no lyrics.
• The post with the most songs is, unsurprisingly, How phonology explains wordplay in Tagalog songs, with 7 songs. Second-most is tied between we visited every station on the MBTA and list of things that refill my will to live, both with 4 songs.
• The longest I’ve gone without mentioning a song is 130 days, between posting Lies in MIT, lies about MIT in and unsubscribe. I think this is partly because this was the summer I had an internship.

The list

1. Ang Bandang Shirley – Maginhawa

From Colorful. My first post, and it’s one of the dozen or so posts I have that are structured around a song. I think I stole the format of taking song lyrics and placing them as section epigraphs from the days of Wattpad fanfiction, and despite never being a fanfic author myself, it stuck with me.

2. Coldplay – Speed of Sound

From Downtown. I’m surprised this is the only Coldplay song I’ve referenced. The Scientist is one of my top ten favorite songs, and A Sky Full of Stars, Yellow and Everglow also form part of my favorites. Then again, I’m not sure what I would’ve written around The Scientist.

3. Reese Lansangan – No Snow

From Little things. No Snow isn’t even in my top three Reese Lansangan songs, but it’s suitable for a lot of holiday season happenings.

4. Munimuni ( opb.⁠01 This means "originally performed by", which I’ve seen a lot in a capella concert programs over here. Eraserheads) – Minsan

From on friends / minsan. I’ve heard four recordings of Minsan. There’s the Eraserheads original, which is a good recording, but not my favorite. Eraserheads tribute album The Reunion has a cover from Callalily, which is pretty faithful to the original. The musical Ang Huling El Bimbo had a version I had the pleasure of listening to live, which is wonderful in context. But Munimuni’s cover adds a melancholy that matches what I feel about the song.

5. The Fray – How to Save a Life

From had i known how to save a life. I listened to this song so much in high school that I know it verbatim.

6. Michael Wong – 童话

From We made a website. This is a subtle mention, but enough that I included it. It’s Tóng Huà in pinyin, and Fairy Tale in English. It’s also ridiculously popular here. I don’t speak a word of Mandarin, but I can sing along to the chorus.

7. fun. – Be Calm
8. fun. – At Least I’m Not As Sad (As I Used to Be)
9. fun. – Take Your Time (Coming Home)

From fun. At the time I called these my favorite fun. songs. I don’t think that’s true anymore; I’d put Barlights, The Gambler, Why Am I the One, Stars, and All Alright above these. Though maybe I’d put At Least I’m Not As Sad (As I Used to Be) higher up. Anyway, the point is I love fun., and while I’m sad they’re on hiatus, the later works of Nate Ruess and Jack Antonoff are cool too.

10. Oh, Flamingo! – Naubos Na

From soulsearching / naubos na. I was struck that the music video was released at the same time I had the beginning of my career crisis. Oh, Flamingo! is the only artist in this list I’ve seen live not once, but twice, and I love them so much. If I had the time, I might’ve written about Pag-Ibig Lang Ba or Anino. If Pagtanda was out at the time I wrote How phonology explains wordplay in Tagalog songs, it’d get an entry for the pun pagtanda “to get older” and pagtanda “remembrance”.

11. Eraserheads – Ang Huling El Bimbo

From Back to back to back. Another quick mention. Ang Huling El Bimbo is one of those ridiculously popular songs nationwide, owing to the lasting influence of the Eraserheads on Filipino music. It’s their most popular song, one I’m comfortable enough singing for a crowd, because I can bet someone will sing along. It’s my karaoke go-to.

12. Reese Lansangan – For The Fickle

From Your first last day. For The Fickle is a song I strongly associate with goodbyes. The song isn’t primarily about that; it’s about a relationship on the ropes. But the line “All my life has been about / Waiting for people to go” hits so hard. It’s also the saddest-sounding song on this list.

13. Original Broadway Cast of Next to Normal – Who’s Crazy / My Psychopharmacologist And I

From next to normal. I’m not a huge musical person, but I got recommended the song and I still think of it from time to time about my depression.

14. Kodaline – Sometimes
15. Ourselves the Elves – Uncertainly

From uncertainly. Sometimes I throw a song into a post for the sake of making a post, you know? Uncertainly, like For The Fickle, is another song I associate with goodbyes, and being sad.

16. fun. – At Least I’m Not As Sad (As I Used to Be)

From at least i’m not as sad as i used to be. This is the second mention of At Least I’m Not As Sad (As I Used to Be), and it gets a dedicated post this time. Someone sent me an email about this post once, saying they cried after reading it. I still read it from time to time.

17. Ang Bandang Shirley – Alam Mo Ba? (Ang Gulo)

From non-stop / walang hinto. I was in an Ang Bandang Shirley phase when I first listened to Alam Mo Ba? (Ang Gulo). Other songs I like are Nakauwi Na, Di Na Babalik, and Umaapaw. And Maginhawa, the song that lent itself to my first post.

18. Peter Gabriel (opb. Arcade Fire) – My Body Is a Cage

From in remembrance of the body. Another cover. I first heard it used in an episode of TV series Dark. The dynamics in this one are great, and remind me of Somebody That I Used to Know.

19. The Ransom Collective – Present Tense

From present tense. Like Coldplay, The Ransom Collective is another band that I love but haven’t used in my writing as much. Probably because most of their songs have this adventurous tone. Present Tense is one of the exceptions, along with Something Better, which I’ve been meaning to write a post about for a while now.

20. Rusty Machines – Forget You

From Ridiculous things I’ve been up to. This is a subtle mention, but my laptop is named after Rusty Machines so I felt the need to link to one of their songs. Every song on their EP City Lights is great, so I picked Forget You. The other contender was Can’t Hardly Wait.

21. Taylor Swift – Death By A Thousand Cuts

From Twenty thousand paper cuts. This isn’t mentioned or linked in the body of the post at all, but it was definitely the song I was thinking of while I was writing this post. I didn’t include it because the tone felt too cheerful, but the lyrics are good.

22. Cavetown – Hug All Ur Friends

From it’s thanksgiving or something. I love this song because of the music video. Enough said.

23. The Kingston Trio – M.T.A.
24. Billy Joel – We Didn’t Start the Fire
25. Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton – The Schuyler Sisters
26. Dave Soldier – The Most Unwanted Song

From we visited every station on the MBTA. This was my joint post with Alan Z. ’23. We mentioned these songs in the body of the post. They fall in this weird category of “technically mentioned in one of my posts, but not relevant,” which we’ll only see more of later.

27. Lena Raine – Resurrections

From Celeste. The only song on this list without lyrics. I play lots of video games, but none have been noteworthy enough to get their music mentioned or linked, except Celeste. That’s how much I love the music.

28. Cheats – Milk

From where is home? Why is this song titled Milk? Who knows. The album it’s in, houseplants, is the one album of a song in this list that I will listen to without skipping. The other Cheats album, Before the Babies, is also something I’ll listen to without skipping. Their first album, though, I’d skip maybe half the songs. But the rest of their songs are bangers.

29. The B-52’s – Rock Lobster

From Two hundred puzzles, fifty weeks later. Did you know that to hunt with ✈✈✈ Galactic Trendsetters ✈✈✈ you need to know the lyrics of Rock Lobster by heart? This is a fact I made up, but it’s funny so I’ll keep saying it.

30. The New Pornographers – Whiteout Conditions

From whiteout conditions. I learned of The New Pornographers through Vincent H. ’23, who got me to listen to Adventures in Solitude back in late 2020. I love The New Pornographers because of how upfront A. C. Newman is about his depression, and you can hear it in Whiteout Conditions and Adventures in Solitude.

31. fun. – Carry On
32. fun. – Barlights
33. The Fray – How to Save a Life
34. Sleeping At Last – Saturn

From list of things that refill my will to live. I’m not sure whether I first learned of Sleeping At Last through Jason C. ’22 or Jeffery Y. ’22, but I’m glad I got introduced to it. Strangely enough, my favorite songs from Sleeping At Last are from the album Covers, Vol. 2, like the cover of Chasing Cars or Make You Feel My Love.

35. Imagine Dragons – Demons

From demons. This song isn’t referred to directly in the post, but it was on loop the whole time I worked on it. Demons is my favorite song, period. I wish I could hit the high notes. It’s not even that deep; the message of acknowledging and battling your insecurities is almost spelled out in the lyrics, and is an idea that’s in lots of other songs. But the comparison to demons is especially meaningful to me because of my upbringing.

36. fizzd (ft. Yeo) – wish i could care less

From eternal dissatisfaction. This is a song from Rhythm Doctor, a game I picked up again two weeks ago. It’s the first song on the list I couldn’t find on Spotify, so I replaced it with another song from Rhythm Doctor, Invisible. It’s my favorite song on Rhythm Doctor, and I’m sure every creative has shared the struggle of wanting to produce more work.

37. Cueshé – Ulan

From Rain by any other name. Now that I’m reading the post again, I realize that I also mention Aegis – Basang-Basa sa Ulan in this post, and even quote some lyrics. Oops. I’m too lazy to update the playlist or the stats. If you see any other songs I miss you should let me know lmao.

38. Waterparks – I Miss Having Sex But At Least I Don’t Wanna Die Anymore

From everything is actually going okay. I love this song because it’s so blunt. The lyrics “I miss having sex but at least I don’t wanna die / Anymore, and I think that’s pretty cool” leave no room for misinterpretation. I hear the song got viral on TikTok a few years ago?

39. Reese Lansangan – No Snow

From No Snow, and on singing badly. This is an embarrassing post. I think that’s the point.

40. Idina Menzel – Let It Go

From Two hundred puzzles, fifty people later. There’s a video, buried somewhere in this post, of me doing a lipsync to this song. It’s only mildly less embarrassing than my cover.

41. Ebe Dancel (opb. Sugarfree) – Dear Kuya

From dear kuya. I made the subtitle “i promise this post is mostly in english” but then I put the post in the category “Blogs That Aren’t in English”. Haha, I’m so funny. I always wish I could write more posts in that category, but the inspiration was hard to come by. Dear Kuya’s a song I was sitting on for a while before I wrote the post, which was triggered by events that were happening at the time.

42. The Cab – These Are The Lies

From Lies in MIT, lies about MIT. The song isn’t super related to the post at all lol. I mean, they’re both about lies, and that’s it. It’s a good song though.

43. Austin Weber (opb. ABBA) – Mamma Mia

From unsubscribe. Subtle reference, because it only appears as a link to a YouTube video in the beginning. You should read here i go again, Alan Z. ’23’s post about the song, and maybe the movie too I guess.

44. Bleachers – I Wanna Get Better

From Becoming a better programmer. Another song that isn’t too related to the post, but I like the song so I shoehorned it in. This falls in the category of Nate Ruess and Jack Antonoff post-fun. songs that I like, which includes Rollercoaster and Harsh Light.

45. Cheats – Sleepist

From senioritis. As much as I wanted to use We Got Work To Do, it didn’t fit the vibes.

46. Munimuni – Tahanan
47. Munimuni – Bukas Makalawa
48. Moira Dela Torre – Titibo-Tibo
49. Cheats – Tawid
50. Coeli – Magkaibgan O Magka-Ibigan
51. Autotelic – Laro
52. Autotelic – Languyin

From How phonology explains wordplay in Tagalog songs. To be honest, part of the motivation for that post was so I could up my count of “songs I’ve mentioned in posts I’ve written”.

53. Jeremy Zucker – all the kids are depressed
54. fun. (ft. Janelle Monáe) – We Are Young

From beautiful moments. all the kids are depressed is indirectly referenced by the subtitle; I was thinking of the line “I think too much, we drink too much / Falling in love like it’s just nothing” when I wrote that. One of my favorite moments working for 6.390 Introduction to Machine Learning is, while grading an exam, I was humming all the kids are depressed, and someone next to me was like, woah, you’re a Jeremy Zucker fan?

55. Mariah Carey – All I Want For Christmas Is You

From ice skating. It’s funny.

56. Johnny Cash (opb. Nine Inch Nails) – Hurt

From everyone i know goes away in the end. Like My Body Is a Cage, I first heard this song from a TV show, Person of Interest. “Everyone I know / Goes away in the end” has the same vibes as “All my life has been about / Waiting for people to go”, but I was like, wait, I already wrote a post about that song.

57. Clara Benin – Parallel Universe

From CMU / Parallel Universe. As explained in 17 Ridiculously Useful Tips Every Blogger Should Know, part of the point of this post was to be a parody of my own writing. The song didn’t end up being as forced as I wanted it to be, but that’s fine I guess.

58. Ken Ashcorp – Hey There, Would You Like To Talk About Homestuck?

From Happy Homestuck Day! Subtle reference, hidden behind a link. Also, the link was ninja’d in after I realized I hadn’t linked to a Homestuck fandom song, which is an important part of Homestuck. Trust me. Couldn’t find the song on Spotify, so I replaced it with another important Homestuck fandom song, Karkalicious. Homestuck is strange because it’s one of those works that’s differently understood in the context of the fandom. Recommended, but not recommended, I dunno.

59. fun. – At Least I’m Not As Sad (As I Used to Be)

From Circles, circles, circles. Passing mention, but this is the third time I mentioned this song, and thus the song I’ve referred to the most through my blog posts.

60. Imagine Dragons – Birds
61. Ben&Ben – Branches

From branches. I’ve been sitting on this post for so long that graduation crept up on me, and I realized that if I wasn’t going to post it soon, I’ll never post it. It’s the same as this post, where I’m realizing how fast I need to finish all my drafts if I want to post them before I graduate. Dear gods, be gentle with me.