Music Seen: The Reading Period Playlist

In this series, columnist Maya E. Shwayder discusses music around campus and in her life. Have other suggestions for songs? Leave a comment or send an e-mail to flyby@thecrimson.com.

Ah, the reading period playlist.

It must be the perfect combination of pump-me-up and tune-me-out. Stimulating, yet supremely ignorable, and able to keep you in your Lamont cubicle-studying-rut for as long as it takes. This is not an easy balance to come by. Distractions abound, not in the least messing around with your iTunes, while trying to create said inimitable playlist.

It would be presumptuous of me to try to prescribe that playlist for you. If we know anything about music, it is an incredibly personal entity. Instead, what I’ve done here is capture the different flavors of reading period; the stages our minds go through from the last day of classes to walking out of that last final, into the sun, triumphant.

Here’s your reading period, encapsulated.

Starting out:

• Help! –The Beatles: You didn’t go to enough lectures. Your TF has no clue who you are. You still haven’t turned your part of the study guide you’re writing with your friends. You haven’t cracked a book open since February. Whatever your problem, your gchat status is probably going to read “HALP!”

• I will Survive – Gloria Gaynor: …cause you will. No, really, you’ll survive. As long as you know how to love! And stay off Facebook for more than half an hour at a time.

• Living on a Prayer – Jon Bon Jovi: You gotta hooold ooon to what you got! Your best friend’s borrowed notes will prolly help a whole lot! You got each other, and that’s a lot of slidessssss, so give it a shot!

• Always Look on the Bright Side of Life – Monty Python’s Life of Brian/Spamalot: Need I say more? *wistful whistle*

Stress busters:

• Just Dance – Lady Gaga: Gonna be okay…daa daa doo doo do just daaance you’re not gonna faaaiiil…daa daa doo doo so just dance!

• Life is a Highway – Tom Cochrane: Just ride those Af-Am 10 notes all night long baby, and remember that 3 years or less from now, your grade in this class is probably not going to matter at all. Also if you prefer the Rascal Flatts version I’m totally judging you.

• No Stress – Laurent Wolf: It’s techno. It’s awesome. It talks about having sex instead of doing work. Let yourself live vicariously through this one.

Brain break:

• Goldberg Variations – J.S. Bach: I love me some solo piano music, and Bach always prove to be simultaneously the most relaxing but still engaging and stimulating music I know. Perfect if you need to keep your brain in gear but stop peddling for a bit.

• Literally, anything – Mozart: Added bonus: this music has been shown to increase your spatial-temporal reasoning abilities. Yeah I’m not sure what that means either, but hey, it can’t hurt!

In a groove and sailin’ smooth:

• Anything with a strong beat in a language you don’t speak: No, seriously. No one’s judging you for that K-pop. And hey, those Koreans can be pretty hot.

• Movie soundtracks: There’s a reason why this music is always in the background: it’s background music. So put it on in your background and create the ambience you need.

Pump Me Up, Scotty!

• Gaga: Beat-ful, totally unnecessary lyrics, energetic tempos, and they all just kinda sound the same. Nice.

• Madonna: I need an explanation?

FREEDOMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!

• Nessun Dorma – From “Turandot” by Puccini: The final dramatic chords of this aria end on the words “I will win! I will win!” Great for just before you walk into that exam.

• 1812 Overture –Tchaikovsky: Reserve this for when that paper’s done, then feel free to dance around your room imitating the timpani player.

• Ode to Joy, from the Ninth Symphony – Beethoven: “O friends, no more these sounds! Let us sing more cheerful songs, more full of joy!”

Maya Shwayder '10-’11,is a psychology concentrator in Pforzheimer House.

Photo by Kane Hsieh/The Harvard Crimson.