It’s the week after Valentine’s Day, which means that cuffing season is officially over– or if you’re like me and spent Valentine’s Day alone, maybe you’re ruminating over your ex and romanticizing what-could-have-beens. Maybe you’re lounging around in disappointment at that one person who never asked you out, even though there obviously was something there. Maybe you’re listening to some “Sad Girl Hours” playlist that your eerily accurate Spotify algorithm curated for you. Cue Billie Eilish…
[“When the Party’s Over”]
“Sad girl hours” is a colloquial term that describes a period of time, usually during the night or late evening, when people, typically young women, feel sad, lonely, or emotionally vulnerable. The “Sad Girl Hours” playlist has been around for a while now. So, I asked a couple of Northwestern students what their favorite “Sad Girl Hours” songs are.
CARY LIU: The first one is “Class of 2013” but the audio tree live version by Mitski.
That’s Cary Liu, School of Comm Junior who personally relates a lot to Mitski’s lyrics.
LIU: And then the second one is “All I Need Is To Feel Like Someone Could Love Me” by Take Care, but honestly, all of the music by Take Care. The music itself is very like rot in bed, like losing all your brain cells.
[“All I Need Is To Feel Like Someone Could Love Me”]
Bienen Junior Lucy Zhang is a fan of having SZA’s music on her “Sad Girl Hours” playlist.
LUCY ZHANG: “Blind” by SZA, like her song reveals a lot of her vulnerabilities.
A sentiment that was seconded by School of Comm Sophmore Satarie Bennett.
SATARIE BENNETT: Yeah, I’m gonna say “Nobody Gets Me”. I’d say also like this song by Slowdive “Slomo” It’s very slow, like a very nice song to listen to.
[“Slomo”]
Although the “Sad Girl Hours” playlist saw a rise in popularity during the pandemic, overly personal songs about spilling one’s negative emotions have been a rather recent development.
JACOB SMITH: In the acoustic era, some of the earliest popular songs tended to be kind of funny novelty songs or songs associated with the vaudeville stage.
That’s Jacob Smith, the director of Northwestern’s MA in Sound Arts and Industries program and RTVF professor. Here, he’s referring to the kind of mainstream recorded music during the 1890s up until the mid-1920s.
SMITH: So both in terms of the kind of singing very presentational kind of full voice and in the kinds of topics oftentimes kind of funny novelty themes. I think one place where that started to change is when we talked about the Radio Crooners.
Professor Smith suggests that before the “Sad Girl,” there was the “Sad Boy” or technically, the gentle, vulnerable Radio Crooner who would softly sing into your ear.
[“Rudee Vallee song”]
SMITH: Crooners developed in the thirties in association with radios and microphones, a much more intimate style of singing that might feel more emotional, more direct, more like a singer’s talking right to you. So I think that’s one moment where popular songs start to become kind of more intimate. It’s interesting to think about how that crooner moment might be updated in a digital moment where the crooner, you know, gets very close to you leaning into a microphone. My sense is that, you know, singers like Billie Eilish, very intimate, quiet, this almost ASMR kind of quiet, whispery, intimate delivery.
Professor Smith also notes that a new kind of authenticity was brought to the music scene when singers started writing more songs of their own.
SMITH: You start to get a new kind of expectation that popular singers will also be writing their own songs. So it’s an even more kind of confessional, direct relationship. And I think that really becomes kind of the norm, especially in rock and popular music. In the sixties and seventies, singer-songwriters who were singing, writing their own material, and singing, often very confessional, intimate kinds of things, and fans being very aware of their personal lives and how their lives might be embodied in songs that they were singing.
This level of intimacy and access to artists’ personal lives also reflects our fascination with the “backstage” as audience members.
SMITH: The sociologist Erving Goffman would talk about “front stage” and “backstage”. You know, in our lives we tend to have like a “front stage” presentation and then a “backstage” when we don’t think people are watching. But we tend to be fascinated by the backstage, especially if it’s an artist that we love. Like they’re on when they’re on in the concert. That’s one thing. But the authentic real performer maybe is available in some other backstage way. And so that’s something that I think people tend to be fascinated with and that media can sell to people.
Professor Smith also talked about how the changes in societal standards, particularly, towards women in the recording industry have allowed for the creation of this loose genre of music.
SMITH: The history of the recording industry has tended to be very male-dominated. So, I mean, I think one way of understanding Billie Eilish, is that there’s long been an appreciation of young women as consumers, of recorded music. I mean, as we’ve seen, that goes back to the crooner days. But I think there’s been more access to, say, young women as performers and creators and songwriters in the digital era. I mean, that’s, you know, an ease of access broke down some barriers. More artists and more young women as artists are able to speak to an audience of young women listeners. So maybe that’s one thing that’s been new in the past 15, 20 years.
And being able to speak to audiences through music can also be a very powerful thing.
SMITH: I mean, the human voice is such a powerful vehicle for emotion and music is such a powerful vehicle for emotion. So I think when you put those things together, when you have a certain kind of media that gives you access to music and vocal styles that are really personal, really emotional, and then you’re experiencing them in your earbuds. Very close, very personal in your head. You know, there’s a lot of potential there for a powerful emotional communication to happen. I mean, with lockdown, it’s been a hard four or five years. And so I think people seek out outlets for those kinds of difficult emotions.
At the end of the day, it’s ok to be sad, to listen to sad music, and to drown yourself in your feelings. Even Professor Smith feels sad sometimes, so here’s a recommendation from him. Feel free to add it to your own playlists:
SMITH: there’s a Roxy Music song called “Just Another High”, which is all about the lead singer. The lead singer Bryan Ferry fell in love with this model named Jerry Hall and wrote many love songs about this person. And then she dumped him for Mick Jagger and he wrote his big breakup song “Just Another High”.
[“Just Another High”]
For WNUR News, I’m Jessie Chen.
