As soon as August hits and school starts up again, people are already anticipating the next season: autumn. Coffee shops bring back the beloved pumpkin spice flavor, football season begins and the air has the same familiar chill.
However, the leaves are not the only thing transitioning in the fall. People’s music is too. Music listeners often opt for slower, ballad type songs during this period of time. The shifting of the season is seen as the perfect time to create a new playlist to reflect on the feelings associated with this change in the weather. Students around campus mostly agree that their music taste changes in the fall to reflective, mellow tunes.
One student in particular, Hanna Moore, a freshman studying communications through the Honors Tutorial College, said, “My summer music is more spunky. It’s more upbeat, the energy is high. And in the Fall, it’s more like walking around campus with headphones on, or music that plays when you’re studying, rather than like an activity.”
Summer is typically a carefree time, but the shortening of days in the fall serves as a reminder of the external pressures that pick up this time of year. Therefore, it makes sense acoustic, slow-tempo beats become the soundtrack of fall to match the atmosphere outside. Allie Fischer, a student studying biological studies, echoes this sentiment.
“My summer playlist is a lot more upbeat and poppy. It’s very light,” Fischer said. “Then, it ties into seasonal depression, but it starts to get moodier.”
People trade in “Brat Summer” full of upbeat, dance-type songs for “Sad Girl Autumn”. A term first coined by Taylor Swift when she released her highly anticipated “All Too Well (10-Minute Version)(Taylor’s Version)(From the Vault)” in November 2021. In the song, Swift writes about a heartbreak she experienced in the fall.
Swift released an even more depressing version of the already somber tune when she released the “Sad Girl Autumn Version.” Since then, the term has been used on TikTok to romanticize the melancholic nature of autumn.
However, Taylor Swift is not the only artist commonly listened to in the fall. Noah Kahan is featured on many Spotify users’ fall playlists. His music is often slow and has folk-infused elements in it.
His most popular fall song is “Stick Season.” The song has become an anthem in its own right for creating a term to describe the latter part of autumn when all the leaves have fallen and left the trees bare and desolate looking.
Other artists like Hozier, The Lumineers, Zach Bryan and Phoebe Bridgers are also popular among many students and Spotify users’ playlists.
But what do all of these songs have in common? Most of them are heavily acoustic and tend to have reflective, contemplative lyrics. The production is not typically complicated, but it’s the lyrics that are most striking. Many are also descriptive of picturesque scenes in nature.
Some songs even mention fall specifically, such as “We Are Going to Be Friends” by The White Stripes. The lyric goes, “Fall is here / hear the yell / back to school / ring the bell,” describing the feeling of starting school again.
When asked what song encompasses the feeling of fall, Gabby Barlow, a freshman studying education, said “There She Goes” by The La’s, is her answer. The song is featured in the pilot of “Gilmore Girls," a TV show often associated with fall.
Overall, these songs serve as more than just a listening experience, they go along with a whole aesthetic associated with the season of autumn. The songs themselves set the mood for the vibrant fall landscape of this time of year. Many find the piercing lyrics and soft tune comforting and relaxing.
So this fall, if the crisp leaves make you feel melancholic and nostalgic for warmer times, try creating your own perfect fall playlist to act as a blanket for the colder months. This can be the playlist you listen to while walking under the amber colored trees or while drinking a pumpkin spice latte.
Linked is a playlist full of songs that embody the elements of fall, recommended by students.
@ella.moler
