I mentioned that I had a playlist for myself. I decided it was time to talk about it and let it out there. Maybe this music will help other people someday or at least reassure someone that there were others like them.
These are my opinions, and may not reflect the opinions of anyone else, at all, ever. Just saying.
These are songs I listened to as I was coming out (and one added later because of how important it was and how hard it hits).
Let’s get started.
- Dua Lipa – Physical (Official Video)
It might seem funny to start with this, but there’s a reason. Someone had written the idea of trying to listen to some music and dance to it alone, and see who and what you felt like. This was the first song I found, and this was the one I danced to. And when it was over, I realized that I was Jen. It blew my mind and made me retreat for a bit, but that was one of the first things to drive it home. - Peter Gabriel – Solsbury Hill
This was a song that Peter Gabriel wrote about his decision to leave the band Genesis. He said about the song, “It’s about being prepared to lose what you have for what you might get … It’s about letting go.” I had to be prepared to lose everything, and I still am not sure I really was when it happened. But I didn’t lose everything, and I think that what I really lost was a lot of detritus in my life that it turned out I didn’t need. - EVANESCENCE – “Bring Me To Life (Synthesis)”
This is, in my opinion, a lot better than the original release. The record execs demanded that Evanescence put the “WAKE ME UP!” guy in. I don’t know, I think it just works better this way. The part of this song that hits more than anything else is in the second verse, and it sounds like Jen calling out:
Breathe into me and make me real
Bring me to life - Disney’s Frozen “Let It Go” Sequence Performed by Idina Menzel
I mean, this is so classically and completely a coming-out song now it’s almost a stereotype. But it was there at the time… - Demi Lovato – Confident (Official Video)
Since coming out, I’ve been finding a new confidence in myself, a new part of my personality. I’d stepped on so much of myself for so long in an attempt to be someone that other people had told me I should be, and now that I’m no longer trying to be that person, I’m a lot more confident in myself. - Fall Out Boy – THE PHOENIX (Animated Lyric Video)
Hey, young blood, doesn’t it feel
Like our time is running out?
I’m gonna change you like a remix
Then I’ll raise you like a phoenixIn a way, coming out is a way of using the phoenix metaphor and riding the flame, especially doing it at my age.
- P!nk – Raise Your Glass (Official Video)
A song about celebrating yourself no matter who thinks it’s a bad idea? Yeah. - Ke$ha – We R Who We R (Official Video)
The title alone… - The Other Side — female ver. (from The Greatest Showman) 【covered by Anna ft. Cami-Cat】
The original song, in the movie The Greatest Showman, is PT Barnum convincing a young friend from the upper class to join his show, an option which at the time was insanely looked down on by said upper crust. They might go to the show, but work there? Heavens no! But Barnum saw in him someone who might just be willing to take a chance and find some kind of joy in it. And he was right. And if that metaphor escapes you, well… - Against Me! – Transgender Dysphoria Blues
The entire album this is from is Laura Jane Grace working through her realization of being trans, and (if you didn’t know) is from the point of view of a trans sex worker and how she feels about life. “You should have been a mother / you should have been a wife” are just… yeah. And there’s a lot of philosophy and empathy and care packed into the song. - K/DA – MORE ft. Madison Beer, (G)I-DLE, Lexie Liu, Jaira Burns, Seraphine (Official Music Video)
This is just a pure fun one to enjoy after some of the heavy thinking. You need that. - “Warriors (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Theme Song)” by Aaliyah Rose
A lot of the first season of the show is centered around finding out that everything you thought you knew about yourself and your world was completely, utterly, totally wrong. Yeah. - WRABEL – the village (mtf version) [official audio]
A song from the point of view of a trans kid whose family wants them to keep themselves in the closet, preferably forever, or until everyone who might care is dead. It hurts. A lot.