Indie Folk to Bubblegum Pop: How My Music Taste Has Shifted Throughout College

A sentimental senior reflects on her somewhat questionable freshman year music taste and how it’s changed over the last four years.

Written by Claire Hardwick
Illustrated by Alexa Chung

I stumbled onto the UT campus as an insecure freshman in the fall of 2015. Coming from a high school with a graduating class of 150 people, it was terrifying to find myself in the midst of 40,000 undergraduates who all seemingly knew where to go, who to be friends with, and what they were going to do with their lives.

My fall freshmen year playlist is a huge indication of my mental state at the time. For starters, it

clocks in at a whopping two hours and forty minutes and is 42 songs long. When looking at the tracklist, the genres range from indie folk to indie pop to –– you guessed it –– indie rock.

The playlist reflects my overwhelmingly chaotic brain space at the time. Filled with songs that made me feel like I was in a movie, I’d listen to the playlist and dream of walking into my next lecture to meet my new capuccino-drinking, fast-talking, best friend. In reality, I began to assimilate to UT through my love for losing myself in music when everything else in my life was causing me insane stress. I took note from the hordes of students around me: silent, stone-faced, headphones in, briskly bopping across campus without breaking a sweat.

It’s strange now to think of a younger me making this playlist in the fall of 2015, not knowing any of the people I now call friends or the artists that have come to shape my music taste. When I look back on the past four years I’ve spent on the UT campus, many of my favorite memories are tied to music — whether that was attending my first ACL music festival my freshman year and getting to see Alt-J play live or seeing Beach House alone this past summer and reflecting on my time in Austin before starting my senior year. Countless dance parties, mid-summer drives, and backyard concerts have been scored by songs I came to find in college that changed my perception of what music could be and how it could make me feel.

The threads of my music taste now can be traced back to that beginning playlist. From day one, my freshman self seemed to know about my obsession with all things Charli XCX coming for me in a few years. After all, there hasn’t been a day in recent history that I haven’t blasted “Roll With Me” on my extremely late walk to class.

I took a trip down memory lane and tried to follow those threads to my music taste now.

“Next Year” - Two Door Cinema Club (RAC Remix) → “Leaning On Myself” - Anna of the North

My greatest upset of late high school was not being able to attend the Two Door Cinema Club concert due to one of my constant theatre rehearsals. Their fast guitar licks and groovy bass lines led them to be one of the first bands I listened to exclusively when running late to school in the mornings. Over college, my love for Two Door Cinema Club has shifted to a love of all electronic dance music. I discovered the Norwegian artist Anna of The North and her song “Oslo” when I was in Norway the summer after freshman year. Since then, her album Lovers and her newest single “Leaning On Myself” have found their ways onto every monthly playlist I make.

“Out of My League” - Fitz and the Tantrums → “Try” - Hatchie

This song was my one foray into Fitz and the Tantrums. Although it’s a great song and perfect for bopping along to and from class, I never dug much deeper. This synthy upbeat style of music led me to ‘90s shoegaze bands like The Cocteau Twins, Mazzy Star, and their Australian contemporary Hatchie. Hatchie, in particular, blends layered guitars, fuzzy vocals, and swoon-worthy lyrics that beg to be played on an episode of “My So Called Life” while Claire Danes broods in the background.

“We Are the Tide” - Blind Pilot → “Scott Street” - Phoebe Bridgers

In college, I made the switch from loving men singing horrifically sad and melancholy songs to loving women sing them more. I still remember the first time I listened to Phoebe Bridgers on a cold January morning when I was desperately looking for new music. Blind Pilot, the quirky, multi-instrumental Portland collective, offers a taste of half-melancholy, half-uplifting songs featuring horns and chorused singing. Once Bridgers’ whispering vocals and broken relationship fueled songs joined my playlist, all I wanted was to find more nostalgia-fueled women singer-songwriters to carry me through the remaining emo college winters.

“Peaches” - In the Valley Below → “Heat Wave” - Snail Mail

Before college, the idea of DIY, lo-fi, or any sort of garage rock music hadn’t entered my listening sphere. Nevertheless, this song by In the Valley Below became an example of the more “rock and roll” type music I would listen to when sorting through my feelings freshman year. Cut to senior year and my favorite band right now is Snail Mail, an indie rock outlet led by Lindsay Jordan that features sing-screaming over complex guitar licks to explain feelings of isolation, growing older, and unrequited love. Had you shown me Snail Mail four years ago, I might have taken issue with the fact that I couldn’t quite understand some of the lyrics. Now, I accept the challenge to yell along to her debut album Lush any day.

“The Bells” - Lowell -> “Immaterial” - SOPHIE

Pop was a foreign entity to me when I entered college. Sure, I loved the occasional Top 40 hit on the radio, but if I’m being totally honest, I was one of those overly pretentious strict indie music listeners. If college has taught me one thing, it’s that pop should never be forgotten. My obsession with Charli XCX’s driving mechanical anthems turned into a pop escapade in which I drank up anything that Carly Rae Jepsen, Sigrid, and SOPHIE produced. This song in particular is impossible to not dance to. You can try, but I promise it won’t work.

“Just Like Heaven” - The Cure → “This Must Be The Place” - The Talking Heads

My love for The Cure still stands strong. They’re my go-to music choice when I need to feel like the perfect rom-com protagonist who just can’t seem to catch a break. I have the The Cure to thank for leading me to The Talking Heads, and more specifically, “This Must Be The Place.” From the moment the keyboard and guitar start plunking out a slow beat withDavid Byrne crooning on top of it, I feel like I’m dancing alone under a single disco ball. Everyone’s dream, right?

This song has scored many tipsy dance parties in my living room, late night cries over my future, and even found a way onto my 2019 mood board. It’s presence in my identity as a college student is undeniable, which is why it feels like the perfect wrap-up song.  “Home is where I want to be / But I guess I’m already there,” is the clearest way I’ve been able to explain my feelings of having two homes after coming to college. Some parts of me wish I had this song in freshman year to remind me UT was the place I was meant to be. But knowing that eventually I would listen to this song, tears in my eyes, realizing that my time in Austin might be coming to a close, and appreciating it for all it’s given me, makes it even more special.

Even now as it nears May, and my graduation cap and gown comes in the mail, having these playlists reminds me of the variety of moods and experiences I’ve had in college and why it’s important to keep track, if only to remember songs I was randomly really into four years ago.