Tune In

Music can lift us up in this dark time

Certain songs I listen to are my “pick-me-up” songs. One of them is “Rip It Up” performed by Little Richard, who died this month at age 87. In his appreciation for The New York Times, writer Wesley Morris called Little Richard, “equal parts church, filth, lust, androgyny, comedy, passion. And eventually anger.”

We’re all a little angry now — also frustrated, bummed out, sad. We could all use some pick-me-up songs. Music that feeds the soul, lifts the spirit, offers hope, and transports us someplace other than our couch.

Studies show that the songs we listen to as teenagers set our musical taste as adults. They create a deep and lasting impression that causes us to believe no songs written after “our songs” will ever be as good. As a kid, I was lucky enough to have been exposed to many different kinds of music. Rock, reggae, classical, jazz, folk, soul. Even though I am a child of the 1980’s, one who bought Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” album at Tower Records and danced around my friend Diana’s living room to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” pop music was an addition to rather than the foundation of my musical taste.

If you ask my husband, he’ll say I’m tough when it comes to music. He can’t just put on any song. I’m way too sensitive. He’d also say I can be dismissive, even snobby. I wouldn’t go as far snobby. But I do have strong opinions. For example, you will never in a million millennia convince me that Cardi B. or Billy Eilish could ever hope to play ball in…