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Writer's pictureJacinda Alonso

Six Playlists to Understand the Alphabet Mafia Agenda

Everyone can feel like a plastic bag drifting through the wind or like a knife’s sticking out of their side with the proper mindset… and the right song!


Now I’m not trying to say that listening to Girl in Red will in fact turn you into a lesbian nor am I saying that listening to Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” will reverse that. Rather, music has the power to affect people and share experiences they might never have personally experienced. So although you may not be a lesbian or any flavour of queer for that matter, I hope these playlists get you as close to being one as they can or have you look at these songs from a new perspective. And if you are queer, I hope these songs resonate with you and make you feel double the fruity you probably already feel.


Do note that some of the songs in these playlists are pretty odd choices. In fact, some of them aren’t even queer! If you think those choices are unforgivable or think other songs could work better in place of them, I encourage you to make your own little queer playlist.


Now on to the music~


Seeing as this is all part of the International Day Against Homophobia campaign, I thought it would be great to open it on a light, happy, catchy note.


Enter “GAY! YAY!” the playlist full of songs celebrating or simply telling us about queer experiences sans the negativity in an otherwise disapproving world.


I originally planned to have one short playlist compiling a host of queer experiences rather than creating multiple like I’ve obviously done here, and for good reason.. You can’t exactly bop to a celebratory queer song after one entitled “So Afraid” can you? You probably can but that’s beside the point.


There are many sides to the queer experience and I wanted to showcase the bluer half of it. Depending on how you look at these songs, they discuss topics ranging from societal expectations to parental love and affection or lack thereof. Bops, but sad ones.


When I look around to see queer playlists or think of songs about the queer experience, the first to surface are ones about romances, then those queer anthems they play during pride, and then those about coming out. Then, “Toxic” by Britney Spears for obvious reasons. Rarely did I see one that celebrated one of the greater if not one of the most important parts of growing up queer:

The queer friend group.


So this playlist is dedicated to yours — and every — fruit basket.


Link: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5E9Actd5TpgDkPmAYpIhRT?si=70f32f85a02d401c

I tried to make it so that these playlists weren’t oversaturated with romance. As a demiromantic, there are other things to discuss in queer experiences apart from gay yearning… but as a sapphic 一 gay yearning is virtually inescapable.


As I’ve mentioned, a good number of favourite songs in the alphabet mafia tend to focus on romance, and while I didn’t plan on making playlists for specific orientations or identities, I thought I had to make this exception for a facet of queer experience I don’t see represented often and sometimes not even seen as queer. In other words, here’s the aspec playlist!


Another facet of queer culture I thought to make another playlist for is the trans experience. It’s one completely different from the experiences of cisgender queer folk. So although I do not openly identify as trans, I hope listeners of this playlist would resonate with it.


Six playlists aren’t enough to encompass just how varied queer experiences are, but hopefully these showcase a good chunk of them and do it well. Happy listening!

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