The birth of Spotify and Apple Music changed the world of music forever. It’s affordable (even for college students) and finding new music to suit your tastes has never been easier. Consequently, students listen to music every day at the library, during meals, and even between classes. This raises concerns not only of sociability but also of how music effects our brains and the everyday choices we make. For this reason, I would like to start by analyzing a song that had a big impact on me my freshman year of college – You Only Live Once by The Strokes.

 

Freshman year of college is rough for everyone. Leaving home, family, and life-time friends is no easy task. Furthermore, you’re forced into what appears to be a small jail cell and you have to share it with some person you’ve never even met. By being thrown into a completely new world, it is often hard not to get homesick and to remain optimistic of the coming future. Therefore, I would recommend any freshman to give The Strokes a listen in order to maintain a healthy mentality and positive outlook on life.

Lyrics aside, the title “You Only Live Once” gives the listener a hint of what the song is about. To be short… life is short. The saying implies to live your life to the fullest which entails managing your time wisely. This means getting outside of your comfort zone and doing things that might otherwise scare you. This is what college is all about and this song seeks to give the listener a more optimistic outlook on life. It goes without saying that if you only live once, then you can only live your college experience once.

To begin, the opening lines of You Only Live Once are very reassuring:

Some people think they’re always right
Others are quiet and uptight
Others they seem so very nice nice nice nice (oh-ho)
Inside they might feel sad and wrong (oh no)

The beginning of the song is especially intriguing because it describes the types of people you will encounter at college. The first line describes someone who is boastful. During college, you will often encounter people who are very closed minded. This includes some professors and a lot of new peers you will meet on campus. The next line describes people who are exactly the opposite. During college you will also find people who are extremely shy, soft-spoken, and keep to themselves. The last line describes someone who smiles on the outside but in reality, they are dealing with a lot of personal struggles on the inside. The point here in these opening lines is to make the listener feel welcome and not alone. Everyone has their own struggles, so you should feel confident that life is journey we can all share in. With this in mind, you should be confident in the person you are and try not to dwell upon what other people think of you.

This optimistic attitude is also seen in the following four lines:

Twenty-nine different attributes
Only seven that you like
Twenty ways to see the world (oh-ho)
Twenty ways to start a fight (oh-ho)

Often when we look at ourselves, there are many things we find we don’t like. As seen in the two first lines, we often throw to the side many of the characteristics that make up who we are. By pointing this out, the song again shows how we must try our best to not dwell upon what others think of us. Furthermore, there are many ways to “see the world” and “start a fight” but only the world in which we have self-confidence will give us joy. If we only live once, then there is no time for beating ourselves up. With this interpretation, the song creates a cheerful and optimistic mood that can help anyone get through their day.

Taking all of this into consideration, it then goes to say that this song has the power of forming the choices we make. If we only live once, we are going to choose to make the most of our college experience. If we only live once, we are going to choose to manage our time wisely.  If we only live once, we are going to choose to fully immerse ourselves in the course of our studies. If we only live once, we are going to choose the most caring people to spend our time with. If we only live once, we are going to choose to live each day to the fullest.