Photo by Tavi Gevinson
With Situation Critical, we present artists with various life situations—some joyous, some terrible, some bizarre—to find out which songs, albums, or bands they would turn to under those specific circumstances. This time, we spoke with Tavi Gevinson, the founder and editor-in-chief of the online magazine Rookie. Rookie Yearbook Two, a compilation of the best writing from the site, is out now.
You’re DJing your best friend’s wedding...
Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" would be a mean and funny thing to play at a wedding because it's a song about a guy getting married to an awful girl, and then the narrator of the song comes in and stops the wedding and is like, "No, I’m better."
I'm not sure if this is still true, but "Speak Now" used to be my most-played song of hers. It’s not my favorite by any means, but it’s just so catchy. I saw her live for a second time this August when [my boyfriend and I] were in the process of breaking up—it was drawn out for a few weeks, and then once it finally happened, [the break-up] only lasted 24 hours. But two days after we first started talking about breaking up, I visited [Taylor Swift] because we've met a few times and we talked about it. I was like, "If I have to be dealing with this right now, this is the best possible [person to talk to]." I'll have to write about that eventually.
You’re walking through a snowstorm...
I’m not a huge Animal Collective fan—I mean, I liked the purple album with the green dots as much as anyone else did at the time it came out, but it's not generally the kind of music I like. I never really pursued them. But then my friend put "Prospect Hummer" [featuring Vashti Bunyan] on a mix for me and I really liked it. I like to listen to it when it’s snowy in Chicago. A snowstorm seems so violent, but it can be really peaceful too. So this is a really nice song to listen to and be closed off from the world. It calms me down.
You’re in a bathroom stall at Target and there’s no toilet paper...
I have never actually had the square-t0-spare "Seinfeld" situation. But I thought "Summer Breeze" by Seals and Crofts works on two levels, because this song might actually come on in a Target and it’s also just a good song to relax to. You would just hear it and be like, “I’m fine. I’ll get toilet paper. I’ll be OK.”
You just got home after a date...
For this one I just looked at the playlist of songs that I listened to when I first met my boyfriend. "Where or When" by Peggy Lee is so sweet. It's not sad, but it sounds wistful. I remember listening to that [at the beginning of our relationship], when I didn't want to be getting full-on into the girl group stuff, because I didn't want to be too hopeful yet.
You’re at the beach with a boombox...
Elton John's "Crocodile Rock" sounds like going to the beach to me, and it could either work for resting in the sand or getting people to dance. Anybody can do a very easy twist to it because it has that cheesy rock’n’roll thing going on... I'm trying to describe it without singing it because I don't want to sing it for you. You know, [reluctantly sings] "Mehhhh/ Meh-meh-meh-meh-meh." I'm such a sucker for that kind of thing, even though it feels so wrong, like, "Elton, come on. You have other strengths." It makes me think of "The Muppet Show", because it was on one of my favorite episodes I remember seeing when I was little.
You just drank three cans of some energy drink in a span of 30 minutes...
I have no problem putting all other kinds of awful processed junk into my digestive system, but energy drinks just creep me out. It's just wrong. But "What a Way to Die" by the Pleasure Seekers would be a good daredevil song—having a lot of sugar is about as daredevlish as I get.
You just saw Russell Crowe in a Whole Foods...
I was trying to think of how I would feel in that situation where you’d be stoked in a small way, but there’s nothing really significant about it. Because it’s Russell Crowe. I would be psyched because it's weird, but he wouldn't be the ultimate person I would like to see in Whole Foods. So I'm going with "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" but I actually had to Google "Oh, What a Night" because it's the kind of song I didn't actually know. You just have it in your head from movie credits and stuff.
A meteor is about to destroy the earth...
Brian Eno's "Golden Hours" is a good song to reflect to. It’s good for spacing out and looking back—it has this weird, almost out-of-body-experience quality to it. There’s not a lot going on, and it’s not like there’s that moment where you’re like, "Aw, and then the guitar!" It's just really simple, but in a way that creates weird feelings down your spine.
You're packing your bags to go to college...
For a lot of these situations, I was like, "This is funny" or "This is goofy," but this one hit [a little closer to home], so it was a bit more of a commitment to figure out. I went with Big Star's "The Ballad of El Goodo", which is a good one for feeling like you’re starting a new stage. It’s a transition-moment song. Listening to it while packing for college and then taking off as you look out the car window would feel very cinematic, and then it would all feel less scary.
I'm a senior [in high school] now. I'll probably take a gap year first, and then I will go to college, hopefully on the East Coast. I hope when it’s time for me to make that transition, the spirit of this song is the one I can capture, instead of just anxiety and dread and confusion.