Song: Taylor Swift's "The Outside"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDVycXCh2R0
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/taylorswift/theoutside.html
Passage: (pg. 50) Jack is dancing with Jane Rady while Angie sits in a booth at Pete's.
I feel that if Taylor Swift's music had been around during Angie's "Seventeenth Summer," she would have been an avid listener. Angie's first night at Pete's is an important social experience and it is probably her first time feeling really out of place and inferior over a boy. When I reread this passage, I immediately imagined it being accompanied by a Taylor Swift song. "The Outside" is a song about being socially outcast and left out of someone's life. I can imagine that this is exactly how Angie was feeling when Jack, her date, spent the whole night dancing with his old girlfriend Jane Rady. Part of the song goes, "I can still see you, this ain't the best view, on the outside looking in." Angie is literally sitting on the "outside" of the dance floor "looking in"at Jack and Jane dancing together. Figuratively, she is sitting "outside" the social circle of popular kids and "looking in" on the crowd she feels so different from. If the Seventeenth Summer were a movie, this song would be able to successfully convey most of Angie's feelings during this scene.
Hey Christina,
ReplyDeleteNow that you bring it up I think you're right. Angie would have been a huge Taylor Swift fan for all of those reasons. I liked your example of Jack and Jane dancing together. I think if I were to reread this scene I would definitely have hat song stuck in my head.
Hi Christina,
ReplyDeleteYes, Angie is a perfect match for Taylor Swift, especially since she is always casting herself as apart from, and unlike, the other girls. She definitely casts off a "she's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers" vibe, and I think this song works well with the selected scene. It would be helpful to embed some images from the music video into the blog post so we can see the scene as we read your response.