Hello, my name is Carolina, and I am a senior! If you don’t know already, in this column, I’ll create monthly eclectic playlists full of genres from classical to ’70s rock and R&B to pop. I want to create mixes that revolve around the time of year—for example, a fall mix or a playlist full of study favorites to get you through exam season. Maybe you’ll listen on your way to school, while you study, or just for fun! Mixed with house music and doo-wop, my eclectic playlist may strike a chord with you, get your toes tapping, and teach you a little about what you are listening to. 

Welcome back! The weather has been a bit dynamic, but there are sunny days ahead! It seems as though we have one hundred days left, but really there are only a few weeks left till the end of the school year. As you complete essays, projects, labs, and those dreaded final tests and quizzes, I hope this playlist can help you through the final stretch.

Please enjoy Honey: Carolina’s April Edition playlist! Listen here: Spotify & Apple Music 

One song I knew I had to include in this edition was “Candy” by Baek Hyun. Ever since this song came out in 2020, I have been obsessed with every part of it. Byun Baek-hyun, known as Baek Hyun on the stage, is a member of the popular K-pop boy band EXO. Born in Bucheon,

South Korea, he fell in love with singing at a young age and was partly influenced by Rain, another South Korean singer and actor. Although he auditioned, Baek Hyun was rejected multiple times when trying out to become an idol.

For those of you unfamiliar with this process, there are about four stages to becoming a K-pop idol. Derived from the genius of Berry Gordy’s Motown, where his selective process created iconic groups like The Jackson 5 and The Supremes, the journey to becoming an idol is intense, rigorous, and, most of all, long. Before even stepping foot in front of an agency, you must identify personal strengths and weaknesses and improve them. The next step happens differently for some: in order to make it to the actual audition room, you are either scouted by an agent or you go to a publicly held audition.

Baek Hyun was actually scouted by an agent at SM Entertainment while he was warming up for his audition for Seoul Institute of the Arts. Once you enter a public audition and hopefully pass, you are officially a trainee, where you go through intensive vocal and dance training and language classes. Trainees are eliminated along the way until the perfect boy or girl group is formed, but one’s time as a trainee can last from four months to seven years, or longer. Baek Hyun only spent eleven months in training, debuting with EXO in 2011. He is still performing with EXO, but Baek Hyun has released a couple of EPs and singles as a solo artist. 

As I mentioned above, I love everything about this song, and I mean it. My ear finds the opening notes, the chorus, the dance, the bridge, and the high notes perfect. Released on his second mini-album

Delight, “Candy” is about Baek Hyun’s willingness to change into whoever his lover wants him to be: “sweet like candy,” cinnamon, or strawberry. The smoothness of Baek Hyun’s vocals and the catchy beat make for an energetic blend. I listened to this song when it first came out, but it has recently been on loop on my drive home from school and in my room. I’ve even requested it in my friends’ cars, when we drive down to South Pas for some Jones. Last week, Lauren L. ’25, my kind, K-pop-loving friend, asked if anyone wanted to drive around, and I immediately asked if she would play “Candy” by Baek Hyun in the car (because I am obsessed and actually can’t get enough of this song). Though she said it was a totally different vibe than what she was listening to on her way to school, Lauren added it to the queue. I was smiling ear to ear as we drove around South Grand Avenue listening and singing along to “Candy.”

Another song I wanted to include in this edition was “The Fall of the World’s Own Optimist,” by Aimee Mann. Aimee Mann, born in 1960, first gained success in the ’80s during her time as a vocalist and bassist for the band ‘Til Tuesday. The new wave band gained popularity with their hit “Voices Carry.” She eventually split off from the group and began her solo career in 1993 with an album called Whatever. To many, she created the essential singer-songwriter albums during the ’90s and is known for her blend of pop-rock with bittersweet lyrics. Featured on Bachelor No. 2 and co-written by Mann and Elvis Costello,“The Fall of the World’s Own Optimist,” uses many metaphors, like “a Caesar who was only slumming” and even the title of the song to illustrate the narrator’s betrayal and personal downfall. 

I think her lyricism in this song is full of irony and melancholy while still creatively painting the picture of the collapsed hope the narrator feels. The actual melody of the song is almost like a game of tug of war: the beat keeps pulling you in closer and closer as the song continues, but as the chorus and the bridge erupt with the beat of a drum, you’ve suddenly lost your balance and in turn lost the game.

When I was younger, my dad would take videos of me singing and dancing around the house. In one, I am singing this song, wearing my blue pajama pants, a red fleece, and best of all some hot pink fairy wings (quite the outfit I know).The iPod is playing “The Fall of the World’s Own Optimist,” and I am on the step stool (my stage) performing in the kitchen while my mom makes breakfast. The best part is that I am singing along with so much passion, but I have no idea what half of the lyrics are, let alone what the song is even about. I mean, how was a six-year-old supposed to understand the complex narrative Aimee Mann was singing about? I literally have so much sadness on my face, like I have an idea of what she is singing about. It really didn’t matter because the first line of the chorus was where I always had the most emotion. I would sing, almost shout, “Hey kid look at this,” and the rest of the line “it’s the fall of the world’s own optimist,” was always mumbled, and I never actually said the word optimist, more just a mix of three different words because I had no clue it was even a word. So you see why I have such a connection with this song! I, at maybe five or six years old, was enthusiastically singing along with Aimee Mann, a fond memory. I also included some screenshots from the video my dad took, just for fun!

As always, thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy listening! 

Listen here: Spotify & Apple Music