SPEED WEEK part 1: it's our human right to go fast

I enjoy all kinds of music—it's sort of the raison d'etre of this here blog—but a while ago, I realized that my favorite song on any given album would usually be the fastest one. My favorite song on my favorite Rilo Kiley album, Take Offs And Landings is "Always." My favorite song on my favorite Taylor Swift album, Red, is "Holy Ground." Anything with an elevated tempo immediately grabs my attention.

I have enjoyed the TikTok "[song] sped up" trend, which purists might call nightcore. I have, in the past, sought out a list of Nine Inch Nails's tracks sorted by BPM. I have listened to, and enjoyed, 'happy hardcore' music by an artist called DJ Flapjack The Kandi Kid. My instagram explore page showed me a video featuring two French brothers DJing, with the headline "nobody ever knows how to dance to 200bpm" and I scoffed and said, pssh, they have not met me.

I suppose I have always liked fast music. One of my earliest memories is dancing around with my dad to Emerson, Lake & Palmer's rendition of "Fanfare of the Common Man." I didn't know what a fanfare was but I knew those drums were invigorating. Later, I'd attend middle school dances and lightly dissociate to club rap to which I didn't know how to move my weird body, but when the DJ inevitably put "Sandstorm" on, I'd feel at home once more. I liked fast music because it was a complete sensation, a total subsuming of consciousness. If the music was fast enough, you wouldn't even have to think, and boy do I think too much sometimes.

I don't have a Need For Speed in the sense of fast cars or downhill skiing or anything like that—in fact, when my body goes too fast, I get The Fear—but I guess I'd like my music to move as fast as my blood. And my blood moves fairly fast. I've been drinking coffee since I was thirteen or fourteen; my taste for java might have been tempered by cost or availability as an adolescent, but then I started working at a diner, and its steady flow of free drip coffee cemented my love for, and addiction to, that delicious bean juice ever since. When I was pregnant, it was more difficult to curtail my coffee drinking than it was to cease my alcohol consumption. I like fast music and fast beverages.

Also, I need fast music to help me run. I've been a runner, on and off, but mostly on, since 2001. Fast music doesn't just get me to run faster—it also gets me out the door. Just as I wake up and think, "oof, another day on Earth, but wait—I can begin said day with a cup of coffee, hell yeah," I prepare for a run by thinking, "oof, another run, why do I keep doing this to myself...wait a second, at least I can listen to some fast music. Nice." My streaming accounts are littered with playlists I've made for races and training, which are packed with my emotional support cardio songs: "HARD" by SOPHIE, "Door" by Nice As Fuck, "Ass-N-Titties" by DJ Assault. If you haven't tried to match your cadence to ass, titties, ass and titties, ass ass titties titties ass and titties, you haven't lived.

I like songs with fast tempos, like "Banquet" by Bloc Party and "Livin' La Vida Loca" by Ricky Martin. I like when individual elements of songs are fast, like the piano on "All My Friends" by LCD Soundsystem or the hi-hats on "Survivor" by Destiny's Child. I like when songs get progressively faster, like "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" by Arcade Fire and "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd. I like when a DJ cuts out a song and transitions to a song that is twice as fast. I like when a punk band plays a fast song that makes everyone run in a circle. I still really like "Sandstorm" after all these years.

A while ago I came across a tweet, since deleted and lost to time, that was advocating for the use of chemical stimulants in daily life. After a short defense of recreational speed, it said, "It's our human right to go fast." This is one of my favorite sentences of all time, and it drives me crazy that I can't find its origin. Anyway, this week is for those who like to go fast. I am excited to share some favorite fast songs of mine, some fast songs by Friends Of The Blog (both musical artists + music writers), and then whip everything into a big fast playlist at the end of the week. WELCOME TO SPEED WEEK!!

Come back all week for fast songs from fun people...all leading up to a big fast playlist on Friday!!

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