songs about being awkward

Anthems for Awkward Girls | 10 Songs About Being Awkward (plus Spotify playlist)

Songs about being awkward

Sometimes when you’re awkward, it feels like no one in the world understands you quite so well as… well, millionaire rock stars, basically. Which is actually quite strange, now I come to think of it, and not even remotely the point I was trying to make here, so let me just start again here, shall I?

So, you know that moment when a song comes on the radio, say, and, all of a sudden, you realise that song is 100% about YOU: almost as if the person singing it has a window into your head, and is singing your thoughts… only maybe a bit less creepy than I made that sound? Here are some songs that do that for me: my Anthems for the Awkward, if you will…

The Best Songs About Being Awkward 

songs about being awkward

To the Swifties among us, it’ll come as no surprise when I tell you Taylor Swift writes some of the best songs about being awkward. For instance…

You’re On Your Own Kid – Taylor Swift 

No one wanted to play with me as a little kid
So I been scheming like a criminal ever since
To make them love me, and make it seem effortless…

Stay (I Missed You) – Lisa Loeb

“So I, I turn the radio on, I turn the radio up, and this woman was singing my song…” In the 90s, that woman was Lisa Loeb, and she spoke for all of us:

And I thought what I felt was simple
And I thought that I don’t belong
And now that I am leaving
Now I know that I did something wrong

She also made cat-eye glasses cool for a while, and that was a pretty decent achievement too, really.

Creep – Radiohead

I mean, you can even publish a list of awkward songs if you don’t include Creep? Because I don’t think so.

But I’m a creep, I’m a weirdo.
What the hell am I doing here?
I don’t belong here.

How Soon Is Now? – The Smiths

If I’d bothered to rank these songs in order of importance/relevance (Which I didn’t, because the very thought of that makes me a bit anxious, really, How I would I choose? What if I change my mind later?), I’m pretty sure How Soon is Now would have been #1. Or maybe #2. Top 3, definitely. And I know Morrisey has been hellbent on offending pretty much everyone ever since, but what awkward girl could listen to these lyrics and NOT feel SEEN?

There’s a club if you’d like to go
You could meet somebody who really loves you
So you go and you stand on your own
And you leave on your own
And you go home and you cry
And you want to die

Round Here – Counting Crows

This would’ve been the other contender for the #1 spot, purely for this:

And she knows she’s more than just a little misunderstood
She has trouble acting normal when she’s nervous

What I want to know, though, is how DID Adam Duritz get hold of my diary?

Silent All These Years – Tori Amos

Excuse me, but can I be you for a while?

No, Tori, you can’t. Can I be YOU, though? Can I? Because I spent most of 1993 wishing that I could…

(Still a) Weirdo – KT Tunstall

I don’t know if KT Tunstall really IS still a weirdo, but I know I am, and that’s why this song speaks to me:

I don’t always get it right
I’d see it in a different kind of light
Pay my lip service, keep it eloquent
Optimistic but never quite elegant
Still a weirdo, still a weirdo
After all these years

Mr Jones – Counting Crows

Yes, the Crows get two spots on the list, because the Crows sing about things like this:

When everybody loves you, you can never be lonely

And, I mean, we’ve all thought it, right?

Mis-Shapes – Pulp

Mis-shapes, mistakes, misfits
Raised on a diet of broken biscuits, oh
We don’t look the same as you
And we don’t do the things you do
Buy we live ’round here too, oh really

OH RLY?

People Like Us – Kelly Clarkson

Finally, for something a little more upbeat and actually anthemic, there’s this song:

Oh, people like us we’ve gotta stick together
Keep your head up, nothing lasts forever
Here’s to the damned to the lost and forgotten
It’s hard to get high when you’re living on the bottom

So, here’s to the misfits, and the shy girls and the awkward ones: and, if you’re one of them, tell me: what’s YOUR song? (Oh, and if you want to listen the songs on this page, click here for the Spotify playlist...)

8 anthems for awkward girls: the best music for social misfits

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COMMENTS
  • Brenda

    REPLY

    Remember the song, “You’re Beautiful”, by James Blunt? I was listening to the radio one day and this guy called in to request the song. He dedicated it to his SISTER! Now that was awkward! I haven’t been able to listen to that song the same way again!

    November 4, 2019
  • Eva

    REPLY

    I recently rediscovered a song I liked a long time ago – Thoughtcrime by Horrorshow, and it has a verse which speaks directly to my overthinking:
    See some people say I think too much
    So I had a think about it and I think that they should shut the f** up
    If I knew how to silence all the voices in my head
    Then I would, but I can’t, so I listen to ’em instead

    November 4, 2019
  • Miss Kitty

    REPLY

    I wonder if the reason so many songs resonate with awkward people like me, is because a lot of them are not written by the super popular rock star who is singing them, but some unknown person who probably does feel exactly like the lyrics say? I always puzzled for a long time about how these rich megastars could speak to me so directly in their songs. When I realised most of them had other writers, it makes so much more sense! On the other hand (can you tell I overthink things?), having that much money would be isolating… who would you trust? Are all those people really your friends, or do they just like the perks of your fame & money? So maybe they can relate a bit!

    November 5, 2019
  • Catherine

    REPLY

    How Soon is Now is probably the song that speaks to me most in the world.

    November 11, 2019
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