Creating FOMO (fear of missing out) through musical experiences

In the immortal words of Goyte’s 2011 hit “Somebody that I used to know,” you can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness.

Except, this sadness isn’t born from an unhealthy romantic experience, instead it’s the FOMO. Which means –  if you’re perpetually out of sync with the latest acronyms like me – the feeling of missing out.

If you go onto YouTube and search ‘songs played from another room’ you’ll get a bundle of prompts of familiar songs that you may have heard at a middle-school dance.

Typically, it’s brought on from watching snap stories of your friends at a bar, or listening to your sister or mom describe that heartwarming family dinner you weren’t in attendance for. However, like most pain, there is a way to self-inflict.

‘As if it was being played in another room’ is my new music obsession. As the title suggests, it’s a whatever song as if it was being played in another room.

This trend was born originally from a meme, as per most things in 2017. If you can recall back to the blockbuster Get Out, during the end credits Childish Gambino’s remix of his song “Redbone” played. The remix was, basically, an extremely diluted version of the original.

As most of the tweets that followed its release suggest, it’s “Redbone” as if it was being played in another room. The song quickly spiralled into a joke, and others followed.

If you go onto YouTube and search ‘songs played from another room’ you’ll get a bundle of prompts of familiar songs that you may have heard at a middle-school dance.

But instead of being in the lazily-decorated gym, it sounds as if you were sitting in the hallway heartbroken and talking to the teacher’s assistant because Adam asked Hailey to dance.

The ‘as if it were being played from another room’ trend isn’t about listening to music barely heard because now it’s all about the beats and not the lyrics.

It’s – for me at least – that feeling of nostalgia mixed with that sharp pain of missing out. Whether it’s missing out on the dance, hiding in the bathroom while all your friends cut the rug, or even walking by a house full of laughter and light.

You’re missing out on something, and that’s what I’ve become addicted to.