Songful Style Link Party #28 | “Record Player” by Daisy the Great x AJR

Welcome back to Songful Style where we find outfit inspiration in songs! I am making a slight change to my format by discontinuing my song information posts and including that information in the outfit posts. It is just one less post each month for me because life is beautifully busy right now.

Let’s get straight to it then. Keep reading for the song information and how it inspired my outfit. All right here in one post!

About Songful Style

Songful Style is an ageless style challenge series hosted by Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, Marsha of Marsha in the Middle, and Suzy of Suzy Turner, The Grey Brunette (formerly The Grey Brunette).

Each month we will share a song with the lyrics and video and we invite you to use whatever aspect of the song that inspires you to create an outfit. 

It is similar to Style Imitating Art where we use artwork to inspire our outfit creations. Except Songful Style gives you lyrics, music, video, and album artwork to inspire your fashion creativity. You may even find inspiration in a memory triggered by the selected song. It is all open to your own personal interpretation and just a fun way to discover new music and get a little bit more creative with your wardrobe.

Anyone is welcome to join us on a permanent basis or you can just play along without any obligation to do anything other than feel inspired. We are flexible and fun and just want to find more ways to play dress up because it’s what we enjoy doing! 

We will be posting on the last Monday of each month and will announce our song choice for the following month at the end of each post. You are welcome to style your own song inspired outfit and add it to the link party or link anything that you want to share even if it has nothing to do with the song.

It was Marsha’s turn to choose our inspiration song and she tossed one at us that I was not at all familiar with. I think it adds an extra layer of fun to these challenges when you are granted the opportunity to familiarize yourself with new musicians and new music. As it turns out, Marsha’s choice of “Record Player” by Daisy the Great x AJR, really appealed to me musically, visually, and sartorially.

The Lyrics

“Record Player” by Daisy the Great x AJR

I've got a record player that was made in 2014
Dyed my hair blue, it came out a seasick sort of green
I like vintage dresses when they fall just below my knees
I pretend I scraped them climbing in the trees

I've got a record player that was made in 2014
Dyed my hair blue, it came out a seasick sort of green
I like vintage dresses when they fall just below my knees
I pretend I scraped them climbing in the trees

I'm in an elevator, it's goin' down, down, down
I spent forever with my feet on the ground
But not now (not now)
'Cause I don't wanna do the wrong thing
Guess I gotta go and get famous for doin' nothing

Da-da-da-da-da
Crack a smile, crack a smile
Da-da-da-da-da
Stay a while, stay a while
Da-da-da-da-da
Am I holdin' for applause?
Is it gone? (Gone) Is this on?

I've got a record player that was made in 2014
Dyed my hair blue, it came out a seasick sort of green
I like vintage dresses when they fall just below my knees
I pretend I scraped them climbing in the trees

I've got a record player that was made in 2014
Dyed my hair blue, it came out a seasick sort of green
I like vintage dresses when they fall just below my knees
I pretend I scraped them climbing in the trees

I'm in the simulator, I'm doin' a-okay
But every day is just rewind and replay
Not today (ah)
I'll head out to Monterey
Throw my phone into the waves
Can you see it in my eyes? Am I finally awake?

Da-da-da-da-da
Crack a smile, crack a smile (da-da-da-da-da)
Stay a while, stay a while (da-da-da-da-da)
I think the best is yet to come
So drink up and good luck

I've got a record player that was made in 2014
Dyed my hair blue, it came out a seasick sort of green
I like vintage dresses when they fall just below my knees
I pretend I scraped them climbing in the trees

I've got a record player that was made in 2014
Dyed my hair blue, it came out a seasick sort of green
I like vintage dresses when they fall just below my knees
I pretend I scraped them climbing in the trees

Sometimes I think all I'm ever doin' is
Tryin' to convince myself I'm alive
Sometimes I think all I'm ever doin' is
Tryin' to convince myself I'm climbing in the trees

About the Artists and the Song

“Record Player” is an electropop song by American pop bands Daisy the Great and AJR.

Released as Daisy the Great’s debut single in 2017, the song in its original form was titled “The Record Player Song”. It was re-released on January 19, 2018, on the EP I’ve Got a Few Friends & I Wish They Were Mine. The song remained a sleeper hit until early 2021 when it began trending on TikTok and was discovered by AJR’s lead singer Jack Met.

Met called the song “the catchiest thing [the band had] ever heard”. Armed with creative ideas for building “a new song using the existing hook as the basis” to make “something pretty special”, he reached out to Daisy the Great to collaborate on a remix of the original song. The remix, titled just “Record Player”, was released on August 31, 2021, as a single from Daisy the Great’s second studio album All You Need Is Time (the deluxe version). As of December 14, 2022, “Record Player” had amassed over 42 million streams on Spotify and 270 million views on TikTok.

Daisy the Great is an American indie-pop band led by the singer-songwriter team of New Yorker Kelley Dugan and New Orleans native Mina Walker. Dugan and Walker met while they were both acting majors at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. They came together as Daisy the Great in 2016, releasing their first EP in 2018. Their debut album, I’m Not Getting Any Taller, followed in January 2019. They released their second EP, Soft Songs, in 2020, and their second album, All You Need Is Time, in 2022.

AJR is also an American indie-pop band, founded by brothers Adam, Jack, and Ryan Met (formerly Metzger), who are all three vocalists, multi-instrumentalists, and songwriters. They grew up in New York City with a focus on performing cover songs and busking until the release of their first album, Living Room, on March 3, 2015. Over the next nine years, the trio would produce and release five studio albums under their independent label AJR Productions.

AJR has been classified as a DIY band due to their emphasis on collaborative writing, producing, and mixing their own music from their living room studio. Labeled in the media as an indie-pop band, they describe their musical style as a combination of genres ranging from doo-wop to hip hop to theatrical music. They have opened for performers such as Andy Grammar, Demi Lovato, Imagine Dragons, and Train, among others. AJR announced The Maybe Man Tour, their first headlining arena tour, on November 9, 2023. As of June 2024, the tour has sold a reported 450,000 tickets.

How the Song Inspired My Outfit

I drew my style inspiration from the styles offered in the official music video as well as the lyrics, “Dyed my hair blue, it came out a seasick sort of green / I like vintage dresses when they fall just below my knees.”

I had considered spraying my hair with some green and blue dye like I did here, but I couldn’t be bothered with that whole messy process. Instead, I incorporated both colors into my outfit. Originally, I had planned to wear this dark blue shirt dress which fairly closely resembles the one in the video, but I just couldn’t get it to style the way I wanted so I ditched it.

Then I landed on this old vintage style gingham shirt dress that falls “just below my knees”. I kept the rest of this easy summer style pretty simple.

To bring in the “seasick sort of green”, I accessorized with a lime green neckerchief, also vintage style, and a straw cloche hat with lime green trim. I was digging the barefoot aesthetic in the video outfits but my feet are just too darn sensitive for such extreme nudity. Instead, I went for my very dirty, once-white eyelet Converse slip on sneakers. They felt like the perfect vintagey shoes to complete this outfit.

Then I got out my mom’s old record player that was made probably in 2004 rather than 2014 like the one in the song. I don’t think it works any more but I can’t let it go because it belonged to my mother. Mom’s record player and my new “Making Memories” Festival Mat are a match made in heaven for props, don’t you think?

How did I do?

I do hope you will check out how my songful friends have styled their outfits inspired by this fun song.

• Marsha of Marsha in the Middle
• Suzy of Suzy Turner, The Grey Brunette

Featured Favorite from Songful Style Link Party #27 | “Fat Bottomed Girls” by Queen

Curated by Jennifer

Be sure to stop back on July 29, 2024, to see how we find sartorial inspiration from Suzy’s next song choice…“Burning House” by Cam.

Keeping it on the edge, 

Shelbee

Joining these Fabulous Link Parties.