One of my favourite pages in The Book of Barb is Barb’s mixtape — inspired by music that your girl may have listened to before her life was so tragically cut short.
It was super fun to put this together: wondering what Barb’s taste would have been, how she would have discovered new music, and whether she was more of a Blondie or Joy Division girl (in the end, I decided that Hawkins’ local radio station probably wouldn’t have cottoned onto England’s most depressing band).
It is, of course, a complete subjective viewpoint, as the show doesn’t give too much away about Barb’s preferred tunes — we know what Jonathan likes (The Clash, The Smiths etc), and Nancy has a Blondie poster on her wall, but Barb (poor Barb!) doesn’t get enough screen-time to have her musical taste revealed.
So, I took some liberties. Nancy and Barb would definitely have some crossover in taste, so Blondie’s definitely on there. She would have discovered new music by listening to the radio rather than hanging out in record stores (she’s a nerd, but not that kind of nerd), so I figured she’d mostly be into the hits. But she’s got her own thing going on, so she’s going to like female-fronted bands like Eurythmics and Kate Bush.
Suffice to say, I put way too much thought into it. Have a listen, and enjoy.
