Associating songs with a color often depends on the song’s production, lyrics, album cover, triggered emotions and overall ambiance. Scroll to see what songs students associated with a random color they were given on the spot. 

RED

Most students took album covers and other visuals into consideration when associating songs with the color red. 

“[I would associate] ‘Wildest Dreams’ by Taylor Swift [with the color red],” senior Arul Trivedi said. “The album cover is red, and [in] the music video, her hair’s red.”

Junior Shriya Shekatkar agrees with Trivedi, accrediting the album title in addition to its cover. 

“‘Space Song’ by Beach House,” Shekatkar said. “The album is called ‘[Depression] Cherry,’ like red cherries, and the album cover is also red.”

However, freshman Melissa Qin looked more into the meaning of the song, as this is what instinctively made her think of the color red. 

“‘FIREWORK by TWICE,” Qin said. “The title is ‘FIREWORK,’ and when you think of a firework, you think of red and the Fourth of July.”

ORANGE

The color orange is one that, according to junior Lourdes Diaz, gives off a very “tangy”[and] “zesty” tone. Thus, the songs that can be associated with this color are songs that give off a similar vibe. 

“As of now I feel like ‘As it Was’ by Harry Styles [makes me think of the color orange],” Diaz said. “It either gives me a yellow or orange vibe right now, but that’s the first thing I could think of: Harry Styles. Because his music, or [his] songs that I listen [to] specifically [have a] warm, almost zangy vibe, like a literal orange.”

YELLOW

Similarly to red, students tend to associate songs with the color that is present in the title and cover art.

“‘Yellow’ by Coldplay, because it’s called yellow [and] the cover [is] also yellow,” sophomore Shravya Patibanda said. “I feel like the song is just content with life but also, he talks about caring for somebody; he describes somebody else’s life. I feel like I have that same outlook to observe people’s lives like that.” 

However, students also associate happy and buoyant songs with the color yellow, despite not explicitly mentioning the color itself. 

“I feel like the song ‘Run the World!!!’ by Dayglow,” freshman Ritu Kandi said. “It’s very yellow.” 

GREEN

Certain songs convey a message — such as good health, happiness or even jealousy — that radiates the color green. 

“‘good 4 u’ is about being happy and healthy,” senior Ajay Gadhiraju said. “[It’s about] giving people energy. It relates to the color green because green is like plants that make the world great.” 

Likewise, the color green is reminiscent of the y2k aesthetic, and thus students such as Diaz associate songs with a similar aesthetic with the color green. Furthermore, the cover art does play a part in associating songs with the color green, but feelings of “isolation” and “freshness” that are sparked by the song play a much larger role in determining the associated color. 

“‘Electro World’ by Perfume, it’s a J-pop song,” Diaz said. “This type of green [as shown in the post above] is what I’m thinking of. I’m really into this weird y2k, 2000s electric, mall vibe, like [a] cam-corder, 2000’s vintage. The cover of the album itself is a little green. When I think of the song it makes me think of the [green in my most recent Instagram post]. [The song is] green because it has a sense of freshness and a little isolation. I don’t know why but sometimes green reminds me of isolation, because usually if I’m in nature, I’ll be by myself…And I’m alone, but I’m still happy.”

BLUE

Students such as freshman Dana Yang associate the color blue with songs that have this color in their title, despite these songs not actually conveying a “feeling of blue.” 

“‘I’m blue’ by Eiffel 65,” freshman Dana Yang said. “I don’t really associate it with the feeling of blue. I just associated it with the word because it literally has the word in its title.” 

According to Kandi, the painting depicted by a song’s production, lyrics and overall tone also play a role in determining the color depicted by a certain song. 

“There’s a song called ‘Nice Boys’ by TEMPOREX,” Kandi said. “It was really popular a few years ago. It sort of gives off this misty blue with some silver in there, because it sounds a lot like stars twinkling and it’s very chill.”

PURPLE

Contrastingly, junior Kate Schuyler associates her favorite songs and genres with her favorite color, as the feelings radiated by the song, the genre and the color are all similar due to being the student’s favorite. 

“I just thought of an artist instead of a song — I just immediately thought of Queen for some reason,” Schuyler said. “And then I thought of rap. So that was an interesting jump …  I think purple is one of my favorite colors, so it’s automatically connecting me to artists and genres that I prefer. I [also] associate purple with mystery, magic, [just] something intangible. [And] that’s what I feel when I listen to [certain] songs [I like]. For some reason, I’m thinking of ‘Killer Queen’ right now and ‘Bicycle [Race]’ and ‘Another One Bites The Dust.’”

NEUTRALS

Similar to the color yellow, the instinctual calmness triggered by the color white causes students to associate calmer songs with this color. 

“‘All We Do’ by Oh Wonder,” Patibanda said. “I feel like white is very calm, and that song is very calm and simple … I think it is just how the song makes me feel. I feel like some songs, other people won’t think they’re calm or simple but I will, and that’s just because of how I [interpret] the song.

Qin agrees with Patibanda, also bringing up the connection that springtime has with the color white. 

“[I think of ]‘OXYGEN’ by TWICE, because I think it’s a springtime song, and it just, in my head, it [radiates the color white],” Qin said.

According to sophomore Meghna Akkiraju-Kurapati, the color black gives off a starkly different aura than the color white, despite them both being neutral colors — this color is associated with “night drives” and instances that are depicted by television, social media and other media as being “powerful.” 

“[Black reminds me of] the Albanian remix, ‘Habibi’ [by Ricky Rich], because that’s really trending on Tik-Tok right now,” Akkiraju-Kurapati said. “A lot of people use it for night drive [videos where] it’s dark and black. [Likewise,] when I go on night drives, it’s usually really dark, almost pitch black. And the places where I go are viewpoints, so it’s really dark up there because it’s not like a city area. Also, my car is black. And also, not a dark song but it makes you feel powerful, and usually black is associated with power in [clothing such as a] suit or a mini black dress.”