Music in Young Adult Literature

While reading Boy Meets Boy, one of my first thoughts was to compare its use of music to books like Perks of Being a Wallflower. Music seems to play a pretty important role in both these novels, and I started to think specifically about the kind of music that dominates the Young Adult Literature genre. It seems like the use of music as a plot device is a quirk of this kind of literature, and can be something used mostly for the “artsy” character. In Boy Meets Boy, for example, the song It’s Always You (Chet Baker) is playing during the scene in Noah’s attic where they’re going to paint the music. This incorporation of music into the novel adds to the quirks of the typical special protagonist- lends a different aspect of “teenage angst” to the novel. Here’s a spotify playlist I put together with some of the songs from the novel- feel free to add to it!

Boy Meets Boy: Playlist