Untitled

Slight spoilers for Role Model & The Long Game.

I've put way too much thought into this. Ilya probably used an iPod when he first arrived (2008-2009-2010) - they peaked in popularity in 2006, but he was coming from Russia and I've read that iPods are still common in Russia as recently as 2024? idk if he'd use it much after 2012. This of this more as a shuffling of his saved music between 2008 - 2020 - the start of TLG. Not everything, just the highlights.

We know from TLG that Ilya listens to Bad Bunny while he drives and Rihanna's Diamonds has always reminded him of Shane. From this I infer that he listens to:

R&B

pop

hip-hop

trap

From RM, we know that Harris thinks all hockey players have the same taste in music: EDM, hip-hop, country, and Mumford & Sons. I doubt Ilya is listening to country unironically or Mumford & Sons at all - unless Dykstra has the aux. EDM is pretty standard millennial fare - it was in everything and everyone dabbled in it 2010-2015 - and Ilya liked clubbing. So let's add:

EDM

Ilya's sense of humor always read as "internet troll" to me. I know he didn't spend nearly as much time online as my friends and I did, but with that kind of humor, he probably had meme music in his music library - either because he actually enjoys it or he enjoys how much it annoys others when he's passed the aux.

Extrapolating from Rihanna, I'm going to guess he listens to other female artists.

Extrapolating from Bad Bunny, I'm going to guess he listens to other Latin artists.

I'm certain that Ilya listens to Russian rap, hip-hop, and EDM, but the closest I've gotten to that is Kazakh EDM.

2010's EDM classics are all there and then some - that's a genre I'm more familiar with.

Based on vibes alone, I've added a smattering of indie rock and older r&b, hip-hop, and rap classics.

AND SO. I use YouTube music. I may keep adding to it but I think I'm slowing down on this. I added them as I thought of them, play on shuffle for best results.

I give you, Ilya's hypothetical iPod:

Maybe it's because I've had to watch video of my own gait and put in a fair amount of effort to correct it

Maybe it's a stylistic choice

Maybe it's Maybelline

- deciding to leave your country, even if it seemingly hates you, isn't easy. It's not easy logistically or emotionally. A lot of viewers treat Ilya's decision to permanently leave his homeland like it's not one of the biggest decisions a person can make in their life.

This was one of those things I only understood intellectually until last year. I'm a trans person in the United States, and a lot of things got worse faster than we expected. General advice within the trans community was 1) figure out if you want to leave 2) figure out how and 3) figure out when.

I'm still waffling. I can't stomach the idea of never being able to return home. I'm not sure if I'm ready to die to stay here, but I'm not ready to abandon it altogether. (Which isn't to say I think people who leave are cowardly; if anything, I think they're the brave ones because being an immigrant is a shit experience. It's shit all the way around.) I don't know if you can understand the gravity of the decision unless you've seriously weighed it for yourself. It fucking sucks - and I'd be leaving my country for the one right next door, 3 hours away, with the same dominant language.

Soundclash | Flosstradamus & Troyboi

I saw 'em clashing, I can't hear ya (x3)

Wrong Club | The Ting Tings

Hey, If you can't move your feet You wanna stand like a woman You wanna stand with me If you don't seem to fit in You wanna take some cover You wanna leave with me

Hey! I'm in the wrong club Listening to this shit I'm in the wrong life, someone get me out of it

And everyone's gonna let me know it Come with me, we can over throw it Keep it in or I can go and show it

No DJ never saved my life

Bird Machine | DJ Snake

i might be a little sorry for this one

but here i am

You're Just My Type | Saint Motel

You know you're just my type Oh, you got a pulse and you are breathing You know you're just my type Oh, I think it's time that we get leaving You know you're just my type

Hollander, I sleep with everyone. This is nothing special to me. (you mean everything to me and always have, I knew I was a goner right away and I've been running from it since)

GDFR | Flo Rider

I know what you came here to see

If you a freak, then you comin' home with me

And I know what you came here to do

Now bust it open, let me see you get loose

It's goin' down for real x5

Lift it, drop it, shake it, pop it (oh) x4

It's goin' down for real x5

I'm not sorry

---

as a pre-top-op trans guy