Crying at H Mart mentions songs like “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion and “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant” by Billy Joel. It made sense that Zauner would create a Spotify playlist to accompany his best-selling memoir.
Michelle Zauner wrote best-selling memoir ‘Crying in H Mart’
Michelle Zauner is one of the artists on Japanese Breakfast, performing songs like “Be Sweet” and “Savage Good Boy”. She is also the author behind Crying at H Mart, released April 2021. This novel details Zauner’s experience as a Korean American coping with the death of her mother.
In his journey to strengthen his cultural ties, Zauner turned to food and music, specifically the Asian grocery store H Mart. Since its launch, Crying at H Mart became a New York Times bestseller, was also named Amazon’s #2 Best Book of the Year and a Barnes and Noble Book of the Year finalist. Recently, a Korean version of this novel was released.
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Michelle Zauner Created a ‘Crying in H Mart’ Spotify Playlist
The Korean copy of these memories came with a bookmark, like a fan in Twitter indicated. The back of this bookmark featured a compilation of songs in a Spotify playlist. Zauner carefully selected the tracks to accompany Crying at H Mart.
This bookmark includes songs referenced in the novel, including Joel’s “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant,” the song her now-husband sang at karaoke when they first met. Yeah, Yeah Yeahs’ “Maps” also made the cut, with Zauner elaborating on its meaning during an interview with GQ.
“Seeing Karen O for the first time changed my life,” the author explained. “Water was spit everywhere and he used the microphone in a way that he had never seen before. My world was changing. Finding out that she was half Korean in the super white male dominated industry was just mind blowing.”
“It was a moment that changed my life,” he continued. “She was the first person I saw that looked like me. Finding not only a Korean woman in the rock scene, but also a half Korean woman in the rock scene meant a lot to me. I felt so connected to her, and she was such an important role model in my life.”
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‘Crying in H Mart’ playlist includes songs from Japanese Breakfast
Additionally, this bookmark/playlist highlighted songs made popular by Zauner’s now Grammy-nominated band Japanese Breakfast. The novel mentions the formation of the band and its psychopomp was.
As a result, “In Heaven” became a welcome addition to the Crying at H Mart playlist Other Japanese Breakfast songs added to the playlist include “The Woman That Loves You,” “Moon on the Bath,” and “Everybody Wants to Love You.”
Since then, Japanese Breakfast released the album 2021 Anniversary. The production earned a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Album, and Zauner earned a nomination in the Best New Artist category.
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