The best break up mix tape in the world

This week seems to be a lot about music. For anyone out there who hates music I apologise for wasting your time with my obsession with music this week, now please feel free to go back to your little cave in the middle of the ocean.

So tonight I am snooping through my little sister's hard drive to see if she has any music that I don't. Given that she used to own a dance school and her entire job revolved around music, it's usually a pretty safe bet I can get some good tunes from her. During my snooping I have managed to locate a folder called Break Up CD, and not one to be able to resist finding out what a person would listen to if they went through a relationship bust up, I had to click on it and find out its contents. I am surprised to find that I have stumbled on probably the best break up CD in the history of man. The song list is pretty diverse, and includes lots of good break up songs including Fuck You by Lily Allen, Bitches ain't shit by Ben Folds, Love is only a feeling by The Darkness and We used to be by the Dandy Warhols.

Now given that my little sister and her partner have been together for years and years now, and as far as I can tell they have never had a serious break up, I was curious to find out exactly who compiled this list of music for her. The story was not what I expected at all. Apparently when one of her best friends split up from her boyfriend, HE made the CD for her. All of a sudden the song list goes from great angry music to get over a relationship to, to something so much more. (It also begs a huge question, why would he have put on there I touch myself by the Divinyls??) In one fell swoop he has managed to give her a soundtrack to mourn the end of their relationship together, and send her a huge screw you at the same time. With inclusion of songs like Look what you've done by Jet and Heartless by Kanye West, this friendly gesture barely conceals  what he really thinks of her for breaking his heart. I'm pretty sure this CD could be the best middle finger to give an ex ever.

Not that I'm one for petty stabs at former partners, but if I ever did go through a break up ever again, I would be sure to have this album in my arsenal, as it sure beats sitting in my room crying alone and writing angry letters to my exes that I'll never send while listening to Eternal Flame by the Bangles for the hundredth time. Of course given that I'm also not a teenager any more, I do tend to deal with the collapse of a relationship a little bit more maturely than I used to. When my last boyfriend just disappeared into thin air after 4 months, without even so much as a "this isn't working, let's just be friends" I just brushed it off and went back to being single, as if the relationship hadn't even happened. Had he done that when we were 18, it would have been a completely different story. I would have spent nights lying in bed dreaming up imaginary conversations with him where I shame him for treating me so poorly and make him want me all the more at the same time. Thank heavens the days of teenage angst are a distant memory for me. I don't think I could handle that much emotion any more.

But if there is one thing that hasn't changed since I was a teenager, it is the ability for music to get me through even the hardest life events. When my first real boyfriend and I broke up, it was sitting on my beanbag in my bedroom listening to The Bangles on my stereo that got me through it. When my half brother died a few years ago, it was sitting in my lounge room listening to The Eels on my computer that got me through it. When mum and Miss K both almost died on the same day, it was sitting on the hospital bed playing Guitar Hero on my DS that got me through it. The technologies and the tunes may have changed over the years, but their healing properties have never gone away. Now if you will please excuse me, Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson has just come on and I must dance around the lounge room.