As both an out-of-state college student and someone who loves to pick up and just drive to see somewhere new, I’ve spent a lot of time in my car — including an 18-hour drive to Maryland this past fall. As a frequent flyer of the interstate, I have two main rules for a song to be added to the queue: I have to be able to sing along, and it has to keep me awake. If I had to pick a genre, it would be alternative, but there’s always the occasional curveball. These top 10 are the songs that I’ll be happy to hear both at the beginning of a 30-minute commute and in the late hours of the night after seeing nothing but road for hours.
For a long part of my life, this was my favorite song, and I could honestly listen to just a few Twenty One Pilots songs on repeat for hours.
Road trip lyric: “I’m driving here I sit / cursing my government / for not using my taxes to fill holes with more cement”
There is absolutely no drifting off with the Beastie Boys, and there’s nothing like them to kick some life back into me when I start getting tired. They remind me there’s literally no sleep until I reach my destination
Road trip lyric: “Foot on the pedal, never ever false metal / Engine running hotter than a boiling kettle”
What better song to drive to than a song about driving all night, long after the race has ended?
Road trip lyric: “But he’s driving and striving and hugging the turns / and thinking of someone for whom he still burns”
To me, this song feels like driving on a summer day with the driver’s window down as the sun slowly roasts your dashboard.
I would not be being true to my middle school self if I didn’t include at least one more Twenty One Pilots song, and this is the one that 8th grade me spent hours memorizing every lyric to. When this intro plays to this day, the words start pouring out of me like a sleeper agent activation.
Road trip lyric: “I’ll stay awake / Cause the dark’s not taking prisoners tonight”
They Might Be Giants is probably the other artist I could listen to again and again, and there’s something about this song in specific that seems to get everyone in the area singing along.
The Beatles have been my favorite band for as long as I can remember, and I’ve loved “Yellow Submarine” just as long. It’s upbeat, it’s silly, and, sure, it’s not about driving, but a submarine is at least some kind of vehicle.
Road trip lyric: “So we sailed on to the sun / Til we found the sea of green”
Sometimes, the trick to a long road trip is to pretend you are a lone and noble cowboy, riding your noble steed across the barren land. Makes the whole stuck-in-a-car situation feel a little more cinematic.
Road trip lyric: “I’d drive all night just to get back home”
This song is one that seemed to always come on in my dad’s pickup truck on family road trips, and while it doesn’t have much road trip relevance lyrics-wise, those memories are ingrained in my mind. I wouldn’t recommend listening to the lyrics too closely.
Road trip lyric: “If you’re goin’ my way / Well, I wanna drive it all night long” (or really just the whole song)
