BitchTapes

Friends are the best. Here are a few songs about loving friends, missing friends, and losing friends (also, they're great for mixtapes...for your friends!). Let us know which friendship songs we missed in the comments!

BitchTapes: Friendship Mix from BitchTapes on 8tracks.

New Year's Eve is a tricky holiday. While a night set aside for dressing fancy, toasting to a maybe-great future, and counting down to a kiss with someone cute should equal the best time ever, it can quickly turn into a stress-filled letdown that leaves you walking home barefoot in the slush because you couldn't get a cab, uncomfortable shoes in hand and false eyelashes sliding down your cheeks like a sad Living Classics version of a Picasso portrait. (Just me? Doubtful.)

Like it or not, tomorrow is New Year's Eve, and whether your plans include living it up at a fancy champagne party or stuffing your cat into a shiny paper hat (or both!), you'll need some tunes to set the mood. Here are a few songs that are about this most loaded of nights—in party order from plan-making to waking up the next day, of course.



Track list after the jump!

How about a few holiday tunes for your weekend?

I've always hated Top Ten of the Year Lists. I just feel like there is some sort of intrinsic hubris involved that comes with definitively declaring "The Best" of anything. Also, who wants to encourage this kind of feedback? But because I've been so busy re-discovering 2011's great catalog, I did want to share some gems that didn't get the radio play Adele did this year. Here's a selection of songs that might have slipped under your radar over the past 12 months (Okay, so maybe Beyoncé's "Countdown" didn't get by you, it's just that I f*king love that song). You know the drill—check out the track list after the jump, and leave your favorite 2011 jams in the comments!

Despite what the magazines and elitists say each year, pop music never seems to die... and I, for one, couldn't be happier about it. Today, take a break from Gagas and Perrys and explore jams by cool ladies outside the U.S.! Don't forget to share your other favorites in the comments.

Track list after the jump!

Happy Thanksgiving Leftovers Day! If you, like me, spent the morning deciding between pie and mashed potatoes for breakfast, you might need some songs about food to provide a soundtrack to your day. Here are two past BitchTapes, republished with your gustatory needs in mind. Betcha can't eat listen to just one! Who's Hungry? Part I



Track list and Who's Hungry? Part II after the jump!

Best of Bitchtapes! Here's a Bitchtapes from the past we're re-posting because it's too jam-worthy to forget!

The other day, while singing "Forever Your Girl" in the shower (don't judge – you know that song rules) I started thinking about the awesome female pop stars of the early 90s. Now, full disclosure: I was born in 1982, so I began to develop my own taste (or lack thereof) in music during that golden era. Janet Jackson, Paula Abdul, Whitney Houston – these women taught me and my tween (though we didn't call it that back then) friends what it meant to truly rock out as strong women. Sure, our side ponytails, multicolored keds, and leggings may not have said "Empowered Women" to the kids on the playground, but as we jammed out to "Rhythm Nation" on our Sony Walkmen our veins coursed with the power that only a true Female Pop Star can provide.

The early 90s were full of said Female Pop Stars, so without further adieu, I bring you BitchTapes: Female Pop Stars of the Early 90s Edition. Throw that hair into a side ponytail and let's do this.



Track listing and (I couldn't help it) videos after the jump!

Approximately 100% of the time that someone mentions the name Selena outside of Texas, they are talking about Selena Gomez. Approximately 100% of those times, I wish they were talking about Selena Quintanilla, and I pretend in my heart that they are. In Hill Country, though, que viva La Flor. Selena, Selena of my heart and of Jennifer Lopez's breakthrough role, lives on, and she's one of many. Don't let the cowboy/machismo-fueled street harassment, Governor, ex-President, sky-high teen pregnancy rate and matching refusal to accept sex-education funding associated with the Jumbo State fool you. There is a fabulous tradition here of women rebelling (look up Angelina Eberly, for example) and making great music to boot. Here's a mix of lady Texans who make being a Lone Star sound gooood.

Well, Ladyween weekend is officially upon us! (And yes, we're still trying to make Ladyween happen around here. It'll catch on before you know it—trust us.) Here are some holiday jams to get you in the mood. Listen IF YOU DARE! (BEWARE: Scary track list after the jump!)

My sisters and I grew up listening to tons of great music together (Hannah is already on her way to being a famous guitarist and singer at 17!). So it was an obvious choice for us to get together and do a Bitchtapes when our sister, Jesse, came to visit us from Austin. What better topic than songs about sisters, brothers, and sibling relations? Track list after the jump!