Music appears as a symbol characterizing the mood of certain scenes in the narrative. For instance, in Chapter 3, Mark takes the bus to go see dealer Mike Forrester for his fix and can hear music coming from the headphones of a girl using a Sony Walkman: “Is she good looking? Whae fuckin cares” (17). She is listening to David Bowie’s “Golden Years.” Mark notes that he has every album Bowie ever made, but in the moment, he cares only about Mike Forrester, “an ugly talentless cunt whae has made no albums. Zero singles” (17).

Later, Iggy Pop plays a pivotal role in one character’s demise. Tommy bought tickets to see the artist with his friend Mitch (Mitchell) and his girlfriend Lizzy is annoyed. On the night of the show, she says she wants to go see a movie, The Accused, with Al Pacino, but Tommy is set to go to the Iggy Pop gig. She explodes in anger: “She calls me all the fuck-ups under the sun” (72). Tommy and Lizzy later break up, and he turns to heroin to cope.

In another instance, Mark is feeling depressed and blames the music: “Ay.