The popularity of music streaming services, such as Spotify and Apple Music, promotes playlist creation for individuals to compile songs. It also allows people to easily discover playlists made by strangers with great music taste.
The methods for curating a playlist vary from person to person. Some prefer to put all the music they enjoy together, while others meticulously manufacture several playlists for any and everything. I intend to encourage behavior that aligns with the latter while making the hyper-specific playlist creators (such as myself) feel seen!
Curating a playlist for any given scenario can assist in multiple areas. It stimulates you creatively, strengthens different parts of your brain, and prepares you through the world of music for anything that life may throw at you!
Creative Stimulation
Creating your playlists stimulates you creatively by allowing you to consider what songs to group together critically. This analysis is commenced by people based on the instrumentals, production, lyrics, vocals, etc. The unique experience of listening to music is how each individual’s ear is drawn to specific elements of songs.
This is especially prevalent in those who practice a specific instrument or are vocalists. For example, someone who plays the drums may be instinctively drawn to percussion when listening to any type of music.
Though collaborative playlists exist, I believe playlist creation should mainly be a solo activity. While it is interesting to compare and contrast music tastes under the specific guise of a playlist, you can learn a lot about yourself if you curate one on your own.
It is easy to recognize a pattern in songs when giving yourself a specific vibe to aim towards. For example, the playlist I have linked above is entitled “so much love but it’s foggy.” This playlist began with “Head Over Heels” by Tears for Fears.
I wanted to create a playlist with a similar vibe to this song and identified it as a love song with a mystical or “foggy” sound (hence the title). I had not heard some of the songs before adding them to this playlist. Others, I searched specifically for the musicians because I knew they had a similar sound to what I was looking for.
Listening through excerpts of songs to see if they capture the vibe I’m aiming toward is my method of finding songs. It stimulates my brain in a creative way that feels incredibly leisurely while beneficially strengthening several parts of it.
Neuroscience in Music
Next, attaching a specific memory or scenario to certain music assists in exercising several areas of the brain at once. It curates remarkable emotional recall through an unconventional method.
Music & Memory is a service that utilizes music as a therapeutic experience. Its methods aim to help those with cognitive and physical conditions. In their article, they list four key ways music interacts with the nervous system. Two of these have to do with engaging memories and emotional recall.
Music has a special way of attaching itself to specific memories, such as a period in our life, a month out of the year, particular relationships with others, etc. This allows people to be taken back to the moments they associate with these songs.
It engages your long-term memory in unconventional ways. Years and years from the first listen of the song, this music stays embedded in people’s brains. This causes an experience of emotions akin to hearing the song way back when.
Though Music & Memory focuses their services solely on those with cognitive and physical conditions, this vigilance towards keeping your brain sharp through music is beneficial for everyone. It is especially important to begin considering it when you’re younger, curating it into a subconscious habit of stimulating the nervous system.
This recollection is not only a fun experience for us, but it also stimulates our nervous systems and keeps several different regions of our brains activated healthily.
Music as Life Preparation
Lastly, music can help you be prepared for anything that might happen! Like all forms of art, musicians pour their hearts into their craft. They offer fresh perspectives on specific subjects, potentially ones that not everyone is all too familiar with.
Let’s take heartbreak, for example—one of the biggest topics in the world of music! If you have never experienced heartbreak yourself, it can be difficult to mentally conjure the internal turmoil that comes along with it. But listening to artists sing about it can give you a sense of what that might be like.
This can also assist in expanding the bounds of an individual’s empathy. Music allows people to understand specific topics on a different, unique level, even if they have not experienced it themselves. This can come in handy in personal relationships with those who have differing life experiences from yourself.
Never been on a date but still want to be prepared for your first heartbreak? Create a playlist! Taking a long drive beside the coastline and searching for the perfect vibes? Create a playlist! Want to be ready for a zombie apocalypse? Playlist, playlist, playlist!!!
What Have We Learned?
So, why do I want you to become a hyper-specific playlist creator? It stimulates you creatively, strengthens different parts of your brain, and will prepare you for the world of music and anything life throws at you! Also, because I don’t want to seem like the only crazy person who does this, you ask? Well, to that, I plead the fifth!
If you are motivated by this article but unsure what this playlist should even center around, I recommend starting with one song. Maybe it’s that one you’ve been obsessively playing on repeat lately?
Give that song a re-listen and consider what draws you to it intently. What is the vibe of the piece? Not just the one on the surface, but also underneath all the layers. Once you’ve dissected this, look for lines that make you feel that same way.
I recommend looking through your beloved collection of songs while branching out to new ones. It doesn’t have to be new artists; I often look through artists I am already familiar with. I do so by seeking out a song of theirs that I don’t know and could fit the vibe I am attempting to create.
I know I’m not the only hyper-specific playlist creator out there (especially with a fellow writer discussing the same subject as myself), so if you need further inspiration, go look through some stranger’s playlists! You may find your next favorite song by doing so, and this type of playlist creation may become your new obsession.
