Music is and has always been one of the greatest elements of my day-to-day life. Unless I am with my friends there’s a good chance I am walking around with my air pods in, in my room playing records or blasting music on my speaker. I usually listen to my chaotic monthly playlist at these moments.
I have been making my monthly playlists consistently for a little over a year now. They consist of new songs that just came out, songs I have been singing my whole life, songs from music genres I am just starting to get into, songs my favorite bars have been playing, songs I discover from collaborative playlists with my friends, and songs I shazamed in a Subway while eating my sandwich.
I see music as a constant variable in my life. On days when my life is most out of my control, I can always pick what music I listen to. It has occurred to me lately that the more chaotic my life is, the more chaotic my monthly playlist gets. My monthly playlists started being around 3-6 hours long each month when I first began. Around June after graduation, I was in a serious phase of change and unknown in my life. That was when I saw the length of my playlist double to almost 12 hours for the first time. In July it went up to about 19 hours. Once I got to college and gained a sense of control again, August and September fell back to around 14 hours. Then I turned 19 and realized my time as a teenager was coming to an end, and my October playlist set a record at 22 hours long.
However, there is more to my playlists than the chaos and length they are. Looking back on my past playlists and the songs I was listening to during those months serves as a sort of time capsule. I can remember the songs I sang with my friends on our girl’s trip to PCB, the songs that I played at my graduation party, the songs I played on my commutes to work all summer, the songs my friends and I would blast outside of the gym, the songs my coworkers and friends would introduce me to, the songs artists played at concerts I went to with my friends, the songs my roommate and I bonded over, the songs that played on “the best weekend ever”, and so much more.
I like to think of each monthly playlist as a different era of my life. There is no way to go back in time and relive those eras, but for me listening to certain songs I played during those times is the closest I can get.
Many people like to separate their songs into playlists that make sense. For example, rap playlists, country playlists, late-night playlists, study playlists, etc. Not only do I see how that makes sense, but I also have those playlists outside of my monthly playlists.
If you are one of those people who make playlists in that fashion, I encourage you to add monthly playlists to your creations. By doing this you won’t have to consider if the song fits the right vibe. All that matters is that in that month or season of life, you are enjoying it and will be able to look back and remember the memories attached to each song.