With the new release of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (a movie I’m dying to see), I started thinking about the playlists of my life.
Growing up, we all made mixed tapes for one another, and a mixed tape from a boy was serious business. I can remember analyzing the song choices in an attempt to discover just how he felt, not only about me, but about life! Boys could be dumped for sins like including Tears for Fears on a mixed tape.
Moving on through (and past) university came the mixed cds…great for road trips to and from school, and all those Reading Week trips. When I find one of those old cds now listening to it can take me right back in time. I close my eyes and I’m dancing in Alfies to The Tragically Hip.
With the advent of iTunes, I find myself making playlists for every facet of my life. I’ve made dinner party playlists, rainy afternoon playlists, kids’ playlists and Girls Night Out playlists. Often I’ll burn a playlist to a cd and gift it. One of my favourites is my “Driving to the Cottage” playlist, heavy on Ingrid Michaelson, Mouldy Peaches, Jakob Dylan and Emmylou Harris (the music that I enjoy, that puts my kids to sleep).
Then there are my running mixes; one for shorter runs, one to get me through my first half-marathon (with a very strategically-placed Kanye singing Stronger just as I imagined I’d be running out of steam). One that’s full of my dance music favourite from the late 80s (when was the last time you heard Groove is in the Heart segue into Straight Up?) and one that’s all Bruce Springsteen.
The latest playlist trend was introduced this month with iTunes version 8.0. iTunes has brought a whole new dimension to my playlist-making hobby with the Genius button. In iTunes, pick a song (any song…) and hit the Genius button, and iTunes will create a playlist for you from your music library. It’s a fun way to find songs that you’d forgotten all about, and also to hear them in a new light. I wouldn’t have thought to mix Aimee Mann with Broken Social Scene, or David Bowie with Mazzy Star, but hey it works!
So how about you…what playlists have you created and would you trust iTunes to make one up for you?
Hadn’t yet heard about Genius since I’ve been avoiding downloading the latest iTunes update. Sounds great, though – must download soon! BTW, the photo in this post is adorable.
My favourite playlists are normally by favourites (either current season, current year, or all time) by mood (quiet, lively, happy, sad), by activity (book club, scrapbooking, cleaning up), by theme (songs from movies, city (like New York), 70’s, 80s, 90s)or by event (New Year’s, birthday, wedding, anniversary)
When my daughter wanted a turn at Genius for dinnertime last night, I was dreading the playlist that would be created with Miley Cyrus…sure it had the Spice Girls and Hillary Duff, but I was happy to see some Coldplay, Maroon 5 and even Hot Hot Heat. I’m not sure if we don’t have enough tween music in our library for it to have worked properly, but this playlist had something for everyone. I am also enjoying using Genius to find songs I haven’t heard in a while.
Great post! I liked some of your ideas and will have to make up some more playlists.