Creating a Playlist is All Emotion

Ever since I discovered Spotify in 2015, I had this gratuitous habit of creating or downloading random playlists. It began with creating a playlist for running, then moved on to “Motivation Playlist” and then creating my ones of my favourite artists like RHCP, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Prince, David Bowie, Led Zepp, Pink Floyd and so many more – reason being, Spotify’s ”This is:[Insert Band name here]” playlists excluded so many other exceptional tracks. “Motivation Playlist” was created during the long winter of 2016-17 where I would frequent the Staatsbibliothek (or Staabi) in Berlin to write my Master’s thesis. Experiencing a slight depression in that long, cold and bleak mid-winter that playlist was my saviour. It uplifted my spirits on so many grey days. To me, creating a playlist does take time and effort.

It’s easy, yet it’s rocket science.

My friend Elisabeth and I share a somewhat similar taste in music and we’ve always shared our music discoveries. One cold and depressing February evening in a bar somewhere in Berlin, we were engrossed in conversation about how awesome would it be to just hire a car and drive to the Alps together while blasting some kick-ass road trip songs. And then she said, “How about we create a collaborative playlist on Spotify full of songs that are meant for a ‘road-trip’ just like that. Let’s create one! We both have similar tastes in music and albeit normal ones too.”

“Road trip” was conceived on a cold February night in Berlin

Thus began the never-ending addition of songs and tracks into our collaborative playlist. ”Road trip” is a special playlist. As of now, it consists of around 738 songs and a run-time of almost 52 hours. Just put that into perspective – you could drive all the way from Lisbon to Moscow across the entire European continent with the playlist going uninterrupted! Of course, food, fuel and rest stops excluded. There is a track for every mood, every emotion, every state of mind – whether you just want to put your foot on the dashboard or wave your hand in the wind or become a total anarchist, this playlist has it. In all honesty, there’s not a single song in that playlist I dislike. I can’t say the same about Elisabeth though. ​ There’s something about your own playlist that’s special. You experiment with it a lot. You add songs and tracks and remove them a few days later because they don’t vibe with the others. Obviously, there is no hard and fast mantra for creating a playlist or like you need a bloody MBA in Playlist Management. But I can say that a good playlist is when you don’t skip the next track. It’s just that creating your own perfect playlist gives you that sense of freedom and motivation to enjoy your music. My most recent playlist – Twenteh-Twenteh is more of a unique mix of tracks from my Discover Weekly segment. It won’t make me an anarchist, but it would definitely keep me company on a long drive or push me through a tough day.

Twenteh-Twenteh is all things “Road-trip” and “Motivation Playlist” but more concise and unique