You Need To Have A Summer Playlist
It's got to have bangers, hits, stuff that goes, songs that slap, all the best sounds
April is a tense month for me. Not because of taxes, the end of the school semester coming within sight, my seasonal allergies getting inflamed, or any other of the daily indignities that come with being alive in 2021. All of that pales in comparison to the real problem in front of me. April is such a tense month for me because it marks the time when I need to start compiling my “Summer Hangout Playlist.”
The yearly Summer Hangout Playlist is a must have for anyone concerned even the tiniest amount with curating good vibes. Especially this year, when the people need as many good vibes as they can get. Vibing is at an all-time premium. You don’t want to let the people down. Hosting a backyard cookout and not providing a good soundtrack? Can you even imagine? Or going to someone else’s place and realizing that they don’t have a playlist queued up and instead planned on using Spotify’s “Teen Party” playlist? A tragedy. As I’ve written about before, bespoke playlists are important, and even more so in the summer. Good playlists provoke conversation, boost the energy levels, cover up lulls in conversation. A hangout with a well-tempered playlist is not a hangout, but a bummer. And yes, that IS a Bach reference, thank you very much.
Why should you get started now on curating your own summer playlist? You might think that waiting until it gets really hot, say July, to start picking out your tunes makes sense. Summer time for summer songs. Just as Target doesn’t sit on their swimtrunks til July, neither should you sit on your playlist. Waiting til the last moment never works out.
The thawing out period, when the Northern Hemisphere takes in extra heat from the sun, remains essential to the creation of a good summer playlist. You want songs imbued with the possibilities of summer, the potential of every day to be the best day ever. When the first signs of warm weather start to sprout up, the tulips bloom from spring showers, baseball begins, that marks the moment when people hit peak receptivity to summer vibes. Not in the middle of July, when everyone needs a little break from of the heat and humidity, and maybe starts wishing for the snow to come back. Spring, when all the possibilities of the summer months lay before you is the best time to pick a summer playlist. As an added bonus, claimants to the “song of the summer” throne start to get plays during this point and every good playlist maker needs to be aware of them.
If that last paragraph sounded like a bunch of New Age crystal-humping nonsense, then I don’t know what to say to you. Playlists are all about vibes. There’s not a science to it. You just got to feel it, brother.
What makes a song a summer song? This is a very personal question. People vary on their answers, so I’ll just provide my own – correct – way of thinking about it. A song is a summer song if it can conjure up the exact same vibe as the synth sound that starts playing on The Weeknd’s “Can’t Feel My Face” at 0:09 does. Or if it brings out the same emotional reaction as the 0:04 second mark of Passion Pit’s “Little Secrets,” or the weird Doppler sound effect at 0:34 from Lorde’s “Green Light.” If it can recreate those feelings, mark it down as a summer song. Of course, most people will not click those links so let me try to explain what I mean using words. After all this is a newsletter that most people read on their phones.
Summer songs make you think you’re riding in a Jeep with all the windows down, wind through your hair, best friends by your side. They make you think it’s 10pm and you’re a little tipsy and ready to stay up the rest of the night. They make you want to shake your damn hips. Crucially however, a summer song is not just a party song. Plenty of party songs are not summer songs, and plenty of summer songs are not party songs. There is overlap, but not always. For example, Kanye’s “Flashing Lights” is a both a party and a summer song. His “FourFiveSeconds” is a summer song, but not a party song. “Gold Digger” is a party song but not a summer song. Summer songs have an innate chill, an extra vibe, purposeful or not, that just lets you sit in them and groove. Walking that line, and discovering where it lies, is the true challenge of a summer playlist.
To be honest, most of what I listen to are not summer songs. I’m much more an Autumn/Winter song guy myself. Which adds a little stress to my playlist making. But here are some tips for making your own playlist.
1. Don’t worry about repeats. Classics are classics for a reason. Your summer playlist doesn’t need to be 100% new every year. On my own playlists I try to keep them relatively fresh, but every year some songs stick around.
2. It will change. You don’t need to have your playlist locked by June 1st or some other arbitrary date. You want to have a good base, but new songs are going to come out, or you’ll hear a song on someone else’s playlist and want to add it. You’ll also want to remove some songs from your own. Being able to cull a list is just as important as being able to add.
3. It’s not just about high-energy bangers. Summer energy is also about grooving, chilling, and relaxing. There needs to be space for both on your list. This is something I have to pay attention too. My predilection is for hard-hitting ragers. But that is usually not the move for most people. Having slower, but still summer, songs is also important.
If you follow those three simple rules for creating a summer playlist – 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter joke – you’ll have a great time this summer. If you don’t? Well good luck hanging out with your friends pal. It’ll be a chore.
Here’s my WORK IN PROGRESS list for those who are interested.
Oh, also, I added a paid tier to the newsletter. You don’t get anything extra, but it would make writing this much easier if you paid me a little for doing it. But no worries if you don’t. I’ll still like you.