Seasonal playlists
During my teenage years of driving to and from school in the suburbs of San Fernando Valley, my CD playlists breathed life into an otherwise monotonous commute. I would burn a new CD every few months, each one with 18 to 20 tracks that I cherished at the time. I would play them relentlessly until the melodies of each song permeated my bones and the lyrics seamlessly rolled off my tongue.
Once streaming platforms came into play, I forgot about treating playlists as snapshots in time. Every playlist was one endless rolling soundtrack categorized by genre or occasion. After years of listening to playlists with hundreds of songs, losing affinity with certain tracks but not wanting to delete them for their history, I returned to the practice of creating temporal playlists.
My suggested entry point to creating temporal playlists is to create a playlist per season. To start, I create the playlist around the equinox or solstice and add as many tracks as I am currently into, even if this means adding an entire album’s worth of songs by a single artist. I then add and remove songs on a whim as time passes. By the season’s end, the songs that remain on the playlist are ones that properly capture my listening habits for that time period.
After three years of seasonal playlist making, I’ve noticed patterns in the music genres I prefer during each season. Unsurprisingly, these genres match each season’s external mood and weather.
Here is my collection of playlists over the years, created as a time capsule for each season:
Spring
GENRES: MELODIC HOUSE, EMOTIVE POP/ELECTRONIC
I fell in love with emotional house music (also known as melodic or progressive house) shortly after moving to New York City in 2013. Artists like Lane 8, Le Youth, Elderbrook, and Tinlicker feel like a gradual awakening of the soul, gradually increasing its energy and reaching for connection.
Spring explodes with color and sensation after winter’s inward retreat. I reach for songs that express those cinematic, hopeful qualities, amping me up for the bright days of sunlight ahead.
Summer
GENRES: AFROBEATS, UPBEAT POP, K-POP, HIP-HOP
I embrace my most obnoxious-sounding music during the summer. Picture blaring beats under the neon lights of a HIIT workout class, or the collective sweat dripping as the crowd jumps in unison on the dance floor.
During this season of peak energy, all I want is to listen to songs that make me want to dance. Give me lots of percussion, bass, and bounce!
Autumn
GENRES: DREAM POP, FOLK ROCK, INDIE/ALTERNATIVE
Once the temperatures drop, it’s time for me to hide indoors and play songs with introspective tones set to acoustic guitars. I associate the fall with the rock music I prefer nowadays, folk-inspired and nostalgia-tinged.
Music is a crucial component to intentionally downshifting from the hedonism of summer to the inward reflection of autumn. I love to play these quieter songs as I dawdle with my journal with a cool breeze coming through the window.
Winter
GENRES: R&B, BALLADS, AMBIENT
During the quietest of the four seasons, I reach for songs that make me feel warm inside. Vocal prowess comes to the forefront, so I enjoy ballad and R&B songs where the singers’ voices can truly shine.
Winter is when I least use or listen to my seasonal playlists. By February I like to turn the dial of sound even lower, preferring meditation music on Youtube (Malte Marten and COULOU are two current favorites).