Poll of the Day > I feel like something is lost with music playlists...

(+) Yeah! (+)

I know a lot of people who use spotify and make playlists of songs. Or other services. That is totally fine, but I feel like something is lost with playlists of random songs(not really random as the songs fit a mood or genre, but compared to albums, yes)

But I feel like you lose something in that, that if you listen to full albums, you get.

Here are some examples of what I mean: I was listening to the first album by the band Naked City, which is very odd. It combines traditional jazz elements and other styles with grindcore and other abrasive genres. So when the second track "The Sicillian Clan", which is a cover of an Ennio Morricone piece ends and you get the very short, very grindcore influenced "You Will Be Shot" you might be blown away. One band, the same musicians on both tracks, both are drastically different. That might be some sort of musical revelation. But making playlists, you could easily have film scores interspersed with grindcore or any abrasive genre you want. So if i were to put on this full album I'd be blown away by the disparity of genres present on one bands album. Once in a while, I do get blown away by genre disparity, very recently, last night, the track "Weekend Sex Change" by The Dillinger Escape Plan(metalcore) off of the album "Calculating Infinity" with its almost drum n bass slapping, or Botch(mathcore) ending their album "We Are the Romans" with some drum and bass.

I feel like to people who mainly listen to curated playlists lose some of this. To me, I'm listening to a full album blown away by the off kilter elements that somehow work even though they are different and not what you'd expect, taking in the whole of an entire album. The band has to come up and these ideas and find ways to make them work in the context of the album they are on. That fascinates me. But to playlist people, they might not even care because anybody can make a playlist with all the weird track listings they want, so the surprise of hearing grindcore after a cover of a film score track, may not mean anything.

This isn't to say playlists are bad. I have some that I put on at work because I need to filter out aggressive or offensive songs from an album or a bands discography, because I have to keep it PG. But I don't listen to playlists otherwise, and every album I am interested in I need to listen to it in full, because I need to take it all in, and trying to understand the how and why to me is fascinating. I feel like some of that magic is lost if you never consume full albums.

There's a time and place for both

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BADoglick posted...

There's a time and place for both

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I think if you listen to a whole album several times, you'll come to at least somewhat like some songs that you wouldn't have if you heard them only once.

When I make playlists, I typically try to put songs together in a fitting or meaningful manner, by group. If I have numerous songs from an album, such as Dark Side of the Moon, then of course so songs will be together, in order, because that's how best they work. Then if the next song or following group happen to sound like it can or should come right after the album material, I say all the better. Randomizing as such isn't for me. *shrugs*

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I actually agree to some extent. Like Omega said, i found that when I went back to albums I'd listened to before, I liked some of the songs I'd usually skipped.

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The deep cuts are often better than the hits

I do like YouTube and Pandora random mixes though.

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I feel similar as it pertains to radio. I like hearing the little comments from the radio host sometimes because it adds to the experience. Plus, I don't always want to listen to a playlist of songs I already like. That's lame and it makes me like them less. A lot of radio shows play the same shit though so it's a matter of finding a good one

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I generally like to listen full albums, but I feel like making a playlist or a mix is an art form in and of itself. And sometimes you just wanna listen to your favorite jams without committing to the full album.

Some songs are better suited to flowing into others than others are. Back when I was using a primitive 32MB MP3 player, I would hand pick the songs I'd choose and their order, never playing them at random. It's likely albums are constructed with similar care. It may be more sense than science, so computer programs playing songs at random within defined parameters aren't likely to have comparable results.

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