Some people are masters at creating playlists. Whether for road trips, birthday parties, celebrations, or breakups, there is a playlist for every situation. If you have a vast music taste and listen to music for every activity, this is probably you. Being able to capture a specific vibe with several unrelated songs is a gift. Creating one for a person can mean you know them better than they thought. Wherever they come from, building playlists is an art.
It's not just about picking the right songs. It's also about how those songs follow each other. There needs to be a good transition between them. It's not something a computer can easily replicate. My taste in music and my mood change every day. If I just let Spotify make my playlists, I'll end up listening to 'Son of Man' by Phil Collins from Tarzan, 'Numb' by Lincon Park, and then 'No Scrubs' by TLC. These are all songs I love! But maybe not all at the same time. I'm not trying to bash Spotify, of course. Spotify is great! I'm just saying their playlist game could be better.
Thinking about this reminds me of the Hulu show 'High Fidelity.' Zoe Kravits plays a record store owner who lives for great music and creating playlists for different moments in her life. Sometimes just the act of creating a playlist can help someone work through a difficult situation. It can be very therapeutic. You can start it to express how you're feeling and add to it to document you're healing.
I think it's an underrated skill and use of knowledge. What do you do when you want to listen to music but don't know what to search for? Look at a playlist. There's probably one for the vibe you're feeling at the moment. What's great about doing that is if you don't have an expansive knowledge of music, playlists can help you grow! There are hundreds of thousands of artists of all different periods that you might enjoy but have never heard of. So maybe go try something new. Let me know what you think about what you find.