Everyone has spent hours, and sometimes days, mulling over the perfect songs to complete their playlist—especially if that mix is for a friend or loved one. The luckiest of us have been on the receiving end, feeling like the coolest person in the world for the hour it played through our headphones.
Music lets us share thoughts and feelings while also bridging the gap between them. In today’s world, everyone is determined to have their own unique taste and curated Spotify playlists in order to make themselves seen—or in this case, heard.
Statistics show that not only are we listening to more music but people are finding more ways to listen to it as well. A global study declares that on average the time people spend listening to music has increased by 20 hours a week. Modern times have made accessibility easier for everyone to discover more genres.
However, despite our desire to be extremely esoteric, there’s also a need to be known for being unknown.
Growing up in the digital age, we’ve always had music at our fingertips. Entire discographies and artists are a single click away, feeding our music education and creating a culture where everyone can have their own niche.
Many people take pride in their music taste—comparing the obscurity of their top artists or the number of unreleased songs they know—but at its core, this is simply about connection. Introducing someone to new music, creates a bridge between those who might have felt unheard.
Personally, I was raised on a mix of Jewel, Tracy Chapman, Bleachers, and M.I.A—to name a few—and I’ve found ways to put them on playlists alongside Fleetwood Mac, Lana Del Rey, and Charli XCX. For me, music is all about sharing myself with the world.
I love finding a new artist and immediately sending them to my friends or spending hours curating the perfect soundtrack for studying. We will spend hours just sifting through songs we like and playing new music for each other. It’s the simple act of experiencing something together that bonds us.
Sound evokes both emotional and physical responses in our bodies, tying us to music in intense ways. 78% of people also agree that music helps cope with cope stress, proving that it has positive correlations to mental health. Songs don’t just hold meaning—they hold memories, and we subconsciously assign melodies to different moments in our lives.
Each person in a group may live different experiences, but share a song that ties them together. That’s the magic of music—the connection that it creates between us.
This is the beauty of music today. With so much available, we are rapidly expanding our taste and discovering new sounds. We are creating playlists not only for ourselves but for friends, partners, family members, and memories.
These playlists are all individualized, yet through these differences we actually end up learning more about each other.
The playlists we choose to represent ourselves and display to the world are so much more than regular old music. It’s the variance in our Spotify Wrapped that makes us all unique, but the way we avidly send songs with an “I think you’d like this” text transforms one of the most personal art forms into a true method of connection.
