I’m Obsessed With Conceptual Playlists

and you definitely should be too.

Screenshot of Spotify platform by author.

I have my headphones on pretty much all the time. I do fit all the demographics for that archetype: I’m in my twenties, I have a long commute, I live in a major metropolitan city, and I’m an artist. Just as much as anyone, I love to turn on the noise-canceling and zone out of the intense world around me. And because I’m listening to music pretty much all the time, I’m also discovering new music constantly, so I don’t get bored.

This is how I encountered the world of conceptual playlists.

The best way to explain a conceptual playlist is probably to explain a non-conceptual playlist. A regular playlist is a journey. A regular playlist is the “here’s everything I like to listen to right now” mixtape you give your best friend from high school. It’s the “party playlist” that you know all your friends will know the words to when they’re a bit too intoxicated.

A conceptual playlist is something a bit more ephemeral. It’s a place, a space, a feeling. A conceptual playlist is the feeling of a particular season or a particular neighborhood. Songs on a conceptual playlist don’t need to be all one genre, all one tone, all one volume (though they can be). The unifying component of a conceptual playlist is the feeling evoked through the songs. And that feeling…