Music to My Ears

Hello all! I am very excited to share with you some of my favorite jams that I listen depending on my mood! It was very difficult to try to pick less than fifteen songs, but I tried my best to pick out songs that would go best with how I want my playlist to affect its listeners. I hope those of you who take the time to listen to my playlist enjoy it because this music is part of what makes me who I am and I believe that my playlist is very telling of what kind of person I am! So, without further ado, I give you the playlist of Lauren Wenig:

You made it! Or at least I hope you did! I handpicked each song carefully and put them in a specific order. I included all of the genres that I listen to and arranged them in an certain way so that the audience could listen to the songs in an order that intrigues them and keeps them interested.

First, I started with Africa by Toto because it is a classic, popular song that most people know and is easy to listen to with its mellow tones and fun beat. The next song I picked was Trains by Porcupine Tree. I put this song second because it, like Africa, is also mellow with a nice rhythm. Third is a song called Dragonborn from the title screen of one of my favorite video games: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. I included this because video games are a huge passion for me and because I thought this song would make for a nice transition into the heavier music. I wanted to start my listeners out easy before I got into my intense music because I did not want to scare my listeners off right off the bat my starting with my death metal music.

Now we get into the much more intense, heavy music and my favorite genre: death metal! The fourth song that I chose is my favorite song of all time: The Apostle in Triumph by Opeth (my favorite band!). I chose to put this song next because it is progressive death metal which contains a combination of heavy music as well as some less heavy music. The next song is The Funerary Dirge of A Violinist by Carach Angren which is a pretty heavy and dark song that is of the genre that is known as symphonic death metal. Symphonic death metal is mostly heavy music with some aspects of symphonic instruments such as a violin that is heard in this song. The third song in the metal section of my playlist is Hiindsiight by Enslaved. This song has some beautiful melodies in it, one of which includes a saxophone solo, yet still maintains the heavy sound for most of the song. The last song in the metal/rock section of my playlist is Drain You by Nirvana. I picked this song to go here in the order because I wanted to use it as a transition song into the next section of the playlist. I chose to put the death metal songs in the middle of the playlist to amp up the intensity of the playlist (hopefully not scaring off my listeners in the process).

The third section of my playlist is the rap and r&b section, which is the section that listeners will be most familiar with due to the popularity of these genres and these musicians in our current time period. The first song of this section is November by Tyler the Creator. This song has some interesting beats and rhythms to it that make the song spunky, yet soothing. The next song is Of The Soul by Mac Miller (R.I.P., gone too soon). This song is also has a mellow rhythm to it with some cool beats. The next and last song of this section is Sativa by Jhené Aiko. Sativa has more of a fast pace rhythm with the singer’s voice being very soft; the two juxtapose each other quite nicely. I chose to make this section third in my playlist because I felt that it would transition nicely from the heavier music, back to the more mellow music.

Lastly, we have the classic rock section of my playlist which only consists of two songs. The first of the two is In The Mood by Robert Plant (he was the lead singer of Led Zeppelin for those of you who do not know). This song is incredibly chill, yet has a somewhat fun melody. The last song that I placed o my playlist is Peaches En Regalia by Frank Zappa. This song is even more chill than the last! It is an instrumental song (meaning it contains only instruments and no vocals) full of different, constantly changing jazz rhythms and melodies in which the listener can sit back and relax to (maybe even use it in the background to study!) I ended the playlist with this song because I thought it was the most relaxing song in the playlist and I wanted the listener to end on a soothing note (not an intense, death metal one).

I again would like to thank those of you who took the time to listen to my playlist and perhaps learned more about me! (PS here’s a picture of me meeting the drummer George Kollias from the technical death metal band Nile!)