How to compile your character playlist: a 10-song summary of you.
A formula for a concise playlist that represents your lore.
graphic by Jina Jeon.
Your music taste says a lot about who you are—whether you gravitate toward soft rock, club bangers, or a blend of everything in between, the songs you listen to are an integral part of your history. Defining your music taste, however, can feel like an impossible task. When asked about your favorite genre, you might find yourself struggling to remember a single song you’ve ever listened to.
To simplify this, I have developed a ten-song formula for creating a concise playlist that represents you. This “character playlist” is a soundtrack to your life, comprehensively reflecting your experiences, passions, and quirks. Here are the ten songs that should make the cut in no particular order.
1. The first song you discovered on your own.
Though your parents likely played you their favorite songs when you were a child, there was undoubtedly a point at which you started listening to your own music. This song represents your first inclination toward music and embodies the style that caught your attention, the seed from which your current music taste proliferated. This should be a song that had you by the throat from the first listen and inspired you to dig deeper into cultivating your personal taste.
2. A song that had your pre-teen self in a chokehold.
Whether you had a Tumblr alt-pop phase or an emo trinity era, we all have that one song we swore was the best ever recorded. You might have listened to this on the bus ride in seventh grade or blasted it through your SkullCandy headphones at the family function. Listening to it now takes you back to your carefree, if a little embarrassing, childhood. Bonus points if it’s a guilty pleasure to this day.
3. A song your parents introduced you to.
Whether or not this song reflects your personal taste, this song was fundamental to your developmental years. Maybe it’s a track from the 90s your parents bumped in high school or a traditional song from your culture. Either way, it’s highly probable that this song had a bigger impact on you than you think, purely because of how early on your parents exposed you to it.
4. A song that reminds you of something you love.
Even if we’re not talking about romantic love, this should be a song that makes your heart glow. Perhaps it reminds you of your partner, your best friend, or even your favorite hobby or place. Either way, this song should embody what it feels like for you to love someone or something.
5. A song you never get tired of, even though you’ve played it a million times.
We all have that one song that finds its way into our rotation time and time again yet somehow doesn’t lose the sparkle it had the first time we listened to it. Something about it simply tickles your brain the right way. You could take this song to a deserted island or listen to it on your deathbed. It sounds new and fresh every time you hear it and makes you feel equally alive in return.
6. A song most people wouldn’t expect you to listen to.
Maybe you’re a K-pop fan who occasionally likes black metal, or maybe you swear your music taste is niche, but you still like the Top 40s. Maybe there’s a brain rot remix you unironically enjoy. This song should contradict your general aesthetic and be the last thing anyone would expect to see in your playlist. The more bizarre and off-beat it is, the better.
7. A song that makes you unusually emotional.
Think of the most viscerally heart-wrenching song that consistently gets you in your feelings. This is the song that has you in the fetal position in the shower while the water hits your back, the song that makes you tear up every time you hear the intro. This track reveals what the low moments in life look like from your perspective.
8. A song that feels too oddly specific to not be about you.
This song might remind you of a specific era of your life: summertime with the car windows down, the middle of the night with mosquitos flying around your ankles, or maybe the beginning of your first year in college. It might make you wonder if the artist has been spying on you from a distance to use your life as inspiration. This song should feel like your brain in aural form, recorded and processed to represent your innermost thoughts and feelings.
9. A song that makes you feel like you’re spinning in space.
This is the track that transports you to another world. Whether you listen to it while falling asleep or lying on the beach, you lose yourself in its ethereal production, floating above the mundane troubles of everyday life. It’s a song that lets you drift away, weightless and detached, into pure bliss.
10. A song that makes you feel bulletproof.
The last song on your playlist should be one that makes you feel unstoppable, keeping your head high as it blasts in your headphones on your walk between classes. This song makes you feel like you could punch a wall and break right through it. No matter what you’re going through, this track energizes you and motivates you to keep going.
There you have it: a 10-song character profile of yourself and your eclectic music taste. While you may choose to tweak the formula, the crux of the playlist is comprehensiveness, as it aims to cover your early and current music tastes and represents the highs and lows of your life. What does music do for you, and how has it changed the way you interact with the world? This playlist is ultimately a depiction of life through your eyes, encapsulating your unique experience.
edited by Greta Irvine.
graphic by Jina Jeon.
