Spotify Playlists Are Extremely My Shit

December 12, 2017 4:15 AM

Grace Spelman is obsessed with ultra-specific playlists. [All non-YouTube links are to Spotify]

Singer goes up the octave
Pairs of songs with eerily similar beginnings
Cool key changes
Weird/changing time signatures
Songs with handclaps/snaps
Songs with cool strings
Cool horns
Walking like John Travolta songs

And 129,623,274 more!

posted by ellieBOA (21 comments total)

"...a song will just change in the middle....there is no musical term for this...like for example 'Band On The Run'...."

I really would be surprised if there is no theoretical vocabulary for that, although if there is, I don't know it.
posted by thelonius at 4:30 AM on December 12, 2017 [1 favorite]

Wow, I did not know that I needed Walking Like John Travolta songs, but I do!
posted by middleclasstool at 5:29 AM on December 12, 2017 [3 favorites]

Yesssss. I feel a kinship with this person. Also I feel like someday one of these is going to be the perfect solution to a need I don't' yet know I have.
posted by aka burlap at 5:59 AM on December 12, 2017

MetaFilter: a need I don't' yet know I have.
posted by Fizz at 6:11 AM on December 12, 2017 [5 favorites]

What impresses me is why, after years of using the service, clicking on plus and minus signs, etc., Spotify still suggests generic bullshit 'latino' playlists to me. The most important signal in my entire history is that I live in Chile? That's the best they can do?
posted by signal at 7:05 AM on December 12, 2017 [5 favorites]

This is amazing, thank you so much! As someone with lots of mood-specific playlists (e.g. my "Fuck off" playlist which gets a lot of rotation) I really appreciate this person.
posted by lollymccatburglar at 7:08 AM on December 12, 2017 [2 favorites]

"...a song will just change in the middle....there is no musical term for this...like for example 'Band On The Run'...."t

There was an AskMe looking for examples of this. I don't think anyone offered a specific musicological term for it.

I am also reminded of the Truck Driver's Gear Change (i.e. a musically questionable key change, seemingly done for no reason except to juice the last verse or chorus a bit). There used to be site (gearchange.org) devoted to it, but that seems to be gone. TV Tropes maintains a good list.
posted by jedicus at 7:41 AM on December 12, 2017 [1 favorite]

There used to be site (gearchange.org) devoted to it, but that seems to be gone

Noooooooooooooooo!
posted by thelonius at 7:43 AM on December 12, 2017

Years ago, I published a playlist that was just the spoken word interludes on Janet Jackson albums. Zero listens so far but I believe that its time will come.
posted by roger ackroyd at 7:48 AM on December 12, 2017 [4 favorites]

Fwiw, this is the same Grace Spelman who has a very hidey cat.
posted by mhum at 7:50 AM on December 12, 2017 [3 favorites]

Another great Spotify post!

See also this FPP from a few days ago which taught me that you can get a survey of the most popular songs in a microgenre by searching for the Spotify playlist called "Sound of [Microgenre]," the latest top tracks in the same via "Pulse of [Microgenre]," and unheralded but up-and-coming tracks via "Edge of [Microgenre]."

That has kept me busy all week.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:52 AM on December 12, 2017 [7 favorites]

I don't think anyone offered a specific musicological term for it.

Aren't they just a compressed form of a medley using song fragments instead of (nearly) entire songs?

The wiki list of example medleys kind of dovetails with the previous Ask.
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:05 AM on December 12, 2017

Grace Spelman?

Oh! You mean Pierogi's human!
posted by palomar at 8:08 AM on December 12, 2017 [3 favorites]

There was an AskMe looking for examples of this. I don't think anyone offered a specific musicological term for it.


If it were classical music, you could call it movements within a larger composition.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 8:43 AM on December 12, 2017

If it were classical music, you could call it movements within a larger composition.

But they pause between movements of a classical piece. You can cough for a few seconds. In "Band On The Run" you just go smack into "Well the rain exploded with a mighty crash" section.
posted by thelonius at 9:04 AM on December 12, 2017

Thank you for blessing my internet with this treasure.

Spotify playlists are such my shit also. Mine are organised by what colour they sound like to me.
posted by greenish at 10:24 AM on December 12, 2017 [2 favorites]

"very specific memories" is a brilliant playlist concept. Each person's would be a bizarrely incoherent collection from the outside, and yet so tightly woven to its maker.
posted by AgentRocket at 11:29 AM on December 12, 2017 [1 favorite]

I was hoping for one with pairs of songs that unintentionally go together. Like "She ain't pretty" and "That don't impress me much".
posted by Mitheral at 1:58 PM on December 12, 2017

Spotify playlists are such my shit also. Mine are organised by what colour they sound like to me.
posted by greenish

eponysterical

my playlists are very mood-based.

but i appreciate this so much, and i'm enjoying seeing songs i love as i'm digging through her lists.
posted by numaner at 2:33 PM on December 12, 2017

finally, someone else who thinks Zero 7 has a couple of good songs for doing it to.
posted by numaner at 3:28 PM on December 12, 2017 [1 favorite]

As a slightly sheepish serial creator of oddly specific playlists, I find this post incredibly validating.
posted by Severine at 6:37 PM on December 12, 2017