I love music. My last blog was all about concerts and this time I wanted to talk about my Spotify. Spotify is something incredibly sacred to me. It isn’t just a music streaming platform, it’s like a journal, a place to chronicle the different eras of life. Here are some of my quintessential playlists and thus a peek into my life:
“aunt lily”: My aunt Lily is someone I’ve always looked up to. Among all the amazing gifts she’s given and fun times we’ve had, the greatest gift has been her music taste. My parents aren’t the most musically inclined people, but my aunt introduced me to The Beatles (the only vinyl record I own!) and the great music of the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. This playlist is a love letter to the long family car rides where we’d blast the Bee Gees, ABBA, Whitney Houston, MJ, George Michael, The Cure, and more, and to my aunt Lily.
“feb26”: I have yet to make a March playlist, as I have been all over the place thus far this month, but my February playlist has so many bangers it needs recognition. February highlights that inspired the additions to this playlist: Don Toliver dropping “Octane,” karaoke at Lunar New Year dinner at Seminary, and rediscovering old favorites from the 2000s and 2010s from Lloyd, Mariah Carey, A$AP Rocky, Lil Wayne, and Childish Gambino.
“are you ever dreaming of me”: Named after one of Taylor’s best track fives, this one is for thinking about what could be happening in another life or if things were different, especially late at night. It’s wondering, bargaining, the feeling of someone causing you the kind of agony that makes you want to scream into your pillow. This angst, though, is equally as intense as the feeling of truly connecting with someone for the first time. The thought and surprise that someone could be more than what they are to you now and the excitement of thinking of the future. The intimacy of knowing someone and seeing their soul — equal parts powerful and vulnerable, even in knowing the potential ill fated nature of said connection.
“LIVEEEE”: My pride and joy playlist. 37 hours. A collection of every single song I’ve ever heard live. This playlist is probably the best, most accurate representation of the songs I listen to most often.
“AUX”: Basically the queue from when Eason put me on AUX on the way to retreat last year, so a bit outdated. However, I needed to include this playlist because it’ll be having a comeback. I am now a proud student of BODA (Brady (Charles de Talavera Lorenzo Ruiz) Overtoom Driving Academy). Shoutout to Brady and also to Jas for entrusting me to drive your cars in a parking lot. Next lesson I’ll hopefully be on the road and when I do I will have the greatest “AUX” playlist of all time.
“falling in love with life again”: There was no time as treacherous as the first semester of freshman year — going through a breakup, living alone for the first time and in the middle of nowhere. I was going through it and had a somber outlook on life. This period of time was a period of trying to find light in what felt like an abyss of darkness, but this playlist was and still is, whenever I need it, an effective reminder of the beauty of life and power of healing and finding inner peace.
“PARTY”: Self explanatory playlist. 11 hours of pure bangers.
Thank you Spotify for being the diary of my high school and college years and for allowing me to showcase the art of playlist curation.
Madison Hernandez
Fundraising Chair
—————————————————————
Asian Outlook Magazine & Media releases blog posts every week, featuring different members of our incredible executive board and community. Please message us on Instagram or write to ao.editor@gmail.com if you want your thoughts published as a blog post! Also, send us any questions, comments or concerns!
Asian Outlook | Art and Literary Magazine 