More Than The Music

Photograph by Jessie Rosenthal-Andre

We live in a fast-paced world, our communication forever changed by the advent of public access to the internet. However, after living in it long enough, it’s easy to take that speed and scope for granted. This is especially the case for how we show each other music. In the past two decades, the way that we share music with each other has been utterly overhauled. In an instant, we can share a song with someone thousands of miles away with just a push of a button. Through social media, you can project the music you’re playing for the entire world to see. It’s a marvelous thing, and the way that we interact with music is evolving because of it. Because of the influence and raw power of music libraries like Spotify and Apple Music, when we share music with each other, we are sharing more than the music; we are presenting targeted information to each other about our music tastes, our moods, and even our feelings about the people we’re sending our songs to. 

There’s a well-documented and storied history of how music has been mobilized: from live performances to things like car radios, Walkmans, and eventually, the iPod. However, if you wanted to tell someone about some new music any time in the ye olde 20th century, it would likely be by word of mouth. Nowadays, it’s as simple as copying a link. Subscriptions to music libraries have become the dominant form of how we listen to music in modern times, or at the very least. If you want to show someone music, it can feel borderline essential for you to both have the same music library so that they can just click on what you send without any ads or extra purchases. Because of this, the additional features that these music libraries have added over the years have made their way into the culture of our music listening in more ways than one might think. One massive manifestation of this is the prominence of playlists.

I’m a big fan of the playlist. Unlike its Walkman predecessor, the modern playlist can neatly store thousands of songs into neat little folders, complete with cover photos, titles, and descriptions. Personally, I have way too many playlists. I have a playlist to study, a playlist to be angry to, a playlist consisting only of songs with the word “rainbow” in the lyrics or title, a playlist for summer car rides, a playlist for crying about boys at midnight, and many more. However, the most common type of playlist I make is the playlists I make for my friends. It’s an intimate act to make a playlist for a person, to carefully curate what songs you think a person would like or simply remind you of them. I’ll often make a playlist for a friend and continuously add to it over multiple years as I discover more music and form new memories with them. I’ve even (un)subtly flirted through playlists, adding songs with lyrics or emotional movements that mimic my feelings towards a person.

However, we also share music with broad groups of people. Music libraries are taking on more aspects of social media and vice versa. On Spotify, if you have your playlists public, anyone who uses the service can follow your playlists and add them to their library. Taking it a step further, ‘friend activity’ allows you to see what your friends are listening to (and by extension, how they might be feeling). You can also make collaborative playlists with multiple people, combining the tastes of multiple people into one communal playlist. On the other end, Instagram’s ‘story’ and ‘notes’ features allow people to add music alongside the photos, memes, and life updates people normally post. Many people, myself included, have spent whole minutes searching for that perfect fifteen-second clip of a song to show the world. Just like everything else on social media, when we put our music taste on display, it’s because we want to say something about ourselves. Posting low percussive beats and smooth vocals might show that we’re feeling carefree and in control of our own lives. It might even be true. Or, it might just be an attempt to show that we have good taste in music.

While our music sharing has changed drastically, it hasn’t sacrificed anything. As opposed to other dramatic technological advancements, the popularity of music libraries hasn't left anything behind. People still play each other songs. We still leave recommendations and mementos that will last people their entire lives. The only difference is that when we communicate information through giving the gift of music to each other, we have more options than ever before.