#thisis40 theMeatLife music playlists mixtape LinkinPark Jay-Z variousartists

[themeatlife]

the Meat Life Collection - Volume II - My Ultimate Playlist

Special shout out to Christine Pham-Cutaran for creating this picture. It is my head put on 20/20 Experience era Justin Timberlake for an invitation to my 30th birthday party

If you know me, you know I’m a playlist guy. 

I make playlists for situationally. Lately I have been making playlists for trips I take whether it was a trip playlist to San Diego for my brother’s bachelor weekend or road trip playlist for my son and daughter’s competitions. I make playlists!

Origins

Ten years ago for my 30th birthday, I made a playlist covering music that was released or charted for the 30 years I have been alive. Originally I wanted to keep it at 300 songs, but as with any of my playlists I kept bumping it up until it reached 333. And thus the Meat Life Collection was born.

I wouldn’t say I’m quite the level of John Cusack’s High Fidelity character Rob Gordon in terms of being obsessive about music. Or maybe I am?

Speaking of High Fidelity, I still need to check out the now cancelled Hulu series of the same name with Zoe Kravitz. It sounds like my jam and I loved the movie version.

Anyway, it is my 40th birthday. Since my 30th birthday passed, I have been working on the Meat Life Collection - Volume II. A massive and sprawling playlist spanning 40 years of music and pop culture. I originally wanted to cap it at 1000. When I included most of the Volume I list, I knew there was no way I could do that. Eventually it grew and I locked it at 1200 tracks. 1200 tracks spanning 40 years.

Philosophy Behind the Ultimate Playlist

My playlist philosophy has changed over time. 

In the days of Winamp in college, I tried to keep things flexible. Rather than try to sort different lists, I kept my entire collection at the ready and hit random. Then based on the vibe I would edit the order of what tracks were next. It was a live DJ feel, but it used up a lot of study time. 

When I moved to iTunes and got my first iPod, I began forming static playlists. My philosophy was nothing over 100 songs. I figured there would be no need for such long playlists. My college self would probably freak out looking at the length of the playlists I have now. But back then I was limited to how many mp3s I could store on my laptop/external hard drive and then port over to my iPod.

As my collection of mp3s grew, so did the length and amount of my playlists. Many of those mp3 era playlists are lost now since there was not an effective way to port lists from iTunes over to Spotify when I went to streaming over a decade ago. I’m an Apple Music guy now, mostly because it comes with my cellular service.

Now in the streaming era, with millions of songs at your fingertips, I probably overdo it when it comes to composing playlists. I initially thought the 333 song Volume I was a long playlist at the time in 2013. But I probably have multiple playlists of the 300+ range.

Usually when I build a playlist, there is a certain vibe I try to achieve. If it is one for travel, I try to include songs related to the destination or songs about flight or driving. For this 1200 song playlist, I tried to encompass all the songs that impacted my life in some way. Whether it be a song I heard at a club that one time and stuck ever since or a song that a friend from high school introduced to me and I couldn’t get it out of my head for 3 months, I tried to include or remember to include.

For you Apple Music folks, below is the link for my ultimate playlist.

The Playlist: the Meat Life Collection - Volume II

I’m a Stats Guy

Here is the numbers nerd in my coming out. So obviously with 1200 songs, there will be trends. I will lay out some things. First, the artists with the most songs on the playlist. This will show you my taste and just how Chris Mitra this playlist is.

Artists:

Linkin Park is my favorite musical artist, yes. And I think I did say once that Jay-Z was probably my favorite living rapper, by the stats he definitely is. I am surprised Taylor is so high on my list, but since I do have a teenage daughter there is a lot of Taylor played around the house. On the low end, I was also surprised I only put 5 Taking Back Sunday tracks on the playlist.

An artist I do have some hesitation with currently that has a bunch of music on the playlist is Kanye West. It is not easy to have him on there nowadays. And it has been about half a year since I’ve listened to any Kanye voluntarily. I have traditionally been able to separate the artist from the art, but I do feel a bit uncomfortable with Kanye lately. Tracks from his first five albums are classic and part of a soundtrack of my life, so eventually I’ll be able to separate the art from the artist.

Albums:

Of course for the albums, Linkin Park is on top with 7 tracks from their 2000 debut Hybrid Theory. My favorite Linkin Park album Minutes to Midnight ended up with 3 tracks on the playlist, just outside the list above. There are some iconic albums on this top 25 like Hootie & the Blowfish’s Cracked Rear View, Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill, Dr. Dre’s 2001, and Oasis’s (What’s the Story) Morning Glory. Jimmy Eat World’s Bleed American brings me back to my freshman year of college.

Most of these albums are of an era.  An era displayed below.

Years and Years

The most number of tracks on the playlist come from 1995-2006 (1998 isn’t displayed above but it is next on the list at 39 songs). This is the era of my peak interest in popular music and spans from my early teen years to my young adulthood. Of the 1200 tracks on this playlist, 594 songs - almost half the list -come from 1995-2006. A fourth of my lifetime makes up about half of my favorite songs.

Okay, I’ve blabbed enough about my playlist. If you have Apple Music, check it out and jam out to some of the best popular music of the last 40 years.

#thisis40 theMeatLife music playlists mixtape LinkinPark Jay-Z variousartists