Karely Molina Martinez staff writer

Home to a diverse range of music listeners, Music Club started to open up more opportunities for interpretations of music, songs and lyrics. 

By creating club playlists focused around specific themes which are shared among those in the club and those in the community, the club is able to highlight favorite songs to past experiences. These playlists allow for creativity among club members as each song they choose is nominated for specific reasons. 

In search of a new way to bring diverse music ranges together, Music Club asked its members to suggest songs which they felt would match the theme of each of their new playlists. So far, the club has created three playlists highlighting specific songs like albums centered around the 90s and lyric based favorites. Club president junior Miles Platt feels that club playlists allows for more opportunities in terms of expanding their music range. 

“We’ve been doing a playlist recently because [playlists] give us more variety than what one artist has to offer,” Platt said. 

After using the first club playlist as a trial run, Platt realized that sharing music and keeping songs recorded in a playlist would help others diversify their taste. 

“The first playlist, to test the waters, started off with just songs that we really like in general. That went over well so after that we chose another album, we did a 90’s album. I told everyone to select an album that was specifically from the 90s,” Platt said. “I think it’s a lot easier to digest because there’s more variety in a playlist, especially because it’s collaborative with other members of the club.”

The specific themes for each club playlist laid out a guideline for suggestions by music club members, which were filled with a variety of different ranges of styles. 

“We did songs with lyrics that we really like. Whether they’re profound, or sad, if it had lyrics that stuck out to somebody, whether it was a single lyric or a whole song, they got added to the playlist. We’re just trying to give ourselves a bit more variety,” Platt said. “Everybody took the prompt and went in a different way with it. The prompt was literally just lyric based songs, and people interpreted that in their own ways. We got some depressing songs, some comedy songs, some thought provoking songs, there was a super wide variety.” 

Members who listened to these playlists were introduced to a wider range of music genres, like junior Melina Rosen, who has “gotten a bunch of suggestions” for new music. 

“[Each] member comes with more diverse music choices and favorite music genres,” Rosen said. “It’s more fun to get more perspectives into what everyone likes. Music is super personal, so it’s great to hear as many perspectives of music genres and artists.” 

Club members who contributed to the playlist, like senior Rhiannon Carter, suggested songs which were really meaningful to her, like “Heavy” by Birdtalker and “Tam Lin (Child 39)” by Anaïs Mitchell. 

“[‘Heavy’] was just a song that was really helpful through some specific issues I’ve had in my life. It was really helpful to feel those emotions,” Carter said. “‘Tam Lin (Child 39)’, I just really love the lyrics, it’s just a great example of storytelling.” 

With meaningful song suggestions by club members, Carter felt other students would be able to relate to one another better and learn more about each other. 

“One of the people suggested ‘Gonna Buy Me A Dog’ by The Monkees, we described them before we listened to it so it was kind of hard to understand what they were talking about,” Carter said. “They’d be like, ‘This is a funny song that I like to listen to’ and you don’t really know until you hear it. I heard it and I thought it was hilarious. It’s really interesting just to see that’s what other people listen to sometimes? The fact that they like it enough to suggest, shows a little bit of their personality.” 

Carter was impacted by songs on the playlist and she notes it because of music’s impact on people’s emotion.

“There were a lot of songs on both of the playlists that we made that I hadn’t heard before that I certainly added to my favorites mostly because I like them, but also because I found them to be helpful. I know that other people in the club too find that music is very influential in dealing with your emotions and problems,” Carter said. “I think you get a whole new perspective every time anyone listens to a song for the first time. Sometimes even later on, there are certainly songs that I’ve listened to for years and years throughout my life that I hear different things and I feel different things when I hear them, depending on where I am in my life and what I’m feeling.”