We just finished our latest playlist night.
Every year, Jessi and I finish our weekly ‘Fridates’ by sharing our top 20 songs of the year. Songs released this year, songs we discovered this year, songs we rediscovered this year–if we listened to it during the calendar year, it’s eligible for a spot on our lists. A few things are given: Jack White makes an appearance on hers, Beyoncé shows up on mine; her’s is rock heavy, mine typically has a soul-pop base; most of her artists are men, and most of mine are women. We find it equally as exciting when our tastes prove consistent as we do when we see each other stray from our typical listening fare–sometimes into the other’s territory. This year’s top 20 Fridate found us unexpectedly in the same Florida city, wrapped in blankets, sipping tea, and baring our souls across 20 tracks.
Initially, the Venn diagram of our music tastes barely overlapped. Loving music as much as we both do, we decided to cultivate our friendship and get to know each other more deeply by creating collaborative playlists. We’d each pick an artist we love, choose 10 tracks from their discographies, and listen to the 20-track playlist, alternating artists with each song. We’d pair artists by similarity in sound, era, catalog size, or just because we really wanted to share them with each other right then. In 2016, we’d listen and discuss as we drove to Bananas Records Warehouse in St. Pete for a record shopping day, or on the trip to Orlando for an EPCOT afternoon. Aretha Franklin and the Beatles; Janelle Monae and Prince; Joss Stone and The Bee Gees; Adele and Mumford & Sons; Amy Winehouse and Nirvana; Johnny Cash and Nina Simone…as disparate as they might seem, each playlist provided an enthralling and rewarding listening (therapy) experience. We soon added “themed” collaborative playlists to our experiment, such as songs that discuss grief, songs that feel like winter, songs covered by our favorite artists–whatever struck us. Even after I moved to New Orleans in 2023, we kept our weekly Fridates over Zoom sessions, continuing our playlists virtually. We’ve each discovered new favorite songs, artists, and genres through this 7+ year experiment. We’ve done almost 100 playlists together, over 300 hours of sharing music (and parts of ourselves) and we have music discussions planned through September of 2026. Out of everything I’ve ever worked on in my life, this has to be my favorite thing.
Our 2024 top 20 playlists proved to be pretty typically “us.” Having both experienced difficult stretches through the year, it was clear that we sought solace in the music that comforts us. Beyoncé showed up on my list (#2 and #9) and Jack showed up on hers (#6 and #10); but this year, for the first time, Jack White landed on my list (#14) and Beyoncé on hers (#18). This surprise was unsurprising, yet we still smiled like idiots when we played those songs for each other. Have we worn each other down? Maybe. I like to think we’ve expanded as music enthusiasts and as people. I know we’ve both started next year’s playlists already– and I can’t wait to see what overlaps in 2025.