Kicking off the Quarantine Quarter: Creating Playlists to Keep You Entertained During Isolation

Graphic by William Hsieh

Listening to music can help your mood improve and decrease stress according to health.harvard.edu. With the COVID-19 crisis, music can play a key part of your life in quarantine.

Days upon days spent at home, going nowhere, can turn your house into a jail cell. Here are playlists you can create to help “Break Free” from your isolation during the quarantine quarter.

The Message/Theme Playlist

With “Toxic” by Brittany Spears, “Mask Off” by Future and “Every Breath You Take” by The Police, this playlist is centered around a theme, COVID-19, not a genre. This playlist may have started out as a meme, but there is an art to the madness. 

Songs are chosen for their title and are valued for the humor of the message over the actual music within. One problem you may encounter is that you may not enjoy all of the music on the playlist.

The Infinite Playlist

Imagine scrolling through your playlist, from your favorite rock bands to the latest rap album. The infinite playlist is perfect for the person with a diverse taste in musical genres. 

These playlists place no restrictions on the creator; all one has to do is add all the songs they enjoy and continuously add to it. 

An example of this playlist is one I created sitting currently at 650 songs with a total length of 44 hours and two minutes of music. This typically becomes the only playlist you listen to, so I recommend that people whose taste in music changes drastically.

A Repetitive Playlist

Sometimes all you want to do is listen to a special song or band over and over again. The repetitive playlist is perfect for people who find themselves with the same few songs on repeat for a few days before moving onto the next genre or band. These playlists do not last long nor are they lengthy. 

The Organized Playlist

From Christmas songs to melancholy tunes to songs you sing in the shower, every song can be categorized. This playlist is perfect for those who believe that each song has a specific occasion to be played. 

Whether they are organized by mood, genre or situation, the perfect playlist exists to these people. They are not good for people who do not think that certain events, for example Christmas, involve playing Christmas music or do not have time to organize the songs.