Introducing . . . Springtide Playlists!
Springtide is excited to announce a brand-new resource straight from the minds of our two summer editorial interns, Lucy Cobble and Arsema Belai. Together, they came up with the idea to curate playlists to correspond to the themes of our reports, with recommendations for music that suits certain moods. They crafted a survey, collected feedback on the role and meaning of music in the lives of other young people, created the playlist, and wrote up the preview below.
We’re especially excited that their hard work building this project from the ground up will provide the basis for future playlists that correspond to other reports and events throughout the year. If you’re on Spotify, be sure to check it out!
Over the summer, Arsema and I (co-editorial interns for the summer!) asked members of the Springtide Ambassadors Program to tell us about the role that music plays in their lives. Specifically, we wanted to find out how music helps them as they navigate uncertain, difficult, or stressful times in their lives.
In addition to asking about the role of music, we also wanted to know just what songs ambassadors were actually listening to when they are in the midst of these kinds of uncertain times—and they told us! You can find their curated playlist on Navigating Uncertainty here!
We invite you to listen to the playlist and jam to some of the great songs they picked out (*keep in mind that these were selected by young people so anything rated “E” may have explicit content. Feel free to skip any that aren’t to your taste, for any reason!). But you can do more than just listen to what they’re listening to—you can also read some reflections about why this music is meaningful to them. We asked,
Is there music that grounds you? In what ways does it root you in your present time and place?
And here’s some of what we heard:
“A lot of songs that ground me are songs that are lyrically meaningful. Music that has an important message is grounding because it reminds me that there a lot of important things going on in the word right now, and I need to try and be a part of those things.” – Anonymous
“Yes, music grounds me by being fully in the present. Its weird because metal music does that for me on extremely tense situations. On lesser ones, I turn to spoken poetry and Opera music.”
“I feel like music is nostalgic so when I hear certain songs it reminds me of a memory. Or if I am in a certain mood then I listen to certain albums to elevate that mood or help me feel better when I am in a bad mood.”
“Whenever I am feeling super stressed or anxious, I listen to more relaxed songs to help ground me.”
“I don’t so much have music that grounds me as much as I have music that does the opposite, releases me. There are certain songs I’ll listen to in order to let the stresses of life melt away, or just to enhance a certain moment; for instance, once while driving home from seeing a movie with friends I stopped by an empty field to stargaze while listening to Orinoco Flow by Enya, which greatly enhanced the moment, letting me detach from whatever other stressors and complications that would have otherwise clouded my mind.”
“Any song that puts me in a state of awe or having fun grounds me. Any time I’m not thinking about thinking, I’m usually listening to music.”
“Usually religious music is very grounding. It makes me remember what’s important.”
Try asking this same question to the people in your life—young or old!—and see what kind of role music plays in their lives, or share this playlist as a way to kick-off a conversation about what we turn to when navigating uncertain times.
Lucy Cobble and Arsema Belai were Editorial Interns in the summer 2021. They are both in college.
