Submitted by iamdan on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 01:46

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Just to have in mind as you start thinking about the playlist, the assignment below give specifics about what I had in mind. I will add instructions for the linking in a bit.

Have you ever set your music player on shuffle and then tried to interpret the logic behind the sequencing of music that flows into your ears? What decisions does the software make while sorting through your collection for the next song? If you could write software to order a library of music, how might you set up the program? Would you group songs by genre, tone, tempo, artist, theme, some other category? And then once you had the categories, how would you mix together songs into a sequence? Would you tell a story, set a mood, capture a moment, or express an aspect of culture?

But you don’t have to program software to create arrangements of music? [note on prosumer media skills] Every playlist represents a chance to stitch together a story or convey an idea. A goal, an approach, something to say helps you make these decisions as you compose.

This assignment asks you to create a playlist of eight or more songs that tell a story. Begin with what you know about the way stories are told, narrative. Recall what strikes you about some favorite stories. What sets them apart? Emotions? Situations? People? Contexts? Imagine how settings, scenes, characters, plots, and themes might help you create your playlist.

You’ll also need to fix upon an angle, some event or insight you wish to describe. You may have an idea already. If not, could you take a random song set off by the shuffle and then compose a list? Is there one song you know you want to include? Could you take a snippet of some lyrics and jump to related songs, ideas, words? Could some motifs—communities, families, places, change, culture, etc.—lead to an angle you might take; I say lead to an angle, because you’ll want to identify a more focused topic eventually.

You can adjust your angle as you compose, or find one as you go, as long as you aim at making a list that does not just group together items, but arrives at a place where listeners might recognze something specific you wish to say.

Your list will be composed as an annotated list, published as a Literature and New Media blog entry.

You will need to learn to create hyperlinks to songs (if they are available on the Web) or to samples through iTunes or Rhapsody. For each song on the playlist, link to a sound file or iTunes or Rhapsody sample. [Here are some instruction for linking to iTunes Music Store songs.] (Flash required)Then below each entry, compose a few sentences discussing the song. What matters about this particular piece of music? How does it fit with the rest of the playlist? What connects this song to the angle, or story you are trying to create with the playlist?

Create a new blog entry and then compose your annotated playlist. You can either post and edit your entry as you work, or wait until you are mostly finished to post the list. If you post it as you work, you may get some feeback.

The last day to post the playlist is January 24th

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