A Playlist and a Story

Many of you music aficionados out there might think that this playlist is tantamount to musical sacrilege. Not only are these songs those annoying ones you can’t get out of your head, you most likely won’t be able to even figure out how they infected you in the first place. Furthermore, this compilation does not touch my soul, tug on my heart strings or have any deeper underlying meaning whatsoever.

I say this not to rag on any previous or upcoming submissions that have these goals in mind, but rather to serve as a disclaimer to anybody that chooses to listen. What follows are the cream of Madison Avenue’s most recent crop. Songs selected not by me, but by big advertising herself, with just one goal in mind—to bore their way into your subconscious. Still, it is worth noting that either advertising executives are getting even more diabolical or they are increasingly in tune what our generation wants to see and hear in ad spots (they could also be doing both). Many of these songs feature small-time talent, indie artists with a unique sound looking for their first big break, rather than popular musicians in search of a secondary score to supplant tanking album sales. The other, less romantic and terribly obvious explanation is that these little fish are just less expensive to hire.

Anyway, regardless of the modus operandi, as Feist, MIA and Santogold know all too well, advertisements can be a very powerful medium for spreading your sound. So sit back and enjoy a list of songs that you’ve probably heard very recently but may not be aware of. While you are at it, why not make a little game out of it? See if you can remember even one of the associated products or companies, my guess is you won’t be able to.

Charlie is actually a respectable music fan with decent knowledge and taste on the subject, so don’t hate him for this and nuts to you if you do because some of these songs are great. Additionally, he one day hopes to have a cottage near the Quetico, score a try against Jonah Lomu and have lunch with Hank Azaria as a different character from The Simpsons every 5 minutes, but for now he’s happy to settle for apartment life in Chicago. 

Submit a playlist! The goal is to have a new playlist and story everyday. You can also follow The playlist project on Twitter and Facebook (coming soon). 

Recently I was reading a blog post where several commenters mentioned desiring the life they see in the Pottery Barn catalog.  One commenter explains “I always imagine that the people in them are together, affluent, peaceful, rested, happy, and that it’s perpetually sunny and 75 out. Sigh.” And another says, “ It’s not so much the furniture I’m obsessed with but the life these so-called people live. The stuff they have written on their french-style “to do” chalkboards, chessboards on living room tables, golden retrievers, the immaculate gardening coats and shoes on the rack, hobbies involving boats.”

Embarrassingly, I can certainly admit to having similar feelings whenever my monthly Pottery Barn catalog arrives, but lately, perhaps even more embarrassingly I’ve been feeling more drawn to idealized commercials.  Specifically this commercial:

 

This play list represents the songs that I can imagine playing in the background of my Zooey Deschanel, cotton commercial life filled with flowy dresses, bright shoes and retro bicycles:

P.S. I think it is especially cruel of the cotton people to not actually sell any of the dresses featured i the commercial.  If anyone can tell me where I can actually buy even one of the dresses Zooey wears in this commercial, I will be forever grateful.

Emily Ostergaard is self diagnosed as tone deaf, yet still manages to enjoy most music. She could not be more excited for the approaching spring and summer seasons and the adventures that are sure to accompany them. She works at the University of Chicago as a research assistant for the Language Development Project. You can follow her on Twitter to hear more about her attempts to live her life like the Zooey Deschanel for Cotton commercial found above.