In preparation for our trip down to DC, we’ve been putting together a playlist to pass the time more pleasurably in the car.
I came across this old post from last summer, and decided to republish as a refresh on road trip preparations.
The good news is since last summer, we’ve moved on from Frozen tracks. (Phew!)
The bad news — Heartbeat Song and Shut Up and Dance now make the cut.
You can check out the new playlist here.
And below is my post from last summer.
We’re getting ready for our big trip up to Vermont, so I’m pulling together all the essentials to survive the long-ass drive.
- Gummy bears – check.
- Eye Spy – check.
- Loaded iPad – check.
But the most important thing…
THE PLAYLIST.
(And we’ve got one that’ll last for 6 hours!)
The key to making an epic playlist (+ keeping everyone happy) is each person picks at least 20 songs.
So though I’ve got to suffer through
Do You Want To Build A Snowman,
Best Day Of My Life and
Turn Down For What (confession, I can kinda get into this one),
I get to choose my songs…the ones that flash me back through the good times and bad– from the innocence of my childhood to the recklessness of my teens to now. And what better time for a trip down memory lane then on a road trip?
Oh, the other thing we have to consider is their little ears. So that will limit our hip-hop selections. Also, it’s more fun when we all love a song, like Hit Me With Your Best Shot. Or Get Lucky.
But not every song has to include the kids.
For some nostalgic-day-dreaming-out-the-window I put in Crosby Stills Nash & Young along with Fleetwood Mac.
I’ll probably get restless so I’ll do a shot-gun-style dance party to my college / raver day faves –Deee-Lite + Crystal Waters .
I also picked some chanteuse-centric tunes by Florence + The Machine + Adele to belt out a few harmonies. (I know, so unfair to everyone else in the car.)
Of course we’ll include Radiohead.
Lots and Lots of Radiohead.
And DH won’t want to leave out Joywave, Big Data, and Ulu.
I’m sure there will be a drumming on the steering wheel Ulu moment.
Overall, I’m hoping this can keep us entertained for at least 2 hours.
Then there’s the gummy bears, Eye Spy and iPads to do the rest.
Curious about our EPIC 6 Hour playlist?
It’s here. (PS: Spotify only shows the first 30 tracks)
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Alright. So you’ve got some goodies in here. And I’ll even cop to Turn Down For What:). But where are the Barenaked Ladies? Carlos Vives? k.d. lang? Mr. Blotto? Maybe I’m just clinically eclectic:).
Ha! I see your point! Funny enough– those you mentioned never even crossed our radar. Perhaps we could have thrown in some Norah Jones to soften the mix… That’s the beauty of creating your own playlist, the options are endless!
Ha! I love all the effort that you’ve put into your playlist…and that you get everyone to pick songs. Awesome. We started doing that for a dinner time mix…we should do that again. Thanks for reminding me!
Yes, we can get quite serious on our playlists over here.???? It is a nice family activity plus we get to introduce our kids to songs we loved when we were their age. Hence all the 80s stuff!
Yep, that’s a lot of fun…our kids love the old music – my son, who is a real music lover has been working his way slowly but surely from the 60’s this year – Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Kinks…Queen, ACDC and ZZ Top have gotten a good workout. It’s odd, because I grew up listening to all of that (except for ZZ Top – i have no idea where that came from) but it’s not something I listen to now. Spotify gives him a lot of freedom to explore his own taste which is pretty cool. When I was growing up it was either the top 40 or what my parents were listening to…luckily they were music lovers too.
It is quite amazing how Spotify provides unlimited access to all music. Kids are growing up being able to hear whatever they want…whereas we were limited — like you said– to what our parents listened to and the radio. Top 40 back then was so different than it is now…they actually played their instruments.
Ah, don’t look back with your glasses too tinted pink…the top 40 wasn’t that great in the 80s either 🙂 I grew up in the era of manufactured pop with voice synthesisers and bad miming lol 🙂 And then grunge hit, so that changed things !
Ah yes, how could I forget– this was the era of Milli Vanilli!
exactly! You were there too 🙂