? 2024: The Music Playlist (Premium)

Technology has dramatically altered how I create and consume content over the course of my life.

When I was young, I had notably good handwriting, but thanks to keyboards--my first typing experience, literally, was on mechanical, non-electric typewriters--my hand cramps up in less time than it takes to write a check. (Another once-common item from the past.) I used to draw and paint as a child, but all my artwork now is digital and infinitely editable. Everything I read was on paper, be it a newspaper, magazine, or book, but today my reading is all digital and mostly online, and comes via various sources. And I was born into a world of vinyl records and AM and FM radio, and went on to experience an incredible evolution from physical media to digital media to the streaming services that dominate today.

The audio bit is interesting.

I got a Sears stereo with a turntable and dual (low-quality) cassette tapes as a child and started buying 45s--singles--and 33s (albums) by my earliest teen years. My first "audiobooks," which I believe we simply called "books on audio," came on cassette. I got my first Walkman-style portable audio player, which supported only radio, when I was about 15 years old, and then I worked through several cassette- and then CD-based versions of the years. Cassettes dominated in cars until after I was married, but I was always making mix tapes, and then mix CDs, which have of course turned into playlists in this modern era.

Many of these mixes, in whatever form they took at whatever time, were shared experiences. When I was dating and then first married to Stephanie, I would create mix tapes that included not so much music that I liked, but rather music that I thought we'd both like, and both like listening to together.

This tradition--and I guess it really has become a tradition--continues today. And my wife I enjoy what we call music night at least one night each weekend unless we're busy with other commitments. I've created a new main playlist for each year since we moved to Pennsylvania, adding to each as time goes on, and then moving on to the next one when the anniversary of our move arrives.

The shared nature of these playlists sometimes leads to curious conversations with friends and family. We'll be having a get-together of whatever kind, perhaps, I'll put on some music in the background, often one of those playlists, and someone--a friend, my brother-in-law, or whomever--will hear a particular song and say something like, "I didn't peg you as Taylor Swift fan," or whatever. This sort of misses the point.

This music isn't just about me, it's about us--in this case, Stephanie and I--and the reason I'd share it with others isn't because I want to inflict my musical tastes on anyone. It's because I hope that others--not just guys, not just people like me--might enjoy it too. I have friends who love music, but are curiously incapable of expanding into other genres or considering...