DJ Jim Q's Playlist: REFLECTION
Greetings, friends and listeners. Welcome to the September playlist. Our theme this month is Reflection, brought to us by the Oklahoma City chapter of CreativeMornings. It is an inspiring theme, giving us a chance to recall songs that explore reminiscing, contemplation, and introspection.
I sometimes ruminate on how musical taste reflects our identities. I remember the musical phases I went through growing up, from my earliest exposure to ‘80s pop music like Hall and Oates, Prince, and Michael Jackson to developing my own interests in heavier fare like hard rock and, particularly, heavy metal. As I entered high school, my musical affinities expanded further, first to the emerging alternative music filling the airwaves on MTV, but eventually, I found my way to hip-hop. Through DJing and hip-hop production, I was introduced to a new and exciting world of music. The sonic patchwork of samples from my favorite hip-hop songs guided me to a wealth of incredible soul, jazz, funk, disco, and R&B. A lot of my musical knowledge comes from those days of record collecting and sample-seeking. As I entered college, I was introduced to more underground music like punk, indie, alternative, and local music. Shortly thereafter, along with the rest of the world, I was swept up by the internet and the revolutionary access to and distribution of music through sites like Napster and Limewire. Everything was at your fingertips, and my curiosity and hunger for unfamiliar music propelled me to listen to it all. My musical tastes have never stopped expanding, but I do wonder if this ubiquity of access has made music more impersonal and, therefore, less reflective of our individual identities.
At different stages of my life, especially the earlier ones, the music I listened to reflected who I was and the tribe to which I belonged. As a young heavy metal kid, I remember my close friends and I would wear our jean jackets adorned with large patches representing our favorite bands covering the whole back of the jackets. I cycled through a few over the years, from Iron Maiden to Guns N’ Roses, and finally landed on a rad Metallica “Master of Puppets” patch. It was part of who I was; it signaled to the sports kids and the preppy kids that I was into something different. Similarly, as I got older and interested in hip-hop, my friends and I would dress like we were auditioning for a Cypress Hill video, or maybe stunt doubles for the Beastie Boys. I shaved off my long hair and adopted the ‘90s hip-hop attire, complete with baggy pants, hoodies, beanie pulled low, and chunky Timberland boots. I will neither confirm nor deny the presence of a goatee on my chin. It’s funny to think back on those periods of awkward adolescent self-expression. While those phases are certainly cringeworthy, and I am quite pleased we didn’t have camera phones back then, it was nonetheless a reflection of who we were at the time. Whenever I see a young person trying on some identity, I can’t help but feel a sense of empathy and understanding.
The songs selected for this month’s playlist fall into a few broad thematic variations. First and foremost are songs of a contemplative nature or songs that evoke looking back or reminiscing, like Oasis’s “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” Sharon Van Etten’s “Seventeen,” or Pete Rock and CL Smooth’s “T.R.O.Y.” The second category consists of songs with a more literal reference, like Clairo’s “Echo,” Taylor Swift’s “Mirrorball,” Underworld’s “Moon in Water,” or English Beat’s “Mirror in the Bathroom.” Finally, the majority of the tracks focus on the internal, introspective meaning of reflection, such as Mothica’s “Sensitive,” Beach House’s “Myth,” or Sufjan Stevens’s “Death with Dignity.”
Join me on this musical journey as we reflect on the songs that make us think, reveal who we are, and transport us to moments from our past. The theme is “Reflection,” and I’m confident you’ll find a piece of yourself in one of the 40-plus tracks in this playlist. From The Supremes to Charli XCX, The Flaming Lips to The Cure, there’s something here for everyone, a song that mirrors some part of your identity.
Thanks for listening. If you enjoy these playlists I would love to hear from you. Give a hollar on Twitter and be sure to follow me on Spotify. See you next month with a new collection of tracks.