Maestro… Push That Play Button

Thanks in large part to movies over the last, probably, 30+ years, we’ve become enamored with the idea of being able to soundtrack our lives. To click a button and have the song of our choice play over the background of whatever activity syncs perfectly with our selection – the training montage that plays when we run through the city streets, the love ballad that plays when we kiss that special someone in the rain, the getaway song that blares when we’re eluding the police on a crowded interstate.

Thanks in large part to one company’s developments in music technology (I want to say… Grapefruit?), now we can. Today we can make a playlist for any activity we choose to engage in. My hunch is the most popular kinds of playlists are created to strike the perfect tone for when we run, drive and hope to set the right romantic mood. But playlists are widely underused. Think of all the things we do during the day that we can create a soundtrack for.

The lists below are just some examples of playlists we should make for…

Eating
Eat It – Weird Al
Eat The Rich – Aerosmith
Help Me, I’m Hungry – Nirvana
Hungry Eyes – Eric Carmen
Hungry Heart – Bruce Springsteen
Hungry Like The Wolf – Duran Duran
Scenes From An Italian Restaurant – Billy Joel
Cheeseburger In Paradise – Jimmy Buffet
Rye Or The Kaiser – Weird Al
Buttermilk Biscuits – Sir Mix-A-Lot
Spoonman – Sound Garden
The Thanksgiving Song – Adam Sandler
The Lemon Song – Led Zeppelin
Ice Cream Man – Van Halen
Brown Sugar – The Rolling Stones
Milkshake – Kelis
Pork Soda – Primus

Pooping
Push It Real Good – Salt N’ Peppa
Another Break In The Wall – Pink Floyd
Eruption – Van Halen
Feel Me Flow – Naughty By Nature
Feel My Groove – Bernard Allison
Ooh That Smell – Lynyrd Skynyrd
Down The Drain – Marcy Playground
Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrisson

Dropping The Kids Off at School and/or Putting Them to Bed
Beautiful Day – U2
Celebration – Kool & the Gang
(Party Like It’s) 1999 – Prince
What a Wonderful World – Louis Armstrong
Feelin’ Alright – Joe Cocker
Hallelujah  Chorus

Finding Your Neighbor on the Ledge Outside His Apartment Window and/or Skipping Rope, But Mostly Finding Your Neighbor on the Ledge
Jump – Van Halen
Jump – Pointer Sisters
Jump – Kriss Kross
Jump – Madonna
Jump Around – House of Pain
Loser – Beck
Long Way Down – Goo Goo Dolls
Free Fallin’ – Tom Petty
I Believe I Can Fly – R Kelly
Spread Your Wings – Queen
Wind Beneath My Wings – Bette Midler
Believe It Or Not I’m Walking On Air – Greatest American Hero Theme Song

When You’re Working 
Taking Care of Business – Bachman Turner Overdrive
9 to 5 – Dolly Parton
Keep On Working – Pete Townsend
Welcome to The Working Week – Elvis Costello
Whistle While You Work – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

When You’re Specifically a Working Male
Hard Workin’ Man – Brooks & Dunn
He Works – DC Talk
Working Man – Rush

When You’re Specifically a Working Female
She Works Hard for The Money – Donna Summer
Woman’s Work – Tina Arena
This Woman’s Work – Kate Bush
Working Girl – Dolly Parton

When Your Way of Life is Not Defined By Excelling at a Particular Skill or Profession, But By the Act of Work Itself
Workin’ For A Livin’ – Huey Lewis And The News

When You and Your Colleagues Are Using Your Employment to Compile the Funds Necessary to Enjoy the Hours That Follow 5 p.m. on Friday
Everybody’s Working For The Weekend - Loverboy

When You Toil Away For a Large Entity That You Feel Is Stifling Your Creativity or Otherwise Keeping You From Achieving Your Dreams, or You Just Have a Male Boss
Working For The Man – Roy Orbison

When You Work in a Coal Mine
Working In The Coal Mine – Lee Dorsey

When You Want To Use Your Work To Arouse Another Person or Become Aroused by Someone Else’s Work
Do U Like The Way I Work It? – Essence
Got My Mojo Working – Manfred Mann
Ice Is Workin’ It – Vanilla Ice
Show Me What Cha Workin Wit – Kane and Able
Work It – Nelly
Work It – Missy Elliott
Work Me Slow - Xscape

Performing Surgery
I’m A Cut You – Bon Qui Qui
Cuts Like a Knife – Bryan Adams
Cut Me Down to Size – Stephen Egerton
Bad Medicine – Bon Jovi
Bleeding Me – Metallica
Playing With My Heart – Kate Voegele
Take Another Little Piece of My Heart – Janis Joplin
Hole In My Heart – Jewell
Hole In My Heart – Cyndi Lauper
Hole In My Heart – Rick Springfield
Hole In My Heart – Blackhawk
Hole In My Heart – Alphabeat
Head Like a Hole – Nine Inch Nails

Engaging In an Act of Domestic Violence
I’m A Cut You – Bon Qui Qui
Cuts Like a Knife – Bryan Adams
Cut Me Down to Size – Stephen Egerton (Some songs are very versatile)
Smack My Bitch Up – Prodigy
Hit Me With Your Best Shot – Pat Benatar
I’m Gonna Knock You Out – LL Cool J
Keep Their Heads Ringin’ – Dr. Dre
Gunpowder & Lead – Miranda Lambert

When You’re Being Transported From Your Home After the Incidence of Domestic Violence
I Fought the Law and The Law Won – The Bobby Fuller Four
I Fight Authority, Authority Always Wins – John Mellencamp
Locked Up – Akon
Jailhouse Rock – Elvis Presley
Folsom Prison Blues – Johnny Cash
Chain Gang – Otis Redding/Sam Cooke
Back on The Chain Gang – The Pretenders
Fate of Criminals – The Adverts
Prison Sex – Tool

Making Playlists
Unnecessary – Childish Gambino
Enough Already – Pam Gerrand
Overkill – Men At Work
Go Outside – Cults