24 Hours in July
A playlist of music and sound that you can listen to for 24 hours.
What does a full, hot summer day sound like? In July 2018, I began work on a playlist of songs and sound that is designed to be played from 7 am to 7 am the next day, around the theme of a summer day. After a year, I'm happy to debut this playlist that I call, 24 Hours in July. I hope you enjoy it!
🌅 The mix follows a loose narrative over the course of a day: a person wakes up hung over on the beach after a night of partying, he hangs out on the beach, mingles with beach-goers, escapes from a summer storm, explores the beach town, makes his way back to the city, gets ready for the night, goes out to party in the city, and somewhere during the late hours of the night, finds himself back on the beach where he spends the night.
“I imagine that regardless of your background or lived experience, what’s exciting about a summer day unites us all.”
🎼 The music in this mix, featuring nearly 370 songs and audio pieces, doesn't cohere to any specific genre, but instead jumps around—I tried to feature songs and sounds from all over the world. I used a spreadsheet to help me map out the time of day so that the sounds and beats flow and ebb according to where the sun is located in the sky, or what nature would sound like at that particular time. I wanted the mix to be inclusive to anyone who listened to it around the world. I imagine that regardless of your background or lived experience, what's exciting about a summer day unites us all.
By making such a long playlist of music, I really wanted to push the form to make the playlist the event itself: can a set of songs actually dictate how people listen to them, rather than vice versa? In other words, rather than use playlists as background to our day, what if a playlist was the foreground, a raison d'être that governed our activities?
While making this mix, I began exploring the concept of using music, sound and spoken word to shift with the changing time of day. The selection of songs are designed to be listened to starting at 7 am throughout the day, but you can listen to them at any time you'd like. Below you will also find songs that you can start the mix on, depending on what time it is.
⚙ Please make sure your settings are aligned to how you should hear this mix! A BIG MUST is to set the "crossfade" to 12 seconds in Spotify's settings, under "show advanced settings." I also encourage you to select "repeat" by the play button—the mix is set up to be repeatable if you get to the end.
While it works great listened to through headphones, it could also be played as a live set over a 24-hour period. I would love to perform this work live, so if you know any venues that would be interested in something like that, please contact me!
🎧 In my mind, the concept of a 24-hour playlist is adaptable to different settings. I wanted this Spotify list to be a sort of groundwork that sets the possibility of it—it's a way of listening to something that can be both personal and intimate, as well as celebratory and community-oriented, depending on whether you listen to it through headphones or in a group setting using speakers. If the mix was performed live, however, it would sound different, and be more properly mixed.
📡 I've also been exploring how to make a website that would play the mix by determining what time of day it is where and whenever someone opens it. I think there are a lot of possibilities (not to mention other seasons!), and I wanted this email to put the idea into your brain to get you to start thinking about how you can collaborate with me on this project.
Below are some songs that you can start the playlist on, depending what time it is, but feel free also to just listen to it from the beginning at any time of day!
🕖 7:00am - The Dog Star
🕘 9:00am - Coney Island of the Mind, Part 26
🕚 11:00am - Mexico City Blues Excerpt, Part 2
🕛 12:00pm - Wave Sounds at the Beach
🕑 2:00pm - After the Rainstorm
🕔 5:00pm - Past, Present & Future
🕢 7:30pm - Steve Miller Age 5 Talking to his Godfather
🕗 8:00pm - XERB Aircheck
🕙 10:00pm - Restaurant Snack
🕚 11:00pm - Gymonopedia
🕧 12:30am - Brasserie, a Few Laughs
🕑 2:00am - Party Crowd
🕞 4:30am - piano un1 arpej
🕕 6:00am - Morning Beach Tide
📻 Thanks for tuning in! I would love to hear what you think, so please message me as you make your way through this. Have a great, long summer.
