But the art of creating a perfect playlist is a little bit more nuanced. In this article, I’ll walk you through the six steps of creating the perfect playlist.

1. Pick a theme.
The only thing differentiating a playlist from a randomly chosen list of songs is theming. Every playlist needs a theme, and there are many ways to pick one. Here are some ideas for themes:

Genre: Genre is a crucial starting point. “Country” or “Pop” is valid as a playlist genre, but it’s too broad to be useful to you. It’s good as an idea generation mechanism, but you should combine it with something else by employing some of the other suggestions below.

Feel: This one isn’t as objectively definable. In each song, the authors, composers and producers are trying to tell a story of some kind. For example, here’s the chorus to Malinda’s “It’s All True”:  

In this song, Malinda’s singing about discovering their identity – they’re quite happy about the whole endeavor (as evinced by the words “I’m so in love with it all”).

Contrast this with the feel of Billie Eilish’s “my strange addiction”:

Billie is clearly not singing about anything similar to Malinda. You’ll want to be careful when putting very different songs in the same list. Usually, the harmonics just aren’t there. But, sometimes, mood shifts can work well in playlists. Listen to one then the other. See if it works! (For musically savvy people, I explain harmonics more in step two.)

Message: I like to make the songs in my playlists have similar messaging. That message could be about anything: breakups, falling in love, friends, growing up. If a message exists and isn’t off-the-wall crazy, there’s (probably) music about it.

Artists: Songs can also represent authors or ideas. Your theme may involve making a playlist with songs authored by women or people of color. Bonus points if you represent a historically underrepresented group in your genre! An example of this type of playlist would be “female artists in country music.”

2. Pick your songs.
Once you’ve chosen your theme, the next step is to pick your songs. There are lots of ways to look for  songs that fit your theme. Go find some, and leave your preferred way in the comments, so others can use it too! Some ways you could find songs are by searching for them, asking your friends for recommendations, checking the charts, looking for old songs you liked (you could use Spotify Wrapped or Apple Music’s Replay to do this) or by using the “auto-play” feature.

If you’re an advanced playlist junkie and are willing to put in the time to make an excellent playlist, you can use music theory to your advantage. If you’ve no interest in music theory, you can skip to step three.

Transitions are important in the realm of playlist curation. DJs and mixers alike use a method known as the Camelot system, which is a less music-theory intensive way to visualize the well-known Circle of Fifths.

A song can be in any of 24 keys – 12 major and 12 minor – one for each semitone of a Western chromatic scale. Songs in adjacent keys on the Circle of Fifths use many of the same notes and will often sound good together.

Songs should stay in adjacent keys on the Circle of Fifths. For example, let’s say you have the Taylor Swift song “London Boy” on your playlist, and you want a good transition into a different song. “London Boy” is written in the key of C#/Db major – a Camelot number of 3B. (All major keys are labeled with “B” and all minor keys with “A.”)

So, “London Boy” could transfer to any of the following keys:
– C#/Db major (staying in the key): Fitting with the pop theme, you could choose Jenna Raine’s “see you later” or Lauv’s “All 4 Nothing,” both of which are in C# major.
– G#/Ab major (up a fifth): Examples include MU/NA’s “Silk Chiffon” or NF’s “Therapy Session.”  
– F#/Gb major (down a fourth): If you still want Taylor, “I Can See You” is in this key.

These are just examples, and rules are always meant to be broken. Transitions don’t have to follow these rules if the result sounds good to you.

3. Give your playlist a name.
Now that you have a playlist and some songs, you must give it an aesthetic name. I can’t really help you here as how you name playlists is up to you. I like to have names that alliterate, but you should choose a name you think works well!

If you’re stuck on this step, our wonderful “friend,” AI, can save you. Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT can help give you inspiration. Searching “playlist name generator” into your preferred search engine can also help. 

4. Give it a fun picture!
No playlist is complete without a cover icon. Fortunately, generators can help you here, too. 

If Spotify is your preferred music streaming platform, you can run your playlist through its AI art generator and get something from it. I don’t have Spotify, so I don’t know how well it works. Websites like Spotlistr can also turn any image (including ones from Unsplash, a copyright-free image library) and text of your choice into a playlist cover.

You’ll want to make sure that the icon fits the mood you’re going for.

5. Fine-tune it.
Now that you have a completed playlist, it’s time to give it a listen! You might find that it’s not very good the first time around. Even so, keep tweaking and tuning your music until you find something that works!

6. Repeat!
Keep doing this until you’ve made as many playlists as you think appropriate. Now you should be more qualified to bring the tunes to your next commute, social event or study session!

William Jewell College’s campus is filled with a range of styles – from trendy to classy, eclectic to low-key. To capture “style” requires as much consideration of personality as composition. What makes or breaks a look is not the wrong accessory, a clash in color or any other arbitrary rule established by the commercialized perspective of fashion that has been sold to the public.

A good outfit is defined by the eye of the wearer, whether it be maximum comfort or artistic expression. Truly appreciating fashion begins once you dive into the person behind the clothes. First-year physics major Hope Peck has provided the opportunity to dive into her style which comes from a combination of a variety of aesthetics and inspirations.

The process of curating a look, for Peck, starts on the first day of every week. She invests time experimenting with concepts on Sunday, planning out her outfits for the rest of the week. 

A glimpse into Peck’s closet would reveal an intentionally limited palette with an array of neutrals, burnt orange, and dark green. The colors reflect her self-described “thrifted and androgynous” minimalist aesthetic. A small palette also works to provide Peck more ease by expanding the versatility of her pieces, ensuring her look will include shades and hues partial to her taste.

Influenced by YouTube, Pinterest and a few high fashion designers, Peck’s style has a voice of its own. She combines her love of Cecille Bahsen’s prairie chic with modern and trendy looks inspired by YouTubers like With Wendy and Ashley Bestdressed.

Peck is not the only fashion lover in her family. Her sister Allyson is also a major source for Peck’s inspiration. Allyson lives a chic and fun life as a digital media designer in Brooklyn, New York, and you can catch a glimpse into her lifestyle on her YouTube Channel The Allyson Leigh.

Not only does Peck enjoy curating outfits, she also takes a hands-on approach to creating unique looks of her own. Peck is an avid thrifter and enjoys flipping her clothes into beautiful and individual pieces. She has also constructed several of her own items, including a gorgeous Vivienne Westwood inspired corset. Besides sewing, Peck also crotchets. Her latest creation is a soft gray lounge set. There’s no better way to capture personality than to do it yourself.

Though Peck’s style appears put together and polished with an intentionality that catches the eye, she adds a little bit of fun some days. From strawberry to cow-themed, she has a collection of socks that garner much attention from her friends. If there’s one thing to take away from Peck and her impeccable taste, it’s that the best thing to wear is confidence. 

Whether you wear the latest trends or your favorite sweats, what makes a look is the person behind the clothes. Rock those crazy socks, show off the Goodwill find, break out of the box or embrace the popular. You do you and the rest of the world will embrace your style.

If you spend any time on social media platforms such as Youtube or TikTok, you have likely come across the trend of “Karen” videos. For those who are unfamiliar with Karen videos, they are videos of generally white, middle-aged women who are causing a big scene in public areas over what are often minor disturbances or inconveniences. This has become a viral trend on the internet, with some Karen compilation videos amassing millions of views. Youtube stars like Cody Ko have made Karen reaction videos that have also gained millions of views. The meaning of the term “Karen” has changed during the relatively brief time that it has been an Internet trend, however, so here are a few popular examples – that are also some of my personal favorites – to highlight the shifts in this comical online trend. 

This video of Susan Peirez, also known as some variation of “the airplane Karen,” from early 2018 is what introduced me to the Karen trend. Peirez, who was unhappy about sitting near a crying baby, was yelling and cursing at the mother of the child as well as a flight attendant. Not long before she was removed from the flight, Peirez told the flight attendant that “she may not have a job tomorrow.” Ironically, Peirez was the one without a job the next day. Her name and picture were removed from the New York State Council for the Arts website, which is where she previously worked. 

Threatening to get company employees fired has been a staple of the Karen moniker since the beginning, and videos like the one of Peirez have contributed to that. The phrase “I’d like to speak to your manager” has become the appointed motto of Karens for the same reason.

The next Karen video is titled Kidz Bop Karen, which signals a shift from Karens simply being rude to being a bit more unhinged. It is hard to fully explain what is going on because we do not get many details, but it sounds as though Karen – who I will refer to as such because her real name is not revealed unlike the last video – is upset at the passenger of a Lyft driver who almost hit her vehicle. She uses several expletives but claims that her children cannot hear her because they are listening to Kidz Bop, a group that edits and performs popular songs to make them kid-friendly. 

While it is hard to say whether this video was the catalyst for the shift in the original trend that made Karens seem more unstable and erratic, Kidz Bop Karen certainly contributed to it. She is seen throughout the video making strange faces at the camera and uses very exaggerated hand gestures. Behavior like this has been seen more recently in videos such as this, where the woman in question begins to dance like an inflatable tube man at a used-car sales lot. Because of videos like this, the term Karen has begun to mean more than just a rude and entitled middle-aged white woman. 

The evolution of the term Karen did not stop there, however. Calling someone by the name Karen can now be used to call out someone’s racist beliefs or actions. A popular example of this is Amy Cooper, also known as the Central Park Karen. The story goes that Christian Cooper, the man recording the video, was birdwatching and asked Amy Cooper to put her dog on a leash so it wouldn’t disturb the birds. Cooper, who is of no relation to the man recording, was not happy about this. This is all we know before the video starts, where Amy Cooper tells Christian that she is going to call the cops and “tell them there’s an African-American man threatening my life.”

Cooper trying to intimidate and threaten a black man by calling the police sparked outrage, especially due to the fact that this video went viral right around the same time as the murder of George Floyd. She was fired from her job and was charged with falsifying a report. Amy Cooper is not entirely alone, as many popular Karen videos, such as this one, show the women in question telling other people to “go back to their country.”

All of this has led to the term Karen evolving from a term used to make fun of rude, middle-aged white women to a term that is used as a stand-in for white entitlement and privilege. The term is continuing to grow in meaning as well. It is now used to target men, such as this article calling Donald Trump “The Karen in Chief,” which was the main problem I had previously had with the trend. There are plenty of men who act rude and entitled, so including them in the Karen trend is only fair.

Not only are many of these videos hilarious, but they have also shown that there are consequences for people who are rude, entitled and racist. If you are not familiar with Karen videos, I strongly suggest you watch some. You will not be disappointed.

YouTube began monetizing videos in 2008, meaning that creators could make money off of their content. For some creators, YouTube is their only source of income. Quarantine is a gold mine for these creators because they can continue to make content from their homes in addition to receiving more views and ad revenue due to people having nothing else to do. However, not everything is rosy for these creators.

YouTube has a feature where users can report certain videos for offensive content, which can include phobic dialect (racism, homophobia, etc), foul language, reckless acts, violence, nudity, the list goes on. It used to be that human employees at YouTube would comb through flagged videos and determine whether or not the video should remain up, be taken down or be demonitized, meaning that the creator would not make any money off that particular video. For creators whose only career is YouTube, that can mean receiving no income until another video is created and monetized.

Since stay-at-home orders were issued, YouTube has replaced the human filters with artificial intelligence (AI). These AI are given buzz words to search for, and if those words or phrases are detected by the AI, the flagged videos are automatically demonetized or removed with little consideration. This was the reality of YouTube, as was discussed by channels like the Game Theorists, the Try Guys, Kurtis Conner and many more. After a large amount of backlash regarding this change, YouTube has since altered their policy so videos can mention COVID-19 with less fear of demonetization. However, the situation has caused freedom of speech in the media to be reevaluated. Why would YouTube demonetize COVID-19? Why should we care?

TechCrunch commented on the policy, stating that “YouTube was putting a damper on informative, newsworthy videos as well as those capitalizing on the human tragedy and people’s fears about the emerging pandemic.”

This perfectly encapsulates the mood of the creator community when videos about COVID-19 began circulating. 

Some creators made videos about how quarantine has affected their daily lives and urged their viewers to stay home (#StopTheSpread, for example). These types of videos were considered helpful, akin to videos that were providing factual information about the spread of the virus as well as preventative measures and news updates. 

However, there was a darker side to COVID-19 content that really brought out the worst in people. Some prank channels made videos where they pranked their viewers or loved ones into believing they had caught COVID-19, making fun of the tragic conversation some people are having in reality. Other channels made videos that were reporting false information about the virus, ultimately spreading panic and fear among their viewers.

This is the content YouTube wanted to avoid when they demonetized COVID-19. In doing so, however, they also stopped helpful and less problematic videos from making money, harming those creators while also censoring those who truly deserved it. So, was YouTube in the right for making this policy?

My answer is that there is no answer. There is no perfect response to this. If YouTube had kept their human filters, perhaps this would have been avoided. But if they had done that, they would have been risking the lives of those workers – so that’s not an option. They could have completely removed all filters, but that would seriously damage the company’s reputation by allowing unfiltered content. 

That leaves us with AI, which we all know isn’t perfect or foolproof. AI doesn’t have the capacity to determine whether or not a video is harmful or helpful when two videos share the same sort of content. If they hadn’t changed the policy to allow COVID-19 content, it’s very likely some creators would have left the platform. Allowing COVID-19 content will create some amount of misinformation to circulate, but that is unavoidable if YouTube wants to avoid a scandal and allow the helpful creators to monetize their videos.

With this to consider, I really can’t blame YouTube for their actions. There’s no precedent for a pandemic of this scale. We’re all learning how to cope with this. The only people we can blame are the channels that are making harmful content about the virus, but there’s very little to be done about that except just deciding to not watch their videos.