Soundtrack of Summer 2023
a look at the iconic Summer Playlist with creator Roger Domal
This past weekend, the highly anticipated Summer of 2023 playlist officially dropped. There is a rich history and tradition behind this playlist that I will not dive into right now. What you need to know is that the Summer Playlist is a highlight of my year and a true movie soundtrack to the hottest days. Roger Domal, along with Sarabeth Domal, design the playlist to be listened to in order (no shuffles), with no repeats. This year, the playlist clocks in at a record-setting 39 hours of summer listening.
As I listen to the Summer Playlist 2023 for the first time, I find myself wondering about the relationship between music and the seasons. Antonio Vivaldi wrote the Four Seasons in 1723, so my curiosity is certainly not new. My ideas kicking around in my head, I decided to turn to the expert: Roger Domal. I messaged him the bolded questions below, and have included his responses in full, because, well, they’re perfect to me. Thank you to Roger for his thoughtful responses, and thank you to both him and Sarabeth for the soundtrack to our summers.
The biggest question I’m asking is — does music have an inherent seasonality to it? Or reversed, do you believe there is a unique sound to every season? How do you view or understand the relationship between music and the seasons?
Back in the day when sales of singles were predicated on radio airplay, summer was truly record buying season. Kids were out of school, going to the beach, radios on. All tuned pretty much to the same station. So artists would record songs that would hopefully attract the attention of the radio programmers who would then play those songs in a pretty strict rotation. The number one song in the area would get played every 50 minutes! Singles were inexpensive to buy, and when you left the beach to have dance parties at night, you wanted to have the newest songs, and most of them were dance records. Summer was dancing season, and the music would match the season. The bands when I was younger would all have beachy themes and they knew what the radio people wanted and what the kids would buy. That’s how I remember the summers, and if you look at a big chunk of some artists catalogues you’ll find a ton of summer themed music. Best time of our lives.
What qualities or traits make a song “summer”? How do you decide what songs make the Final Cut of the Summer Playlist?
First thing that comes to mind about the list, is most of the music has to be fun! However, through the years, our Summer Playlist has changed a bit where some of it might be considered less danceable and more car driving music! Sarabeth curates her list over months, but I work pretty quickly over a period of days. I try to get the latest music from some established stars and then I comb the list of all the big festival lineups, and pick out a stack of minor artists and listen to their music. When we started we would have about 8-10 hours of music, but over the years it has grown and grown until this year it’s almost 40 hours. We tend to make only a few edits of the music over time where after listening to it we find something doesn’t really belong, or its place needs to be moved to another spot. We both have different qualities to bring to the curation but over the last few years our abilities to but together a set of music has melded.
Is the Summer Playlist for listening in summer only - or whenever the listener is seeking a “summer vibe”?
I tend to listen to the summer playlist ONLY from Memorial Day to Labor Day. I do build playlists for holiday gatherings but they tend to be much lower key and more dinner time music! Plus, I put out a Christmas playlist every year too. I’m not sure if others listen to the Summer Playlist outside of those parameters. I’m sure they do, but by the end of the summer, I tend to move on. Occasionally, I will fire up an old Summer Playlist from say 10 years ago. I will say we have gotten much better at curation!
Lastly - Summer Playlist is famously a no shuffle playlist. Could you share any thoughts on how we typically listen to music today and what might get lost in the curatorial arrangement?
I grew up during the advent of what was called “Progressive” FM radio. DJ’s at the time were free to play whatever they wanted in whatever context. The DJ’s built sets of music, whether it be three-four-five songs along a certain theme, certain vibe, compatible artists, similar sounding names of songs. So, the no-shuffle playlist is meant to be heard as a large group of short stories. We hope to capture a natural rhythm and flow, and then after a group of songs we move on to the next short story. In the old days, you pushed the buttons on the radio in your car to get a song you liked, now you can call them up on your phone and program a group of songs you want to hear. That’s what we try to do. Give you a group of songs that flow together and that you want to hear. The songs are meant to be played in order, and I think it makes for better listening because it just feels right.
Fun read!!
Awesome!