The soundtrack to our stories: The 2023 Cog Playlist

It's easier than ever to only listen to music that exists in our own highly personalized acoustical algorithm. But when music really speaks to us, when we get excited about it, we share it. You know what I mean. You send your partner a link to the lyrics; you take an AirPod out of one ear and offer it to a friend; you shush everyone in the room, turn up the volume on the speaker and beg them to listen — really listen — in anticipation of a killer bridge.

This past year, a lot of Cog writers shared the music they love with us — and you — through their writing. Thirty of the essays we published on Cog in 2023 featured music. All in all, the names of nearly 60 singers, songwriters and bands appeared on our pages. Sometimes the artist was the focus of the essay (“This one goes out to all the Taylor Swift parents” and “The pure joy of being a grownup BTS superfan”) and sometimes the track was merely a prop used for scene setting (“Don’t underestimate the kids who spend their summers in theater camp” and “Nostalgia is lovely — and a waste of time”).

There was an exuberance to these essays. COVID is now endemic in the U.S., divisions are deep, and wars rage across the world and in our feeds. People are hungry for live events, shared celebrations and the connection and escapism that music provides.

It was the year of #BillionGirlSummer (Beyoncé, Taylor and Greta), and Cog writers had plenty to say about that. This year, like every year, was also a year of goodbyes: Tina Turner, Sinéad O’Connor and Gordon Lightfoot were all eulogized by their devoted fans on our pages. Cog contributors also wrote about musical milestones like reunion tours (The Postal Service and Death Cab for Cutie) and the 50th anniversary of the birth of hip-hop.

But more often than not, our authors wrote about music’s ability to transport us to a different time and place, to a different version of ourselves. Theresa Okokon’s essay about re-learning to play the flute brought her back to the ‘90s (and Nirvana, Radiohead and The Goo Goo Dolls). Bethany Van Delft wrote about the soundtrack of her childhood (and how her Spotify Daily Mixes changed once she became a mom) and Chris Ritter talked about how the music of Noah Kahan helped him better understand New Englanders. Dart Adams wrote about listening to “Soul’s Place” on Boston’s WRBB and WBUR reporter Paula Moura wrote about how Queen helped her family persevere through the most painful moment of their lives: the sudden death of her father.

There was, we realized, a soundtrack to our stories. So we created a playlist: 4 hours and 30 minutes of songs featured in the personal essays we published in 2023, 4 hours and 30 minutes of time travel that covers not just this past year, but all the years that brought us here. To quote Paula Moura, who wrote about Queen, these are “the beats that made us feel free, and the songs that reminded our hearts of joy and filled them with courage.”

We hope you’ll love this playlist enough to take off your headphones and share it with others.

Happy Holidays and happy listening.