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Reclaiming my Spotify recommendations

My kid has taken over my Spotify recommendations. My Discover Weekly this week includes:

  • Rainbow Connection - from The Muppet Movie
  • the theme song from Lilo and Stitch
  • Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me)
  • the Spider-Man theme
  • the Sonic X theme
  • 10 in the bed
  • a song that is actually called “Pee Pee Poo Poo”
  • and other songs, including songs from the Lego Ninjago Movie, Phineas & Ferb, The Lego Movie 2, Teen Titans Go! to the Movies, Despicable Me, the Road to El Dorado, and an album called _Sharing Time).

There are 30 songs on every Discover Weekly playlist. Of mine, I think about 25 are kid-targeted. I’ve skimmed multiple articles about how to maximize the value of your Discover Weekly playlist. Almost all of them promise that listening to kids’ music will not fill your Discover Weekly playlist with kids’ music. Maybe I just don’t listen to enough other music. I don’t know. But I’m taking steps to get Spotify recognize that I want it to recommend new things for ME, not for my kid.

First: I realized I’d created an account just for my kid on our Spotify family plan a couple years ago, but wasn’t using it. Now, I log into his account when I’m going to play music for him. Is it a small hassle? Yes. Is it an obvious solution? For sure.

Second: I had 27 playlists dedicated to music for my kid. I rarely used any of these - he goes through seasons where he’ll want a couple songs on what he calls “repeat two,” so I had several of these - one for The Lion King that was only “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” and “Hakuna Matata,” one for Frozen that was only “For the First Time in Forever” and “Love is an Open Door,” one that had just “The Rainbow Connection” from The Muppet Movie and then the version from The Muppets. This sort of thing, and after a couple weeks, he doesn’t want to listen to that playlist anymore. I deleted all of the playlists that were for my kid. I didn’t lose much curation over this, but I sure cleaned up my account a lot.

Then I started following the advice from the articles. So far I’m mostly doing these two:

  • Saving music to my library.
  • Going down rabbit holes on artists and genres: listening to complete discographies, exploring similar artists, etc.

Next, I need to start:

  • Creating playlists.
  • Listening to Spotify radio. (For artists, songs, or playlists.)

I’ll let you know how this works out. It will take a few weeks to be sure.

📽️ Watched Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith.

Unlike everyone else, this is my least favorite of the prequels. There’s a lot of beautiful digital scenery, but the story drags. More than once I looked at the amount of time left and thought, “Wait, really? How is there so much still to come?” As someone who’s in these mostly for Padmé, this film is a real bummer: we watch someone who used to be a badass diplomat and steady hand with a blaster wander around her apartment pregnant and worrying. I’ve been pregnant and I can tell you, it is possible to do things besides wait for your partner to come home. Not your fault, Padmé, I know. You’re imaginary and George Lucas (and lots of other people) don’t know how pregnant bodies work.

📽️ Watched Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones.

This one is about exactly like I remember it. It was my favorite of the prequel trilogy because of the nods to Roman culture; I actually referenced it in my personal statement when I applied for my Master of Arts in Teaching Latin.

After this viewing, I think Anakin seemed even creepier and grouchier than he did before. He shows up all obsessed with Padmé and it seems like she doesn’t reciprocate his feelings until I guess one day she does? I suppose we get as much evidence that she’s into him as we do that Leia is into Han, but I don’t know. Han never gives an intense “I’ve thought of you every day for 10 years” speech.

Anyway, aside from her poor judgement in returning Anakin’s affections, I think Padmé is awesome. She was basically in Model UN, which is adorable. I’ve decided that she’s clearly why Luke and Leia aren’t garbage humans. And especially why Leia is so awesome. (I mean yeah Jimmy Smits Organa probably helped but still.)

Another one I’m not going to watch again before my kid makes me. (Also the shift in tone from Phantom Menace to this is bananas.)