Hi! I’m Cat, a strategic creative who’s spent the past 8 years making ads for major brands. At first glance, you might look at my work and wonder how it relates to music curation. But I think there’s actually quite a bit of overlap. Hear me out.

When done well, advertising is a blend of strategy and creativity. It’s about finding real human insights and using them to make work that elicits an emotional response. The same applies to curating a great playlist.

I think of music curation as part science, part art. It requires some research and knowledge of trends, composition, instrumentation, ideal playlist length, etc. But part of it is also instinctual and personal. Here are a few examples of how I approach it.

Give the People What They Want
(But Don’t Yet Realize They Want)

Forget Mariah Carey, Bing Crosby, and Michael Bublé.
'Tis the season for Dipset, Bad Religion and festive reggae.

I have a theory that a lot of the people who hate Christmas music hate it because they only ever hear the same 10 songs played over and over again. So 2 coworkers and I teamed up to curate a holiday playlist unlike any other.

We collected 262 underrated, unconventional songs representing not only Christmas, but Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, and general holiday spirit (or lack thereof). The playlist ran for weeks at the office and received praise from coworkers who were amazed to learn that Quad City DJs have a Christmas album and that Hanukkah surf rock is a thing.

*The playlist featured here is the clean version.
NSFW version available upon request.

Stream, Sequence, Repeat

I make seasonal playlists to keep track of current trends and songs I’m into at the time. I love the challenge of sequencing a playlist like this — bouncing from R&B to techno, Nigerian Alté to reggaeton, classic rock to the latest TikTok craze, all while trying to maintain some semblance of cohesion.

A few of my favorite transitions:
“Backstage Pass” —> “Two Against One”
(bass outro melds with guitar intro)
“Body Count” —> “Doin’ Time”
(close BPM helps bridge the genre change)
“damn Right” —> “Idris” —> “Verbosa”
(just works)


Know When to Lead & When to Follow

After our holiday playlist success, I was asked to help curate an office playlist for Pride Month. But as a cis/het woman, I felt it was important for employees who are members of the LGBTQIA+ community to
lead it. I threw in a few songs by LGBTQIA+ artists I love, but mostly just sat back and enjoyed my coworkers’ contributions.

My role here was minimal, but I include it as a way to say that as much as I love building playlists and am happy to take the reins, I believe it’s equally as important to listen and collaborate with people who know certain musical worlds more deeply and personally than I might.