MixTape Night: Watershed Songs
“Listening to music and singing together has been shown in several studies to directly impact neuro-chemicals in the brain, many of which play a role in closeness and connection. Now new research suggests that playing music or singing together may be particularly potent in bringing about social closeness through the release of endorphins.”
It’s hard, really hard, to get people to simply show up for a conversation where the main event is...talking. However, getting people to show up to listen to music that has made an impact on a person’s heart and soul––that’s easy. Sort of.
People get really excited about the opportunity to share music––it says something about us; it helps us tell a story; it allows us to move beyond the clumsiness of words to convey an emotion and an experience; less talking, more feeling.
So we put together a MixTape Night where strangers and friends came together to share a song that changed their lives and tell us why it is so meaningful to them. I’m not exaggerating when I say that everyone left the evening with promises to keep the group meeting regularly and attending live music events together. Every single one of us felt heard and seen, and was honored to witness and keep company with others.
Here’s how we organized and orchestrated the gathering, step-by-step:
TheHouse.Org: We announced the gathering on TheHouse.org where people could register and answer questions about their song. The questions were:
What song will you share with the group?
Why is music meaningful to you?
What was the most meaningful live performance you attended?
Simple Hosting: I, Ann (Director of TheHouse.org), hosted the group in my simple apartment with my best audio equipment: a very small, Bose pill speaker. We didn’t need to have state-of-the-art speakers to pull off a simple sharing and listening party. I also provided simple snacks: popcorn, chips & salsa, fruit, and some drinks. It was really inexpensive to pull off. You could even ask attendees to chip in and bring a favorite snack or drink if you wanted to host with no cost at all.
Time for Connecting: I gave the guests about 20 minutes to settle in with food, drinks, and introductory conversation. And then we jumped right in. Each guest briefly introduced themselves and spent 5-10 minutes telling us about the song they picked and how it had affected them. We had 8 guests total and that took up just over 2 hours time to get through everyone.
We now have our second MixTape Night on the calendar for July 2018 and a list of themes for the entire year’s monthly MixTape Nights. Here’s a few of our favorites:
Cover Me! - favorite covered songs
Favorite Dance Party Song
Guilty Pleasure Pop Song
Favorite Song When You Were 13-14 Years Old
Favorite Instrumental Song
Favorite Song from a Movie Soundtrack
Song You Thought You’d Hate, But Ended Up Loving
Our MixTape group continues to stay in touch and has plans to attend live music events together in addition to gathering monthly for MixTape Nights––there’s always room for a few more to attend, so check our Events Page to see when the next MixTape Night is happening.
