What is your favourite love song?
And why?
“All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thank you in advance for participating in this experiment. I typically aim to save the punch line for the end but, when it comes to matters of the heart, I have to be upfront: this blog post did not go to plan.
Please know my intentions were pure. I desperately wanted to write you a love story (of epic proportions!). Instead I found myself dealing with a case of unrequited love. I loved the idea for this post but it just didn’t love me back! And there were even some moments where I wanted to break up with the idea altogether! But, I’m a hopeless romantic, so, I wasn’t about to give up until we found ourselves with a happy ending (or at least a happy experiment!).
Let’s call it an experiment in combinational creativity. That sounds original right?
According to author Austin Kleon nothing is original.
Known for his book, Steal Like an Artist, Kleon is an advocate of the ‘mash-up’ — suggesting creativity comes from embracing influence, collecting ideas, remixing and re-imagining.
And he’s big on love, largely the notion of ‘doing what you love’.
I have always been a fan of Kleon’s blackout poetry and the ‘Go make that stuff.’ quote below (from his aforementioned book) resonates deeply.
Plus, ultimately, it was Kleon’s manifesto that lead me to (steal) the idea for this post.
As per #1 on Kleon’s list of 10 things he wished he’d known when he was first starting out, I was inspired by a friend (note: a musician friend) to remix (pun intended) a question from his latest podcast series.
We were discussing the process for a recent podcast he had recorded and I was curious about the interview format he was using. He happily shared the following three-question model:
Q. A project that you have worked on to completion that you are most proud of?
Q. A project that you never finished but would like to complete someday?
Q. A dream project?
He then sheepishly added, there is a bonus question: What is your favourite love song?
And STEAL!
“If music be the food of love, play on.” — William Shakespeare
And so I posed the question to family, friends, colleagues and even a few random strangers: What is your favourite love song? And why?
The responses were heartwarming, hypnotic and just plain hilarious!
I became privy to stories of first loves, wedding day memories, grieving unrequited love and love-making adventures (ahhh TMI!). The young gave up a song (as freely as they would their hearts!) and typically had a clear (emotive) reason why it was their favourite. The older (and perhaps more weathered by love) respondents were more cautious about sharing, and their why was often tied to the lyrics of a song.
The more people I asked, the more people I wanted to ask! Yes, I became that girl literally questioning strangers on the street and emailing all my contacts under the disguise of ‘research’. It was so much fun! I curated lists of new music, fun facts about people and insights into love.
And then, suddenly, I was drowning in content.
What was worse, it turns out a list of people’s favourite love songs (and why) is boring content. It wasn’t fun to write about and it wasn’t fun to read (sorry team!). When my musician friend text to ask how the blog post was coming along I was ashamed to tell him the research process had been an incredible learning experience but the end product was loveless. His reply came as a surprise: “Oh that’s awesome, process over product, that’s where I’m going!!! [with his podcasts]. Can’t wait to read it”.
And BOOM! A new idea was born!
As a teacher I should have known better! The learning is always in the process, not the content or the outcome. Sure, I had a lot of good content but it was the journey of curating that content that had offered the only love song worth sharing!
In accepting Kleon’s challenge to do what I love (enacting my curiosity, talking to people, writing) I had inadvertently undertaken an experiment in combinational creativity. I had been gifted an experience in committing to the process over the outcome, and I learned something interesting along the way.
For all the people I asked the question, What is your favourite love song? And why?, the only song to feature twice in the many responses was ‘Your Song’ by Elton John.
Yes, this is a fun fact. However, I like to think it provides a pleasing conclusion to my experiment. That is, we all view love in our own unique way. And the choice of favourite love song is a unique story about you, or your lover, or your life, or something that makes you laugh, or something that makes you cry, or simply whatever or whomever makes you FEEL.
Love is a cocktail of feelings and love songs often help us express or experience those feelings.
But don’t take my word for it. There’s nothing to feel in simply reading a list of love songs. If you’re feeling creative and experimental, travel the journey and ask someone the question: What is your favourite love song? And why?.
Big thanks to TIME&MOTION for the creative inspiration.
PS. Just in case you’re here in search of a love song playlist, check out Jabs’ Cardio Mixtape.
