Weekend Kickoff - May 2017
Thirty-five tracks of the May 2017 Weekend Kickoff rotation — the late-spring edition of the recurring Friday-evening list, leaning hard into the dance-and-house-revival peaks of the year. The standing Friday tradition with the friend group, with the seasonal-spring adjustment that the rotation always made every May: more dance-floor pulls, fewer interior-rotation moody anchors. The seasonal-spring-adjustment methodology is the rotation’s structural commitment — the playlist’s working-utility is bounded by the specific calendar-position of the late-spring transition rather than the year-end-recap or seasonal-shoulder framing.
Erick Morillo with Eddie Thoneick and Angel Taylor “Lost In You” anchors the pop-house-radio-crossover bridge that the year’s dance rotation built toward. The placement is the rotation’s structural commitment to the pop-house-radio-crossover register — the Morillo collaboration with Thoneick and Taylor was, in 2017, the structural anchor of the year’s pop-house-radio crossover working-rotation, and the placement honors the song’s role across the year’s working-rotation.
Bob Sinclar with Daddy’s Groove “Burning” is the deliberate sequencing into the French-house-revival territory. The placement is the rotation’s structural commitment to the French-house-revival register — the Sinclar collaboration with Daddy’s Groove was, in 2017, the structural anchor of the year’s French-house-revival working-rotation, and the placement is doing the work of providing the rotation’s universal-recognition French-house-revival anchor.
Toby Green “Move” is the wildcard pull from the year’s emerging-producer rotation. The placement is the rotation’s structural moment of acknowledging the deeper-rotation listener — the Toby Green catalog represents the late-2010s emerging-producer working-rotation that the streaming-era’s working-rotation has tended to omit, and the playlist’s choice to include the cut is a small piece of advocacy on behalf of an emerging-producer whose body of work deserves more than the streaming-era’s working-rotation reduction.
Sam Feldt “What About The Love” sits in the front quarter as the slick-pop-house anchor. The placement is the rotation’s structural commitment to the slick-pop-house register — the Feldt catalog was, in 2017, the structural anchor of the year’s slick-pop-house working-rotation, and the placement is doing the work of providing the rotation’s universal-recognition slick-pop-house anchor.
LP “Lost on You” is the deliberate-melancholy-pop pull that the rotation absolutely commits to — a song that, in the year’s late-rotation, became the structural counterpoint to the dance-floor peaks. The placement is the rotation’s structural commitment to the cross-mood register — the LP catalog was, in 2017, the structural anchor of the year’s melancholy-pop working-rotation, and the placement is doing the work of providing the rotation’s cross-mood bridge that the late-spring working-rotation absolutely required.
Tiësto with Diplo and M A E S T R O “C’mon” (the Maestro Harrell 2016 Remix) is the EDM-festival-radio anchor. The placement is the rotation’s structural commitment to the EDM-festival-radio register — the Tiësto collaboration with Diplo and Maestro Harrell was, in 2017, the structural anchor of the year’s EDM-festival-radio working-rotation, and the Maestro Harrell 2016 Remix specifically is the right cut for this rotation context because the remix’s arrangement is the structural anchor of the rotation’s working-utility.
Zara Larsson with R3HAB “I Would Like” (the R3hab Remix) is the late-night dance-pop crossover. The placement is the rotation’s structural commitment to the late-night dance-pop crossover register — the Larsson collaboration with R3HAB was, in 2017, the structural anchor of the year’s late-night dance-pop crossover working-rotation, and the R3hab Remix specifically is the right cut for this rotation context because the remix’s arrangement is the structural anchor of the rotation’s working-utility.
Pegboard Nerds “Melodymania” is the deep-cut placement that elevated the rotation past radio-friendly. The placement is the rotation’s structural moment of acknowledging the deeper-rotation listener — the Pegboard Nerds catalog has been criminally under-served on streaming despite the duo’s catalog’s specific role in the late-2010s melodic-electronic working-rotation, and the playlist’s choice to include the cut is a small piece of advocacy on behalf of an artist whose body of work deserves more than the obscurity it has been assigned in the streaming-era’s working-rotation canon.
Thirty-five tracks lands at about two hours — the right length for the standing Friday-evening rotation in the late-spring season. The runtime is calibrated for the natural span of the late-spring Friday-evening tradition’s working-utility context — the seasonal-spring adjustment of the rotation’s runtime is the methodological commitment to the audience’s natural-energy-arc across the year.
Built for the friend group’s audience, with the seasonal adjustment that the May edition always made. Sequenced for the post-dinner porch-open stretch when the music has to do the work of being the room’s actual entertainment. The May edition that locked in the year’s dance-floor rotation before the summer editions could take over. Holds up because the rotation was good and the songs aged better than the year-end reviews suggested they would. First playback usually started before dinner. Always made it past. The pre-dinner-to-past-dinner runtime is the rotation’s structural feature — the playlist’s working-utility extends across the natural-span of the late-spring Friday-evening tradition’s pre-dinner and post-dinner contexts, and the rotation’s choice to honor the cross-context working-utility framing is the methodological commitment of the standing-Friday tradition series.
