Setlists, Playlists and the Aesthetics of Musical Sequencing

In music performance and listening, two models of song sequence have emerged for distinct purposes: the setlist and the playlist. Though both sequence songs, they embody radically different artist-audience and music-moment relations.

Constructing the Live Experience

A setlist is the carefully crafted list of songs a band performs at a live concert. Far more than a checklist, the contemporary setlist is an action plan that can make or break a live concert. Legendary bands have made crafting their setlist an art, understanding that the order of their songs makes or breaks the overall concert experience.

Consider Metallica, whose live shows have attained legendary status after four decades. The typical Metallica concert setlist balances crowd-pleasing staples like "Enter Sandman" or "Master of Puppets" with deeper cuts that are richly rewarding to devoted fans. The group wisely inserts high-energy thrashers to energize the crowd, slow songs to offer contrast, and signature anthems to create memorable peaks. Their encores are typically "Nothing Else Matters" or "Seek and Destroy," providing listeners with a grand closing argument that resonates well after the house lights come up.

Iron Maiden treats their setlists in much the same manner. On their "Legacy of the Beast" tour, the band constructed intricate narrative arcs with their setlist choices, taking listeners on a tour of discovery through their rich catalog. It begins with the bombastic theatrics of "Aces High" (complete with mock Spitfire flying over the stage) and ends with the epic theatre of "Run to the Hills," Maiden demonstrating how a thoughtfully arranged setlist running order can tell a story that's greater than its individual components. 

The Physical Demands of Setlist Planning

Setlists must accommodate physical facts that playlists are never required to. Singers must have breaks between vocally demanding songs strategically inserted in which to save their voices over the course of a two-hour performance. Drummers and guitarists need breaks in order to pace themselves. Even logistical concerns regarding instrument changes and tuning changes govern setlist creation.

Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson has to pace his operatic vocals throughout a performance, whereas Metallica's Lars Ulrich has to take into account the physical fatigue of drum-heavy tracks such as "One" or "Blackened." Such human frailties are all part of the creative challenge of reaching the optimum live setlist.

Unlike setlists, playlists emerged from the listener's perspective. Formerly private mixtapes or CDs, playlists are now digital lists that serve endless purposes: establishing mood, enhancing activity, or expressing personal style.

The most important distinction is one of control. While setlists are a musician's conception of one collective experience, playlists permit listeners to become the architects of their own musical experience. A playlist can put Metallica's "The Unforgiven" and Iron Maiden's "Wasted Years" back to back, something that no concert could ever do.

Playlists also liberate music from time. A setlist must be contained within concert time, typically 90 minutes to three hours. Playlists are ephemeral background music or soundtracks for a day, accommodating listener needs rather than stage dictates.

Let’s Talk About The Modern

Technology has transformed both. Modern bands are making data-driven setlist decisions, tracking streaming data to determine which hometown fans may thrill to or what off-the-wall selections become crowd-pleasers. Artists now occasionally overhaul setlists midway through a tour in response to live feedback through social media.

At the same time, algorithmic suggestion has transformed playlist creation, and streaming platforms suggest music based on listening patterns. This has achieved a fascinating equilibrium between automatic suggestion and human editing that was inconceivable during the era of physical media.

For all their difference, playlists and setlists have one thing in common: a desire to heighten the musical experience through attention to sequence. Both acknowledge that context is everything—that songs mean something different when positioned in dialogue with each other.

When Metallica juxtaposes "Battery," their aggressive, in-your-face battle anthem, with the pop-rock of "The Day That Never Comes," they're creating contrast and emotional complexity. When a playlist places Iron Maiden's literary "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" next to someone else's contemporary spin on timelessness themes, it creates intellectual and emotional bridges across time and style.

So, setlists and playlists are both a curatorial art. Whoever creates them, mythical artists for the masses or for their own personal use, they take individual songs and turn them into coherent musical experiences that are more than the sum of what any one of the individual tracks can deliver.

As music listening continues to change, so too will the relationship between these two modes of song sequencing, each informing and affecting the other in the ongoing dialectic between performers and audience.