This is NPR's Life Kit. I'm Andrew Limbong, reporter at NPR's Arts Desk.

Remember that movie High Fidelity from 2000? The one with John Qsack that recently got remade into a TV show on Hulu.

Qsack's supposed to be this snobby record store owner named Rob. And there's this scene where he's talking about the rules to making a great mix tape.

Now the making of a good compilation tape is a very subtle art. Many do's and don'ts. First of all, you're using someone else's poetry to express how you feel. This is a delicate thing.

I've loved this movie since before I realized Rob is supposed to be kind of a jerk. And as such, I've long been obsessed with making the right mix CDs and playlists.

But in our algorithm run world of today, it's worth asking why even bother making playlists anymore. I mean, the robots always seem to know the exact right emo songs to get me ready for fall. So why fight them?

Don't get me wrong. The algorithm is great at the educated guesses, but no one knows exactly what you like like you do, right? There's no DJ better than yourself to kind of hit those marks.

That's NPR's own Bobby Carter, a guy who lives and breathes music on top of producing the tiny desk concerts for NPR music. Bobby has performed as DJ Cousin B for over two decades. And he knows just about everything there is to know about curating music.

And he says Spotify is great and all, but the act of putting together your own playlist speaks its own language.

I mean, a lot of us aren't great with words, so why not let the song tell it, you know? As high fidelity's Rob says using someone else's poetry is a very delicate thing. So in this episode of LifeKit, some tips on how to make the perfect playlist for any occasion.

For yourself or for someone else.

So to start this conversation, I asked Bobby, big picture, why are playlists important? What do they do for you?

And this time we're living in now, I mean, I know for sure that we listen to music differently. So you want, we're going through so much and so many different moves.

Obviously for me personally, I'm listening to stuff that just kind of keep me calm and keep me level.

So you want to try to music, you lean on music, so you want to make these playlists to kind of ensure that you're not alone. There's always a song to kind of carry you through things.

These playlists just simply help you get through, you know what I mean? And you need that.

Yeah, do you have different playlists for like, like doing dishes or like when you're when you're like at the gym, like, how do you how do you structure that plays out?

For my favorite, I want to say my favorite playlist that that's never ending that that I that's just I constantly add to is my weekend house cleaning playlist.

You can go so many places, but music to clean the house is just so essential.

What's on it?

Personally, oh my God, what's what's not on it, man? I like to go high energy, sliding the family stone and a bunch of new addition and even Atlanta, some more said in Jamaica.

You know, you name it fat Joe DJ, you name it just all the problem with that is the house isn't getting clean if you're busy like karaoke and buyers.

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