Motivational Music: or Music to Move You

You know the one, that motivational song, whenever it comes on the radio you just start to sing along. If you're in your car, traffic ceases to get on your nerves, you turn up the volume, tell the kids to "be quiet a minute, listen to this song", and if you are in your home it might make you dance.

The song might not have been motivational in nature, may not have an up beat message, or quick tempo, sometimes it's slow and bluesy, or it's a jazz song with no words at all. Still, for whatever reason, this song moves you from the inside out. You would buy the ticket to see the show, if you knew they would play this song. You would want to be in the front row, to feel this music blasting from the speakers.

Oh these are the songs that make you smile, sigh, cry... These are your favorites, and when they play, if anyone else sings along, they had better know the words. You would not tolerate mistakes to mar your inspiration, you'd have to start the song over if that happened!

When these songs came out they were put on albums, or tapes, later came CDs. Now we have MP3s and MP4s? Our ringtone can be an anthem from our youth, or a song that came out yesterday.

In these songs are the right words to turn our frowns into smiles, our tears into laughter, our fears into the courage to face all foes! Why does it take the radio to bring back this memory? You can make a YouTube channel, save all the songs you love, and the versions of those songs that you love most, to your own personal playlist!

My son's friend showed me two different ways. If you haven't signed up for YouTube, what are you waiting for? It's free. You can even sign in with your Google account, so no excuses! Once there you can set up your channel with whatever features you like. You can save a few videos to favorites, or you can go into your account, click the "new" tab next to where it says "Playlist" and just name and add. That's just too easy! If you want a random mix just for today, you can start a Queue. The queue will automatically reset to zero when you shut down your browser. Whenever you click save on a video, it will give you the option Favorite, Queue, and whatever playlists you have already created.

Now I can start a playlist and have the songs play continuously while I exercise, or clean house, or do the research for my hubs. I can have the music playing, even as I write. YouTube makes it easier than ever because when you get to a video you like, there is a playlist at the top of the page already, along with suggested (related) videos. If you like any of those songs, you can add them to your current list, or just set up a queue for the day and let it play. The queue will not be saved when you log off.

Once you set up a playlist you can share it, with others by going into your account and selecting the playlist you wish to share, then click share and copy the link.

So I created a playlist of motivational music for this return to the 60 Day Challenge with Sunforged, joined by returning members of the original team, and a new group who have not experienced this intense writing/promotional endeavor. I share the list with you, hoping these songs will help you also, and let you see the diversity your playlist may take. Having offered to add requests to the list really fleshed it out!

In my research I often run across a search term in Google that includes one of more YouTube videos. Now that I know how. I'm putting videos into groups. I have a thirty song list for this challenge, but a 70 song list for housework and exercise. In this way I can choose, and share my playlists with others who need them for a similar use.

I have playlists that I share with family by designating their name so that they can watch the videos I want them to see. I can even mail them the link to the list. While that may seem extreme, with my family spread out throughout the country, when a number of videos strike me as something a particular friend or family member may enjoy, then I create a list. It's as good as, or better than a letter. It lets them know that in the midst of your day, they crossed your mind, and you made a list for them, like a radio dedication (back in the old days we did radio dedications...)

Sharing the 60 day challenge playlist with others, and offering to add some of their favorites as well, also inspired two more hubs because those artists are a each hub in themselves. I could probably spend the rest of my time as an HP writer just covering music videos and record albums from yesteryear. I could bring back memories for people, what music was to us when Smokey sang... (Robinson, yeah, a song here...)

It's not that we forget our favorites, but that there is so much being added daily to YouTube that we may now find information we never had access to before! Television was live when it first came out, and some shows or excerpts of shows are only now becoming available to the public.

Some music that hasn't seen the light of day in forty years or more, is now available on YouTube. When I talk to someone who doesn't have a YouTube membership I'm amazed that they would let this valuable resource slip through their fingers. You can save and catalog videos for a series of hubs, keeping that tab open as you select the videos for each hub. When you have your own channel, it's an avenue to getting more views on your hubs. If you put the link to your Hub Pages Profile on your channel, then YouTubers will soon be reading your hubs.

The final and simplest reason to make a playlist is as a set of background music for your hub. You can put the link at the beginning of your hub, inviting those who are reading to listen to your playlist while they read.

If you are writing about a particular individual you can create a playlist of their work, or a group of 10 songs, or speeches, as a sort of gift to your reader.

There's nothing worse than reading an article, wanting to know more, and having to do the research on your own. If you write about Zig Ziegler, you can create a playlist of Zig Ziegler from YouTube videos. Or Frank Zappa, or Meat Loaf.

Sometimes we get writer's block. Sometimes we put ourselves under pressure (I know I do), sometimes it's the songs of our life that can get us out of our rut, our writer's block, or out from under the pressure we put on ourselves.

YouTube is second only to Google as a research tool. It is  also a tool that can be used for inspiration, motivation, education, and especially to provide music that moves you.

YouTube is a social network like any other, and a great way to share your HubPages and your blogs. Just set up your channel, and add the links on your profile. Commenting on the videos of others, asking their permission for use here on HP and giving them credit in your hub, are just a few of the ways you can harness the power of this incredible network, and use it to your advantage.