My drive style playlist

Having finally passed my test this April {I’d been learning for a couple of years that was very stop/start with all the lockdowns, but I passed first time!} I am loving the freedom that having a car gives me. We’ve travelled quite a lot over the last few months, some longer journeys and short ones daily.

I am a big music lover, there is always something playing at home – be it the radio or something I’ve put on Spotify, and I find that I need something on in the car too. I don’t like silence!

I was really interested to read about a study that Kia have conducted in one of their Electric Cars, showing how the music played in a car can increase the efficiency of drivers and can impact real-world driving range.

More often than not, on our short journeys, we will just pop the radio on – I usually have teenagers in the car and they control the dials! We love some good pop songs that we can sing along to.

Recently, we went on a road trip back to where I used to live. It was a three-hour drive so we decided to make a family playlist to listen to whilst in the car. I thought I’d share it here with you as part of the Drive Style Playlist Campaign.

With two teenagers in the car, a seven-year-old, a toddler and me, letting everyone pick a few songs and putting it on shuffle was the safest way to avoid an argument.

I did veto a couple of songs, and added some of my favourites. Since reading about this study – I’ve paid attention to how I drive when I’m listening to different songs and really can see how they affect me! Faster tempos do make you more likely to go faster, and if it’s a proper sing-along song then it’s easy to get lost in the song and not pay as much attention to the road.

For the songs I chose on the playlist – it was an eclectic mix of genres. I started with this calming song –

I often get quite anxious before a long journey, especially on roads I don’t know and this calmed me down perfectly to begin with. It’s one of my all-time favourites and always makes me feel amazing. The teens might not have agreed….!

We had a variety of Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinlson, Mabel and AJ Tracey songs from the teens, as well as some reggae fun for the toddler…

We got stuck in traffic on the motorway for a while, so we skipped ahead to some good classic sing-a-long tunes to keep us motivated while the traffic was stop/start for half an hour. Some ABBA, Queen, David Bowie, Elton John and Dolly Parton.

Having the music to distract me in a traffic jam really helped alleviate any frustrations!

Once we were on the move we had some more pop – Taylor Swift, One Direction, Mimi Webb – plus some of my teen favourites from Nirvana, Green Day and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

By the end of our journey, when we were all getting a little tired, having some uplifting tunes on helped keep us going, they stopped me feeling so tired and helped me to keep my focus. My final choice that I got to listen to on our drive was ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ – always makes me smile!

What are your favourite songs to drive to? Have you noticed if they affect the way you drive?

This post is written in collaboration with Kia, but all thoughts are my own.

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