Homeward Bound For Thanksgiving: Ultimate Road Trip Playlist

By Elana Goodwin on November 24, 2014

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, many students will be heading home to spend the holiday with family. But no matter how long your drive is, you need a road trip playlist to listen to while you’re homeward bound.

Photo Credit: Elana Goodwin

Of course, you could always just listen to Spotify or Pandora, and listen to whatever pops up, or put on the radio, but this trip home, why not make your own trip soundtrack?

Make a playlist on your phone or iPod, or go old school with an actual mix CD. Here are some suggestions for making your ultimate road trip playlist.

1. Go Classic Rock. Songs with hard and heavy beats can be fun to blast and listen to while driving fast on the highway. Pack your road trip playlist with tunes like AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell,” “Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen, and The Rolling Stone’s “Start Me Up.”

Other classic hits to add: “Here I Go Again” by Whitesnake, “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey, Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ On A Prayer,” and “City of Beautiful Lights” by U2. With a classic rock road trip playlist, you’ll be singing along and burning up the miles in no time.

2. Go Literal. One of my favorite ways to make a road trip playlist is to search for songs that have to do with cars, driving, walking, etc. A literal playlist gives you some limits as to what can be included but it makes creating the actual playlist pretty fun and allows you to rediscover older songs you forgot about.

Start off your literal road trip playlist with hits like Rihanna’s “Shut Up And Drive,” “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” by The Proclaimers, “A Thousand Miles” by Vanessa Carlton, and “Come With Me Now” by KONGOS.

Other hits to include: “Life Is A Highway” either the original by Tom Cochrane or the Rascal Flatts version, “Dirt Road Anthem” by Jason Aldean, Maroon 5′s “Maps,” and “Highway Don’t Care” by Tim McGraw featuring Taylor Swift and Keith Urban.

3. Go Soundtrack-Crazy. Another great way to pick the soundtrack to your road trip is to actually pick out soundtracks you want to listen to on the road. Choose a few of your favorite or new soundtracks to make up your road trip playlist.

Some great ones to include: “The Fault In Our Stars” soundtrack which features artists like Ed Sheeran, Charli XCX, Birdy and more. Or listen to the “Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix, Vol. 1″ which features lots of oldies like Jackson 5 and David Bowie that were in the movie.

A last suggestion is in honor of “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1″ coming out: listen to the soundtracks from “The Hunger Games,” “Catching Fire” and “Mockingjay.”

The three albums feature lots of great artists like Taylor Swift, Lorde, Coldplay, Tove Lo, Imagine Dragons, Maroon 5 and more.

Ocean Avenue sign in California
Photo Credit: rachelleet.wordpress.com

4. Go Destination-Specific. Make a road trip playlist with songs that reference specific places, cities, etc. You’d be surprised how many songs have the names of places in the title or call out a location in a song.

Kick off your destination-specific road trip playlist with Phantom Planet’s “California,” Augustana’s “Boston,” and “Empire State of Mind (New York)” by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys.

Other great songs to add: “Ocean Avenue” by Yellowcard, “Black Horse and A Cherry Tree” by KT Tunstall, Cee Lo Green’s “Bright Lights Bigger City, and Matchbox Twenty’s “Bright Lights.”

5. Go Top 40. If you’re a person who prefers listening to the newest hits, make your road trip playlist a Top 40 music fest. Load up your playlist with hits like Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” or “Shake It Off,” Hozier’s “Take Me to Church,” “All About That Bass” by Meghan Trainor, and Maroon 5′s “Animals.”

Other tunes to include: Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me,” “Jealous” by Nick Jonas, and “Bang Bang” by Jessie J with Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj.

6. Go “Home.” Another one of my favorite ways to make a road trip playlist is to look for songs with the word “home” in the title or ones that I know have “home” within the song. Lots of beats include lyrics about coming, going, or leaving home, and you can always discover some new tunes with the theme while looking!

Start your home road trip playlist with “Home” by Chris Daughtry, “Coming Home” by Diddy-Dirty Money featuring Skylar Grey, Phillip Phillip’s “Home,” and “Home” by Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros.

Other great “home” songs to add: “Home” by Michael Buble, Andy Grammar’s “Back Home,” OneRepublic’s “Come Home,” and “Hold On, We’re Going Home” by Drake.

So before you head home for the holidays, make your ultimate road trip playlist — no matter what songs you choose, you can’t go wrong.

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