I was never a big John Cusack fan until I saw the movie High Fidelity.  It's a simple movie about a guy that works at a record shop going through a breakup with his long-time girlfriend.  (It's also the first time I remember seeing Jack Black in a major Hollywood picture.)  Now, the plot itself was a bit swallow, but the memorable part of the movie is how John's character, Rob, uses Top 5 lists constantly in his narration of the story--uses the playlist style to describe the memorable moments of his life, with the entire plotline being a recap of the top 5 breakups in his life.

Having a close friend going through a recent breakup, this movie came to mind immediately, and so did an idea.  As somebody who works in a record shop, Rob wouldn't necessarily need help creating his top 5 breakup songs ever, but the average person does.  Or their top 5 workout songs.  Or the absolute best 5 songs of the psychedelic rock era.  I have an opinion on all three of the categories above, but unfortunately, I already need to know about the music in order to put them in these playlists that provide the soundtrack of my life.  So I'm stuck with Ben Folds' "Selfless, Cold, and Composed" at the end of a relationship or "Eye of the Tiger" for the end of a workout every time.

There have been multiple playlist sharing services setup on the internet, including the rather boring "iMixes" in the iTunes Music Store, but none really gives you more than a single person's opinion.  What would be great is the collaboratively voted top songs for a mood, situation, genre, year, or whatever, chosen by the people.  What you want is a VH-1 "Top 100"-style list for nearly every genre or situation out there.

The way this could work is by having site moderators in charge of the overall playlists that are being created.  They create and moderate suggestions for new playlists.  The playlists could be based on anything.  Breakups.  Workouts.  Halloween.  Hendrix.  Ducks.  A user on the site could sign in and view any of these playlists.  Using a set amount of points, they could add songs to a playlist or choose to vote currently existing songs "up the charts".  If they choose to justify their decisions with a description of the song and why it belongs on a list, they might be able to vote more.

The killer feature would be to have something like this built into a pre-existing music store (*clearing throat and looking at Microsoft and Apple*).  Click one button and download the top 20 Thanksgiving songs ever written, as voted by the community.  Pick and choose from the "It's raining outside" community playlist.  Come back to the page and comment on the songs after you've had a chance to listen to them.  Just my two cents.

And of course, the best breakup playlist ever is:

5.  "Gone" - Ben Folds, Rockin' the Suburbs.  Everything he writes is a bit tongue-and-cheek, and this song is no different.  Also pretty easy to play on the piano as a crowd-pleaser at parties.

4.  "Don't Look Back in Anger" - Oasis, (What's the Story) Morning Glory.  Maybe I'm more into melody than lyrics, because without looking up the lyrics on the net, I'm really not sure what's been sung in this song, but the hook is based on Canon in D, making it instantly catchy.

3.  "I'll Follow the Sun" - The Beatles, Beatles for Sale.  This song sounds much happier than the lyrics and I appreciate that.  A bit like flipping the bird with the Sesame Street theme song in the background.

2.  "Already Gone" - The Eagles, On the Border.  Maybe I like this for the same reason as above.  Maybe it's just a bit corny.  I like it though.

1.  "Selfless, Cold, and Composed" - Ben Folds Five, Whatever and Ever, Amen.  The lyrics are actually from a letter his former girlfriend wrote to him after a breakup, but they really are good.  I'm a sucker for a string section as well, and this song really builds to a nice payoff towards the middle.  Best breakup song ever, bar none.