Kia Drive Style Playlist Campaign – My Driving Playlist #AD

‘This post is a collaboration with Kia, but all thoughts and experiences are my own’

Did you know that the music you listen to in the car can actually influence the way that you drive? Kia recently published a study taking a look at the real-world driving range of electric cars and how the music you listen to while at the wheel can have an impact on your drive.

On a day-to-day basis, I don’t tend to use the car often, we always walk the school run as it is only a short distance from home but we do go out on lots of family adventures over the weekends and have a lot of mini breaks throughout the year, meaning we can spend hours together in the car to get to our latest destination for a fun-filled day or weekend.

Being cooped up in the car altogether can of course be a great way to reconnect and discuss our weeks however, more often than not it brings on the bickering, the chorus’ of are we nearly there yet or the arguing of he/she looked out of my window – I am sure we aren’t alone here and it always makes me want to turn the car around and head home, reconsidering why I bother spending money to have fun when there is far too much fighting from the back seats.

Music is always the answer to this problem for us and I ensure we have a car full of CD’s ready to calm every situation – as soon as one of the children’s favourite tunes starts playing they forget they hate each other and start singing, as do I and they are calm again.

Kia’s study showed that listening to classical music such as Beethoven’s Symphony Number 9 will make drivers calmer and up to 4 times as efficient in an all-electric Kia EV6.

I find if I am driving in the car on my own I prefer to listen to the radio as I can then listen to a more varied mix of songs with my preferred station being Heart. I turn the stereo down when they are talking but then crack it up loudly when my favourites come on such as Lewis Capaldi, Ed Sheeran and of course old favourites such as Oasis and the Spice Girls.

Certain songs always have a nostalgic effect when I hear them, listening to Oasis reminds me of attending their concert at Knebworth when I was 16, my first ever live gig and one I will never forget. I managed to get right up to the front – 4 rows from the front and then as I was so short watched a lot of it from the shoulders of someone in the row behind me – as you do at concerts, I’m not sure I would do something like that nowadays.

The music gets cranked up much louder if I am in the car alone, especially if it is at night as it helps to keep me alert and awake and I sing along at the top of my voice – with the windows done up, no one needs to hear my singing!

When the kids are with me they have their favourite CD which is Now 100 hits decade 2010’s – with Emmy being born in 2010 and Harry in 2012 it’s filled with hits they have grown up listening to and with 5 CD’s there is something on every disc which they love and ask for all the time.

Together we belt out tunes from Lady GaGa, Black Eyed Peas, Olly Murs, Sam Smith, Ariana Grande and lots of other great singers.

Listening to and enjoying music together as a family helps to pass the driving time, the hours in the car don’t seem as endless and the miles seem to pass quickly. A family holiday to our favourite destination of Cornwall means we are in the car for over 6 hours, killing the time singing along to our favourite music makes it far more enjoyable and certainly means fewer games of Eye Spy!

Of course, themed songs are on our Spotify long journey playlists, some include:

• Fly Away – Lenny Kravitz
• I Drove All Night – Cyndi Lauper
• Shiny Happy People – R.E.M
• Dancing In The Moonlight – Toploader
• Counting Stars – OneRepublic
• Adventure Of A Lifetime – Coldplay
• Fast Car – Jonas Blue

Then once we have sore throats from belying our songs together and headaches from our terrible signing we will pop on an story CD instead or plug our phones into the stereo so we can listen to Audible for some stories or even a podcast to relax us on our journey.

Do you have favourites you MUST listen to on a long car journey?

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