With my 28th birthday quickly approaching (ICK), I would like to revisit all the songs throughout my life that has gotten me to where I am today.
Music is one of the most subjective forms of entertainment. Whereas one person could find a song great, another might find that same song annoying. I try to be aware of all the songs that has consciously informed my mindset in the world, and has made me who I am today.
Phase 1: Childhood
Growing up with many siblings that happened to be of the opposite gender, my early music tastes were of the pop type, mostly because of the “entertainment” we often saw on television, and the songs often played on the radio (102.7 KIISFM). As a result, boy bands like N Sync and Backstreet Boys don’t bother me because they remain a remnant of my early years growing up in the United States. We used to watch the “I Want it That Way” music video a billion times when we were children.
As I got older, certain songs gravitated more towards me, because of their lyrical quality and the way that they made me feel. Up until that point, I didn’t necessarily pay attention to what songs said, but certain songs were able to provide me with many emotional feelings, the first of which being Five For Fighting’s “Superman”.
With that said, certain songs still remained with me due to their catchiness and their overall lyrical quality (even if they ended up later being very simple songs of the four-chord variety).
Phase 2: The Teenage Years
As a teenager, my music tastes were informed by a) whether I thought the performer singing the said song was attractive and b) songs that made me happy when I was an overly emotional teenager.
The first part made me obsessed with certain artists like JoJo, who isn’t so attractive any more.
Being that I was an overly emotional and dependent teenager always vying for teenage love, I found certain songs resonated pretty deeply with my teenage years. These were often rock songs or even songs from the television series “The O.C.”, a staple of where many of my music I still listen to comes from today.
When I say I don’t necessarily prefer one genre over another, that is probably a lie. I do think my music tastes are biased in favor of pop, but there have been many times when I have heard songs of other genres that I like – my personal favorite being a folk song from Patrick Park provided below:
Phase 3: Adulthood
My tastes didn’t necessarily change much in college, and I kind of just listened to whatever other people liked up until that point. From my worst summer of my life in 2009 I did thoroughly enjoy listening to more uplifting songs that would make me feel better when I was sad.
Don’t even get me started on breakup songs, which were absolutely necessary to deal with the aftermath of many failed relationships.
From college to the present, my music tastes have largely stayed the same. I think whenever I hear a song now I pay extra attention to the lyrics. If the lyrics resonate with me in any way, I like the song better. If the song is catchy, I can still enjoy the song for its musical qualities as well, which is why I’ve recently gotten into some EDM music. If the song is catchy AND the lyrics resonate with me, then I have a song that I will continue listening to for the rest of my life.
Here’s hoping music will continue to get me through the good and bad times ahead in life’s upcoming adventures.
