Music has always been a big part of my life. My musical interests have changed and expanded with age.
I grew up in a Christian family, so growing up I mainly listened to “Christian” music. The only times I did not was when I went places with my dad, he instilled in me a love for “oldies” music, which meant anything from 1960-70’s. When my siblings enrolled at our local high school, then the world of music opened up even more. My brother started listening to “screamo/hardcore” music. Screamo is a style of music where lyrics of a song are screamed and not sang. As a ten year old girl, I loved the way the singers growled out the lyrics. I loved the rebellious feeling listening to it gave me. When my friend’s brother would talk about screamo and I knew the bands he liked, it made me feel proud.
When I first became a teenager the “cool” type of music was rap. Rappers like Jay-Z and Kanye West were all the rage. As I got older popular “mainstream” music became more and more similar. Singers seemed more digitally done than actually talented. One of the big crazes was “emo” music, emo is short for emotional, so the songs dealt with emotions. Bands like Taking Back Sunday and Hawthorne Heights renewed the interest in the style of music originally started in the 1980’s.
I didn’t go to very many concerts, usually because of a lack of money or a way of getting there. Festivals were the best way for me to see bands I wanted all in one place on the same day. A big deal when I was a teen was Vans Warped Tour Festival, full of music and people skateboarding. I was really excited to go, but a bit disappointed when I arrived and found out how far the music style had shifted from earlier years.
I remember hiding my music from my parents. I was afraid of their reaction to the swearing in songs I listened to or just the overall content. I would bring CD’s into the car and skip half the songs, so I would be lectured. I remember when I bought a CD by a singer name MIKA and I was with my dad in the car after I bought it, I put it in and cringed afraid of what he would think of the content. But the music my dad grew up with made him pretty lenient when it comes to what I listen too, not only did he not care, but he liked MIKA. Not exactly the response I thought I would get.
Overall I think the music I listened to changed with age. When I was just becoming a teen and changing in every way, I listened to screamo and metal to get out my frustration. As I got older I started listening to more subdued music, music I could fall asleep too. Music types come and go with each generation, none better than any other- just different. But they’re all important, because each type of music has a fan somewhere.
(Image from: http://www.stmattsmanly.org.au/youthie/userimages/1243746816_arts-music-graphic.jpeg)
