Musical Influences and Genres

·        My variety of music is huge. There is just so much that I listen to, and each song brings out a different reaction. I have this song I adore – Forever and Always by Parachute – and each time I listen to it, I get sad and want to breakdown and cry. At the same time, I have songs – Get Some, by Chevelle, for example – that make me want to rage and dance and set things on fire, so there’s that. Each song can totally bring out some strong emotions, but that’s just because I’m an emotional person.

·        I have a ton of songs that I love and can listen to dozens of times, but my all-time favorite song is My Demons by Starset. It’s not really connected to a certain time or place; I was driving my mom’s car around and it came on the radio, I liked it, SoundHound-ed it, and now I listen to it all the time. Every time it comes on, I just have to stop whatever I’m doing and just jam out until it’s over.

·        The genre of music I listen to has changed so drastically over the years. Growing up, both my parents listened to Country. At the time, it didn’t really bother me. But when my parents divorced my mom stopped listening to it, and as I grew up and became my own person, I started branching out in my music taste. Now, Country is one of the last things I will listen to.

·        I’m not sure why I listen to what I listen to. But I think my hatred (even if it might not be that strong) for Country music comes from my dislike of my dad. I want next to nothing to do with him, and that probably influences the thoughts towards the genre.

·        It’s about half and half with my friends. Some of them have the exact same music taste as I do, but at the same time, some of them listen to the exact opposite. Sure, it gets annoying, but we find middle ground and listen to something we can both enjoy. But basically, I don’t really make friends based on if they listen to the same music as I do. Most of the time, we’re already friends before we jam out to tunes together.

·        When I was younger I used to live down in Reeds Spring, Missouri. My mom lived in this little one bedroom apartment, and my brother, sister, and I would sometimes stay with her. She had this one CD by Pink – I don’t remember which one it is – but we would play it through the TV, turn it up all the way, open the door and window (because there was only one of each), and we would go play outside while belting out the lyrics. It was pretty fun, and we did it until we couldn’t stand each other anymore.

·        In my opinion, there isn’t a style of music that shouldn’t be tolerated. Music is how people express themselves, and if you say that their music cannot be listened to, you are basically saying that they can’t be themselves. Sure, there’s music I cannot stand and won’t listen to, but I not day it shouldn’t have been produced. Because somewhere out there in the world, someone took the time to write the song, to edit it, to produce it, sing it, promote it, and somewhere out there, that song is somebody’s favorite, and they can connect to it in a way they can’t connect to anything else.