She surveys the room carefully before turning the computer and finding the headphone jack. Her fingers become red from the pressure of plugging the headphones in and out. She must be absolutely sure no sound escapes the metal walls. She shirks from the discussion of musical artists, nodding emptily at the preferences of her friends. No one can know, she has told herself countless times. And so she lives a life of personal espionage, forever closing computer windows and muting speakers.
I haven't known you all for very long, technically speaking. And yet, the thin veil of relative detachment afforded by the internet has granted me the ability to share this with you.
My music taste is varied at best, fickle at worst. I am the kind of person that will devote herself to one song for a solid week, and never listen to it again. If I happen to encounter it again, I will likely be writhing in pain, utterly embarrassed at my poor judgment. Of my musical phases, there are many that I would rather forget (most of them concentrated in the murkiness that comprised the latter half of elementary school and middle school). I am not quite comfortable enough to detail them here-- let's save that for never.
Perhaps my fickleness isn't as bad as I make it out to be. I can safely say that I have become (somewhat) more culturally aware due to my chronic tune-sampling tendencies. Eclectic would be
a nice way to put it, but in all honesty, I'm not quite sure how to describe it.
A few of the bands I have added to my ever-growing list over the past year or so include Daughter, Florence and the Machine, and The Hush Sound. At the moment, I have become enamored with a band called Metric, and have been listening to a few songs of theirs nonstop for the past two weeks. Like most of the artists I encounter in my strange trek through the music world, they are a little old, but still active. I cannot claim to adore their entire repertoire, since I have only listened to five songs, give or take. My favorites, as of 5:37 p.m. on Saturday, happen to be "Sick Muse" and "Black Sheep." I would post a link to them here, but I will leave you instead with a warning: listen at your own peril.
If we were to detail everyone's musical journeys I think that we'd all be embarrassed. This past summer I worked with some toddlers in an English Learning Environment and so one thing that we'd do is we'd play them English music and movies. Among Toy Story and Snow White another movie that I saw too many times was "Barney and Friends Sing-A-Long special" after 4 weeks I found myself humming them constantly around the house on days I didn't even need to go to work. I suppose that you could say that my summer anthem went something like, "I love you, you love me..." Needless to say, I think if I ever have to hear it again I'll find myself writhing in pain as well.
ReplyDeleteFor me, music isn't a influential force. I know that for a lot of people their music affects their mood, creativity, and lot of other stuff I'm not cool enough to know. I have things playing in the background, but ask me what the last four songs are and I'll reply with a smile and say, I had music on? Honestly. That's why I always find it so interesting to find people for whom music is important. It's a great conversation starter, and I get introduced to new bands (that I'll add to my list of things Ill get to one day:) ). That's why you should share your unconventional espionage lifestyle with people!
ReplyDeleteI feel like I go through the same things that you do. I have phases where I listen to genres ranging from blues-rock to pop-alt to electro, and artists ranging from Taylor Swift to Interpol, only for a month or so, and then I delete those playlists and start new ones. Sometimes I too get obsessed with one artist or one song and I listen to them over and over. I once listened to the song "Cosmic Love" by Florence and the Machine 10 times in a row. I'm not even kidding. And I still love that song, even though my Florence phase has mostly passed.
ReplyDeleteI feel like my musical tastes are severely underdeveloped. When I'm in the car or on Spotify I'll usually just listen to whatever is on the pop station. I did have a phase where I was really into lesser known female rappers. Listening to music and focusing on other tasks at the same time is impossible for me. I think that limits my intake, but maybe it's time to expand my horizons a little more.
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