Since birth, I’ve been obsessed with music. I grew up listening to all kinds of music, all the time, every single day. There was always at least one TV that was set to the “music choice” channel, whether it was hip-hop and R&B, pop hits, punk, rock, or, my favorite, rap 2k. Even when I was alone in my room, playing with my toys, there was always music playing and every night when I went to bed, I would have my parents turn on the radio. When I was around 5 years old, my parents gave me my first MP3 player. It was pink and white, and came with matching headphones. To me, it was magical. I could now listen to music whenever I wanted. If you thought it was excessive before, it was about to get much worse. My mom downloaded some of my favorite artists like Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg (the radio edits, of course).
Once I started elementary school, I realized that I could not bring my MP3 player anymore, so I really started to express myself musically in other ways. Music was one of my favorite classes, and I joined the choir in third grade. I loved to sing, and I loved to play the instruments that we had. In fourth grade, I tried (and failed) to convince my mom to let me join the orchestra, but it wasn’t until fifth grade that I was allowed to play an instrument and it was in the band, as a clarinet. Many “Mary had a little lamb”s and “Hot cross buns” later, I got into middle school, where I continued band and choir for the next three years. I think that middle school was where my music taste started to really branch from whatever my mom had been listening to, into something uniquely mine. (I will say, though, I still listen to a bunch of the same music as my mom did, and still does, listen to). In sixth grade, before the pandemic, I started listening to more modern rap. This, according to my Apple Music Wrapped, included YNW Melly, Kodak Black, Lil Uzi Vert, Playboi Carti, and JuiceWRLD.
During 2020, something must have caused my music taste to get more alternative, whether that was just being a weird, edgy pre-teen or the quarantine that forced us inside. I started listening to exclusively grunge, alternative rock, and hyperpop (as did many during the pandemic). Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, and 100 gecs, to name a few. This music definitely defined my middle school years. I started dressing (what I thought was) grunge and surrounded myself with friends of the same musical taste. I spent the majority of my summer and the beginning of seventh grade listening to grunge and alt-rock through my headphones all day at school, and on December 25th, 2020, Playboi Carti released Whole Lotta Red. At the time, I had mostly stopped listening to rap (for the sake of being edgy and cool, probably), but this album caught my attention. It was different from his other albums because it was
a punk-influenced, edgier style, which, at the time, really resonated with me. I loved this album, but unfortunately kept that to myself because none of my friends really listened to that kind of music. Throughout eighth grade, I listened to a lot of indie subgenres, but those weren’t very significant or stand out to me.
If there is one thing I can always count on, it’s that I will always fall back on rap music. Early into high school, I started to explore the genre once again, and as I got deeper into the scene, I discovered underground rap. (Which, arguably, has a different name and probably 100 different subgenres, but for the sake of simplicity, I will say underground rap. I feel like this was the genre that felt the most like me. It combines rap, which I love dearly, with punk and alternative rock influences. Throughout high school, I listened to mostly underground rap, and I started to realize how music can connect people. I made friends and started relationships on the foundations of music.
I’ve gone through many music phases in my life. So many that I had to glaze over many important music phases and moments in my life, because otherwise this column would quadruple in length. Of course, all credit goes to my mom, who, to this day, inspires the music I listen to, and even when I went through my edgy-middle-schooler phase, she inspired my music. I think now that I’m reaching the end of high school, I’ve hit almost an equilibrium in music taste. I’m listening to all kinds of music rather than exclusively one genre at a time. I am now one giant collection of all the music I’ve ever liked before, and I think that’s what really lets me enjoy it, but I still am so grateful for the meaningful connections I’ve made through the music I’ve listened to over the years, and I still hold them dear to my heart.
