My Own Post about Music

I've just asked my 101 class to post about how they make sense of music, so I am going to do something similar.



I've recently started to notice how the music that I really listen to-- the kind that I choose when it's just me in the car-- was mostly influenced by what I liked and disliked about my parents' music when I was younger and then compounded by the things I started to like in junior high. I think we all have a certain affinity for the stuff that we really liked when we were just starting to be teenagers because that was the time when we could start exploring our own tastes, so we like it with more passion that it possibly deserves. That's got to be why I will still stop to listen to "Bust a Move" or "Ice Ice Baby" whenever I hear it. There's little possible other explanation.



But back to the observation about my parents' music. They made us listen to country. I vividly remember seeing Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers sing "Islands in the Stream" at a county fair we went to. I do not like country very much today. There's still some stuff that I will listen to that is country, but not anything like what I felt was forced on me back then. (I have, however, found myself unintentionally listening to and singing along with a John Denver song) The stuff that I still like that my parents listened to was their more personal tastes. My dad is a big fan of long, sweeping songs with lots of harmonies and instrumental parts. Think Santana, Chicago, The Eagles, Crosby Stills Nash and Young. My dad loves any song he can sing along to. In fact, he doesn't even care if he knows the words or not; he just wants to sing. And to have enough harmony options to switch to a different tone of voice when he tires of singing in one way for too long. My mom chooses music she can dance to. Now, my mom doesn't really dance-- she does what we call "the Mom dance." She holds her hands in fists like a boxer and twists and pumps her arms to the beat of the music. She never sings along. She prefers 80's music, country music, obscure music...really eclectic taste (Emmylou Harris and Bob Segar to Beck's "Loser" to 80's hair bands like Poison).

So anyway...this post was to say that I can tell that much of what I like is a direct result of what my parents really enjoy. And it's the stuff that they enjoy on a visceral level, the songs that make them move or sing or turn up the volume. I don't care as much for the music that they react more mildly to. Then the other major influence is the music that was important and meaningful to me at different points in my life. My junior high music and my college music will always be important to me. In fact, The Beatles and Dave Matthews Band were the two bands I listened to the most in college, and they are the most represented bands in my iTunes.