Most people don’t keep journals anymore. But take a look at any iPod, and it’s a window to the soul of the owner. Music is the pulse of our generation, and without it we would be living in a black and white world; we’d be robots. Ask anyone what he or she couldn’t live without, or the one thing he or she would take on a desert island. For me, my iPod with my Pandora would be at the top. I just love music, and the more I think about it, it envelopes my everyday life.
Music is often taken for granted. We don’t think about how lucky we are to be able to exercise while listening to “Eye of the Tiger” or have the windows in the car down while blaring Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Think about it, though. Music is everywhere. Many restaurants here in Starkville play music while you eat. Walking to class from Dorman to Hand would take even longer if you couldn’t listen to a little John Mayer.
For me, music not only defines my life currently, but also my journey in life. You can tell what sort of person I was throughout my life by what was on my play list at the time. Way back when, at the naive age of 8 or 9 years old, Backstreet Boys and ‘NSync comprised my musical interests. I was apparently insane. I lost touch with music for about three years, until my freshman year of high school when I lost my mind again by getting into country music. Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney and Rascal Flatts were with me wherever I went. This was the same point in my life when I was a baseball player, constantly with a pack of sunflower seeds in my back pocket. Barbecue, of course.
Around my junior year of high school, I started to develop my musical interests of late. Funny how music brings up the fondest (or dreariest) of memories. I was riding in a friend’s car on the way to camp when The Killers’s “All These Things That I’ve Done” came streaming from the speakers. It spoke to me, man. The guitar riffs, the genius verses and the addicting “I’ve got soul but I’m not a soldier” chorus hit me in all the right ways. Music, as I see it now, had come to me.
My musical tastes now are mainly chill. Some people would call me a typical tool/bro/douchebag for listening to Dave Matthews, Jack Johnson or Phish, but whatevs, man. I call rap music an oxymoron most of the time. “YEAH, YEAH! I’m on a boat!”
One downside to good music is that it often contains profanities, which have to be censored. It sucks trying to listen to your favorite Lil Wayne song on the radio when b—- and p—- are bleeped out, doesn’t it? Maybe you should try listening to some real music, like the latest from Jason Aldean. Psh, yeah right. On the other hand, I do enjoy Corey Smith’s “F— the Po Po” because I like to ride by the police station on campus blaring it with one finger in the air (again, yeah right).
No, the thing is, music can’t be narrowed down to one specific type, genre, fan base, etc. What would we do if there were only one genre to listen to? God forbid it be rap or country. Our iPods will keep getting smaller and smaller as the storage space and our play lists continue to grow and grow. After all, that’s what makes the world go round, right?
Ben Leiker is a freshman majoring in biological engineering. He can be contacted at [email protected].