Student Blog: Music, My Best Friend

Just two years ago, I was a junior in high school with college life on the horizon and a tight-knit group of friends. Fast forward that time, and I'm a 19-year-old trying to figure out what life means while experiencing whatever college lifestyle I'm supposed to live. Thanks to Covid-19, my mind scrambled and I essentially "declared bankruptcy" (an homage to The Office) to rejuvenate myself in some unorthodox way. Currently, the classes I'm taking aren't overwhelming, my job allows me to maintain my youth while I still can enjoy it (basically flexible schedule), and my family still lets me live under their roof. There's also been an abundance of nuisances that I could get into but I'm not Roger Ebert going on and criticizing my life, since we collectively do that independently. A main aggravator though tends to be my dissatisfaction with people I encounter or get to know. I presume that sounds a bit much, but I can't lie with what I'm facing most in my life. But, with all this in mind, the one thing that continues to change yet remains the same without my volition is music.

By music, I mean playlists, songs on TikTok that I soon become obsessed with, or random songs that I hear on the radio (bless the Internet, seriously). The relationship between music and I is a loyalty that is unmatched. Ever since I was a fetus, all these instruments and voices coming together in perfect harmony have bounced off the walls of the many apartments I've lived through. Thus, being exposed to so many genres of music allows a child to learn to identify themselves in this world or cultivate a taste in a certain art form that develops into a marker of time to reflect back on. In my case, I'm very creative (just stating a fact, not bragging) and so when I listen to 70's soul, Ennio Morricone's scoring for a film, or a new subgenre influenced by social media called "internetcore" or "glitchcore", I'm transcending into a temporary wondrous panacea for my life at that moment.

Music is your number one empathizer. Every genre, every song, and every lyric to me represents different people to depend on to find solace or simply as an escapade from ennui. Especially since I associate much of my musical erudition with my parents' and grandparents' upbringing classics along with the new music I grew up with, you're exposed to a whole universe of magic that can really cheer you up at any given time. It's also something I take to heart since I've sung throughout my life and just always look further than just how music makes me feel, such as analyzing the instruments utilized or how harmonies were built to make a fabulous syncopation, and blah-blah-BLAH. I shan't bore you with that since I'm not a music teacher. But, I revel in the fact that music can solely convert itself into an act of leisure to a lengthy encyclopedia of rhythms that I must observe and then learn from. That flexibility that music as a whole can offer, is more than anyone could ever ask for, I mean you even have a tremendous catalog of songs in every language possible right at the touch of your fingers. Music can serve as a segway into making connections with new friends and learning something new that can benefit you in ways you may have never thought would. So, you also have the element of surprise looming in the air when you listen to that one radio station you haven't listened to in months.

The final reflection I'll share is how certain songs stick out and help you pinpoint that The 1975 phase back in the Tumblr days or in that prime Justin Bieber era, and just that speedy transport of nostalgia that makes life truly worth living. What I mean by this, is the fact that music always promises a desirable feeling without you even asking for it. It has that inexplicable effect. Honestly, that rush of endorphins is no joke. Whew! It's phenomenal that learning about that new snippet you've never heard of in your life and then trying to put a name to it on Google can transform your personality as well. Music has the attribute of making you feel courageous, confident, and jubilant, and it works wonders when you most need it. A situation like it would be when you finally depart from a friend group that was pulling you down with them constantly, so a certain album like Hot Pink by Doja Cat is the piece of music that helped me get over that unnecessary vexation at the prime of my childhood. Music allowed me to find who I wanted to be and have no worries about anyone else. I often still like to hear back and comprehend just what I was feeling.

To top it off, I leave you with this remark. Regardless of whether or not you haven't found your crowd yet or came out of that one ethics course with that professor making the lecture ad nauseam, you can pop in those tangled earphones and tune into that groovy Stevie Wonder or 2000's childhood classic High School Musical 2 on repeat, it can be your last and only resort and that's totally fine. Friends and family can't always be there or allow you to de-stress, which is okay. We're all connected through the constant streaming of music. I mean seriously, there are 365 million monthly Spotify listeners. Insane! So, I urge you to keep rocking out in the best way you know how to because music is indeed our best friend.