Music is the best!

Me rocking out in 1988

I love music. I remember being 4 and sitting on the floor of our lounge room with these oversized 80’s headphones listening to records. I remember I was 4, because the record I had was called 4. It was produced for us 4 year olds. Us 4 year olds love things that are related to being 4 years old. Like, I would use 4 to count things down. "1, 2, 3, 4, go!"

Still one of my all time favourite albums!

I also loved listening to the Beatles records. My parents were (are?) big Beatles fans. My dad is Liverpuddle-ian, so maybe it’s in homage to that. Or maybe it’s because the Beatles freakin’ rock.

For my 13th birthday one of my friends gave me a CD gift voucher for my birthday, probably with the notion that I get something cool like the spice girls or backstreet boys. Yep. I bought an ABBA CD. My friend was mighty horrified.

To this day I still absolutely love ABBA. They take me back to my early teens, to a place where my thoughts aren’t and I can get to where my feelings are. People say that ABBA is bubblegum pop, but I don’t get that. There’s something haunting about Agnetha’s voice, and there’s an underlying sadness in the melodies that stir up that same sadness I have inside.


"I just have a lot of feelings"

I think that’s why I love music. Music talks to my feelings, places that I can’t access on my own. I know I’m incredibly emotional; I cry a lot, I laugh a lot, I sing too often... but I find it difficult to connect to my feelings. I get frustrated with myself because I get stuck in my head; I want to understand why I react the way I do.

With music I can step away from these judgemental thoughts and just use my senses to experience the world, rather than telling myself this is how I’m “supposed” to be.  I’m allowed to cry during a song because it’s moving; crying for no reason is just weird.  Music has the capacity to make me feel anything. Happy, sad, anxious, energetic, quixotic, Kafkaesque. Music is absolutely incredible!

So one of my pet hates is when people say “I’m into every kind of music – except genre x”. Genre x is usually either country music, or “heavy metal” (just wait until I introduce them to black metal!)

All genre’s have their purpose.  Sure, some country music is terrible; just like some pop is terrible, or some classical is really boring.  But every single genre I’ve ever listened to has its gems.  Why write off an entire genre because you heard one song that you didn’t enjoy?  One is a ridiculously tiny sample size. You expect to make inferences for an entire population from one thing?  You're not a scientist at all!

Then again, I shouldn't judge.  I know I subscribe to black and white thinking.  (I'm the worst!)

... Music is the best!