Okay. Confession time. I enjoy Taylor Swift. There, I said it. I also enjoy old country such as Johnny Cash and George Jones. With that being said, I also enjoy rap artists such as Kendrick Lamar, A$AP Rocky, Childish Gambino, and I love Kanye West. I even have a sweatshirt of his. Seriously, I wear it in public sometimes.
These artists come from totally different musical genres, but I still enjoy the music that they create and offer. Most of my friends know that I’m into different types of music. Sometimes even funky stuff. Every time they get in my car they know I’m going to play something random that they’ve never heard of before. Here are three popular questions that usually follow: “How can you listen to this?”, “Where do you find this stuff?” and “Can we please change it to something else?” I often abide to the last question to preserve friendships.
This mutated love of music I have comes from having an open mind about music. Music is an art, which makes it a tool for expression as well as many other aspects. Each artist has a voice and expresses his or her voice in anyway that seems fit. Whether it is with verse, sounds, beats or even instrumentals, artists use these forms to express themselves with the music they create. What may sound strange to you might not sound so strange to them.
When it comes to music, a lot of people are only exposed to what’s on the radio or what they hear on television. With that being the minimum music exposure a person receives, the average person has only heard the opening chords to the song that is music. The rest of it is still left to be heard.
With the help of the Internet, we are able to discover not just kinds of music we enjoy, but old or different kinds of music that might sound pleasing that we’ve never heard of before. Spotify and Pandora are also great ways to help with finding new music.
Don’t be afraid to wander off into the different genres that the musical world has to offer. Try out some jazz by Miles Davis, John Coltrane or Charles Mingus. Maybe some alternative by Radiohead or The National. Try studying to classical music by Mozart, Bach or Beethoven. Even some electronic by Purity Ring, Caribou or Grimes. You can never listen to too much music. After your musical journey, you can always come back to the roots of what you’re familiar with.
All I ask of you is to keep an open mind when it comes to different types of music. Venture out and find things you might not be familiar with. Don’t judge a book by its cover, or in this case, a song by its tune. Don’t write it off because it’s not something you’re familiar with. Listen to the lyrics, feel the beats, listen to the sounds and try to comprehend what the artist is trying to express in the music. Music is a never-ending frontier with new horizons just waiting to be discovered. Who knows? Your next favorite type of music might be something that you’ve never even heard of before.
