Why Music Matters to Me

Hi friends!

So I know the Oxy Music Library Blog is constantly blowing your mind with amazing music knowledge, but today I've decided to do something a little more personal. I believe that every single person has a unique connection to music, so today I'm going to tell you a little bit about how I fell in love with music, and what it means to me. Please feel free to comment and share your own stories, inspirations, or favorite memories about music!

I have loved music ever since I was born. I distinctly remember my 6th birthday party, when I insisted that my dad make me a mix tape (which was not an easy feat in 1995), and that it absolutely without question, had to include Rod Stewart's "We're Havin' a Party." Apparently I also didn't have the best taste as a child. I loved the cds my parents listened to while they did laundry (mostly James Taylor, Vince Gill, The Mills Brothers), and my brother and I would spend hours listening to Gilbert and Sullivan, Sibelius, and Dvorak after school (my brother, who is three years older than me, tried his best to be a music snob, and was probably the only eight year old in history that used to say that any song made after 1980 was "just noise"). With the exception of several fierce debates (namely, the fact that disco was my dad's idea of music Hell vs. my mom's deeply passionate love for anything by Zapp and Roger), music was a unifying force in my family, and many of my best memories of childhood include music in some respect.

My Dad, Picture from around the late 1970s?

My dad is a professional musician, so I was pretty much around music all the time. One of my dad's favorite games to play with us was "I'll put on a song, and you tell me what time signature it's in" or "I'm going to play you two different settings on my amplifier, you tell me which sound is rounder." Although I was unaware of it at the time, I think my dad's incredible love of music taught me to look at music from a new perspective, to appreciate the intricacy and intimacy of a song, even if its a piece of music I don't enjoy listening to (are you listening, John Cage?). My dad taught me how to listen to music, which in turn taught me how to feel it. He inspires me to this day to challenge myself with music, and to immerse myself in music in any way I can.

When I was 11, my dad bought me my very first Broadway recording ("West Side Story"). It was probably this instant that solidified my middle school nerd label, but I didn't really care. From there I discovered "Oklahoma" and "Showboat," then "The Producers" and "Fiddler on the Roof." I would listen to these cds on repeat for weeks at a time, using my stuffed animals as an audience and lip synching to Natalie Wood singing "Somewhere." I have never stopped loving musical theater, and to this day have cds like "Man of La Mancha," "Avenue Q," and "Spring Awakening" readily available in my car (my friends must hate me for this).

Me, circa 2003 during my awkward bass years

As I grew older, my tastes grew increasingly varied. In high school, I thought I was the coolest

kid ever because I got to go see Fall Out Boy during Spring Break. I tried for several years to go to band camp, but found that my interests lay in listening to music, not really playing it.

I slowly began to warm to the idea of hip hop and rap (it was hard when my dad grumpily argued that anything with a synthesizer was not actually music). In college I met an incredibly diverse group of people who introduced me to a whole new slew of music, particularly Scott and Seth, who are almost single-handedly responsible for my love of indie music.

Today, my itunes is veritable smorgasbord (that's right, I used the word smorgasbord). I am a staunch defender of country and love everything from Sonny Rollins to the Jonas Brothers (I think they're catchy. Don't judge.).

During my first trip to the Grand Canyon last weekend, I listened to "Largo" from Dvorak's "New World Symphony while sitting on a rock looking out over the canyon and cried. I thought about how one song has the power to move me so deeply, and the incredible story that music can tell, just through simple melody. I hope everybody takes time to make music part of their life, and to remember that feeling you get when a song makes you really really happy. There's nothing else in the world like it.

Enough rambling from the Music Library :)