Introductory Post: Music is an ever guiding force of growth in my life
The Tiny Moments When Music Inhabited My Life
I was born with Bob Marley.
Well, I was born to Bob Marley’s voice, to him singing the third track on his Greatest Hits album, Three Little Birds. I remember being so proud of that. I remember in 6th grade telling my Social Studies class that I was born to Bob Marley and The Wailer’s music. My teacher played Buffalo Soldier at the end of class and we all danced around lankily. I grew up with my mom playing Lenny Kravitz’s 5 album, Sade’s Lovers Rock, Prince’s Musicology, Annie Lennox, and Melissa Etheridge. I would run and back and forth and bang my head to Melissa Etheridge’s Giant. I must have been 4 or 5. I remember my dad playing me ACDC, Queen, and Elton John in the car. I was so enamored by Queen’s We Will Rock You that I would bang my feet in the jungle gym to play the rhythm. I remember seeing Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Remember the Time videos on my mom’s laptop in my living room. Around then I performed Man In the Mirror with 3 of my close friends, we had glitter gloves, converses up to our knees, and a dance routine to go with everything. I was so obsessed with Michael Jackson in elementary school that I named my bearded dragon lizard Billie Jean. When the lizard died, I named the next one Billie Jean II.
The albums I grew up on. In order: Lovers Rock by Sade, 5 by Lenny Kravitz, Musicology by Prince, Lucky by Melissa Etheridge, Thriller by Micheal Jackson, News of the World by Queen, Rumours by Fleetwood Mac, Back in Black by ACDC, Bangerz by Miley Cyrus, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John, Medusa by Annie Lennox, Legend - The Best of Bob Marley And The Wailers.
A few years later in middle school, I’d find myself listening to You Shook Me All Night Long in the backseat of the car with my wired earphones. I remember how influential Miley Cyrus’s We Can’t Stop was in middle school. My mom on one end of the spectrum said “do you even know what doing a line is” and my dad on the other end said, “Miley is so talented!” It really was the best of both worlds. My aunt and I would listen to her Bangerz album and sing along to every song. By Freshmen year, I had more accessibility to music than ever. Spotify allowed me to listen to all these artists I’ve never really listened to regularly before (or even on my own for that matter). I began listening to Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Marvin Gaye, and so much more. It was so transformative. I remember one of my first memories of Fleetwood Mac was when I heard The Chain on the radio my aunt turned it up and yelled passionately “this song has the greatest drum solo ever!”
Around my freshman year, I began collecting records. My first ever record was Trilogy: Past, Present & Future by Frank Sinatra. My record collection expanded after my dad got his friend’s record collection after she moved to Hawaii. She had pristine records, every Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Deep Purple, Prince, Pink Floyd, Stevie Wonder, ELO, you name it. A lot were original prints and pressings.
I had one friend in high school who really shared the same music taste with me. She was my music soulmate. My friend was the type of girl that listened to Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, and Marvin Gaye. I remember walking through our neighborhood listening to Zeppelin’s Since I’ve Been Loving You with her. She once told me a story about how her friend heard the song Dreams by Fleetwood Mac and asked her who was singing, we laughed at that. She gave me an ACDC and Nirvana live records for my 17th birthday.
My dad showed me Monk, Coltrane, Johnny Cash, and more. We’d spent so many nights watching music videos. I was obsessed with the Guns N Roses November Rain music video. I got to go to Coachella 2018 (and Coachella 2019) where I would see one of the most culturally profound performances I have ever seen or that Beyonce ever has done. In my junior year came the year of my interest in female artists as well as Afrofuturism artists. From Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Solange, Janelle Monae, Erykah Badu, Sade, and Amy Winehouse. I first found out about Erykah when I heard Next Lifetime instrumental. My life changed there. Erykah was everything I ever needed, she embodied soul, afro-futurism, feminism, funk, hip-hop, and more. Then I discovered, Amy Winehouse, who is another one of my heroes and someone with who I felt deeply connected. When I first listened to her Frank Album all the way through my mind was blown, I thought to myself this is one of the greatest albums.
I could go on endlessly about the tiny moments music has inhabited my life. At the heart of it all, music is an ever-guiding force of growth in my life. The immense power music has in my life is unwavering, I’ve never felt a force quite like it. In retrospect, music has saved me. It has shown me who I am, again and again, it has led me to deep inspiration and epiphanies. Music is this immense motherload of creativity, emotion, and artistry. I will never get over the blissfulness of hearing a new song and thinking “Holy shit, Who is this?” The feeling is so intense that if you don’t find out what the song is called you will make it your life mission for the next hour or days to find the song. That feeling of hearing a phenomenal song is just a sliver of a fraction of the power and force music brings to my life and I’m sure many others. It’s as if music is the shepherd and I am the sheep.
