Oviya Ravi Week 14; Old Playlists
My life can be split into distinct eras. These eras can be defined by my age, my personality, the people I surrounded myself with, but the variable I feel holds the most value in identifying periods of my life is music. Music has the ability to transport me back to different times and experiences and events, drawing up emotions and memories that I had forgotten about. It is the tab I pull on to unlock a catalog of my past.
Until I was about five or six, the music I had been exposed to was limited to the songs my dad would sing to me at night and Adele. I am reminded of coming down the stairs with her voice wafting through the house to find my dad cleaning out a random cabinet and mom wiping down every surface because they had decided it was “cleaning day.”
By the time I turned 10, I had developed a semblance of my own musical taste. These were the dark days, where my playlists were made on Youtube. Hearing any of Sabrina Carpenter’s old music or the Descendant’s soundtrack takes me back to daily Zoom meetings and Google Meet calls as we tried to get through the loneliness of isolation. I can smell the suffocating masks and recall what my room looked like when the polluted, orange sky brought the sunlight in.
Noah Kahan will never not remind of the early days of ninth grade where I thought everything was falling apart. Listening to his music in the car, one seat empty after having dropped my sister off at her new life. Listening to his music as I realized how difficult the next four years would be. I am taken back to the Greek Theatre where I heard him sing my all-time favorite song of his while he stood nearly 20 feet away from me.
My discovery of Role Model happened right in the middle of second semester of tenth grade. Strong flashbacks of walking out of Ms. Wilkinson’s classroom after having read “Antigone” in class flood my mind. Those were the first days I began using my AirPods as a lifeline.
My life now is soundtracked by a plethora of music. Weston Estate’s “Go!” reminds me of going to the temple with my family. The Driver Era’s “A Kiss” reminds me of studying late into the night. Malcolm Todd’s “Roommates” reminds me of the first time I drove all my friends. Maggie Roger’s “Alaska” reminds me of getting dinner with my parents on the first day of winter break.
These songs, while I may not listen to them anymore, will always be my favorite songs. All the past versions of me live on in who I am today, each one as integral to my being as the last. I am grateful for all the events and memories they have collected for me and I am even more grateful that I can relive parts of them with a simple look through old playlists.
Hi Oviya! I found your blog this week to be immensely relatable as I too associate my old playlists or music tastes with past memories, and especially eras of my life. When I was younger, my music taste was primarily Taylor Swift, Shawn Mendes, or One Direction; and those are the only artists I even remember listening to. I remember having “Shake it Off” playing nonstop in my house, as I would run around singing it. Ironic, as now, I can’t imagine myself even listening to the artist, let alone the song. In middle school, my music taste would have been what I categorize it into “depressing” music such as The Neighborhood, Chase Atlantic, and the Chainsmokers, though they don’t fit into that category. I feel like the music I listen to would also just demonstrate who I am as a person overall, as I fefintley was much more energetic as a child, and maybe that’s something that my music taste reflected, compared to middle school. Now, it is mainly just rap music with an occasional 2016 twist. These songs are too, always going to be a part of my life and memories which I will associate with them. Thank you for helping me take a trip down memory lane!
ReplyDeleteHi Oviya! I thought your blog this week was beautiful, and I found myself very much relating to the idea of music defining eras of my life. I think it’s so interesting how something as simple as listening to a particular song holds the power to transport us back into a distant memory. Just as music artists themselves are able to preserve versions of themselves in their music, our memory allows us to extend that idea to ourselves by preserving thoughts of our various life experiences. Sometimes, when I listen to a specific album, I am instantly reminded of a period of my life when that was all I’d listen to. Similarly, I am usually able to remember the time that I first heard a song, which means that hearing that song years later will always take me back to that one moment, just as you experienced with Role Model after reading “Antigone” last year. I also thought it was interesting how you mentioned music being associated with your more bittersweet memories, because while I’ve heard people say that they can’t listen to certain music because it reminds them too much of negative memories, I have found that it’s somewhat of a refreshing feeling to look back on my past experiences by revisiting that music, similar to the way listening to Noah Kahan reminds you of ninth grade.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I am so happy to have found a fellow Weston Estate fan! They have been my favorite band since eighth grade, and their “Sixty” will always hold a spot in the daily rotation of the same twenty songs that I listen to over and over again. For me, listening to them always reminds me of the summer before ninth grade, when summer felt exactly like summer. Thank you for sharing!