OPINION: Exploring new sounds

When it comes to my music taste, I’m not very adventurous. I tend to have a small collection of favorites that I always go back to in a variety of genres, from 2000s emo and rock to musical theater and Disney, with a little sprinkle of pop from the 2010s. For the most part, I want to choose exactly what I’m going to listen to next, so I stay away from the radio.

However, because of this general avoidance, I have not been up to date on any semi-new music. In the last few years, if I know a new song, it’s either because it has played over the bookstore speakers enough times that I write it down or because Cheyenne plays it on repeat. I get it, I’m sure I’m a little annoying to ride in the car with, especially since I love to have an album or playlist go in order each time. Shuffle? Who’s that?

The last few months, though, I’ve been getting a little better. I actually got Spotify for the first time since high school and have been looking up very specifically-themed playlists others have made depending on my vibe for the day.

My favorite playlist vibe has been “feminist rage,” which is both surprising and not at all surprising to me. I think my kick into this genre was Paris Paloma’s song “Labour” - the amount of times I listened to this song on repeat is comical.

After showing this song to my coworker Mandy, she had me listen to a different artist that had been coming up on her For You Page a lot lately - ILUKA. ILUKA is a young Australian musician who describes herself as a “witchy cowgirl,” and most of her songs bring about the feminist fury I love to hear in music. Her music, along with some other fun angry songs, have made their way onto my “Hot Girl Walk” playlist. Though work has been too busy to have too many hot girl walks, at least I’m prepared.

The unfortunate thing is, while I love to have music playing, I am not skilled in the department of mentally focusing on too many things at once. If a song has lyrics, I have a hard time writing rather than paying attention to what the song is saying. For example, I’m writing this column while hanging out at the bookstore and the cozy fall playlist I’ve put on for the store is very distracting. None of the music on this playlist is what I’m planning to write about here, but that doesn’t stop me from accidentally writing the lyrics I hear.

When I was in college, I had a YouTube playlist of ambiance and vibey music to listen to while working on homework, much of it either cultural music or from movie soundtracks. Since I’m paying for Spotify, I figured I’d enjoy some of the playlists others have put together. My current favorite for background music is Magical Forest Music.

My inability to write with lyrical music in the background has resulted in something of a funny tradition in the last two weeks at work. In my pursuit of being more musically knowledgeable, I listened to Taylor Swift’s new album right away. While I didn’t originally love every song that morning, within the next 48 hours, I changed my tune. There’s constantly a different song from the album stuck in my head. Cheyenne is an even bigger fan of Taylor Swift (though neither of us are at the buy-all-the-merch level) and she will take any chance to play the album again when we’re together.

She’s very aware that I can’t write and have this music playing at the same time, so usually at some point in the day at the office, either she’ll ask if I’m done writing or I’ll tell her she’s good to go, and everyone will get to listen to the melodies of Miss Swift’s newest album. I’m not going to lie, I’m encouraging her to be the one to play it each time, as I don’t want my very first Spotify Wrapped to be all Taylor Swift, though I’m sure she’ll be a big part of it.

That being said, I am curious to see what my Wrapped will say. Every year as I watch everyone in my life post their yearly stats, I’ve been tempted to get the app for this reason alone. My only goal right now is to be one of the top listeners for ILUKA, but we’ll see.