What I'm Listening To Now

Have you ever noticed how your musical taste shifts, sometimes slightly, sometimes drastically with different periods of your life? Personally, I believe for a musical preference shift to be sincere and not coaxed by peers, it can be only a shifting indeed and not a total abandonment of previous tastes. For example, the one time I experienced a relentless hip hop preference it was admittedly due to boyfriend that I only had for two months. My taste for Ginuwine and Puff Daddy (as he was known back then), lasted roughly as long. While I still love R&B, rap has never genuinely entered the realm of my devout musical love.

Music was my first real love. I mean it. Boys were put on the backburner longer than normal probably because I could indulge in a passionate relationship with a CD without much moral input from others. As a result of this, my boyfriends have always been musicians—I just realized this. It was an easy transition I suppose.

When I think about when it all began, I start to get the feeling that the first memory goes so far back as to be nearly primitive. My mom started it all, by playing folk guitar while pregnant with me and introducing me to Simon and Garfunkel and Joan Baez at an almost indecent age. My dad on the other hand, always sung country classics and jazz standards to me. I knew all the words to Mona Lisa and You Are My Sunshine before I knew how to ride a bike. Those roots have eerily stuck with me. I am convinced that those influences exclusively inform my obsession with James Taylor and lyrically driven music regardless of instrumental execution.

In High School, I fell for U2, Chris Isaak, Sheryl Crow, Sixpence, Nat King Cole, Blues Traveler, Martin Page, Mazzy Star, Collective Soul, Enya, Jars of Clay, Tori Amos and lots of Jazz. Hip Hop and rap became really big back then so I liked a few songs, but my tape player rarely housed that genre. I would buy a single of some hip hop song and quickly realized that when my girlfriends were in the car, out came Tori and in went Blackstreet. I got over it fast. Looking back at what moved me so intensely then, I realize that I am still that same girl, just evolved.

In college I began being heavily influenced by a wider group of more open minded and well-traveled friends. My tastes became even worldlier, and I ventured deeper into the genres of existing preferences. Everybody experiments in college, I just spent my time fiddling with music and finding new ways to express the impressions it left on me. I wrote a lot back then and I began to realize around this time how much music affects your writing and really all of your creativity. Had I chosen to write this blog entry while listening to one of my high school loves this would be even more nostalgic than I meant it to be. Instead I’m listening to one of my current obsessions, so hopefully this entry is true to this moment.

Right now, I’m listening to Imogene Heap, Delays, Ivy, Ryan Adams, Clem Snide, Rufus Wainwright, Broken Social Scene and far too many others to mention. The most obvious thing that’s changed lately is the fact that my taste has gotten mellower and I’m going for more lyrical, more introspective and even sweeter sounds than I ever have in the past. At this moment I’m softening, I suppose.