Music

Where would I be without music? Probably in a cold, dark place where dogs walk people and calculators were never invented. I just shuddered right there. Did you? Here’s what I’ve been listening to lately:

My taste in music has evolved side-by-side with just about everything else in my life. Ever since my time as a wee lass, I’ve had music come at me from every direction. My mom would do her intense Chinese karaoke for hours (and she still does), and my sister would listen to her slow jams in our room. I remember back in the day, I would listen to Radio Disney and record songs like “Oops, I Did it Again!” to play back and sing along to later. Indeed, I was a big Britney Spears fan. And I am unashamed to say that I still enjoy her first two albums. Not so much with her newer material. Actually, when’s the last time she released an album? I also liked the Backstreet Boys, *NSync, 98 Degrees, and the rest. I almost forgot to mention the Spice Girls. Okay, who in their right mind didn’t like the Spice Girls? Seriously. I had a Spice Girls bike and everything, but I never rode it. I used to get those little lollipops afterschool just to get the Spice Girls stickers inside. Man. Well, fifth grade came along, and my taste took a sharp turn into uncharted territory. I went to Puerto Rico with my mom that summer and discovered Linkin Park on MTV. From that point forward, I started enjoying rock music. But, see, it wasn’t as awesome as you think. I became narrow-minded about all other genres. I thought myself to be such a sav as the only person in my class to listen to Taproot. In reality, however, I was just an angry little Asian kid trying to pull away and belong at the same time.

So then one day, I was watching Letterman and stumbled upon a band called Sparta. And that, my friends, was the first step I took to see the light. Yes, Sparta was still rock, but it was a different kind of rock. It was something I’d never heard before. The lyrics were so wonderfully ambiguous, and the mood in one of their songs could go from melancholy to asjkhfusa loud noises! They played “Cut Your Ribbon” that night on the show, and I bought their first album Wiretap Scars right away. I must have listened to that CD about 900 times, and it still gives me goosebumps.

Hoping for a larger dose of similar artists, I started listening to Live 105, which opened my ears to an even wider range of music. Grandaddy, Death Cab, Rancid, Alkaline Trio, Weezer — I loved them all. Eventually, I synthesized my new taste with my roots, with what I grew up with: Britney, BSB, Christina Aguilera, and even some songs my sister liked that I despised as a kid.

And so here I am, armed with an iPod and ready for my mind to be blown with one more haunting bridge, one more heavenly riff, or just some catchy chorus.

Still interested? Wow, you’ve got what I like to call reader’s endurance. Check out the music category of my blog for more.