Time and Music are both funny things. Before I got into my first band at the age of 11 (Busted, if you must know) I would always get a strong feeling of irritation and discomfort when my mum listened to the radio.<\/p>\n
I can’t explain my discomfort in words, (maybe it was a sense of taste as my parents listened to a lot of ‘chill out’ music. Cringe), however I do have a strong memory of Madonna<\/a><\/strong>‘s La Isla Bonita<\/em> playing in my mum’s car as we pulled out of Asda’s carpark and just feeling annoyed<\/em> by it. Fast forward twenty years and I listen to Madonna while I wash up.<\/p>\n I genuinely don’t think I’d have done the things I’ve done in my life if it wasn’t for the effect of music. I would never have joined the Rockhaq community, which means I would never have discovered a love for writing in a non-fiction capacity. That means no English degree, no job as a copywriter, and a completely different life for me. I decided to examine the ways that music makes an impact on my life and the lives of three of my coworkers (whose names I shall abbreviate to M, D and T).<\/p>\n A Crutch M said “Most of the time I just listen to music in the car. I also listen to soothing music at night to help me sleep.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n A Form of Expression<\/strong> When I asked D about his music habits he said; “I don’t really listen to music all that often anymore, but when I do, it’s like… wow!”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Personality<\/strong> T told me “If a song or album means something to you, it will always remind you of who you were and what you were doing at that time.<\/em>“<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I wrote my first album review for Rockhaq<\/a><\/strong> when I was 19, and at the time I was exclusively an alt-music kind of guy. The genres in my iPod featured metal, punk, alt-rap and sub-genres thereupon. I use to think that my loyalty to my music scene was the defining quality of my personality, and that listening to anything else, especially<\/em> anything from the Top 40 was like a betrayal of who I was. As I reach my 25th year, you’ll find me sitting in my car happily singing along to the La La Land soundtrack, I’m trying to learn a funk song on the bass guitar, my iPod is stuffed with 80’s bands, and whilst on my honeymoon I got way too excited when I found Disney’s\u00a0The Hunchback of Notre Dame\u00a0<\/em>on vinyl. Music is still a huge part of my life, but it’s changed a lot for me. I might not be as passionate as I use to be, but I still can’t go a day without untangling my headphones and putting a song on.<\/p>\n Not everything has changed though… I still\u00a0hate<\/em> the top 40.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Time and Music are both funny things. Before I got into my first band at the age of 11 (Busted, if you must know) I would always get a strong feeling of irritation and discomfort when my mum listened to the radio. I can’t explain my discomfort in words, (maybe it was a sense of taste as my parents listened to a lot of ‘chill out’ music. Cringe), however I do have a strong memory of Madonna’s La Isla Bonita playing in my mum’s car as we pulled out of Asda’s carpark and just feeling annoyed by it. Fast forward twenty years and I listen to Madonna while I wash up.
\n<\/strong>Everyone has one. Some people love ice cream, others love to exercise. For me, I don’t think I could cope with the monotonous aspects of my life like driving, cleaning, going to work, or even walking from A to B, if it wasn’t for the library of music I carry around on my phone. It helps me pass the time, engages my brain and turns everything in my life into a bearable exercise.<\/p>\n
\nLike a lot of people in the world, I was left a little surprised by some of the events that took place last year. When Trump won the US presidency in November 2016, I spent my day at work feeling nervous about the future and little angry at the condition the world seems to have gotten itself into. I’d been listening to\u00a0The Smiths\u00a0<\/em>pretty exclusively up until\u00a0that point, but I ended up switching to politically themed albums like Architect<\/a><\/strong>‘s\u00a0Lost Together \/\/ Lost Forever<\/em> and Stray From The Path’s\u00a0Subliminal Criminals<\/em> &\u00a0Anonymous<\/em>. These anti-establishment tinged albums articulated all the feelings I had, in a way that I wasn’t able to, with the only side-effect being a desire to flip my table.<\/p>\n
\nSome might consider it juvenile or shallow to consider music to be a part of my personality. In fairness to myself, I mean it in the secondary school “music is my life mum!” kind of way, not the Urban Outfitters, “Oh I didn’t realise Nirvana was a band, I thought they were a clothing company” way. A lot of the people I have been friends with is because of their music taste, everyone I follow on Twitter is related to the music scene I love, I wear band t-shirts every day and I love to talk about music with people that are passionate, like me.<\/p>\n
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