As someone with a lot going on, music is a way for me to unwind, relax, and focus on the current instead of worrying about the past or future. As a person who is chronically making new playlists, I actually found myself wondering what the theme for this one should be and how to get it across in a short number of songs. In the end, I decided to showcase my own personal evolution with the genre of rock.
Rock music was something that I grew up on and a genre that I continue to enjoy today. I grew up listening to 100.7 WRDU radio on the east side of 95, something my dad would always have playing in his car. The car would fill with the voices of Ozzy Osbourne, Iron Maiden, Motley Crue, and Disturbed; the bass would make the car doors shake ever so slightly and the windows would be down just a little to give it that perfect rock-and-roll feel. This soon turned from a shift of classic rock from the time my dad grew up to what most people would label as “dad rock” featuring artists like Theory of a Deadman, Nickelback, and Bon Jovi (my mom had help in this turning point as well; she was a huge Bon Jovi fan).
Soon I shifted to exploring different genres of my own, outside of the influence of my family and instead focusing on what I wanted to listen to and what sounded good to me. When I entered middle school, bands like blink-182, Good Charlotte, and Pierce the Veil were just a few bands that I liked to listen to whenever I was driving or doing work at home. Moving into high school, the pop-punk era of my journey ended and instead, I focused on songs where screaming was the main form of singing. This next step, marked by bands like Bring Me The Horizon and In This Moment, was the highlight of my high school years; it was a way for me to be the moody angsty teen – which everyone is at some point – and express myself in creative ways.
Nowadays, I find myself being drawn to genres that are a bit “softer” than what I have previously fixated on; genres such as punk, alternative metal, and gothic rock are the most that I listen to; songs by the Dead Kennedys, Sleep Token, and Bauhaus now fill up most of my musical interests.
I decided to create a playlist using Spotify mainly because it is the program that I am most comfortable with using as well as most of the songs that I have ever listened to are available on it. All of the playlists that I have ever made are on there and it was just easier to pull from existing playlists than to look up individual YouTube videos.
2 Responses
I find myself relating to your music situation, growing up on “dad rock” is something I experienced as well. Most of my music taste has been shaped by my parents just from what they had playing on the radio or CD player when I was younger. However, I find myself putting every song that I like onto a single playlist, never creating another for specific categories. I said this in a another comment but I had no idea that there was a Spotify plugin for WordPress. I would have used it for my own blogpost if I had known.
Overall, your playlist fits the theme that you set and your reasoning for why is close to home.
I also love rock and feel that I grew up on it even though nobody in my immediate family listens to it. I just happened to stumble upon “dad-rock” when I was young (Linkin Park, Nickelback, and Thirty Seconds to Mars specifically) and have clung to it. It was interesting to listen to your playlist and re-hear songs I don’t have saved on my own playlists. I personally have never really been big into screamo but rather more into NuMetal and Alt and Punk-Rock. I actually have a playlist called “Insert edgy guitar riff” on my Spotify that encompasses the rock music I listened to when I was younger. I haven’t listened to much, if any, Sleep Token or Bauhaus so it was really nice to hear them at the end! I also liked how you showed your personal journey with rock music through this playlist and blog post! Loved it!