How Music Affects Us

      Throughout our lives, we all go through different phases of music.  We begin liking the same music that our parents like because it is what we are first introduced too, but around the age of thirteen or fourteen, we begin to develop our own music taste.  Around these years, we finally begin to understand what some of the songs mean, and we begin choosing what actually appeals to us and what does not.  When I was younger, I listened to a lot of Green Day and other rock bands, but I now notice that at age thirteen I began to prefer hip hop and rap.  I believe that music has greatly affected who I am today.  I have noticed that we tend to choose our friends and the people that we associate ourselves with by music taste; of course this is not the only reason as to why we associate with these people, but music gives us a shared interest and helps us begin talking with these people.  As I reflect on all of my friends, their favorite "musicians", or rappers, are the same as mine: Childish Gambino, Kid Cudi, Eminem, etc... I listen to these artists because I can relate with some of what they are saying.  Eminem tends to rap about his bad relationship with his mother, and I can relate to that because I have not always had a good relationship with my parents.  Around the time when I began choosing my own music genre, I did not have the best relationship with my parents.  They were always working or traveling, and it became very lonely for me. 
      Music allows us to become something that we wish we could be.  When we listen to music, we enter a world in which nothing ever seems to matter.  Everything in the world around you comes to a complete halt during that one song that you love listening to.  We try to relate ourselves to the things that are occurring in the song and that helps us forget about all of the troubles of life.  When I listen to the song "Kenji" by Fort Minor, I begin to think of what life was like for people during the second World War.  I try to imagine that I am one of the civilians that is being discriminated against by the United States government just for my nationality.  Everyone has one song that means more than anything to them.  We tend to choose this song because the lyrics talk about a time in which we suffered a loss, or we enjoy the sound of the music behind the words, or even just that song helped lift you up when you were in a vulnerable time of need.  Whatever the reason is, you know you have found your song when you get a tingling feeling up your spine, and you enter a world where nothing can possibly bring you down while you are listening to it. 
      Our taste in music distinguishes ourselves from everyone else.  It is a way we can feel independent and unique.  Everyone's music taste differs in some way from everyone else's, whether it be a view of one song, or an entire artist.  Music makes us independent and helps us feel like we mean something to the world.