Until March of my sophomore year, I was an avid country music hater. I refused to listen to it. Then, one fateful day, my best friend sent me a video of a Zach Bryan concert. I wasn’t fully committed at first; I still wasn’t interested. After a lot of pressing, I decided to listen to his music. I started with the basics: “I Remember Everything,” “Revival” and Oklahoma Smokeshow.” Then, “From Austin” came up with my recommendations. From the second I heard that song, I was hooked. It turns out that I didn’t hate country music at all!
I fell in love. From there, I started listening to Megan Moroney, Tyler Childers and other country music artists.
I learned that my music taste depends on the people around me. I take recommendations and usually listen to them. I also noticed that my newfound love for country/folk music changed my style. The movies and books I liked also changed. That made me wonder: How much does music impact someone’s life?
Looking back at photos, I can pinpoint my favorite artist at the time the photo was taken based on the clothes, hair and makeup I had on.
At the beginning of the pandemic, I became borderline obsessed with One Direction. I only listened to the band and their solo music. I would talk using their slang and only wear their merchandise. My “favorite” member would change periodically, meaning my style would as well. If I was in a Louis Tomlinson phase, I wore “grunge” outfits; if it was Niall Horan, it was cardigans and jeans. If it was Harry Styles, it was bright colors and patterns.
Not only was my personality theirs and my style based on theirs, but my friendships came about because of them as well. Most of the friends I made that year were because they also liked the band. It got to the point where my only source of entertainment was their old interviews. My whole life was about them until one day, it kind of stopped.
I started listening to Taylor Swift. I still liked One Direction, but now I was not trying to act like them.
From the moment I discovered Taylor Swift, my style began to change. I made new friends and found new hobbies and TV shows I enjoyed.
Through Taylor Swift, I discovered a multitude of new artists, most of whom are women, that make pop music: Gracie Abrams, Tate McRae, Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX, Dua Lipa, etc. This meant that my old habits and music taste began fading and along with that, so did my previous personality. I like to think that the shift was mainly due to my maturing and gaining a new perspective. If you ask my sister, she will tell you that she influenced me to make this shift because she couldn’t handle the second-hand embarrassment anymore. I can’t blame her for feeling that way. It was pretty bad.
More recently, I had a brief folk indie phase, where I wore a lot of green and had grown out blond hair. I walked around with torn Converse and convinced myself that I loved hiking and wanted to live in the mountains–I can barely survive a walk around the lake for Outdoor Ed, for the record. I was reflecting on what I saw on my social media. I genuinely do like this style of music, but once again, making it my whole personality was very unnecessary. This era didn’t affect my relationships, which was a new thing, considering all of my other phases did.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it allows me to explore more music and experience different lifestyles. However, at times, I take it to an extreme where it turns into an obsession, which can ultimately become unhealthy. Mostly, I look back at my different phases fondly and am thankful for the friends and media it brought me.
