By Samantha Harmon

Music. The thing that has held my sanity together ever since I could remember. Whether I’m driving home after work or cleaning my room and deciding to put a vinyl record on the record player. Music has portrayed my emotions throughout my lifetime. Whether I’m at my happiest or my worst music has always been there. I have never been good at saying how I feel, so I have displayed emotions through music. My dad has always been my biggest inspiration when it comes to music, especially 70’s through 90’s music. Hell, even my first tattoo was a Led Zeppelin tattoo that I got for him. He is the reason my music taste is so diverse. My dad is the reason I have such a big love for Eric Clapton and Pink Floyd. Music has always been the biggest expression of people’s thoughts and feelings. It allows the artist to express their feelings to the listener. It’s a very special bond between someone who is creating a piece of art that they want to be able to express with the rest of the world. Although we might not realize it, music has a very personal connection between each one of us and our feelings. Personally, I have a certain type of music that I listen to for each one of my moods. Altogether, I have 38 music playlists on Apple Music. These playlists include songs I listen to when I work out, going on a road trip, or songs that I listen to throughout the day. I think it’s important to have a very diverse music taste because it allows you to discover different perspectives based on the songs lyrics and what the artist is feeling while singing the song. Metaphorical references are displayed all throughout the song lyrics and you can easily reference these lyrics to other artists and lyrics if you listen closely. I listen to music for 13 hours a day, so having a very diverse music selection is important to me based on the certain mood that I am in at the time. It allows me to express myself in ways that I am not sure how to, but music allows me to understand what I’m feeling in a way that I can’t describe. Have you ever had a song that somebody showed you and every time you listen to it you think of that person after? This can be a good or bad thing, but this is just one of the ways that music has a very deep and personal connection to us as individuals.

Whether or not we want to be feeling these emotions, music allows us to express them without actually saying “I’m feeling down today” or “I’m having such a good day.” I also love discovering new music or discovering songs that I used to listen to, but have forgotten about over time since I listen to so much music already. I have a very personal connection with music, which I think you do too as readers. Allow yourself to take a few hours just to listen to the lyrics and allow yourself to be open-minded about what you’re feeling. Our generation is one for masking feelings, but it doesn’t have to be. We should open our minds to different perspectives, as well as different music styles and tastes. It allows us to open up our perspectives, even if we don’t think it does. If my dad never shared his different music tastes with me, then I would probably never have developed this connection with music and how music allows me to express how I’m feeling and why I’m feeling this way. I’m so grateful for him because he’s taught me this skill at such a young age that I will always have this attitude about different music tastes and styles. So thanks dad, I appreciate you.