Enjoying the Naked Sound

“I used to like 3OH3!, but then, like, everyone else started to listen to them.”

That’s really the only explanation one needs to stop liking something they once enjoyed thoroughly, apparently. It goes without saying that most people like to feel unique. In a school of over twelve hundred students, a lone person can get lost in the crowded hallways filled with similar hair cuts, clothes, shoes and conversation (note: I‘m not criticizing our student body or calling them clones or anything like that. It makes sense that students of roughly the same age in the same location would follow similar trends because that is what their exposed to). We use our musical tastes to give us that shot of individuality we crave, from finding a song that speaks to us, finding an artist to worship or ‘discovering’ the most obscure band.

I’ve noticed that a person’s identity as a music consumer plays an important role in his (or her) identity as a person. We care about what others think about our music tastes just as much as we care about how they see our clothes and our hair; So, we do the same thing with our iPods as we do with our wardrobe, we groom it to represent who we are, or who we want others to think we are. If a student wants to take up a certain persona, they’ll make public their love for a band that corresponds with that ideal. For example, a student who wants to seem enigmatic and artistic may choose to worship at the altar of a group like Radiohead or Muse, while a student who wants to seem well versed in rap  may sing the praises of an icon like Tupac. Many people will also remove the songs that embarrass us, like the Backstreet Boys album that we still sing along to when it comes on lite FM or the musical soundtrack that would make our friends mock us.

The music we choose to listen to in public says a lot about how we want others to view us and we clearly want to maintain our individuality. It’s not uncommon for people to claim ownership over their artist and for them to scowl at others who express interest. Sometimes, I notice the competitive edge of my friends who adamantly claim to have “discovered” a song or an artist, and I never argue. I nod along most of the time, because I don’t feel like I need to like something first to like it at all.

Which brings us back to my opening quote; I’ve heard this in more conversations than I would care to count, simply take out the band name I mentioned, and insert another- I’m sure you’ve heard it too. A lot of people don’t want to like something that is overly “popular” or, god forbid, mainstream.

There are plenty of people who despise popular music, meaning the top 40 hits or anything enjoyed by the masses. There are also numerous people who claim to despise the popular music scene because it is better for their image to do so. They allow themselves a few “guilty pleasures” that they “like, but have no clue why”, but otherwise they have a severe anti-pop stance. I , for one, don’t believe in guilty pleasures. Guilty pleasures come from a person who is embarrassed of publicly liking something for fear of judgment; If you like something, you should take pride in liking it.

In my case, my ipod contains tracks by the Jonas Brothers. I’ve listened to them since I was twelve and I grew up with their music. I don’t believe that liking a boy band diminishes my value as a person, an intellectual, or a writer and it certainly does not limit me to listening to one genre. Many people, who have heard a Jonas Brothers song and thought “hey, it’s not actually so bad” will refuse to acknowledge that fact because liking the Jonas Brothers means liking a pop band, the same goes for liking a song sung by Miley Cyrus or a country song or any other identity threatening track.

My theory is that a person who genuinely enjoys himself/herself will be exponentially more interesting that a person who constructs a persona based on what they want to be seen as. The person who listens to both Miley Cyrus and Elliot Smith because they like the music will appeal more than a person who religiously follows a group to fit a mold. A true personality is composed of genuine feelings that a carefully constructed persona cannot duplicate. If our music tastes truly do represent us, we should let it represent us in our truest form and not another layer of how we want others to see us.

Listen to what you like and don’t think of your music as another accessory because just like every other facade, the layers can easily be stripped away leaving you exposed.

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