What my taste in music says about me (and what it doesn't)
Heya! This blogpost was written based on a title I got traded by Zachary Kai!
If you wanna know about the how/why behind that, you can read the post I made that started this whole thing.
Music taste is interesting. The kinds of songs someone listens to can say a lot about a person. So can the way they organize them. For example: I have 4 playlists total. One for EDM (primarily speedcore), one for more relaxed music and rap, one for punk and emo and one for all the stuff that doesn't fit into any of the other playlists. That one is 27 hours. As you might be able to tell from that, I'm a tad unorganized. In general, I think it's pretty fascinating how much you can learn about a person without ever having met them.
Going through someones playlist can be an interesting way to learn more about them, about what kind of person they are. So, let's go through some of my favorites together, and I'll tell you why I like them.
Urine Speaks Louder Than Words - Wingnut Dishwashers Union I feel like this is one is fairly self explanatory given the current situation in the U.S. It's just... very cathartic given all the shit going on in the world right now in general.
Primadonna - Marina and the Diamonds Honestly, I have to sing along anytime I hear this. It's impossible not to. I'm not a very confident person irl, so this song just exudes the sort of confidence i wish i had more of. I can also somewhat see myself in the main character here, I'm often quite jealous when it comes to relationships and others attention, I've written about it before on my other blog. As far as I can tell, the song is moreso supposed to be about someone who is too self-important, too full of themselves, and ends up hurting the people around them, but I just kind of love the unabashed confidence most of the lyrics exude. "Get what I want 'cause I ask for it, Not because I'm really that deserving of it" is oddly motivational. I'm often very non-commital and shy, and this kind of speaks to me. Like, "yeah, fuck it, maybe i don't deserve this, but I might as well try, whats the worst that could happen?".
Super Smash Bros. - bbno$ & Yung Gravy I love how stupid the lyrics to this one are, and the song is just fun in general. "Baby Gravy always in the house, asbestos" - Incredible lyricism.
Sexy Dreams - Spoonboy Great song about being trans. I can't relate to the exact situation here, but still, I really like the message. "I know what i could do would be easier But by and by, i shouldn't have to"
This isn't an exhaustive list mind you, it's just the ones I figured I had something somewhat interesting to say about. I'm not great at talking about music, even though it is a big part of my life and who I am. I suppose it's because I don't really engage much with music criticism that I lack the vocabulary to really describe what resonates with me in a song. As to what my music taste doesn't say about me? Honestly, I'm not sure how to answer that question.
I suppose it's quite hard to get a complete picture of who someone really is just by their music choices. You definitely get to know a part of them, but you never know what exactly someone likes about a song unless they, yknow, tell you. Often people just sort of ignore the message of a song or never realize it had one in the first place. Often people give the song its own meaning, completely seperate from what the author intended. Which, honestly, I think it's quite fun how different people can see different things in music that were completely seperate from what the author had in mind.
For example, I know that "Weak" by AJR is about trying to and failing to resist doing things that are bad for you, and very much not intended to be a song about gender identity and not having to fit into masculine gender roles - that metaphor falls apart pretty much everywhere but the chorus. But the line "I'm weak. and what's wrong with that?" still resonates with me in that way. It's very much not what the author intended, but I honestly think that's part of the fun. We all assign our own meaning to songs. And you can't really get that from just knowing what music someone likes, because it's very personal and not at all obvious to an outsider. You don't know if someone likes a song just because it vaguely sounds nice and they heard it in the radio once or because it reminds them of something deeply personal. I think that goes for everything really, to some extent. You don't know how much meaning someone might assign to something that seems benign or stupid to you - So it's important not to judge people for the things they enjoy, or to try and paint too detailed a picture of them, that everything they do afterwards then has to fit into and to get weirded out or start being condescending when it doesn't.