Music Questions

            Music has the power to impact the listener in many powerful ways. It affects people culturally, by creating new patterns and trends and moral dimensions. For example rap and hip-hop music are normally associated with sexual innuendos, violence, and the promotion of drug abuse. Music also affects us emotionally by creating a ‘feel-good’ effect or sparking elements of sentimentality, for example, love songs. More often than not, the music people indulge in as adolescents and teenagers impacts their adult life in one way or another (Lamont and Webb). This essay seeks to answer some questions on my musical past including the type of music I used to listen to, how it makes me feel now and whether or not it brings back fond memories.

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            Growing up in Puerto Rico, I used to love to listen to rock music, especially heavy metal rock. My mother’s incessant complaints did not stop me from tuning in to blaring Metallica songs in my room every day. The walls of my tiny room were filled with posters of all the band members from the guitarist and lead vocalist, James Hetfield to the drummer, Lars Urlich and other members including Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo. My fascination with the California-based American band began when a friend introduced me to their songs. My passion for their music lasted all throughout my teenage life.

            Today, listening to songs composed by Metallica triggers warm memories of my childhood and those formative years when I was just beginning to form opinions on many things in life, such as the best type of music to listen to. It reminds me of how much passion I had for heavy metal and the lengths I would be willing to go just to attend such a concert. I tend to smile in nostalgia whenever I remember how, when I was in high school, a couple of my friends and I decided to skip school to go and buy rock CDs at the nearby shopping mall. Nothing could match the satisfaction we felt playing those CDs the following day. We never regretted our actions despite receiving severe punishment both at home and at school. Thus, this music makes me feel closer to my past and connects me a lot to my homeland, Puerto Rico.

            Nevertheless, although listening to heavy metal brings back fond memories, it appears trite compared to my current taste in music. Now all grown up, my likes seems to have gravitated towards instrumental music and dance, a stark difference from the heavy metal rock I once enjoyed as a teenager. My favorite instrumental musician is Kenny G. It is a bit difficult to understand why I loved that music so much those days because now it sounds a bit too loud for my liking. The loud abrasive culture, the biker gangs, the crazy tattoos, elongated guitar riffs and mid-song shouting, are now a complete put-off for me. I can barely stand heavy metal anymore.

As shown in this reflection, people’s musical tastes tend to change as they grow older due to a change of environment, exposure to new friends and culture and overall changes in one’s thought processes, perceptions and preferences. However, this does not nullify the special place held by music that used to be one’s favorite in the past. On the contrary, one’s childhood musical preferences always tend to continue to have an impact on how present and future musical trends are perceived.

Works Cited

Lamont, Alexandra, and Webb, Rebecca. “Short and Long-Term Musical Preferences: What Makes a Favorite Piece of Music?” Psychology of Music, 2009. Web.