and some random thoughts on music

(continuing my thought process started from the Chiquilla zumba song in the last post . . . )

I think I might have mentioned before how I've had a strange complex relationship history with my music. As a teenager, I think I may have overidentified with my music just a bit. It was who I was. And I would never have liked (or admitted to liking) anything at all that didn't fit into my personal definition of coolness. Ohh no. I wouldn't even categorize a band into "music I liked" unless I'd heard the majority of their albums and liked almost all of it. One song wouldn't do it for me. To "like" something basically meant I would be willing to follow them around the country or offer them my firstborn or something. I have no idea what my deal was. Then I "reformed," went off to college, felt overly self-conscious about bothering my dorm and apt. neighbors with playing music, and I basically stopped listening to most of my old stuff. Or the radio. Or much of anything. And I basically went underground with my music tastes for a decade or so (more or less). I'm not sure exactly what happened.

But lately (over the last several yrs), I have finally finally been stepping out into the musical sunshine once again. I've allowed myself to listen to all my old stuff again and not be embarassed by it (great strides, let me tell you). And I am embracing some "new" music (i.e. from the new millenia) while trying not to let my own prejudices get in the way. The best way I've found for doing this is finding music independent of any "coolness factor" context. If I watch a movie and like the soundtrack, I'll look for the artist and then look for other CD's by them and go on from there. (I initially found Iron and Wine, Guster, Joshua Radin and Sondre Lerche that way.) Zac will sometimes hear me listening to something new and ask me where I found it, and he is sometimes amazed by the long story that accompanies the answer. One example is that I found a quote about snails (another obsession of mine) on Pinterest, and it was from some song lyrics I'd never heard of. I found the band who wrote the song. Looked up the song on YouTube and liked it. Checked out the CD from the library. And found another band to possibly like that I'd never heard of before (The Format) and I have absolutely no idea what "kind" of people like this kind of music or what other people think of them. It's weird for me. I'll admit that I had a little panic moment when my twenty-something niece saw the CD and asked me (incredulously? I'm not even sure), "you like this band?" . . . uhhh, I don't know, I think maybe I do. Do I?

But then, yeah why not . . . I'm a mature adult now, right? I can like anything I want (including but not limited to: zumba latin songs, light rock, and whatever other cool and uncool "categories" I may find this stuff in, I'll never even know).
So there!
And that's the point of this long rambling post I guess.
It feels kind of refreshing to finally accept that I really can like whatever I want.
Why did it take me so long to get here??
I don't know.
What about you? Do you ever cringe when you find yourself really liking something that is distinctly "uncool"? no?
Am I just weird? No. Nevermind. Don't tell me. ;)
(sometime I might even tell you what other music I "like" these days - just cuz I'm all bold and brave like that now) haha, yeah right ;)