I listen to music. A lot of music. I play music to wake me up. I play music when I’m brushing my teeth. I play music when I shower. I play music when I change. I play music when I work. I play music when I run. I play music when I game. I do not play music during class (don’t worry mom and dad; I pay attention).

Music is multifaceted. We know that. There are infinite ways to do music. Countless genres, some known and some yet to be created. But music is also communicative, the message behind each song ranging from simple to complex. For example, the tracks of the 80s japanese guitarist Masayoshi Takanaka, although musically not simple, don’t convey the most complex of topics. But that’s ok; in fact, it’s better. Takanaka’s jazzy and poppy strings and the sparse vocals serve to transport the listener to a relaxed state of mind, as if you were on a beach sipping a cool lemonade.

On  the other end of the spectrum is music more layered in meaning and production. Kendrick Lamar, a famous hip-hop artist, exemplifies the spectrum of music as he reinvents not only his meaning, himself, and his story in every album he creates, but he also takes inspiration from different hip-hop eras. From more traditional early 2000 west coast hip-hop elements in his album Good Kid m.A.A.d. City, to the lo-fi production style of his 2017 album DAMN., to his critically acclaimed album To Pimp A Butterfly which incorporates elements from the G-Funk era of hip-hop and jazz and features legends from that era such as George Clinton and Snoop Dogg.

I think my taste in music, and I guess more broadly, everyone’s taste in music evolves and follows along this spectrum. Now I’m not saying that these two mediums I listed are the end/start points of the spectrum; they are simply two points I chose from the music that I listened to that were most opposite one another if that makes sense. This evolution and story follows how I got not just interested but infatuated with music, particularly the hip-hop and rap scene.

Back in elementary school, my brother and I used to always listen to the radio and sing along to the popular pop songs they would stream. On these rides to and from school, Imagine Dragons, Shawn Mendes, Charlie Puth, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, and The Weeknd would fill the car. My taste in music remained the same until high school when I joined the cross country team; we played music during our runs on a speaker and what we played began to become my music taste. I got introduced to artists like Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar but also older artists like Oasis, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Jay-Z, and Nas. 

I remember this one time, I was in one of my teammate’s car driving back from the track to school (our school doesn’t have a track), and my friends and him started talking about the best rappers of all time. And they threw up Kendrick’s name as a contender, claiming that his storytelling in almost all of his songs was unrivaled. This statement made me curious. Storytelling in a song? What does that mean? Like a love story? So I dug deeper. I listened to some Kendrick Lamar at home, but still, I didn’t get it. I didn’t like a lot of his nicher songs, only being familiar with his popular hits, and I didn’t pick up any “story”.

But as I continued to be more exposed to music, as a side effect of being human, I began to become more interested and more invested. I followed along to the lyrics as I listened to each song, picking up on the messages behind each track on the albums I enjoyed. I learned the meaning of the artist’s lyrics through podcasts and online shedding light on a whole new world I was missing out on. 

Now, fast forward one year, I’ve started listening to more than just the artist’s music, but the message that each of them try to convey. From Kanye’s funny, out-of-pocket lyrics and his social commentaries in his debut album The College Dropout, to Mos Def’s classic hip-hop album Black on Both Sides, I’ve really come to understand the multifaceted music, primarily hip-hop, industry.

Overall, my journey of exploration in music was and is something that has been the most interesting and enjoyable hobby in the past couple years and understanding more than just the song has proven to be rewarding far more than I could imagine. I implore anyone reading this to do the same and listen to some creative albums such as JID’s The Forever Story or Tyler the Creator’s Igor. I give music a 5/5.