I love new music. It’s exciting and wonderful and because it’s not a physical, stationary thing, it provides us with an ever-changing life soundtrack. New music is amazing.
So… Where is it? Why does the catalog of music on my iPhone only come from the years between 2007 and 2014???
Okay, that’s a bit dramatic. Obviously I have listened to and loved music from the past 4 years, and music prior to 2007. If you know me, you know this. But for some reason, that music isn’t in rotation nearly as much as the bops of 2007 to 2014.
I began thinking about how my music horizons weren’t being expanded when my dad landed on a classic rock station while we were in the car together.
I thought to myself, It’s wild how these stations play the same few songs over and over and over and continue to have listeners. It’s wild how classic rock stations exist. These songs come from a specific time period. You can never add something newer into rotation, otherwise all hell would break loose. How can people listen to this every day and not get bored?
That prompted me to reflect on the music I listen to every day. And I realized I listen to pretty much the same few albums released during my middle school and high school years, and the same few artists I discovered back then. Any “new” artist added to my catalog since graduating high school has to pass multiple tests to ensure that I really love them. They have to be worth investing my time in. It’s honestly an exhausting process.
So I sat and contemplated this. Wondered why and when it became so hard for me to listen to and trust new artists and new music.
There was a time when I sat for hours on Myspace, checking out music profile after music profile, listening to music far and wide, adding songs to my playlists, sharing them with friends. When did that excitement over searching for new music to love, end?
Then, it hit me.
The source of all my problems for the past 5 years.
The only heartache I ever went through in high school.
The moment that ruined my senior year and every year of my life since.
October 2013.
The Jonas Brothers break-up.
That month of my life was awful. (Literally a month, they cancelled their tour in the beginning of October and didn’t officially announce the break up until the end of October. It was messy and I’m still not over it.) My trust was broken.
About two years prior I had discovered Ed Sheeran, so once the Jonas Brothers broke-up, I immediately leaned on Ed and his music because I already knew and trusted him. Plus, he couldn’t break-up with himself and he had a new album on the way.
Anyway, immediately I went to something I already knew because putting my trust in another band/musician I had no control over made me too nervous. I still get nervous thinking my current favorite bands and their potential breakups. IT’S A PROBLEM.
So, I began to limit who I let into my music rotation, focusing on the music I already owned and the artists I already listened to. That is where it started. With the freaking Jonas Brothers. STORY OF MY LIFE.
I’d like to think my intake of new music is still slightly higher than the average person, but I find it frustrating that I know it would be much higher had the Jonas Brothers continued being a band and I lived in ignorant bliss of band-breakups.
But then again, had they not broken up, how would I have handled One Direction? Would that have torn me to shreds?… Eh, probably not. I’ve only ever cared about Harry Styles tbh.
Anyway, screw you Jonas Brothers. Forever and always ruining my life. Bye.
Selina Falcon 