It's crazy to me how many genres of music I enjoy. I went all through Middle School without really getting into music, and I feel like Middle School was sort of the defining time to get into music. My Chemical Romance was super popular, MySpace was popping off, and MP3 players were becoming more commonplace. Hell I had one and I didn't even really listen to music, I had two songs: AFI - Love Like Winter and Eiffel 65 - I'm Blue on it. Fast forward to High School and I still wasn't big on music, but smartphones and iPod touches were starting to become commonplace. A buddy introduced me to metal via In Flames and a fire was lit inside me. This shit was bangin' I loved it. I remember a conversation I had with him and he's like you really can tell the difference between New and Old In Flames, and I recall thinking "Hell no you can't!" But, at that time I was still adjusting to the rough vocals, I couldn't make out a damn thing they were saying. In any case I became a metalhead over night, I was listening to all sorts of Death, Power, Black, Heavy, and Nu metal. He told me to never listen to "metalcore" or anything "-core" it's garbage, it's for "posers". That was such an elitist point of view, and shortly after graduating I listened to metalcore bands and it quickly became my favorite genre. I always felt like it was a guilty pleasure, but I came across a comment by a guy in a debate about metalcore and metal, and he said something along the lines of "Don't let people tell you what you can and cannot listen to, there is no such thing as a guilty pleasure when you're enjoying the things that bring you joy. Nobody can tell me I shouldn't listen to Burzum just cause I listen to Taylor Swift, I enjoy them both and they both their place in my library." And that shit changed how I viewed my musical tastes, I stopped caring and listened to what I wanted to listen to - not fearing social backlash just because I enjoyed something that wasn't to their tastes. It's great.
That turned out significantly lengthier than I had imagined, but I was just thinking about it when I went from Metalcore to EDM to Rap to Country to Black Metal in the span of like half an hour. There are so many great bands, artists and musicians out there and I feel like it would be a pity to narrow your tastes or lock yourself into a genre like some "elitists" I knew. Enjoy the things that bring you joy or get you to groove! 🙂
