Music and Me: Reflections

During class, we discussed our song choices posted on our blogs in great detail. For example, who we chose, why we chose them and what we might choose in the future. During childhood, many of us shared similar tastes in music, many people enjoyed listening to Busted or the Spice Girls. There was a sense of going along with the crowd, because it was what everyone else listened to. There was a sense of fitting in and it gave you something to talk about in school. On many occasions, music tastes were heavily influenced by parents or older siblings, who were often the ones to introduce them to the music. These bands were absolutely everywhere; played over the radio, on CDs bought by parents/blasted out by siblings on hi-fis, on posters at bus stops, it's no wonder our song choices are mostly mainstream pop bands. It was a musical sensation and almost a complete monopoly on the market. I can't remember many bands from the 90s except the major groups like S Club 7 or Steps, which shows how effective their marketing was. It was camp, it was upbeat, it was peppy and quite honestly, it was absolutely brilliant. Any child in that time would have been absolutely enthralled by the music and the dancing.

Steps - Last Thing On My Mind



It was when we entered secondary school (or thereabouts) that we start to stray away from the mainstream hits and start to form our own music tastes, exploring the wide world for different genres. Around the same time, the iPod was invented. Suddenly, music became portable. You could bring an iPod into school and show your friends the coolest new song and just like that, music became viral. Bands that children had never heard of before could be listened to just by someone bringing over their iPod for you to listen to. This meant that musical taste was no longer just browsing through the vinyl records or CD section of HMV, it was whoever had a computer with enough space to store their music and enough money to afford an iPod.

Children nowadays have almost instant access to any kind of music they want through websites like YouTube, or applications such as Spotify and iTunes. I suspect that music will become progressively more available for younger generations as technology continues to improve and become easier to use. With shows like X Factor, or Pop Idol, people can go from unknown to pop sensation overnight, with YouTube videos being linked everywhere over Facebook and Twitter (as with Justin Bieber). A potential problem with these 'overnight sensations' is that real talent starts to disappear, as these people with good marketing teams start to gain a monopoly on the music world. It's amazing what a handsome boy with a few beauty shots will to do the average teenage female.

Regardless, it became clear that many of the reasons for choosing a particular song were down to factors such as nostalgia, being reminded of a person, a place or a feeling. As we grow older, our musical tastes change, and more often than not, we look back on our childhood tastes and wonder what on earth we were thinking. But for the few of us who look back fondly on our childhood and enjoy getting hit by the nostalgia train, modern technology means that the music will always be there for us.