Teen Essay: Music can make you wiggle your foot or alter your life

When I was younger, my favorite band was Blink-182. “What’s My Age Again?” was the theme song of my awkward transition into teenage-hood and its punk rock aesthetic symbolized my 12-year-old self rebelling. I honestly considered myself a “rocker chick,” because, let’s face it, I was. The dark eyeliner and the two-sizes-too-small skinny jeans I wore were a result of the music I was listening to. The sweet tunes of Fall Out Boy and The All-American Rejects were the soundtrack to my life. It was as if my life was a movie and they were the score.

I always remember thinking, “if there were music playing right now it’d be ___.” Actually, those were my exact thoughts as I walked into the pledge party at Kenilworth Junior High. I had wanted “Stacy’s Mom” by Fountains of Wayne to play in the background as I walked in; the song provoked the idea of a teenager sleeping with his friend’s mother. Those ideas were unpleasant and made parents uneasy. I loved it.

As time went on, my reasons for wanting a song playing in the background altered and evolved. I no longer wanted a provocative song playing to anger my parents, but I wanted something to score my life nonetheless. Whether it was when I got in a fight with my boyfriend and played “Hate That I Love You” by Rihanna or when Kid Cudi’s “Up Up & Away” played and I thought it was about travel or flying - which it is not, I can tell you that much - I have always used music as a way to recall memories or feelings. While looking through my library of music, I can remember why I liked that song; I can remember where I was when I listened to it for the first time; I can remember the reasons why it related to me.

That, I think, is the point of music: to be able to reference a song and have it relate to your exact situation. Whether the song was actually accurate to your situation or not, it makes you feel like someone is going through your struggles or achievements alongside you.

It’s amazing that people you’ve never met and have no relation to can completely alter your life. Music can make you wiggle your foot at the grocery store, or it can change your life dramatically. It affects humans in a way no other art form does.

But no matter what the cultural significance or the larger meaning of music is, all I know for sure is that I rocked the bottom black eyeliner for two solid years because of Blink-182.