evolving — Home — What’s Cool?

If you had asked me in either middle or high school which musical genres and artists I enjoyed listening to at the time, I would’ve quickly and resoundingly responded with rap and listed whichever rappers were popular at the moment in the music scene. While a bulk of what I was listening to at the time is completely radio-driven and surface level, some of the artists I listened to back then still hold a place in my musical library. Those artists, Kendrick Lamar for example, are still relevant to me today because of the lyrical complexity in their music and their willingness to take risks in sound and production. If you ask me what kind of music I’m listening to now, I have a different answer for you. The only rap that I listen to is introspective, lyrically complex, and has a message bigger than anything surface level. What I’ve been discovering recently is newer hip-hop and rap music just isn’t delivering the emotional depth, story-telling, and soul that I look for in good music, but there are other genres that do supply just that. In short, my tastes are changing.

I first heard Father John Misty’s music when he was a guest on Saturday Night Live in March of 2017. His chilling performance of “Total Entertainment Forever”, one of my favorites of his, intrigued me because it was lyrically complex and unlike anything I had heard before. Misty’s indie folk music performance that night opened a door for me to the rest of his brilliant discography and before long I was at the front row of one of his concerts singing along to every word of every song. Spotify’s recommendations led me to similar artists like Fleetwood Mac, Jason Isbell, and Sara Bareilles, and over time my tastes were slowly moving away from rap and hip-hop. Don’t get me wrong, I still love and listen to a lot of rap music like Travis Scott’s Astroworld and BROCKHAMPTON’s SATURATION trilogy, but these and similar offerings often don’t paint pictures as vivid as a lot of the Americana, indie, folk, and old country music (none of that country pop crap and especially not Old Town Road, don’t even get me started on country rap) that I’ve been listening to lately. For example, Jason Isbell’s “Anxiety” hit me in an emotional spot that no rap music has been able to in a very, very long time.

The point I’m trying to make in this post is that middle school Andy never would’ve pictured that his music tastes could change so dramatically and so quickly, but they have, and that is a good thing. As we garner new life experiences, meet and make connections with new people, and develop in character, our tastes grow and change to reflect that. I find comfort in the fact that I’m maturing and evolving as a person to be able to appreciate new art and music that causes me to feel things and relate to artists that have gone through similar experiences. If you aren’t really listening intently to the music that’s playing, why listen at all? Sure, some music can serve as good background noise at times, but I now think that I relate more with the overall message and contents of the folk/Americana/indie I’ve been listening to than I do with rap, and that is completely okay.

Linked below is a playlist I’ve made featuring the kind of music I’ve been listening to lately. I may be biased, but I highly recommend it. Some of the artists include Father John Misty, Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile, Sara Bareilles, Chris Stapleton, Fleetwood Mac, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, and many more. Enjoy, and don’t be afraid to evolve!

SPOTIFY LINK: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0rBGrVqtatPXMLPUnbPqiz?si=SMsdK5pnSkWU-le2ELYQdA