Can You Grow Out Of Music?

Music was a big part of my teenage years. I think this is true for so many people. There is just something about music that makes teenagers identify to so strongly. For me it was an escape. I used to listen to music whenever and wherever I could. I used to spend time searching for and discovering new bands.

I started ballet when I was 5 and that is probably when my connection with music started. I also had a big music influence from my dad and my older brother, both musicians. I never learned how to play an instrument though and I wish I did because now I don’t have the patience for it. It takes too long to be good at it and sadly I don’t want to go though the process, I just want to wake up one day and know how to play piano, guitar, and violin. 

I am not obsessed with music anymore. I really like it but compared to before it is almost as if I stopped caring about it. If you ask me what my favorite bands are, it is hard for me to give you an answer and way harder if you ask me about my favorite songs.

I know that music has been great part of my life, yet I can’t think of a specific significant song in my life. The only bands I can think of anymore are bands that I learned to love years ago and I still do now like The Beatles, Oasis, Rolling Stones, Robbie Williams, Michael Buble, Norah Jones, Coldplay, Queen, Mozart and Tchaikovsky.

It doesn’t mean I don’t like music anymore. I do. I mean, who doesn’t like music? There is something for everyone. I like listening to it on the radio, I play the Mumford and Sons station on Pandora while cooking, and I thoroughly enjoyed some live string music at the open cafe walking by Downtown Portland the other day. I guess what changed is that I don’t put that much energy into it, I don’t proactively learn about new bands or even buy any music.

I used to know the lyrics to all the songs. Well not all of them in the world, but you know. It used to bug me that my mom never knew the lyrics to the songs but she would sing them anyway. Guess what? I am her now. I totally do that and I even feel bad for being annoyed at her for something I do now.

I even made my way into a weird town in Belgium and camped for 3 days in rocky terrain that killed my back during a 3-day music festival. I wouldn’t do that for music anymore. That’s what happens when you get older I guess, but I am in my mid twenties and grown out of so much stuff already. I started partying early in my years so I guess that’s a reason why I grew out of it early too. Some people never grow out of it.

It still baffles me though that I can’t think of one song that is significant to me.

There are a few songs that get to me. I don’t even know why but they do. They don’t remind me of a specific time or event in my life but if any of them played on the radio I would definitely stop my mind and listen, and sing even though I am a terrible singer.

One of them is Ochrasy by Mando Diao. A song I met about 8 years ago. The best time to listen to it is alone in your car.

This second song is only a couple of years old so I am not sure if I will feel the same way about many years from now. It’s called Home by Phillip Phillips.

And “Let There Be Love” by Oasis. A simple but powerful song. They don’t make simple songs like this that can say so much anymore.