By Braden Murray | LTVN Sports Director
Growing up, you don’t always get a huge say in which music you listen to. For the most part, it’s up to your parents — with the occasional Radio Disney. Thus, I grew up listening to a lot of 80s and 90s music in the car with my family. However, in my early teenage years, I didn’t want to listen to that era anymore, with a notable exception being Michael Jackson.
Instead, I was listening to soundtracks from “The Muppets,” “High School Musical” and “Teen Beach Movie,” as well as pop radio hits such as “Geronimo,” “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)” and “Uma Thurman.” I listened to this type of music almost exclusively for years, until eighth grade when a few of my friends introduced me to Nirvana and Pearl Jam.
In my freshman year of high school, I started listening to Led Zeppelin, The Beatles and other classic rock acts. That’s pretty much all I was listening to, and unfortunately, due to my limited taste in music, I couldn’t participate in conversations my friends were having about popular contemporary artists.
This brings me to one reason why listening to multiple genres of music is important: You will be able to engage in a wider range of conversations and topics. If I hadn’t started listening to hip-hop my freshman year of high school, then I would have missed out on all the fun inside jokes my friends and I had, which revolved around “Igor” by Tyler, the Creator.
By sticking to one or two genres of music, you are depriving yourself of so much great music — especially if you aren’t listening to instrumental genres like jazz. I used to hate purely instrumental tracks. At least, I thought I hated purely instrumental tracks before John Coltrane and Miles Davis changed my mind. If you have a sneaking suspicion that you will like a certain song or artist you’ve never listened to, I’m willing to bet you will.
You gain a greater appreciation for music, sampling in particular, if you listen to a larger variety of music. I always get excited whenever I’m listening to a song and I recognize a portion of it that’s sampled somewhere else. For example, “That Lady, Pts. 1 & 2” by The Isley Brothers is sampled in “i” by Kendrick Lamar.
If you’re a Spotify user like myself, I highly recommend going through the “Discover Weekly” playlist the app compiles for you. That’s where I go to find new music when I get bored. Another great way to start listening to new genres of music is to simply ask friends and family for recommendations. If you don’t like a song, band or genre, then move on to the next one and keep discovering.
