Edited by: Maya Haider (UG 20)
Music is such an essential part of being human that phases in our life are often described using different types of music (“Oh, she’s going through the boyband phase”). Personally, I need music playing during pretty much every activity, from walking to getting breakfast to solving differential equations. Music has become such a necessity that in situations where I can’t listen to it, there’s still music playing in my head.
Photo by Mohammad Metri on Unsplash.com
According to my mom, I had a few very specific songs that I loved as a kindergartener, most of them in my mother tongue, Malayalam, or Tamil. All of these songs were fast paced with danceable beats so it is clear why an overenthusiastic four-year-old loved them. I was introduced to Abba and Michael Jackson with my parents’ old CDs in their car during long drives. I remember being obsessed with By The Rivers Of Babylon and Rasputin and would repeatedly ask for them to be played at every occasion. With the release of Tamil movies like Vaaranam Aayiram, Ayaan and Aadavan, starring a dashing Suriya, old pop lay forgotten in the glovebox. Looking back, I’m pretty sure my fascination with guitarists comes from listening to Adiye Kolluthe one too many times.
Sixth grade came with a brief period where I compulsively watched Hindi movies and soap operas. Of course, that meant hours glued to MTV India and Sony MIX. Not knowing Hindi did not stop me from blaring these songs and singing along like I understood them. My first self-defining music phase came when I listened to My World 2.0 by Justin Bieber. Soon after his album Believe came out, I was officially hooked. Mind you, this was when the only ‘social media’ I had was Club Penguin, so I had no idea that JB was the butt of online jokes.
Once I realized my taste in music was considered “lame” on social media, what other choice did I have but to quickly change my taste? Then a beautiful blur of nice hair and bubble-gum pop hit me like a big yellow school bus (note the Mean Girls reference).
One Direction was the longest, most intense music phase of my life and I’m sure anyone who was once a fan would agree. I spent hours of my life sharing pictures and reading fanfiction. Not only did I slip and fall down a hole, I dragged a couple of my friends down with me as well. Every school morning was spent discussing Louis’ new picture, or Niall’s tweet. Eventually, it got to the point where the teacher would say the words “one direction” and the whole class would turn and look at us. Needless to say, it came as an absolute shock when Zayn left the band. I vaguely remember crying a lot, and making a dessert as a coping mechanism. Even though they’re no longer a band now, I’m still in my One Direction phase. Confession time: Somewhere in my school, there is a bench where if you scrape off a few layers of paint you can find the entire One Direction discography.
A really low-quality picture of my cracker/Nutella/condensed milk monstrosity taken on a Nokia E72
Around the same time as the One Direction phase, the inner romantic in me was going through a Taylor Swift phase. At a time when love seemed like a real and plausible idea, aka, ninth grade, T Swift was my jam. Fearless resonated with me on another level. Car rides with my friends meant screaming Love Story at the top of our lungs (some things never change). But in all seriousness, I still think Red is one of the best pop albums in the last ten years.
If high school won’t make a person want to be edgy and “different” from everyone else, I don’t know what will. Unlike most people, my emo phase set in quite late. Life was all about Twenty One Pilots (oh sorry, twenty øne piløts), Panic! At The Disco and Halsey. I even got an emo fringe but thankfully, my hair would not stay down that way, so I actually ended up looking kind of cute.
Just as the emo phase was starting to move into the obsession stage, I stumbled across a YouTuber who also sang. In fact, he had released an EP called TRXYE just the previous year. Troye Sivan was my next major breakthrough music phase. His album Blue Neighbourhood was on repeat on my phone for almost a year after it came out. Once again, I was back to sharing pictures, reading fanfiction, and ‘shipping’ couples. It’s a cycle, I tell you.
In my last year of school, Harry Styles dropped back into my life, with his beautiful single Sign Of The Times. With just one listen, I was hooked. The release of his debut solo album Harry Styles made me realize much to my own surprise, that I loved soft rock. From hereon started my Harry Styles phase which is still actively going on.
Upon arriving at college, so far away from home, I had a moment where I felt like I was losing touch with my roots, and I came back to where I started. My playlist was suddenly crowded with Malayalam and Tamil songs from various time periods, most of which made me extremely nostalgic. Somewhere along the way, a little bit of Carnatic and Carnatic Fusion crept in.
Right now, as I type this, I’m listening to Chocolate by The 1975. Somewhere along the way, I developed a taste for artsy tumblr bands. And to be honest, that’s how I like to think I am: artsy and straight out of a tumblr edit.