You and Your Musical Rut

by editor Michele Catalano

In 10th grade, I was fixated on the Doors, to the extent that I wrote a term paper about them for my music class. I was so proud of that paper, which showed off my knowledge, not just of Jim Morrison and his band but of the entire genre in which the Doors resided.

That was the year I had befriended a DJ from a local rock station. He was an expert on the Doors and music from that era, so I asked him to read my paper. I waited excitedly for his commentary, which I was sure was going to be nothing but high praise for both my writing skills and my expertise on the subject.

What he said, in so many words, was that I needed to get out more.

He said that I was stuck in place with my music choices. There would come a time when I’d regret not branching out more, not trying new things, not listening to music outside my comfort zone, outside of the one era I was stuck in.

So I listened to him. I tried different radio stations. I read Rolling Stone and Creem and bought albums reviewed in recent issues. This was around the time that punk was breaking. Discovering the new music out there changed my life.

Why am I telling you this? Well, I’m going to tell you what that DJ told me. I want you to learn the same lesson I learned, before it’s too late and all your memories are soundtracked to the same damn song.

See, one day thirty years from now, you will be sitting at your desk listening to music, and a song—let’s say it’s “Uptown Funk”—will come on. You’ll chuckle to yourself and think, Man, did I ever really like this song? Did I really think this was good? But that matters not. Because you will sing along with it. You will smile. You may wince a little bit at the induced nostalgia and melancholy. You may sigh and long for the days when you felt free and full of hope. But you will sing, because you will have some awesome memories tied up in the music.

I’m not going to tell you not to like what you like. Go ahead. Listen to all the Taylor Swift and Red Hot Chili Peppers your heart and ears desire. Listen to pop punk and wistful emo and some indie band that’s made up of two guys playing the spoons over the sound of a dog barking. But don’t let that be all you listen to. There’s so much out there. 

There will be moments in the future where memories will walk in unannounced, and you’ll start reminiscing. Reminiscing comes with a soundtrack. Songs will pop into your head. Whether you’re thinking about the night you lost your virginity in the parking lot of Chuck E. Cheese’s, or the day you realized you’ll be paying forever for a useless degree, you don’t want it all to be set to the same music. Do you really want Mumford and Sons to be the sole artist on the soundtrack to your life? Do you want Beyoncé to be the voice of every recollection? Do you want your future summer playlists to sound like “Old Town Road” played over and over again?

Let me answer that for you. No. You want more. You want some diversity. You want to mix it up. It’s all well and good to have a favorite genre of music. But if you don’t mix it up a bit, you’ll be using the same song for your wedding slideshow and the YouTube video of your trailer burning down when you attempted a career as a meth dealer. Yeah, kids, sometimes life is going to suck. You may have great moments of achievement. But you’ll also have your share of despair. 

You’ll need music for all those occasions. For the weddings and births, for the AA meetings and sentencings, for the job promotions and unemployment checks, for the day you buy a house and the day you move back into your mother’s basement. For every party, there will be a night spent in the house crying that the world hates you and you’ll die alone. For every weekend fling with a dozen friends and a truckload of beer, there will be a summoning to the boss’s office. When these things happen, you’ll be glad you had different music marking the occasions.

Listen, I know you’re really into chillwave right now. Or maybe it’s synth-pop or seapunk or dubstep or good old-fashioned heavy metal. Whatever you are into, recognize that there’s a lot more out there. There are all kinds of waves and cores and pops. Diversify. Get out of the musical rut you don’t even know you’re in. Switch from the Sirius station that seems like all horsegirl all the time. Just go down the dial and find something else. Peruse your friends’ playlists. Browse through the used section of a record store. Listen to your parents’ music. 

I don’t mean listen to the entire Van Halen catalog. Dig deeper than that. Expand your horizons. Crawl out of the rut you dug for yourself and listen to some bands you never heard of, or heard of but thought you were too cool to enjoy. You won’t know that you hate boy bands until you listen to them. Conversely, you won’t know that you love ‘70s-era psychedelic rock until you play those records.

Trust me, you’re going to regret it someday if all you have to go with when making a playlist called “Remember That Summer After High School When We Got Wasted Every Day At The Beach House?” is a 40-minute loop of T-Pain being featured on other people’s songs. If you don’t want to do it for yourself, do it for your future self. You don’t want to be like my 40-year-old friend, who just discovered the Pixies last week.

Life is going to be tough. There are going to be many challenges ahead. There will be death and despair, joblessness and hopelessness, a giant fucking pandemic, breakups and loneliness, hunger and empty wallets. 

There will also be good things. There will be parties and paychecks and clandestine sex and drinks with names you can’t pronounce. You’ll fall in love, maybe you’ll get married, have kids, wear a suit and tie. Perhaps there will be trips to Europe or box seats at Yankee Stadium or a bit part in a sitcom (you’re billed as The Wacky Neighbor). 

All these things, the good and the bad and the ugly, will stay with you forever. It’s up to you to make sure the movie of your life (usually titled Regret, Part I) has an awesome soundtrack.

So go out there and listen. Make a decent playlist for your memories. Metal, indie pop, lo-fi, and alternative. Hip-hop, dream pop, and hard rock. Hardcore, electric folk, sludge metal, and crabcore.

Wait, no. Don’t listen to crabcore.

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