A New Experience

There are something’s I cannot do. I do not sing, nor do I listen metal music and I do not eat Indian food. So for me to step out my comfort zone this week, and do something that’s totally not me was an interesting idea. The first idea I had was to not use my phone in any way except to call people but that ended in the first five minutes. So I set the bar a little lower. The second idea I had was to broaden my musical taste by listening to music, music I rarely never listen to. I picked three genres; Metal, Country, and reggae, these are genres that I have no substantial listening experience with. I wanted to see that if by stepping out my normal, that maybe I find that one or more of these genres I like. If I like even just one, that would give me future motivation to step outside my boundaries. So I put on the Pandora app and I let the music play.

My first thoughts when listening to heavy metal is what the “non-school friendly expletive” am I listening to. Then I continued to listen and I started to wonder how anybody could listen to this. I tried to listen. One hour of my life that I will never get back was spent listening to the music. It hurt my ears-I was scared they were going to bleed. I want to say heavy metal sucks something fierce but I will not say that. I will say heavy metal is not pleasant to my earlobes. I say it like that because somewhere, somebody in their mother’s basement is enjoying that type of music.

When listening to country, it was not the music that got to me, it was the lyrics.  Most songs were not bad and in fact I liked at first. But I started to notice that the lyrics were very dull, mundane and well stereotypical. Lyrics with messages about love, family, drinking, and “good old American values” Plenty of times while listening, I felt that the lyrics did not appeal to me for these reasons. I mean I love my country, but the levels of patriotism in some country songs got to be beyond annoying.  With country music, if it is on the radio when I am riding a car, I would not be opposed to listening, But only for a limited amount of time

Reggae was cool and relaxing. I felt very calm and at peace while listening. Especially when I listened to Bob Marley, I felt as if I was in a different realm at times. Reggae is not something I would listen to every day, but it is something I would listen to if I was feeling down or was stressed. 

I feel that this week was good for me. I think I am going to try hard the next time I want to try something new because of this experience. I did not find my new favorite music genre and heavy metal almost sent me to the emergency room. I did find songs, and artists I like from country and reggae. I like listening to country when I am riding in a car and I like listening to reggae when I am feeling stressed. These situations happen often so I am glad I have found new music to listen to enjoy or levitate those moments.