Music - The Best Memories

Until now, I have been sharing my thoughts and stories on up and coming artists that I think are worth mentioning. However for this post, I want to talk about music in general. I'm not a musician. I basically only sing in the shower, and can play a handful of Church songs on the piano. Still, I absolutely love music and can't picture a world without it. 

Why all the love?

I take the music that I listen to very seriously, and can't stand just listening to anything that's thrown at me. When a song can relate to what I am feeling at a particular moment in time, that's magic. There's just this certain rush of emotion, this excitement from the pits of my stomach, when I'm feeling a certain emotion - happiness, fear, anger, or just the giddiness of crushing on someone - and a song just hits it right on the head. And it's not just the lyrics, but the melodies as well. 

True Memories

I've kept a few journals and diaries throughout my life, and crack up to this day when I go and read them back. But I get bored very easily writing down things that have happened to me. It just feels like I'm taking notes on trivial things that I won't care to remember years from now. How do I remember things that have happened in my past, including events and emotions? Music. The songs that I listened to or heard at those random moments in time...

When I had the biggest crush on my ex before we started dating - "Secret Valentine" We The Kings

SEPTA bus rides to college as a little Freshman commuter - "Heartbeat" The Fray

A little rough/sad patch mid-sophomore year of college - "A New Day Has Come" Celine Dion

On the verge of my first ever breakup - "Last Goodbye" David Cook

Christmastime 2013, going on a million job interviews and listening to this before every single one to calm my nerves (I can still feel the snow and stack of resumes in my hand) - "Right Now" One Direction

Current day as I'm prepping to start my career - "Social Casualty" 5 Seconds of Summer

Can music journals be a thing?

At the moment, I am keeping a journal. It's my last year in college and I'm just finishing up the best internship ever at a radio station, so I want to have all of that on file for my future self. But what have I been doing at the end of each entry? Including a lyric to whatever song is relevant to me at that time. I can write down endless tidbits of my day, but the one thing that opens the floodgates of memories is music. The journal entries will help me remember what happened and the people I met, but the lyrics will remind me how I felt about all of it in a much deeper sense. 

Gotta love music...

One Direction...A Look Back

In honor of the Where We Are Tour coming to my hometown of Philly TOMORROW, I want to take a second to talk about One Direction. Not the biggest boy band on the planet who now sells perfume, makeup, and whatever else management can come up with, but rather these five down to earth weirdos who were thrown together by Simon Cowell and are living the dream.

Who are these guys, really?

Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson. Whether you like them and their music or not, these are household names. To me, 1D are not at all what the media and general public make them out to be. Zayn and Louis are not always getting high in public, and Harry is not a womanizer who goes from girl to girl. From endless interviews and appearances, they just seem NICE! I would take Niall home to mom for a homemade Italian dinner in a heartbeat. 

And the obsession begins...

I first fell in love with the band when I heard "What Makes You Beautiful" on the radio. But what made me a true (and slightly obsessed) fan was watching their video diaries on YouTube, which I highly suggest everyone watches below. I would stay up all hours of the night watching the five of them squeeze onto a tiny couch to answer fan questions, and never laughed so hard. They were all that I would talk about, much to the annoyance of my family and friends, and I thought that they were perfect. Being older and wiser, I know that they're human and make mistakes, but never have I felt so strongly about an artist before. 

Forever "My Boys"
Since their video diaries, One Direction has blown up to become worldwide stars. Their faces are on everything, they've had a movie in theaters, and have singing dolls of themselves (three guesses if I have those or not). People who used to make fun of them are jumping on the bandwagon. There's even rumors that they're signed for another few albums, and I can't begin to imagine what their career will be like if they stay this big. Those bandwagon fans only know "Story of My Life" and the stadium tours. True fans know the "boys from the stairs."

5 Seconds of Summer...NOT Another Boy Band

5 Seconds of Summer...a band that I have been obsessed with since last Winter. Before they were played on the radio, before they were performing on all of the biggest award shows, and before people started freaking out over how hot the lead singer is (and having to double check what the heck his name is). Ashton, Michael, Luke, and Calum are something that I haven't seen or heard in a while. They are four attractive guys from Australia with a punk edge and extremely catchy music. They are also hysterical and down to earth, if you've ever watched any of their Keek and Instagram videos.

I first heard of them when Louis Tomlinson of One Direction tweeted a link to their video, "Heartbreak Girl." I had to check them out, especially since they would be 1D's opening act. After the first few lines, I was hooked, and my love for the band had begun. I would watch their Keek videos on the SEPTA commute home from college, and play the same four songs on repeat on the subway to class every morning. And you know what? No one else knew who they were. All I heard was "OMG you're obsessed with these boy bands" and "ugh another one?" To be honest, I didn't mind because they were my little secret.



And then "She Looks So Perfect" started playing on the radio a few months ago and everything changed. Fans that had criticized them jumped on the band wagon because 5SOS was clearly the next big thing. Frustrating, right? Trying to share their talent with people a year ago, and no one would listen until they got a song on the radio. To be honest, I still don't think people get what 5 Seconds of Summer is all about.

These guys are NOT another boy band. They play their own instruments. They can be inappropriate at times (see Keek video). They idolize Green Day, and even covered "American Idiot." Yet, the majority of their fan-base is tween and teen girls because the guys' ages are 18-20. It sucks for the fans who are actually their age and older because 5SOS is seen as a band for younger fans. Personally, I think they should be on the same level as groups like All Time Low and Fall Out Boy. 5SOS wrote songs for their album with both of these bands, yet they are continuously compared to One Direction because they tour with them. Taylor Swift had Austin Mahone open on her tour. Are they similar artists? Nope!

The happiest day of my life would be to see a 5 Seconds of Summer t-shirt in a store like Hot Topic, right next to All Time Low and Panic! At the Disco. Yes, they are younger, but that doesn't mean they should automatically be considered a boy band. No, they aren't by any means as hardcore as Green Day, but they clearly have an edge to them with their skinny jeans and various facial piercings. I'm afraid that because they have managed to attract so many younger fans, management will try to make them into something they're not.

I fell in love with the 5 Seconds of Summer who smacks people with an angry banana, gets naked in livestreams and covers their private parts with hats, and tweets random Green Day lyrics on a weekly basis (much to the confusion of the younger crowd). I hope they stay a group of inappropriate weirdos as long as humanly possible.