Music and Memory

When thinking back on my last 18 years of life (I know, that's not much but for me it has been a long time), so much music floods my mind. The genre of music spans many genres from contemporary worship to pop, and funk, and jazz, and of course the powerful ballads of Celine Dion and Adele. Most of my memories stem from music happening at that time. In this post I hope to share songs that mostly highlight my happier memories and also possible some that share more somber times.

The earliest memory of music I have is being in the car with my family and I don't quite remember where we were going to or coming from, but all I know is I would always suggest Shake Your Groove Thing by Peaches and Herb. I remember my parents having a CD of that and I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor. At the time I can remember calling it shake your booty, mind you I wasn't in preschool yet so my literacy and comprehension was not an A+. Plus, I thought that was a more fitting name for the song cause that's what it made me want to do. Without fail in every car ride I would demand that my two favorite songs be played, and if not I would protest. So here are my first music hyper-fixations, which both happen to be disco/funk. And yes it is imperative that I group them together. 

While I have so many different music memories to sort through I want to hone in on the songs and memories that frequent my mind. So, I would like to bring us to middle school Jared who listened to Billie Eilish, Sam Smith, Take That, Adele, Lauren Daigle and much more. I feel like in middle school I tried to mold my music taste into something that matched the general population of the school cause I wanted to fit in. But the music that has always persisted through my life as music that I truly liked for me was musical theater. I have been listening and watching musicals since I was very young. When I was in elementary school my sisters and I would watch Cats, yes I know Cats, not the most liked musical but I LOVED it. Then as I got older I remember watching Little Shop of Horrors with my cousins and Sweeney Todd with my older brother. I would like to share some songs from all three of those musicals because they bring up such fond memories of time with my family and they allowed me to have an anchor to myself during the most awkward time in my life when I was trying to be anything but. 

These songs could take me out of a coma cause they are such an integral part of my childhood and I eould give anything to listen to them for the first time again.

During High school I sang many a choral pieces, and many of them were very cool and complex and rich and intimate, or loud. The songs I would catch myself replaying voice memos and recordings of our group singing were always the spirituals. I can remember singing them with my friends in the middle of the restaurants. I can remember the feeling of hitting the last 8 part, or more, double forte chord and then hearing the cheers at competitions and concerts. Something about singing harmonies with other people and something with such a spiritual message is a very spiritual experience. How many times can I say spiritual in a sentence. But really they are my favorite songs to sing and I definitely sit in my room and listen tot these videos and cry, so here is my high school choir singing two of my favorite spirituals and also ill throw in my favorite latin/english piece we did. 

                                    

                  -Hold On, Moses Hogan

               

                 - Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel, Moses Hogan

                -Conversion of Saul, Z. Randall Stroope

I hope it's not annoying that I am putting on this many links to songs but there is so much I must share. I will end off this blog with my current reminiscence song that makes me happy and cry and it's just perfect for me to listen to and my sister and I would always listen to this on our many many car rides theses past few years when things were rough I always had this. this is Pool house by the Backseat Lovers