Ages and Stages: How music changes with us.
Similar to rugby or football club loyalty, some people will die on the hill that their favourite band is the best band of all time, or that they're a true original fan, or that Nickelback is actually worth listening to. The days of tumblr and the rise of social media mean that a lot of peoples identity changes with their music taste. For example, the pipeline of directioner to Harry Styles Stan is one that should be studied for years to come.
As soon as I got my first iPod shuffle I was loading it up with all the songs that I used to listen to on CDs in my Dads car. I'd clip that little fucker to my school bag and listen to Kenny Rogers for my whole walk to school. When I got older and discovered the magical world of Limewire (which permanently damaged my Dad's computer), I got the chance to explore my music taste more and got really into Ke$ha.
The point is, music is a constant in a lot of our lives and you we tie phases in our lives to songs or artists, core memory type of shit.
The first thing to dive into, has to be the classic 'name five Nirvana songs if you're wearing a Nirvana t-shirt from JayJays. People got SO defensive about rock bands they probably barely listened to themselves, but for some reason you had to go through an interrogation to prove you were worthy of wearing a cheap t-shirt. People were obsessed with gate-keeping the music their parents listened to and it was so confusing. If you actually could name five songs, they'd claim you were a Bandwagon fan, you literally couldn't win! It's worth noting, if you were a girl you had to work a lot harder to make yourself seem like a legitimate fan of anything. This just in: girls are ridiculed for their interests constantly.
This brings me to the next phase of life that's tied to music taste: The boyband/Justin Bieber era. It was the best of times and the worst of times; the height of YouTube covers and when X Factor was in its hay day. I had a friend who had a legitimate life size poster of Justin Bieber on her wall. The poster had a lipstick mark on it and she swore it came like that, but I didn't believe her for a second. Many of us covered our walls in A4 cutouts from Crème and Girlfriend magazines. To be a fan of pop music meant dealing with constant ridicule about what 'real music' is. Hot take: if you have fun listening to it and it makes you happy then it's probably real music. Having you own opinion on music isn't a bad thing, personally I think drum and bass is fucking awful and I know that's an opinion that will get RnV fanboys very upset. The hate of pop music because it fun and light made no sense. My tomboy self was honestly more scared about coming out as a directioner than I was about liking girls, which is ridiculous.
When IPods became a thing of the past, and we couldn't use Itube to stream songs, Spotify was the saving grace. I'm a firm believer that if you want to know someone's heart and soul all you need to do is look at their Spotify playlists. The ability to curate different playlists depending on your mood and search up any song or artist whenever you want changed the way we interact with music. You get exposed to so many more artists and genres, so your music taste can properly develop on its own. I'm an absolute slut for a Discover Weekly, it feels like a little present just for me every Monday. Spotify has made our music tastes more diverse and kind of gives you a sense of community with your friends. Making someone a Spotify playlist is the most wholesome thing you can possibly do. Despite the can of worms streaming services open it terms of the treatment of artists - it also makes music a much more open experience. I honestly don't even want to think about listening to Now That's What I Call Music CDs on my portable boombox, or using YouTube to MP3 downloaders. The absolute trauma of it all!
People sometimes look back at the music they used to enjoy and cringe, which I think is a habit that we as a society need to stop. There are exceptions to this rule of course, if you feel proud of being a Chris Brown fan then you should reconsider your life choices. Flip the switch and instead of feeling embarrassed you should think about all the memories you associate with specific phases of your music taste. For example, when I think about my One Direction phase, I think about my Belieber friend and how she absolutely stole her mums lipstick so she could kiss that life size poster.