Oh Conor...

Finally, one of my favorite media-music! Ever since I was really young, music has been a huge part of my life. I've played in orchestras and jazz bands and am an avid listener of all types of music. Asking me to choose my favorite music and genres is like asking an English major to choose her favorite authors or books, but I'll give it a shot...

My iTunes library is filled with almost every possible genre from country to hip hop to indie rock to classical. What I like to listen to depends significantly on what I'm doing or how I'm feeling at any given time. Overall though, my favorite music is probably classified as indie rock or alternative. I'm not entirely certain if that's the appropriate title for the genre, but I think it does it justice. Currently, my favorite artists are Bright Eyes, Jenny Lewis, Belle and Sebastian, and Wilco. I've been to live concerts of all of these bands as well. My favorite thing about these artists is their lyrics. I think that some musicians have become the modern day poets, and these artists exemplify this. Each of these groups or singers also represents a wide range of genre as well. Some Bright Eyes songs sound like old fashioned country, while others are louder rock. On the flip side though, you can also frequently catch me listening to rap and hip-hop from 2Pac to 50 Cent. Again, the lyrics of some rap can be compared to poetry and really attract me. Even on tracks where the lyrics are admittedly not very deep, I still can't stop listening because of the rhythms and the beat.

One song that I particularly love that exemplifies my musical tastes is "Make War" by Bright Eyes. The song begins slowly with just a guitar and Conor's voice. Slowly the drums come in and the song begins to pick up. The song deals with the themes of fear in society and compares that to the fear people can have of eachother in any kind of relationships. A few lines in particular say: "And so we've learned to be faithless/stand behind bullet proof glass/exchanging out affections through a drawer." I love that the song deals with larger societal issues such as the level of fear that is generated through media and other factors and relates them back to the personal, a relationship between two people. I think that everyone can relate to these ideas in some autobiographical way.