music is my life.

In college, I often found myself feeling very out of place when my friends or acquaintances would start talking about music. They would discuss how they loved such-and-such a group, which was not main stream and of which I’d never heard. A conversation would continue, with more groups I had either never or rarely heard of, and I would just sit quietly in the corner, nodding in fake agreement.

I’ll just come out and say it: being a pop-music lover makes me feel immature. With all the criticism that today’s popular music is uninspired, over-produced, and sometimes just loud and obnoxious, I feel ashamed when I admit to actually liking all of it. I mean, I don’t let it bother me – I like what I like, and nobody’s opinion is going to make me stop listening to Britney Spears – but it still feels awkward sometimes.

What’s weird is, I actually have my fair share of non-main-stream music in my iTunes. The way I form my library of music is downloading a specific song I heard and liked, not giving any thought to other songs by that artist. The only time I look into the artist is if I hear two or more songs of theirs that I like. At that point, I check out more stuff and debate buying the entire album. Most times, however, I just buy or download the song I like and leave it at that.

I don’t know if it’s something I developed because I’m a dancer or because I tailor my playlist to match my mood. As a dancer, I’ll sometimes like ridiculously awful (not to mention completely out of character) rap songs because they have a good beat, or pick an indie song because the musicality is amazing. When I’m getting ready for a party, I like to blast Black Eyed Peas, much to the chagrin of my music-snob brother; when I need to relax, I listen to Colbie Caillat and Ingrid Michaelson.

Sometimes I just look at my iTunes and think it has a personality disorder. Because how is it that I can completely, one-hundred-percent enjoy both of the two songs below? I DON’T UNDERSTAND.