Here is my First Music Experience, Do You Remember Yours?

Music has the ability to strike feelings of emotion and take us back to a time in our lives. We all have that playlist of songs or an album to help us go through our emotions as a copping mechanism.

Can you remember the first time you heard music? for most of us it probably from our parents. For me it was from my father, who would play different genres of music from African pop, Gospel and Maskandi. Before the digital era of music, I remember my father would have packs of DVDs of music from his favourite artist such Brenda Fassie, Hlengiwe Mhlaba and Thokozani Langa which he would play on weekends. Seeing him sing along to some of Brenda Fassie’s greatest hits spoke to his mood at the time which was a place of being in a good mood and nostalgia or when he play gospel would give away where he was emotionally, he would go as turning the music up to the point where the neighbours can hear the music. Till this day he asks me to download music for him and put it on a USB so he can play it on his music system.

Later I would go on to develop my own music taste from being exposed to watching television and listening to the radio. I gravitated towards genres such as house music which was popular during the 2010s with songs from Big Nuz, Black Coffee, DJ Kent, DJ Zinhle in South Africa at the time and would later move into R&B and Hip-Hop as I grew older. When I had my own phone and I started to control what I listen to. As I became of age I started to listen to music that spoke to how I was feeling at the time whether it was going through a hard time or falling in love in love for the first time, There was always a song I could turn to that would fit my situation. Whether I am with my friends there is always music playing in the background and where when go out it. I realised from my myself and everyone around me that music allows us to be in touch with our emotions. There are times where I have no one to talk to so I would put on that playlist and block out everything out and I can go days without talking to anyone.

Even at this very moment you either are playing it or someone has it playing in the background. we use music for various reasons to set the mood, deal with anxiety, motivation and express our emotions. We each have emotional attachment to it that connects us to a certain moment in our lives regardless of our where we are our lives. These days everyone has ear sets listening to something to escape our immediate reality. Music has become more accessible with music streaming platforms allowing us to have it at our fingertips. It not only affects the people at the receiving end but the creators as well. Who go through a process of creating soundtracks to our lives as a way of expressing themselves. It has psychological effect on the way we speak, dress and our personality because of the type of music one listens to. It has brought people together from small events to filling up stadiums the impact it has is immeasurable. It has changed the lives of people in our society into superstardom through doing something they love and do not consider it as a job but as a form of expression.

Music is among the list of things we use as an escape it does not even have to be music other people use art or entertainment as their vice. As an outlet for expressing emotions and showcasing their artistry from an artist’s point of view. We have become so used to hearing sounds in our everyday lives that we have forgotten to appreciate the existence of music and how it has gotten us through hard times and the joyful moment. Music continues to have impact for people lives since it was started and has continued to grow into the music era we are in right now.

Well, no matter what music means to you; appreciate it.