WP2| Tween Years

Like most kids in middle school, this was a very confusing time for me. I just left the kids that I spent 5–6 years together with and now we’re all finally feeling growing pains. It was a weird phase of dressing weird, looking weird with braces or acne and finally gaining a sense of freedom. My parents were starting to trust me more by giving me more responsibilities and at school the teachers weren’t guiding us as much with everything like in elementary school. The emotions and energy I felt had a strong relationship with the music that I was also listening to at the time. At this point I was listening to pop, rap, R&B and even country. This was due to me going to a very diverse middle school where there were kids of almost every background represented. My friend groups consisted of people that weren’t exactly like me and didn’t like everything that I liked.

What this music meant to me?

The music in this playlist introduced me to what I would like to think as different paths. Each genre evoked different emotions from me and either motivated me or made me feel stuck. For instance, although I lived in Texas and country music was everywhere, this wasn’t music from the foundation that my parents built for me. This music felt foreign. It didn’t spark meaningful emotions that made me feel something, which mentally made me put it in a category of “music that makes me feel stuck”. I also was the type of kid that was a big dreamer. I would always imagine myself traveling the world and seeing new things. The music I listened to helped to evoke the feeling of me being elsewhere and visualizing the world. Country music reminded me of home and the parts I didn’t like. Rap music and upbeat R&B music kept me motivated to get things done and to keep going. I found my sense of home and peace in r&b music because of the mellow sounds and because it reminded me so much of my parents and being at home with them. I felt so full and wholesome listening to music like this.