Joyride

The Future of Music

It was old-school, riding the bus when cars could fly and planes were only used to transport goods. The entire military was transformed into an intricate group of programmers and engineers. The Police Force commanded an army of droids while the doctors at the hospitals relied on robots to upload a dying patients conscience into a new body. Charlie squinted her eyes, looking out the foggy bus window. It was a one-way ticket to Ashville, a hidden town in South Carolina. There she would meet up with her friend Deacon. He would welcome Charlie to his home with loving arms and care for her as he had another friend, Catalina. Together Charlie, Deacon, and Catalina would find themselves and who they were supposed to be. To Charlie, the trip seemed to last an eternity while in reality, it was three and a half hours. Her ears, broken from the heavy rock and roll. The music brought her peace and hope, something not a whole lot of people could bring her. Charlie relaxed her head against the rest of the seat. Her black hood pulled over her face, only showing her bright green eyes and concealing her age. It was illegal for minors to ride with this bus company unless accompanied by an adult. Charlie was a rebel though. A black leather wearing, nose pierced, rock and roll loving rebel and she liked it. Charlie was quite content with her appearance; a black sweatshirt, black jeans, black boots, and black earbuds to complement her aesthetic. The man that sat next to her was more formal. Dressed in a full suit and tie, it was clear he traveling to a business meeting of some kind. His first words to Charlie "What are you listening to?!", lingered in the air. The bitterness in his voice repleaded Charlie. This is why she turned her attention to her Samsung Galaxy phone hidden on her wrist in her pocket. She sat quietly, patiently, as she waited for the trip to be over. Her mind attempted to drift to memories of previous days but Charlie couldn't bear the thoughts any longer. The man stared at Charlie once more. This time, Charlie stared back at the man.

"What do you want?" she commented.

The man shrugged and reverted his attention to the front window of the bus. Charlie lied back, resting her head on the back of the chair and her arm on the small shelf between her and the window. Her eyes closed, dispensing a small tear of dismay. Her eyes opened with excitement, her favorite song was playing. 

"Eighteen and a life you got it! Eighteen and life to gooo!" she chanted quietly.

It was the lyrics to a song called "Eighteen and Life" by Skid Row. Charlie adored the song and appreciated the lyrics as she could relate to their true meaning. The man gave her the side eyes once more. Charlie glared at him for she knew he was judging her and couldn't help but to feel pity for the man. He had nothing to do but to sit there and critique Charlie. She flipped her long brown hair as she pulled down her phone. She unzipped her backpack and pulled out the charging block for her phone. Charlie inserted the cold metal prongs of the charger into the slots of the power outlet. The satisfying sound of the phone beginning to charge temporarily softened her music. Charlie nodded to herself, pulling her wrist from her pocket and waving it to activate her phone. Technology had come a long way by now.  When Charlie was young, phones were pieces of metal and glass, forced together to display images and videos. Now, the phone was nothing more than a thin projector bracelet you wore on your wrist that paired with the special contact you wore in your eyes. This would allow you to display a normal phone screen up your wrist but for viewing pleasure, you could also send it to the contacts and watch it as if your surroundings were the phone screen. She scrolled through the air, looking at her playlist. The was amused by the lineup. After this song, "I Hate Everything About You" and "Gone Forever" was coming on, both by Three Days Grace of course. Along with the new technology came a new music industry. Nowadays, Pop singers couldn't sing, couldn't play any instruments, and couldn't sing. The lyrics were written by a robot as the beat was being produced by another robot. Finally, the "artist" would try to sing along with the beat but the robots were trained to adjust the vocals as needed. All the songs sounded the same, filtered and synthetic. To Charlie, it was nothing more then unmeaningful words but to a mixture of various sounds. This is why she enjoyed Punk Rock, an era from the early 2000's when everyone was playing the electric guitar and bobbing their heads to the beat of the drums. At the concerts, fans would play the air guitar to the rhythmic pattern of the chords played by the real artists. Things are different now. Concerts are performed in a studio and sent for fans to watch through the new VR contacts. By this time, the trip was almost over and Charlie was almost to her destination. Often times she found herself dreaming of what it was like to live in the 2000's. To attend that Green Day or My Chemical Romance concert. Sadly, the lead singers had grown old and passed away. Fall Out Boy, Panic! At the Disco, and the majority of the remaining original rock bands had converted to this new way of music. Gerard Way, the lead singer for My Chemical Romance, one of Charlie's favorite bands, had once said "Heros are ordinary people who make themselves extraordinary.". Charlie modeled herself after this quote to carry the legacy of the greatest rock bands. Music was everything to her and the more guitar played, the more she enjoyed the songs.