Diary of a College Senior

Nov 16 - Music and Discoveries

Thursday, November 16, 2017

My long awaited break from school is finally here. For one week, I don't have to attend classes or labs. I've already spent the first few days doing nothing, and now it's Thursday and I realized I still have a mountain of homework to do, so I bussed to school hoping I can get more done this way.

What a bad idea. Barely thirty minutes into my study session and I am bored. Hardly anybody I know is here so no one to keep me motivated. I think I am just too burnt out from school.

So I decided to go online and listen to some music. And I thought, why not talk about music here since it's a big part of my life?

Unlike most people, I am not too picky about music. As long as it's not too country or heavy metal I'll be fine with it. I don't even care what language the songs are in. I'll listen to American music, Kpop, Mpop (Mandarin pop), and even picked up some German favourites from when I was abroad.

I am also a fan of artists who write their own lyrics. There's just something authentic about their singing that I feel is truly coming from the heart.

I started today with SWMRS's 'Lose It'. I found this song when I was browsing through the Fuelled by Ramen Youtube Channel.

Stella first introduced me to this indie(ish) label because one of her favourite bands (Panic! at the Disco) is signed here. She also got me into Twenty-one Pilots (also signed to this label) before they were mainstream.

So when I shared 'Lose It' with Stella, she said she loves the aesthetics of the video and it reminded her of being back in San Francisco. I told her watching the video made me want to go to San Francisco.

In fact, the video is a mixture of the eighties' colourful style, a nonchalant Californian attitude, and teenage mischief. And not to mention the plot of the video is just hilarious.

After I exhausted all SWMRS' songs (and still no homework done), I decided to head into the world of piano music. I thought perhaps listening to songs with no lyrics will help me regain my focus.

So off went some Studio Ghibli piano music which eventually turned into Sungha Jung's guitar renditions. Then, I started wishing I played guitar as well as Sungha Jung, so I looked up tabs for 'Always with Me' and thought about trying it out when I got home.

I never found the tabs. My quest for free tabs, however, took me to a Chinese guitar tab website. On it, I found a song called 'Tian Kong Zhi Cheng', or 'City in the Sky'. Curious, I listened to some instrumental versions which before deciding I need the lyrics as well. It was just so beautiful and I wanted to know the story behind the song, as I figured it probably came from an Asian drama.

I was wrong. It wasn't from a drama at all. In fact, it's a recent indie-folk song that's been performed by someone on the Chinese version of 'The Voice'. I listened to the performance and was just so moved afterwards. It's a rather melancholic song about a love that once was but didn't last.

Anyways, that was my little foray into music today. I don't even care that I haven't been productive. At least I found a song I truly enjoy.