A Semester of New Songs

 Most college students know how frustrating the "second" semester can be.  It is a semester filled with exams, homework, having to avoid the urge to "mind bang" every girl in jean shorts, and pretending to like baseball.  It is tough to stay focused, optimistic, and even sane in a world of ten page essays and in class debates about the sexuality of James Buchanan. That is the exact reason why it is important for every student to find some sort of escapism: to find the quiet in the middle of the riot, to find the calm in the middle of the figurative storm, and to find the nonsense in the completely nonsensical.  For some students this is television, movies, sports, or even casual sex!  But my escapism this semester came in trying to find an awesome new song every night of the semester.  I ended up finding tons of great new songs from just about every genre.  This went from escapism to a hobby, from a hobby to a project, and from a project to a total obsession.  Here are my favorite songs from every day of my second semester.  Don't blow your mind with why....

2011: My Favorite Moments In Music

2011 has been one of the more unique years in music for me as a listener. I listened to albums by hip-hop artists, dubstep artists, indie artist, punk artists, and even female artists. I enjoyed albums from bands I had never heard before, happy songs from one of the most depressing bands on earth, songs about being a "straight white male in America," songs about working in the fields, songs about plowing girls, songs about being a woman, and songs that tried to define America just based solely on its hyperbolic contradictions. 2011 expanded my music taste and produced more moments from more artists than any year in recent memory. Here are my ten favorite moments from 2011.....

Musical Madness

You may prepare for the end of October by buying your winter clothes, starting your Christmas shopping, studying for your finals, working, or even getting your Snooki or Situation costumes ready for your big Halloween party. The end of October for you is about preparing for social gatherings and winter weather.

But for me the end of October has always meant something completely different. The end of October is not exciting to me because of a change in climate, it is not exciting because of social gatherings, it is not exciting because of poorly made costumes or haunted houses, and it is not exciting because I'm studying or looking for a job. The end of October has always excited me for two reasons: some of the best music releases of the year are coming out and college basketball is about to start. I don't need to put on a disguise or costume to enjoy a Midnight Madness or a great new indie album, I don't need a social gathering to watch Super Tuesday or to listen to a new album on Spotify, I don't need to study basketball and I do not need to labor to enjoy music. The start of college basketball and the new music of the fall give me hope that no stupid costume or futile social gathering could ever give me.

The struggle for me though has always been finding people who share my love of College Basketball AND my love for music. The people who really love basketball usually only love Mainstream Hip-Hop and the people who really love my music usually detest that people who dribble a ball get such acclaim. Music and sports have been divided by an invisible iron curtain of class, elitism, ego, and social awkwardness for so many years that it seems like it is not even worth trying to fix or even worth trying to talk about. The people who really love music and the people who really love music believe that they are such polar opposites that it would seem like there is no way that someone besides me could have a unique love of both College Basketball and music.

The 14 Day Spiritual Journey

It has become clear to me that just about everyone likes music to a certain extent. Their are people who like music, people who like music a little bit more, and people who absolutely love music. Their are many things that separate people who like music from people who love music. People who like music view it simply as "music" while people who love music view it more as experiences or moments in time, people who like music can name you three mainstream albums while people who love music are constantly editing their albums of the year list, people who like music view music as a hobby while people who love music view it as something that is a critical reflection of the health of an individual and the health of a society. For people who simply like music it never really gets past anything other than catchy choruses and lame music videos, but for people who really love music the music becomes somewhat spiritual. Spiritual because it gives us so many different moments and experiences. And spiritual because it means so damn much.