Press play

By Ashton Salazar

Everyone grew up with music without a doubt. It hums in the background of a cafe where you get your favorite coffee, you turn it up on the radio on the highway during a road trip.

On a personal level, music is the thing that regulates my mind. It heals my heart when I’m feeling rushes of anxiety in the middle of the night. My parents were never the emotional type. They neglected their own feelings, so it made sense why it seemed like they overlooked mine. I realized from a young age that music was something I could rely on when I was searching for comfort. 

In elementary school, I loved listening to hip-hop and R&B stations on the radio. It probably shocked people seeing 4-year-old Ashton bumping it to whatever trendy rapper was on the radio. I just remember liking how the instrumentals sounded. Sometimes on the way to my mom's work, my dad would play oldies like the Smiths or an old love song. I was exposed to many genres when I was little, such as K-pop. I was in 5th grade when my cousins showed me BTS music videos, and we were all obsessed. (bias is taehyung since 9 years old <3)

Quarantine shaped my musical personality a bit more. I began to expand my horizons in music artists like Tyler the Creator, Day6, Chase Atlantic, Beabadoobee, and my one and only Stray Kids. I discovered Stray Kids in elementary school, so I dedicated myself to looking into their discography during the pandemic.

 I could talk about Stray Kids forever. The production that goes into their music makes me appreciate the simple things like instruments on their own. Like the guitar chords and the bassline. They really stand out in terms of music, performance, and are overall all-rounders in singing, dancing, and rapping. I found that their music was something I could trust to manage my negative feelings. 

My lovely boyfriend Gavin is one of the biggest music heads I know. I’d say we have pretty similar music taste, but he definitely spends of lot more of his time discovering new music. He enjoys lots of older artists and genres like The Sundays, Fleetwood Mac, Amy Winehouse, The Cure, etc, are a few of his favorites. Here is his input on my love for stray kids.

Gavin: I can say with full confidence that you listen to stray kids the most and the reason that you like them so much is because well you mentioned this to me before but because you think their sound is so unique like it doesn't really resemble any other group and you really like how different it is, for example you really like their choreography their lyricism back track or whatever it may be, but you really seem to like them because it really sets them apart and how versatile they are.

I'd consider myself a pretty anxious person. Simple things like walking places without my headphones heighten my irrational fears. Even when I feel the happiest I've ever felt, I like to play music to connect the good memories with specific songs.

One of my awesome cool friends Claire can provide her example of a good song she really appreciates at the moment by Justin Bieber.

Claire: As of right now, my favorite song is All That Matters by Justin Bieber, because the beat is so like, it’s so funky it makes you wanna hit a jig, and the lyrics…the way his voice sounds, you can tell he was missing someone and that he was singing from his heart 

During my freshman year, I became good friends with Eva. I would consider her pretty musically inclined. We share a lot of opinions on music and we both safely say music for sure has a positive impact on individuals in so many scenarios.

Eva: Hi, my name is Eva, and I think music has a very positive impact on people because it's a really good conversation starter, and there's a very wide selection of genres that can connect a lot of people

She widened my music genres with shoegaze and more indie bands, but the one thing I will thank her for is opening my eyes to the beautiful world of Jeff Buckley, whom my boyfriend and I love. Lilac wine was the first song I listened to by him, and I thought it was beautiful. LSD and the search for god, mediavolo, Matt Maltese, and Slowdive are just a few other artists I began to listen to. 

As a teenager, life can get really upsetting at times. In those moments of desperation where I just need comfort, I just listen to music. Music does a lot of saving grace for people, and I believe we fail to give music the proper recognition. I cling so tightly to music wherever I go no matter what I do. I consider music a trait that is rooted in so many emotions that I have never unpacked, so I let the music do the talking on my behalf.

Gavin: I think that you have a very tightly wound relationship with music because it's always surrounding you in some way, whether it's indirectly or indirectly through spotify or youtube or tiktok its constantly kinda plays in you ear regardless of where its from and I think that music also plays a good role in the relationships you hold, like for example you and I we bonded over music at first and i thought it was really fun, and you also pick up little bits of music wherever you go like through your friends and it kinda adds to your music taste as a whole  

Maybe, some people have not found THEIR artist or song. It takes experimenting and discovering. Regardless, I believe everyone can find satisfaction in music.

For the Warrior Times, this is Ashton Salazar