Music and Me

Hello to anyone reading, my name is Wesley Bush and I am a junior music therapy student at Converse University. I have played violin for 10 years and while in college, singing quickly became my second strongest instrument. Singing in a church choir in Spartanburg was an important factor in my growth, in addition to taking voice lessons at Converse. I grew up in Columbus, Ohio for the first 10 years of my life and music was always one of my favorite things. It wasn't until I moved to South Carolina, though, that music became a main focus in my life. I began learning the violin in 5th grade and eventually went to the Governor's School for the Arts, focusing on the violin. My music taste includes classical music, but what I listen to the most is hyperpop, experimental rap, metal, and indie music.

Here is some music that I have some thoughts about.

This song is one of my go-to songs. This version in particular feels so groovy and makes me want to dance whenever I hear it. The lyrics are also very profound and Clairo uses the song to express how she felt isolated by focusing so hard on her work. I can relate to the feeling of isolation, but most of the time I listen to this song just to feel the energy and funky aspects of this version. There are many instrumental solos in this version, which are not included in the original, and the electric keyboard solo in particular gets me feeling so pumped. When I found this version, I would play it every time I drove my car anywhere.

This song is important to me because it is the song that got me into a lot of the music I listen to now. I remember listening to it for the first time, and I thought to myself, "What is this song? It sounds terrible." I listened to more of Bladee's music and for some reason, I started to really like the style, almost as if I got Stockholmed into liking it (Funny enough, Bladee is from Stockholm, Sweden). Another reason this song is important to me is Ecco2k's verse is so smooth and it is so catchy, I remember liking it even from the first time. In high school, I used to play this song for my friends and the majority of them did not like it at all. Eventually, though, some of them began to like Bladee's music and we would listen to it on car rides. While Bladee does not make hyperpop music, many people who listen to him start listening to hyperpop. That genre is now one of my go-to genres because of the way it seems to scratch an itch in my brain and keeps me engaged whenever I listen to it.

Thirsty by AJR is a song that I really cannot connect with. The only reason I have ever played it is to laugh at how bad it is. The yodeling is very obnoxious and the lyrics seem meaningless to me. Spotify used to try to recommend this band to me, and I have tried listening to their other music but the sound never connected with the kind of music that my brain wants to hear.