i’ve been thinking a lot about why music is so important besides the obvious. yes, it makes us feel things. yes, it allows us to connect. but i think the most omnipresent, ubiquitous reason is how it evolves into, with, and, at times, away from us. i’ve gotten into a brain space where i struggle to think of my life in numbers — ages, years, amount of mental breakdowns — mainly because terminal post-youth brain fog has compressed the slow rush of time.
instead, i think of the music that surrounded a certain phase or time of my life to determine the chronology of moments and memories. i know i have aged and evolved when a certain song or genre of music has begun to change meaning. it’s how i (and i think many others, at least subconsciously) measure time / growth / emotion — the below images represent those shifts of where i’ve been, where i’m at, and where i’m going
