My Cultural Identity

            My individual culture can best be described simply with an mp3 player. I have grown up with music being a key part in my life. My father being a musician, played music nonstop since I was born. When I listen to music I listen to each sound and beat, reading the lyrics in my head as the song plays. The newly learned ideals being remembered, only to be sorted later while in deep thought. Many of my morals and ideas come from the music I have heard throughout life.  Not following popular culture is a philosophy I have adopted from understanding music. I feel that some forms of popular media can control culture, and I think it can destroy some individualism. With every song played I gain knowledge and distrust society more and more. Without music I would not have thought about how people are used as pawns so other people can live comfortably without worry.

            While growing up I have gone through many phases and each phase can be recorded with the introduction of a new artist or genre. From my discovery of punk to my new found love of classic rock,  each leap of direction is started by profound life experiences. Even today when I play Nirvana my memory of my child hood flashes before my eyes. I remember it playing on my clock radio as I bounced around my room in a state of total anarchy, flinging legos about and screaming at the top of my lungs. As I started school pop music was the thing to love, and like any fad I was pulled into the stream unaware of the lameness. As I began to question my surroundings as I grew older and wiser. While in middle school I discovered the punk ideology and rebelliousness. I continued hating rules developing a strong disgust for the government.  Shoplifting and being untruthful were daily things I were involved with. I still feel a strong dislike toward society and the laws I was forced to abide by.   As I entered high school I changed my mood toward classic rock and became accustomed to the more relaxing music. Listening to this music made me feel closer to my parents who grew up with classic rock.  As I started smoking sensimilla, I began listening to sublime gaining much insight from their music. With each step in complexity and simplicity I gained knowledge. I became completely vexed by the inciting beat of the drums. With each change in tempo, my mood shifts.

            As I go through the day I think of the musicians life and what their life lessons can teach me. I think of the lifelong struggles they may have faced, and how I can use them to free me from my life's prison. I  am an individual who is full of energy. Music helps me set my problems aside, get up and go.  Each day helping me escape my peers and the boring lifestyle they are accustomed too. Music gives me that tingly feeling in my gut that tells I can do anything. To me it is the fuel that bounces me to work or to school. As I listen to music it reminds me of the time I first listened to it. I feel the mood and see the surroundings as if it were dejavu.

            Music is the best form of philosophy because music isn't bias. The sounds draw you in and trap you, letting the words rip at your mind. Attention is always focused on the melody while subliminally processing the meaning. We challenge or ideas and remake our beliefs while stuck following the rhythm. My culture is always changing with every realization and every conversation. I chose an mp3 player because as I grow so does my library and my memories.