Jordan Stephens

The Social Life of Music

Dr. Stefan Fiol
4 November 2014
Personal Identity through Music
Music is not only a cause, but also an effect of personal identity. It
shapes us, but also conforms to us by what we choose to listen to. Its a
circle of constant cause and effect. MY own musical identity has grown
alongside my personal identity, and they often relate to each other, even the
simple broadness of my music tastes correlating to my general openmindedness, and things of the like. Even when we arent consciously aware,
music affects our personalities and identities, even in how others understand
and potentially label us.
My moms family was a typical Italian family, and just like any Italian
family in the Americas, their music taste consisted of The Rat Pack, and each
of its members, on repeat. The music was constant, from long before I was
born until forever after, and my grandpa knew every single word. On my
dads side, however, my grandparents listened to a lot of country.
However, growing up, my mom eased of the old Italian music, and,
following the tastes of her siblings, into more modern things, like the Beatles
and other popular music of the seventies. My dad eventually turned to
listening to rock music, like the rock super groups of the seventies,
including Journey, Foreigner, and Styx, and eventually the hair bands of the

eighties, like Bon Jovi, Guns n Roses, or Def Leppard. When my parents
married, they shared their music tastes, with each other, and inevitably,
when they had children, with my sister and me.
I grew up always listening to my parents favorite local radio station,
102.1. It followed more of my moms taste in music, playing todays soft
rock and yesterdays favorites, ranging from songs like The Temptations
My Girl to the Plain White Ts Hey There Delilah. Surprisingly enough,
even though my mom has been a preschool teacher for all of my life, I never
really listened to any childrens music that wasnt just the scores of my
favorite Disney movies. Instead, it was almost exclusively 102.1 and CDs of
similar genres. Most of my music tastes, even today, came from my mom,
and from my grandparents on her side. I have a really great love for pop
music that is older than my generation, and I think the musical settings I
grew up in are the cause of that. I also always heard what, was to me at
least, classic rock, though that was typically only in car rides with just my
dad and me. Although I always enjoyed it, and still do, I dont find myself
choosing to listen to it very often on my own.
Growing up, however, my older sister began to develop musical tastes
of her own, and I began following hers. I found myself really loving
alternative and country music, which is a pretty surprising scope of music to
become interested in all at once. I never, however, lost interest in the older
music that I always loved. In fact, as I got older, my music tastes never really
changed, only broadened. There is nothing I used to enjoy that I no longer

enjoy in the same wayI just enjoy them according to different moods and
different days. I think just constant exposure to different types of music has
lead me to love them all. I grew up around a lot of different things, but each
of those different things were constant, in and of themselves, so I was always
exposed to them, learning the words and falling in love with the styles.
Following in my sisters footsteps, I joined the school band in the fifth
grade, playing trumpet, but I didnt connect with band in the same way that
my sister did. She fell in love with the performance of playing the music, of
being musical through instrumentation. She started in playing the trombone,
and eventually taught herself some saxophone and piano. Unfortunately, I
never had that experience. I definitely loved band, but not in the same way. I
found it fun, but, aside from listening, I preferred experience music by
singing, while she preferred playing.
Singing is the best way that I am able to identify with music. I find
myself singing all of the timewhen Im home alone dancing through halls,
when Im sad trying to cheer myself up, when Im happy and just having fun.
The music I grew up with shaped that love for me. I loved how pure all of the
voices sounded when they hit all the notes, and I loved listen to my grandpa
sing along to every Frank Sinatra song as it came on. The upbeat songs I was
always surrounded by would always make me happy, and even more so
when I was the one singing them. That love for singing is how I eventually
found myself really enjoying musicals and Broadway scores. I even ended up
performing in two musicals in high school.

Going into college, I really came into my own in terms of what kinds of
music I listened to. Ive started really loving indie music, and that is now
most of what I listen to, along with all of that old Italian music. I was also
never really interested in todays pop music until recently, when I met my
friends at school. They listen mostly to pop and even rap and hip-hop, and,
by association, Ive begun to like those styles as well.
Although I listen to a lot of different types of music, depending on the
day, I think I mostly enjoy indie and oldies, especially the Italian ones. I think
both of those types really sum up my personality, in their really relaxed but
often happy and upbeat sounds. I think they also fit the sort of
artist/hipster stereotype, which accordingly fits my personality as a
photographer and graphic designer. I think with my secondary musical
interests, like country and alternative, and even still Disney music, I am more
dynamic than the stereotype, but I still feel people would label me according
to it.
Overall, music grows and changes along with us, and it creates an
identity cycle. We identify with the music that eventually helps to further
shape our identity. My music taste has really broadened, just like with the
growth of my personality, then it focused inwards on the styles I truly feel
connect with me. I think anyone who would listen to the things I tend to
listen to would have a pretty good grasp actually on my personality and the
ways that I identify myself. Therefore, my music has sort of built me, and is
now really able to adequately show my character to others.