Sound Of Silence

Iggy Azalea AP PHOTO

The only concert I’ve ever been to was NSYNC, when I was 8 years old.

As the story goes, my mom and her friend wanted to go but were embarrassed, being as they were quite a ways older than the tween audience, and so they brought along their uninterested children as cover.

I remember distinctly that the music was very loud and I was partially deaf the next day, and that my Haunter in Pokemon Red evolved into a Gengar. Indeed, I did spend the whole time playing my Game Boy.

But seriously though: only concert, ever. Music occupies a strange section of the pop culture spectrum for me. I love movies, TV, video games and books and am happy to talk about anything and everything related to those topics at any time or place.

But music?

Meh.

Sure, I like to listen to my iPod when I walk to work in the mornings, and it’s always nice to have some background noise when doing chores or cooking. I wrote my entire English master’s thesis with Iggy Azalea’s Black Widow on repeat (clocking in around 300 replays), mostly because I liked the way it blended into white noise while I chewed my nails and debated sentence phrasing.

But the prospect of seeing a live show is without appeal for me — standing up for three hours whilst trapped in a cramped space, surrounded by sweaty, overly enthusiastic people all to listen to someone sing? Doesn’t sound very fun. Karaoke is no better.

Music never moves me. I have never cried listening to a song, nor does my mood especially change with more melancholy tunes. I have artists I like, as well as an enduring fondness for EDM (puzzling for someone who literally has never been to a club, I know), but no passion about it, no desire to learn more about composition or lyricism or anything. Music is just … noise to me.

Here is the part of the column where you would expect me to transition into a larger point about the power of music to transcend these barriers, but the thing is, I don’t have one.

They say music is the universal language, but I don’t know how to speak it. I always wonder if there’s something missing inside of me, if I just don’t have whatever it is that you need to really feel something in music.

I would like to understand. When I listen to my boyfriend talk joyfully about this new band he discovered or this one song that’s so amazing, I want to know that feeling he has. Maybe it will take exposure, or getting out of my comfort zone, or experiencing it with other people.

I guess I better get started before NSYNC has a reunion tour.

Paige’s Pick of the Week
Badlands by Halsey

Fun story: Metro staff writer Jaimie Kim and I used to carpool to work, and every morning she would be infuriated when Halsey’s New Americana would play, like clockwork, just as we approached Nimitz. But I was amused by its name-dropping lyrics and looked up Halsey’s whole album, which I like as much as I can like any music. Haunting is my favorite song. She came to Hawaii recently, but I, of course, did not go.

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