Sibling Assignment #184: Only the Beginning

Brother Bill gave the sibling assignment this week. "Write about how your taste in music has changed over the years -- unless it hasn't -- then write about how it's stayed the same." I will post the sibs' posts when they are done. I don't think my taste in musci has changed much throughout my life. After being introduced to different genres of music by family, friends, and students I learned an appreciation for new and different types of music. but I didn't leave the ones I loved behind. It is about the moments and the memories. The songs do stay the same.

“...because a song can take you back instantly to a moment, or a place, or even a person. No matter what else has changed in you or the world, that one song stays the same, just like that moment.”― Sarah Desse

Many of the songs from "The Sound of Music" take me back to Mrs. Williams' music class at Sunnyside School. She would write the lyrics on the chalkboard on the wall and the class would join in to sing favorites like "Do Re Mi", "My Favorite Things", and "Climb Every Mountain." I loved those moments because it brought a love for music at school to home where I could sit upstairs and listen to the Broadway album and continue to belt out those songs, and then connected to the excitement of seeing the film on the big screen in Spokane. It was the moments, places, and people that I remember. I would watch the film and listen the soundtrack any time, and day.

There are themes from movies that stir up strong memories. I walked in a classroom a few years ago and the class was watching "To Kill a Mockingbird." When the film opened with that familiar theme, I was transported back to the Rena Theater when I saw it the first time, and back to my living room when it appeared on television, and even later when watched it from a VHS tape from my home as an adult. I always picture the tree, the gifts from Boo, Atticus sitting with a lamp outside the jail, Scout in the ham costume.  I have strong memories when I hear the soundtracks from "On Golden Pond", "Saturday Night Fever", and "Hoosiers" also.   "Gonna Fly Now" and the soundtracks from the "Rocky" series have followed me through adulthood making "Creed" just a bit sweeter and nostalgic as the themes returned again last year.

"Hello, It's Me" by Todd Rundgren takes me back to the Perch at the University of Idaho campus every time I hear it. It was a popular choice on the jukebox while we drank hot chocolate with soft ice cream on top.  When I hear "Only The Beginning" by Chicago it still puts me right in the Spokane Coliseum  where I attended my first concert. The moment I first heard "Benny and the Jets" by Elton John I was in college singing it with my roommates. I remember that every time I hear it. When I watched and was mesmerized by the film and song "The Way We Were" I was suffering heartbreak from a college sweetheart. 

My students had a big impact on my taste in music. I was introduced to songs I may have never been exposed to, but now I look at my playlists and have fond memories of  listening to a class belt out a song, watching the video on a phone, or getting lists on scratch paper of songs I "had" to listen to. I may not have discovered Adele on my own. I may have never done "Gangnam Style" with students in drama class, and "Viva la Vida" may not have become such a class anthem if I hadn't liked it so much.  There are so many more songs I could add to this list.

I think I should have titled this post Part I because I could continue with playlists, downloaded songs, memories, and what songs still stay the same with me.  This is only the beginning, only just a start. I do love all types of music, but while reflecting as I prepared to write this assignment, I did realize that those moments, places, and people made a huge difference. What songs have stayed the same for you? It was very difficult to choose just one song to end this post.