music & traditions

Music & Traditions

 Music has always been a very important aspect of my life. If you read my last blog entry, you know why, so I will refrain from going on yet another tangent about it. My music taste changes as much as I change my clothes, so I do not really have many set songs for set traditions. However, there are a few worth mentioning. 

Let me preface this next paragraph by saying I have never seen a single Twilight movie, and nor have I read any of the books. Sorry to whomever that may devastate, I will get to them eventually (maybe...). On August 31st of this year, my brother got married to his girlfriend of 8 years, Brenna. Both Chandler (my brother) and Brenna are extremely special people in my life. Chandler has always been the best big brother, and Brenna stepped up to be the best big sister that my blood sister failed to be. I wasn't in the actual wedding, but I got to be in charge of the music. I felt special because what is a wedding without music. The song everyone walked out to was a song from Twilight, called Turning Page. I have no idea what happens when Turning Page plays in the actual movies (I assume a wedding?), but now every single time I hear it while scrolling on TikTok or whatever else, I start to tear up. It was genuinely the most beautiful, but small, and special wedding I have ever been to. I have linked the song below, as well as a few pictures from the wedding simply because I love Chandler and Brenna so much and want to show them off haha. 

On a sillier and less sappy note, there is one song I like to annoy my family, specifically my mother, with every single Christmas. Well not exactly on Christmas, more so when I help her decorate the tree. As some backstory, in fifth grade I discovered rock music. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. So much so, that when I would be moody and sassy (as bratty 10-year-olds do), my mom would literally ground me from listening to a particular band I used to love, My Chemical Romance. She thought all this "angry music" was what was causing me to be a brat and looking back at it I don't think that was the reason, I think that was just who I was at the time LOL. That is also such a silly thing to be grounded from, I really wonder if that is an original experience for me. But anyways, My Chemical Romance has a cover of the beloved Christmas tune, "All I Want for Christmas is You". At one point during the Christmas season of fifth grade, I remember purposefully playing it while decorating the tree and acting clueless as to what band it was. She in fact did NOT enjoy my song choice. She kept going on and on about how awful it was, and I found her annoyance amusing. Now I play it every single year while decorating. Honestly, I think she is warming up to it. I don't know why she wouldn't, she listened to way "angrier" sounding stuff when she was a teenager, such as Pantera and Skid Row. I linked the cover down below. Though this is slightly embarrassing for me to listen to now (depending on who I am around), little 10-year-old me thought I had discovered the most amazing thing ever. I also included a picture of my mama and I last Christmas, just because.

Thank you for reading my blog! I cannot wait to hear of any feedback you may have, and to read your musical traditions as well. 

<3

music & me

Intro: Hey guys! I am Abby Cooper, and I am a freshman at Converse who wishes to major in psychology and eventually pursue a career as a therapist. I am from a smaller town in South Carolina about 40 minutes away from here called Pelzer. I recently graduated high school at Palmetto High located in Williamston, South Carolina.  

Music has always played an extremely important role in my life. My father would literally play the guitar at me as I was rocking in my crib as a baby. I took up an interest in singing at a very early age and found happiness in belting Ke$ha's greatest hits in the back of my dad's minivan in 2010. I also played a little piano growing up, so if you ever need to hear "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on piano, I am your girl. As I got to the end of elementary school, I picked up an interest in the ukulele. I still play it to this day, but I must say I am far better now than I was at age 11. When middle school started, I joined our school's band. My instrument of choice was the trombone (mainly because it had a slide and I was amused by it) and I have fell in love with playing it ever since. A little while later, I followed in my dad's footsteps and began to play the guitar. Though I still struggle with playing barre cords because I was cursed with short fingers, it is my favorite instrument to play. My senior year of high school I decided to join the pep drum line, and I learned a little bit of bass drum. As of today, I still enjoy belting Ke$ha (and others) privately on my own time, because I am too scared to sing in front of people even though it is something I really enjoy. Oh, and I am also really passionate about music in the aspect of collecting vinyl records, CDs, and cassette tapes. 

What I'm listening to lately: To be honest, my music taste is a little all over the place. But one of the top songs on the "On Repeat" playlist Spotify made for me is called "Petals" by the band Hole. Hole is one of my guilty pleasure bands because the lead singer, Courtney Love, has been a controversial person since the 90's due to the conspiracy that she had her husband at the time, Kurt Cobain, killed. I just cannot get over how much I love Hole's music, so lately I have had the mindset of separating the art from the artist. I have also been listening to a lot of music by a band called Cocteau Twins. Their music is really neat to me because they are known for having unintelligible lyrics. Their music sounds very whimsical to me, and because the lyrics are not interpretable, the emotion to their songs takes a spotlight rather than a literal meaning. The links to "Petals" and one of my favorite Cocteau Twins songs should be accessible below. 

"Petals" - Hole

Frou Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires - Cocteau Twins

Music that resonates deeply with me: Music has been a form of grounding for me since I can remember. There is one specific song that brings me immense comfort every time I listen to it. I often get panic attacks, and any time I am struck with one I put this song on repeat, and it helps calm me down. It has been one of my comfort songs for the last 5 years. The song is called Rises the Moon by Liana Flores. It is soft and serene, and the lyrics are something I like to keep in the back of my mind whenever things get rough. It almost sounds like a lullaby of sorts. Side note, I am lowkey thinking of getting a tattoo that has something to do with this song.  Some of the lyrics that resonate with me go, "Days seem sometimes as if they'll never end / Sun digs its heels to taunt you / But after sunlit days, one thing stays the same / Rises the moon" and "Days pull you down just like a sinking ship / Floating is getting harder / But tread the water, child, and know that meanwhile / Rises the moon". 

I have one more song I could not go without mentioning. I apologize for the lengths of these paragraphs, but I absolutely adore yapping about music I enjoy. The next one is called "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac. It heavily reminds me of my mother and my grandmother, even myself at times. It also reminds me of my nieces and nephew in a way. I dedicate this song to my family wholeheartedly. The chorus goes "Well, I've been 'fraid of changin' / 'cause I've built my life around you / But time makes you bolder / Even children get older / And I'm gettin' older too". I remember hearing my mom singing this when she thought nobody was listening the day before I moved to college and I cried silently because of how beautiful it was. Every time I play this while in the car with my parents, we all sing along and silently associate it with each other. Down below I have pictured some of the beautiful people in my life I think of when I hear this song as well as the links to both of the songs I have mentioned. 

 

rises the moon - liana flores

Landslide - Fleetwood Mac

Music I don't really enjoy: A lot of my family is really, REALLY passionate about country music and always look at me with such confusion when I have zero clue about the artists they are talking about. I respect it as a genre, and even I get excited when "Before He Cheats" by Carrie Underwood comes on at karaoke nights, but I genuinely cannot get into it. To my ears, most of it sounds the same. I will admit, I do enjoy some of Taylor Swift's old country music, but merely for nostalgia reasons. But overall, even though I was born and raised in the south, I genuinely cannot get into country music no matter how much my family tries to convince me to. I don't wanna be too negative because that is not the kind of person I am SO here is the iconic "Before He Cheats" by Carrie Underwood linked below. 

Before He Cheats - Carrie Underwood

If you ended up reading this from start to finish, thank you! I have a lot to say about music and am excited to continue to share my musical opinions through these blogs.