Part of Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life
Loud Music. I blast it in the car. I’ve always loved loud music, wanted the sound to fill the space.
Of course, this tracked at 16. Picking up friends on the way to school, I must have slipped a cassette in. Tori Amos filled the ol’ Hyundai, but also The Doors, Nirvana, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez. I had the best mixed tapes. I’m wondering if I turned the music up or down when I pulled into the school parking lot.
Once, freshman year, I blasted Jewel in my dorm room. I don’t know why this memory pops in my head so often. Was I getting ready for something? Was my roommate there? Did the entire building hear Who Will Save Your Soul?
On my way to work these days, I choose a playlist to turn all the way up. My team started a “Hype” playlist, so that’s a good way to start a day with positivity.
Playlist poetry should be as popular as book spine poetry, don’t you think? What’s your current Playlist Poetry?
Hype!
Make Way
Good Morning
Rise Up
Rise
Be Cool
High Hopes
Glitter & Gold
Not that I am always strong enough to choose the “Hype” playlist. It takes a certain strength to set intentions like that every morning.
Sometimes my morning playlist is just a shuffle. I skip through songs until I land on the one I need. But, I don’t know the one I need until it starts. I say, “No.” to my van as I skip through, sometimes listening to a few seconds, sometimes going backwards giving a song another chance, always annoyed that the shuffle doesn’t know me better.
Morning Shuffle
I am -
no
What I am -
no
Therefore I am -
no
Unstoppable -
no
Truckin’-
no
Invincible -
no
I Will Survive -
no
Run the World (Girls) -
no
Don’t Give Up -
no
I’m the Best -
no
Mad Woman -
no
Mad Woman -
no
Exactly How I Feel -
no
Players -
no
Touch the Sky -
no
Kings & Queens-
no
Rap God
I turn the music down when I pull into the school parking lot.
I mean, not all the way down.
My son just got his license, and right before his test, the driving teacher went through an amazing list of things to know about having and using a car. She reminded him that cell phones and friends are the leading causes of accidents. She went over what emergency supplies to keep in the trunk, when to check the oil (every fourth or fifth time you get gas) and how he needs to watch a YouTube of how to change a tire and jump start a car before he’s stuck on a country road with no signal needing to do those things.
It was a great list, and I wondered how many other things have I forgotten to teach him? He’s 17. I am running out of time! Later I told him that even though I love listening to loud music in the car, as a new driver, he should not be blasting music. He needs to concentrate.
“Oh, no. I will be very focused.” He said this very seriously. He does blast music in his room some, but he also turns my car music down a lot. He might be embarrassed by my music. He is a teenager.
I’m not a teenager or in college still so I don’t know how to feel about my propensity for loud music. Is it embarrassing? I’m not sure how I’m judged for it, but I know I’ve been judged.
“Turn it down!”
”Can you turn it down?”
A few years ago I found out I had a 30% hearing loss.
Check yourself reader – did you have a moment of assumption?
“Duh. You shouldn’t have been playing all that loud music!”
But actually the hearing loss was something I was born with, they say.
So maybe my loud music is how I hear.
Maybe my loud music is
HOW
I hear
People might judge my loud music, tell me to turn it down. They may sigh with exasperation when I need them to repeat themselves.
I try to remember this feeling, remind myself that you can’t always notice other people’s struggles. I try to remember it when I sigh with exasperation at others.
I try. But I’m a work in progress. So sometimes I just turn up my music.
On a Thought 
I think good music was meant to be turned up a few more notches. 😀
Agreed!
Such a range of feelings in your delightful piece! I love this line: ‘annoyed that the shuffle doesn’t know me better.’ Mostly, I love your meandering thoughts on your loud music- from work, back to college, as a mom of a new driver… and how you circle back around at the end with a poignant reflection on understanding.
This is quite a stream of consciousness post. I notice the full circle structure from your teen years to those of your son. I see nothing wrong w/ loud music in the car as long as it’s not encroaching on others at a stop light or disturbing outside diners on city streets. I listened to my share of loud music and am trying to remember when I stopped. I like quiet driving to school as a teacher. It’s a time for meditation for me. These days if I were to create a playlist it would be comprised of various versions of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.” That song has long tapped into some personal experiences for me
Fast car is on my road trip playlist!
And I do definitely have some silent car times too…. Just not as many lately. I need the music for some reason.
Thanks for stopping by!
I love how you took us on a musical, poetic ride. Then onto driving lessons and back to hearing loss. Your poems are FANTASTIC. I’m going to try my hand at them today! And your ending is PERFECT! Thanks for this! You made my morning!
Thank you so much! I hope you write some poems and share them!
I agree with Glenda – – the stream of consciousness free writing works wonders here, almost as if listening while traveling, the scenes of movement out each window of the car moving forward with every word. We like loud music when we clean the house – we stream Pandora on our Roku and clean happily to the music. These days, we ask Pandora to play the channels of the groups we like: Bee Gees, Eagles, Atlanta Rhythm Section, and other 70s bands. Fun! Turn it up!
Thank you so much!
Yes- I need to figure out the channels or I think on Apple Music they call them stations. Apple Music always thinks my favs are all the classical I listen to at bedtime, but that’s not what I want to blast on the way to work. 🙂
You & I have similar drives in the our cars. I’ve always been irritated if a playlist isn’t EXACTLY my mood for the drive. The amount of times I’d shake the life out of my iPod Nano hoping each shake would bring forth the song I needed. I never had any such luck.
lol! I really don’t want my phone to read my mind … aside from music.
Not only do I love your writing today (and every time I read it), but it reminded me of the NO’s I’ve said to songs in the past. I used to drive about 2 1/2 hours every two or three weekends to help out my parents. During a particularly rough couple of months I turned the radio on & said NO to the song, flipped stations, paused to see if I could tolerate that song, turned the radio off when none were YES songs, only to repeat the process through the miles.
Thinking of you…
So hard when none are yes songs. 😦
Thank you so much for reading and the kind comments! 💕
Now I need a morning hype playlist!!
I love loud music. I will never be alone in the car and not have loud music for at least part of the trip.
Glad I’m not alone!
I highly recommend a hype playlist!