My dad turned the radio on in the car. One of his favorite songs came on, and he turned it up. I asked him to turn it back down. He told me that he never asks that of me. I realized that he didn’t Sure, I have been warned about listening to music loudly, and I am careful. I just did not want to hear his music. I did not have an “ear for it” as dad says. He challenged me about music, and that is why I eventually ended up listening to mp3s at the songs.pk website.
Dad said I was narrow minded when it came to music genres. He said I only liked what I liked, and could not appreciate other forms of music. He was right, and I had not even realized it. My dad shocked me when he was able to identify 10 out of 12 songs I played for him over the stereo in our car. I connected my phone and played him songs from my favorite playlist. I asked him how he knew the songs. He told me that he takes an interest in me that goes way beyond what I could even begin to understand, and it includes knowing the genres and artists I like to listen to. He said it was easy to know what I listened to because I have posters in my room, I wear t-shirts of artists, and him and mom let me have a debit card to charge music purchases.
When he challenged me to identify just one out of five songs he likes, I failed. I then saw the need to expand what I thought I knew about music, and this included listening to more music from our Indian heritage. I started to like a lot of the soundtracks to Bollywood movies that I listened to at the songs.pk website. I even began to listen to classical music and actually started to learn more about music history and theory. I wanted to be a musician, and dad taught me that to be a professional musician is more than just singing in my room or writing lyrics on paper. I needed to learn music from all over the world to help me be able to better bring out my own creativity.