Relationship with Music

My relationship with music has definitely developed over the years, from starting as something I would always want to listen and dance too when I was young, to despising any kind of music in primary school, to then listening to music because it made me happy, music is something to different to everyone one of us, but for me music is not something I listen to when I’m sad, or angry. I struggle to create relationships with music or lyrics because I have never been one to relate to it in such a way, but for me the biggest relationship I have with music is that it makes me feel safe and complete. In my car, if it’s quiet, it feels like something is missing, but when the radio is on I feel better. It is a non-emotional comfort blanket for me.

When I was little, I was the youngest of 10 cousins, so every Sunday we would go to my Nana and Grandad's to have dinner, and my eldest cousins would put on their CD’s and make up dances to them, the community that the music created in my family was personal and inclusive and we would all get up and dance. Then when I became older, I joined a street dance club and we would be dancing to the songs I heard on the radio, so I could sing along and be familiar with the beats.

In the High School Musical Stage, everybody knew the words to the songs and everyone knew the dance moves, and although I could never relate to the songs, I would sing them as though I was in the film about to graduate from school, (cringe I know), but that is what people would do around me, so it was hard not to be sucked into the infectious stage.

Nowadays, as a gymnast we perform to instrumental music, and I find that the mood of the piece dictates how you perform, we recently performed a display to ‘Run Boy Run’ by Woodkid, and the fast and strong beats meant I couldn’t help but feel power in my body, and that is the effect music has on me.

I can’t help but start dancing when any songs comes on, because that is the kind of person I am, and I know that some individuals can relate to music when certain situations arise, but as I previously mentioned this isn’t something I have ever experienced. But my biggest influence is definetly my Mum, having multiple CD's blasting in the car through my childhood, and we'd sing with the windows down.