With the New Year holiday settling down and people beginning to move into the fast coming year of 2017, it's easy to want to toss out 2016. My Facebook feed and many social encounters have been filled with a "screw 2016" attitude and it's easy to join the bandwagon. On New Years Eve, I stood on the edge of the hot springs laughing at the stars and the beautiful people who surrounded me. Everyone started chanting "F*ck 2016!" and I laughed along side of them.
Then the music started to play. It made everyone scream louder, laugh louder, and made them even more determined to walk away from 2016 with their middle finger held high. It's tempting for me to do the same. 2016 brought me a lot of loss, of family, loved ones, and friends. I walked away from places I called home and friends I thought were family. Both of my grandparents passed away in 2016, my little brother joined the military, and I broke up with a man I thought I would marry. So yeah, 2016 did kind of suck. But on the cusp of 2017, I realized that 2016 was my year of music.
Now all you real musicheads are probably thinking to yourself, "Yeah, well what's-her-face in music died" or "Today's music isn't REAL music, its just computer garbage." To you people, I bet 2017 will suck for you with that attitude.
For me, music got me through 2016 in a way that people couldn't always do for me. I spent a lot of time finding new music, being introduced to new music, and falling in love with the way that music soothes the soul. I've always been a radio singer. You know the one, I scream to radio music off beat and don't actually know the words. I suck at music. I can't clap on beat or sing on tune, no matter if I try to or not. But this year it didn't matter and I was surrounded by people who didn't care.
I was pushed to go outside of my radio music comfort zone and find good music. Shit, I was even pushed to find crappy music. The point is, I found a lot of new music in 2016 that I wouldn't have found without my losses and pain of the year. The friends that saw my struggle took me to new concerts, showed me new songs, and forced me into dance parties. In the spring, I was encouraged into going to my first rave (I always swore EDM music was weird to dance to), and fell in love with a whole new universe of music and learned to dance to it. This summer as I traveled the coast and downtown, I stopped to discover whatever tune I had heard from around the corner.
Now music didn't magically heal all the wounds of 2016, but it made them hurt less. Music made the hurt of the moment feel less daunting and I had my music friends to share with me.
In high school, it was always a joke how bad I actually was at music (my family rocks at playing musical instruments) so I never really enjoyed it the way I should have. But in 2016 I didn't care if I sucked, all I cared about is the way it made me feel. This past summer I became close friends with a group of guys who love to find new music and debate about their favorite albums. This pushed me to listen to the music that they talked about so I could get the conversations.
So in 2017, I finally have opinions about music to contribute. But more than that, I have 2016 to thank for the introduction to music and the friends it brought me along the way. Instead of dwelling on what 2016 took from me, I am turning on the music it gave me and celebrating 2017 with the people I love.
