Each day when we wake up we hear an alarm. Sometimes it is an actual alarm sound and other times it is actually a song. Maybe it’s a favorite song or maybe it is a song we can stand enough to listen to every day as our alarm. Example, for a good year my alarm was Good Morning by Kanye West with the idea that it would be one way for me to have a good morning. Music has always been a huge part of my life which led to me being a part of a band and theatre in high school.

However, my love for music also inspired me to start expanding my musical interests and I feel like other people would like that too.

For anyone who knows me, they know that I have a very interesting taste in music whether one day it can be rap from Kanye to music best known from musicals (Shout out to "Hamilton"). Recently I have decided to take a different approach. As many people know, I have a love for Ramah Darom like no other. It was the reason I have the passion for Israel and now the love of Israeli rap. While my Hebrew isn’t the best and I can only pick out a few words from each song I listen to it is still something I very much enjoy. I decided that one way to keep up with some sort of Hebrew besides the occasional conversations with my dad in Hebrew was to listen to it every once in a while even if I can’t sing-a-long sometimes.

Sometimes the music we listen to every day can get a little old and its time for a change. While it is still OK to have a love for a specific genre, I think experiencing a genre we aren’t as familiar with can also benefit us. According to a study from Northwestern University, research shows listening to different musical genres leaves a lasting impact on the brain. Dr. Wong who conducted this experiment concluded that people who had listened to music in two different languages had a more elaborate brain system for listening rather than people who only preferred one language.

I think listening to different music whether it is our genre of choice makes a little more cultured and if we visit a country one day where we know a little bit of their music it can go a long way.

Music is a big part of our lives and we can’t go without it. Listening to music helps define who we are and the type of things we like. Branching out shows that we enjoy other things in life and we always look for ways to be a little different. Whether we listen to a different song on our walk to class or just listen to a new radio station it shows that we have other interests outside the usual things we do in our everyday life.

I am not asking everyone to listen to all the Israeli rap I listen to or every Red Hot Chili Peppers song but what I am saying is that we can keep up with our culture and find ways to express ourselves with new music if we do something as simple as choosing a new radio station to listen to on a certain day. It might not seem like a lot as just listening to new music but it can go a long way and who knows you might actually enjoy this new genre of music.