Music is something I always keep close. I’ve always got headphones on me, and if I’m at home, I always have it playing out loud. Lately, I’ve been thinking about that a lot: why do I constantly feel the need to have music on?

I do intensely dislike silence, so at first, I figured that music is my way of filling it. However, silence isn’t really a problem. My entire life has been spent in big cities, with car honks, ambulance sirens, and people’s screams surrounding me, so silence isn’t the easiest thing to come by.

So, upon deeper reflection, I realised that it’s more than just background noise. It’s a way to avoid dealing with whatever it is I might be facing.

That sounds like a bad thing, but I don’t think it has to be. I’m a terrible over-thinker, my mind constantly analysing different situations I’ve found myself in until I can’t even remember the reality of the event. I have found that music, especially some sort of punk music, stops my overactive mind, or at least puts it to rest for a while. Instead of letting silence overcome me and leave me to fill it with my thoughts, music does that for me. Also, without my intrusive thoughts, I find it much easier to focus on the task at hand. For instance, as I write this, I have Green Day’s “Revolution Radio” playing. If I didn’t have any music on, the only sound being the clicking of my keyboard, I know that I would’ve succumb to daydreams. I would’ve been thinking about what I have to do once this piece is written, and not about the piece itself.

Speaking of Green Day, music also takes me to a happy (or happier) place. Green Day is the first ‘punk’ band I ever listened to, as they are one of my dad’s favourite bands as well. Therefore, I associate a lot of my middle school memories to Green Day, and other bands, such as the Sex Pistols, Sum 41, Good Charlotte, and All Time Low. Music has the ability to take you back, years back, to whatever time you wish. Personally, I know quite a few songs that are strongly associated with happy memories.

All Time Low’s “Time Bomb” is one of those songs. I will always remember the day the music video came out. It was sometime in November when I was in 8th grade, when I didn’t have many friends and didn’t like the school I went to. The day it came out, I practically ran home as soon as I was dismissed, and promptly kicked my little sister off the computer in order to watch it. I sat there with attentive eyes and a wide smile as I watched the clip of four men playing their instruments all while another man was building something, running from the police, saving the heroine. I didn’t fully understand the video (I still don’t) and I already knew the song, but it filled me with so much happiness at the time that whenever I listen to the song, I can’t help but feel happy. Even now, as I write about it, I have a smile on my face. Although I wasn’t incredibly happy with my life at the time the video came out, it was able to bring a giant smile on my face and a spring to my step. I’m in a happier place now, but “Time-Bomb” is still one of my “happy songs”.

Fast forward a few years to 11th grade and the day I started listening to Less Than Jake. They’re another band that have really resonated with me for a multitude of reasons, but I won’t get into that this time around. Instead, I want to mention one of their lyrics: “I believe it's possible that words and chords can make us strong / And make you feel alive.” This lyric comes from their song “The Loudest Songs,” and it quickly became one of my favourite lines of any given song. Music has the ability to change your mood, to lift you up from the depths of your mind or to propel you into the sky, make you feel on top of the world. Even if those emotions are often fleeting, they’re enough.

The conclusion I came to, after realising what music meant to me, is just that: music means too much to me for me to go a day without it. It brings me happiness and stops me from ruining my own mood with my meddling thoughts.

Thank you, punk rock, pop-punk, and all the genres that might fall in between. Thank you for being my solace and my escape, and thank you for always being a friend.