Music
For many people, music is a constant in their life. I always try to fill silence with music, whether I’m doing homework, walking to class, or eating in a dining hall. Spotify is a great service for students because they give you half off of their normal rate of ten dollars a month for their premium streaming. Premium allows you to listen to whatever music you want without annoying ads. It also lets you download music to listen to offline, which is great for long road trips where service is spotty or you have a data streaming limit. One of my favorite features of Spotify is the ability to create playlists for any mood. I have a study playlist, a pregame playlist for intramural games, a sleep playlist, and many other genre specific playlists. I think the best thing about Spotify though is being able to discover new music that you might not have heard otherwise. I often listen to the personalized discover weekly playlist to find new artists in the genres that I listen to. I recently found Tame Impala, an Australian psychedelic rock group reminiscent of The Beetles and Pink Floyd. Their most recent album, Currents, is easily one of the best albums of the decade in my opinion, and most critics agree. Another great source for discovering new music is pitchfork.com, where you can read articles about new artists, new music from big names in the industry, music festivals, and much more. I often check the site to read the latest reviews on artists I listen to and to find new highly rated artists. They have a “Best New Music” designation for music that is the best of recently released content. I also like watching their videos and podcasts where they interview hot artists and discuss music in general. My daily drivers for listening to music are my Beats Solo 2 headphones and my JBL Reflect Mini Bluetooth earbuds. I use my Beats mainly with my computer, and my JBL earbuds with my phone when I’m moving around since they’re Bluetooth, which makes it easy to ride my bike and listen to music. They actually have an eight-hour battery life, which is enough to get me through a couple of days before I have to recharge them. For me, music is the narrative to my life; I can always associate music with whatever I’m feeling or going through in life. That’s why music is an integral part of who I am.
