Other: Top Five Lists

Music is not something I like judging comparatively. As I've said before, I prefer to enjoy artists on their own merit rather than thinking about how they stack up against others. I thought it'd be interesting, then, to force myself to write some top five lists about my favorites when it comes to music. Ranking things is hard for me, but each list will pretty well include my top five in some order; these may be "collections" of top fives rather than "countdowns." That itself may be hard, though, because I will admit that my taste in music can vary greatly from day to day.

Top Five Favorite Albums
Albums 5-3 are associated with a specific memory or time in my life and will always carry a huge amount of emotional weight. Albums 1 and 2, however, are associated with many, many memories and times in my life. The fact that they are so timeless and so enduring locked down the top spots in my book.
5. Mmhmm, Relient K (2004)
4. Les Misérables: The Dream Cast in Concert, Les Misérables 10th Anniversary Cast (1995)
3. Paramore, Paramore (2013)
2. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles (1967)
1. Abbey Road, The Beatles (1969)
Honorable Mentions: No Strings Attached (*NSYNC), A Night at the Opera (Queen), Let it Bleed (Rolling Stones), A Hard Day's Night (The Beatles), Collide (Skillet)

Top Five Oddball Artists
These artists are ranked using a loose sort of equation:
Oddness of artist * How frequently I listen to them
In practice, this means that, though I listen to *NSYNC far more often than Joe Dassin, they at least have something to do with a lot of the music I listen to. The opposite is also true; Red Army Choir is by far the strangest artist I've listened to extensively, but I rarely listen to their music anymore.
5. High School Musical Cast
4. Red Army Choir
3. Clay Aiken
2. *NSYNC
1. Joe Dassin
Honorable Mention: Barry Manilow

Top Played Songs on Spotify, 2015
This is an extremely specific category but gives some insight into last year in music for me. As a reminder, The Beatles were not available on Spotify until extremely late last year.
5. "Can't Smile Without You," Barry Manilow
4. "Bent to Fly," Slash
3. "Do You Feel Like We Do (Live)," Peter Frampton
2. "Señorita," Justin Timberlake
1. "Cry Me a River," Michael Bublé

Top Five Favorite Guitarists
Until junior year, when I started chorus and learned more about musical theatre, my taste in music was almost entirely dictated by the question, "What songs are fun to play on guitar?" These are the guitarists I most admire.
5. Peter Frampton
4. George Harrison/ John Lennon (The Beatles)
3. Gary Moore
2. Slash (Guns N' Roses)
1. Brian May (Queen)
Honorable Mentions: Joe Perry (Aerosmith), Gary Clark Jr., Taylor York/ Josh Farro (Paramore)

Top Five Musicals
Musicals are a relatively new phenomenon to me. This list will change greatly the older I get I'm sure, but I know for sure that Les Misérables will always be my favorite musical.
5. The Lion King
4. Annie Get Your Gun
3. Jekyll and Hyde
2. Once
1. Les Misérables
Honorable Mention: Aladdin, The Secret Garden

Top Three Favorite Artists
I know for a fact that these are my three favorite artists. However, I couldn't make any decisions about the last two.
3. Queen
2. Paramore
1. The Beatles
Honorable Mentions: *NSYNC/ Justin Timberlake, Alfie Boe/ Les Misérables Cast, Oasis, Rod Stewart, Aerosmith

How I Discovered: Queen

Queen is a band that you never really seem to discover. Everyone knows "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions," and most people can sing along to at least part of "Bohemian Rhapsody." Few bands have so many songs that are so iconic: off the top of my head, I can remember commercials on TV featuring "You're My Best Friend," "Don't Stop Me Now," and "I Want It All." Much like the Beatles, I can't think of a time in my life where I wasn't aware of Queen's music.
Unlike the Beatles, I didn't stray too far from Queen's hits for years, letting my knowledge of them be defined by their compilation albums like Greatest Hits and Classic Queen. It will probably not amaze you to hear that I started diving into Queen's catalog when I got Spotify, starting with A Day at the Races and A Night at the Opera. I then moved onto Queen and Queen II, learning more about this wonderfully bizarre group.
A lot of my appreciation for Queen has been because of my guitar playing. Brian May is one of the best rock guitarists of all time, and I've always tried to figure out why his playing style is so instantly recognizable. Learning about his work has naturally led me to imitate it somewhat; in fact, the biggest performance I've given as a guitarist was a Queen song, "Somebody to Love." Great artists inspire more art, and Queen has certainly done that for me.

Favorite album: A Night at the Opera (1975)
Favorite songs: "Somebody to Love," "Killer Queen," "You're My Best Friend," "Seaside Rendezvous," "Dragon Attack"

How I Discovered: Gary Moore

I'm not entirely sure when exactly I first heard Gary Moore, but I do know that it was his incredible cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Red House" at the 2004 Strat Pack concert. It's hard for me to describe the performance itself, but I will say that one of the most memorable comments from that YouTube video basically said that he completely embarrassed Eddie Van Halen with his ability.

Comparing artists in terms of merit is something I generally try to avoid, especially when it comes to those of completely different genres. However, I will say with confidence that Gary Moore is one of the most talented guitar players I've ever heard. Towards Christmas of last year, I purchased his hugely successful Still Got the Blues on iTunes (one of the very last albums I ever bought before switching to Spotify). My first love is rock, but I've always loved blues guitarists because of both how foundational the blues is to rock and how expressive their music is in its own right. Around this same time I started listening to artists like Eric Clapton, B.B. King, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and quickly felt drawn to the raw emotion in their playing. In Gary Moore's case, though, it is impossible not to be blown away with the sheer level of musicianship that drips from every one of his songs.
In a sad coincidence, I learned that Gary Moore had died about a month after I really started listening to him. Upon hearing the news, my mind was instantly turned to his performance of "Parisienne Walkways" at Montreux. His last major public performance, it defined everything that Moore had been for so many years: a rare talent whose guitar playing made his emotions plain for everyone to see.

Favorite album: Still Got the Blues (1990)
Favorite songs: "Parisienne Walkways," "Too Tired," "Still Got the Blues, "Hey Joe"

How I Discovered: Bahamas

In the fall of my sophomore year, I was asleep on my bed. It had been a long day. I was having some nice dream about something incredibly pleasant when I was woken up by a phone call from my friend Nathaniel. Curious, I thought, because I really didn't know Nathaniel too well at the time. Still half asleep, I greeted him. He asked me if I wanted to go to a Jack Johnson concert with him later that month. "Sure," I said, "yeah! Sounds good!" We then wrapped up the conversation and I went immediately back to sleep.

Upon waking up, I realized that I was going to a concert featuring an artist I knew almost nothing about. Turns out I had nothing to worry about with Jack Johnson, because his opener, a Canadian named Afie Jurvanen, was far weirder than Jack Johnson could ever be. He was sarcastic, oddly accompanied (his backing group was a drummer and two female singers)... and I loved him. His music is not what I typically listen to even today, but I have to respect his talent and strange onstage persona. My brother, coincidentally, latched onto Bahamas far more than I ever did and listens to him very often.

Favorite album: Barchords (2012)

Favorite songs: "I Got You Babe," "Hockey Teeth"

How I Discovered: Musicals (part three)

Seeing the Les Mis film was a turning point in how I watched musicals. The following shows have largely defined my life since 2015.

Miss Saigon
Enloe's production of this show in spring 2015 was a grab bag. On one hand, they had some fantastic actors and musicians, and the story itself is fairly engaging. On the other, their technical theatre department seemed to be having an off day. This, combined with an evident lack of acting experience among some of the leads, somewhat dampened my experience of the show. I will always love "Why God Why?" and "Kim's Nightmare" even still.

Aladdin
Seeing a show with your family or friends is one thing. Seeing a live show with close friends who love theatre just like you do is something else entirely. I saw Aladdin on the spring dance and drama trip last year and was impressed by a lot of the choices they made. The actor playing Genie was a genuine star, and I remember being amazed during "Never Had a Friend Like Me," which had been made into a spectacular show-stopping number. As an aside, I sat next to Millbrook's own theatre director throughout the show. He was harder to please than I was but definitely seemed to enjoy himself.

Les Misérables
I've already detailed my experience at this show but would be silly not to at least include it on this list.



Once
Once was a show recommended to me by one of my good friends in chorus. I was about to just buy a ticket and go myself, but when I mentioned it to my aunt, she said that she'd wanted to see it herself for months. As had been the case with Les Mis, I enjoyed seeing it with her thoroughly.
I've never seen a musical like Once. The entire "pit orchestra" is onstage, so any music you hear throughout the story is played by the actors themselves. The music is a mix of acoustic singer-songwriter and Irish folk performed by a colorful cast of characters who are both heartbreakingly real and completely ridiculous. I ended up liking the music so much that I bought a mandolin of my own a few weeks later.

I've mentioned some moments that I'll never forget throughout these last few posts, so I'll say that I will never forget the dimming of the lights and the raw emotion throughout the show's first real number, "Leave."

High School Musical
What a mess. I saw Heritage's production of High School Musical with two of my friends from my own school's theatre department this spring. I must say, I was thoroughly entertained. The show felt like a complete farce, which may have been what they were going for. In any case, I would not have necessarily been proud to have been in it.

Annie Get Your Gun
I never technically saw Annie Get Your Gun. I was in it, which I suppose counts.

How I Discovered: Les Misérables

I have only cried in a few movies, and Les Misérables is one of them.
There is no classic Broadway show with as good music, plot, and characters as Les Misérables.
I have loved few things as much as I love Les Misérables.

I first saw the 2012 film adaptation of Les Mis with a group of friends during the "canceled" spring break days last year. I had heard about it once or twice maybe but had never really had an interest in seeing it. Having said that, I will never forget that day. I had perhaps not been completely sold on the "operatic musical" concept (that is, a musical in which everything is sung), but the passion and intensity brought out by the actors was more than enough for me to hang onto every word. Even Russell Crowe, by far the worst singer in the cast, I considered irreplaceable in the context of the film.
The show became the source of jokes, songs that would stay stuck in my head for days, and spontaneous singalongs with any number of my friends- including those who hadn't even been there the day when I had first watched it. That in itself speaks to the beauty of Les Mis: it's accessible to anyone.
Since that day in spring 2015, I've watched the film maybe six times, listened to various versions of the soundtrack more times than I could possibly count, sung some of the songs in front of my chorus class, and even seen the live show in New York.
I could write endlessly about what exactly Les Misérables means to me, but at least now you know how I discovered it.

How I Discovered: Musicals (part two)

I saw these two musicals early in my junior year.

Into the Woods
I saw Into the Woods as an accident on a date. We were going to see Selma, but had comically (romantically?) talked all through dinner and missed the showing we wanted to see. We walked into Into the Woods knowing nothing about it; in fact, neither of us even knew that it was a musical until they started singing. During "Agony," though, I had a breakthrough. My friend had described that exact scene to me weeks before. I cracked up and explained it to my date, who knew that friend and laughed quite a bit with me.
P.S. I got a second date after that.

Jekyll and Hyde
If Spamalot planted seeds, then Jekyll and Hyde was an invasive vine. I had promised to return to run track my junior year even after dropping cross country to audition for the fall play, but again I wonder how different life would be had I just auditioned. Junior year, the core of my friends outside of the track team were all involved in the musical in some way. I remember sitting on a bus with Jekyll/ Hyde himself and listening as he excitedly described one of the most intense scenes in the show. I remember thinking, "I have no idea what you're talking about, but I know it's going to be good."
As I sat in the audience on opening night, I started to hear some familiar lines and see some familiar movements onstage. It was that same scene he had described to me all those months ago.
Seeing my friends on that stage and realizing that I could very well have been there was the last straw. I would audition for the musical no matter what.

How I Discovered: Musicals (part one)

There is nothing like a Broadway musical. Irving Berlin said it best in Annie Get Your Gun: the costumes, the scenery, the makeup, the props, the audience who lifts you when you're down...
I've had the pleasure of seeing a few musicals throughout my life. The following are ones I saw before my junior year, which is when I started to really fall in love with musical theatre.

The Lion King
I saw The Lion King with my mom very early on. I must have been around eight or nine. In any case, we saw it at either DPAC or Memorial Auditorium downtown, and I was amazed by the spectacle and the grandness of it all. In fact, years later when I was invited to see it again, I used that word- spectacular- as my way of encouraging my group to go.

Junie B. Jones (?)
I wasn't even going to write about this, but I did see it on a field trip with my elementary or middle school. My mom and I would make jokes about how cheesy it was all the time.

Little Shop of Horrors
This was Millbrook's spring musical my freshman year. At the time, I didn't realize
 that I would one day be able to perform on that very stage myself or that some of the performers in lead roles would become some of my closest friends years later. I just knew that one of my oldest friends from elementary school was in it, and I enjoyed seeing her.

Spamalot
I was so torn as to whether or not I would audition for this show my sophomore year. At the time, I was a member of the track team and had a pretty decent shot of making varsity. It seemed like a good idea to stick around. I believe that everything happens for a reason, and I made many great memories on the track team that season. However, I can't help but wonder how different my life would be had I landed a role in that musical early on. Would I have gotten a good role? Would it have bumped me into a role in the next show? How different would my friends be? Spamalot was a silly show, but it planted seeds in my head that my passion lay somewhere other than the track.

Other: Mmhmm

I do not like a lot of Relient K's music. They can feel overly poppy, forcedly nerdy (like Weezer), and just generally annoying. The song "Sadie Hawkins Dance" is a classic song to many of my friends and one of the band's most popular, but I absolutely hate it.
That being said, Mmhmm is one of my favorite albums of all time. Musically, it slides right in with bands like Paramore or Fall Out Boy with pop-punk and emo influenced riffs and production. Trevor and I have played a massive spectrum of songs together throughout the years, but songs like "Be My Escape" and "Who I Am Hates Who I've Been" keep reappearing time and time again."
Lyrically, it came along at the perfect time in my life. Sophomore year was a weird time for me, with a strange relationship, a more difficult academic schedule, a never-ending athletic schedule, and overall the pressures of trying to fit into a still unfamiliar school. Years from now, I may find Mmhmm silly and childish, but it captures precisely what I felt about life, relationships, purpose, and even religion.
Mmhmm and Paramore will always bring me back to tenth grade. To be honest, I doubt if I'll ever find two albums so perfectly timed in my life as those two.

How I Discovered: Oasis

I had trouble deciding whether to do a "How I Discovered" post on Oasis or an "Other" post on their 1995 smash, (What's the Story) Morning Glory?. As was the case with Relient K, my view of Oasis is shaped very, very heavily by my opinion of a single album. It occurred to me, however, that in addition to owning several Oasis albums, I do actually like the majority of what I've heard from them. That seemed to be qualification enough for a "How I Discovered" post.
I found (What's the Story) Morning Glory? in my mom's CD collection in middle school, probably in late sixth grade but definitely before eighth grade. My first memory of listening to the album as a whole was in Wilmington, but I had of course heard the iconic (and at this point laughably overplayed) "Wonderwall" years before. They're classified as Britpop, though I've always considered them to just be rock or alternative. They've been a pretty significant band in my life because they've written some of the most played songs by Trevor, Jack, and me.

Favorite album: (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995)
Favortie songs: "Don't Look Back in Anger," "Married with Children," "Champagne Supernova"

How I Discovered: Guns N' Roses

I think Jack is the one who first bought Guns N' Roses' Greatest Hits in sixth grade. In any case, it was an album that would go on to shape Trevor's and my perception of music and the guitar forever. Since fifth grade, we had been riding what I call the Guitar Hero Wave, a sudden growth in the number of people learning the guitar after the success of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band series of video games. In particular, Guitar Hero III and Rock Band introduced me and Trevor to heavy, riff-driven hard rock and inspired us to take guitar lessons together. Years later, the two of us consider playing guitar and being musicians a huge part of our identity, so in that sense we owe a huge part of ourselves to a silly video game.
Greatest Hits was basically my only exposure to Guns N' Roses for a long time. It exemplified hard rock in my mind, with loud, heavy, and iconic riffs, edgy lyrics, and a sense of rebelliousness prevalent throughout. Many of the songs on that song are undisputed rock classics, but it really doesn't give a full picture of who the band really was. Years later, I discovered that the band was incredibly controversial; in one song, they essentially spend four minutes throwing obscenities at journalists, many of whom they name outright. Guns N' Roses as a whole is therefore a bit too crude for my taste, but their classics are out of this world.

Favorite album: Appetite for Destruction (1988)
Favorite songs: "Estranged," "November Rain," "Welcome to the Jungle"

How I Discovered: The Beatles (Part Two: 1966-1970)

Oddly enough, Revolver reminds me of Canada. I listened to the album quite a lot during a vacation to New York and Ontario after I got it as a gift in second grade, but I've revisited it several times since. Every song on the album is innovative in some way, whether lyrically, technically, or compositionally.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Another triumph. I copied Jack's CD of Sgt. Pepper onto my computer as early as first grade, but it was one of the very first albums I bought when the Beatles remasters were released in 2009. I could write for hours and hours about how special this album is, but I will just say that I consider it and Abbey Road to be the two greatest albums of all time, period. "A Day in the Life" is a masterpiece in every sense.

I am not as familiar with Magical Mystery Tour, but it includes some truly legendary songs like "Strawberry Fields Forever." It is the only Beatles album which I never purchased in any form, as the way I listen to it is online via Spotify's streaming service.

My best friend Griffin let me copy his CD of The Beatles around fifth or sixth grade. It is the Beatles' weirdest album to me because of the wide spectrum of tracks it contains: "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is a fantastic song that was only taken seriously when Eric Clapton was brought in to play guitar, "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" is a classic despite its strangeness, and "Revolution 9" is just... Strange. My guitar teacher once said that the White Album (as it is often known) should have been released as one disc of serious songs and one disc of silly songs. I agree.

My brother and I owned Yellow Submarine Songtrack very early on, and in many ways I think it's a truer Beatles album than the official Yellow Submarine. Both include the same core of songs, but the Songtrack includes many that had not been widely available in the United States. The official soundtrack is 50% Beatles songs and 50% George Martin orchestrations, but in general it is a decent album. "Hey Bulldog" is one of the best Beatles rockers ever, in my opinion.

Let it Be must have been purchased around sixth or seventh grade. Paul McCartney thought that bringing in Phil Spector to produce the album was a mistake, as it resulted in an overproduced, cluttered album. While I agree that it generally lacks the heart of Abbey Road, which I consider the band's final album, I will say that "I've Got a Feeling" and "Get Back" are two songs which really do capture the spirit of the group at its peak.

Abbey Road is a masterpiece. Most days, it's my favorite album of all time. I had a copy of this album very early on, as I remember listening to it on full blast in the living room of my old house, but I can say for sure that I bought the 2009 remastered edition before my family's trip to the Philippines around Christmas of that year. It's easy for me to get carried away when describing this album, but it really cannot be overstated how well written, produced, and performed the music is. "You Never Give Me Your Money" is one of my favorite songs of all time by any group, and it's only one of the fantastic tracks found on Abbey Road.

1 is the first album I have any memory of; in fact, one of my earliest memories of anything is of this album. As of a week ago I still remember most of the tracklisting without having heard it in years. It's a greatest hits album, so it's not really fair to choose any song as my "favorite" from it, but "Ticket to Ride" is always a standout when I hear 1. This is the album that ensured that the Beatles were, in fact, the one constant throughout my life.

How I Discovered: The Beatles (Part One: 1962-1965)

This post is not really fair, because I never really "discovered" the Beatles. They have always been a part of my life; in fact, the earliest memory I have of music at all is hearing "Love Me Do" in the back of my family's white Chevy Suburban.

In light of this, I've decided to approach this post a little differently. In two posts, I'll be writing a sentence about what each individual album means to me, along with an estimate of when I got the album, if possible. The albums will be listed in chronological order, with three exceptions: I count Abbey Road as the Beatles' last album because it was the last recorded, even though Let it Be was their last release. The Past Masters albums, as collections of the band's singles, include songs from the band's entire career; thus, I will be using them as a sort of interlude between the two posts.

I listened to Please Please Me quite a bit after I purchased the 2009 remaster during my sixth grade year, and the song "Misery" in particular reminds me of my unsuccessful stint as a competitive swimmer for Wave swim team. The song "Boys" is the first song I played with two of my best friends in a band setting.

With the Beatles was the first Beatles album I bought digitally after the Beatles' catalog was made available on iTunes, but I didn't buy it until late sophomore year as far as I can remember. I consider it one of the peak "Beatlemania" albums.

A Hard Day's Night was purchased and played constantly throughout my sophomore year, especially early on. It is not a particularly sad album, but it always reminds me of a fun, exciting, complicated, and ultimately painful relationship with a girl.

Beatles for Sale must have been purchased around the same time. It contains arguably the Beatles' worst song, "Mr Moonlight," but also many of my favorites like "What You're Doing" and "No Reply."

I got Help! from one of my best friends, Jack around fifth or sixth grade. I had known some of the songs, like "You're Gonna Lose That Girl,"for much longer, but overall the sound of the album brings me back to middle school and bus rides on Quest Academy field trips.

Rubber Soul is an incredible album. I bought it around the same time Jack bought Help!, and all throughout sixth grade I had it on rotation with Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road, and Please Please Me in my mom's car. It is the last album the Beatles released before they really started to let loose in the studio and shows glimpses of what wonderful songwriters they were becoming.

I bought Past Masters, Volume One in a record store in Chicago two years ago. I was already familiar with most of the songs in one way or another ("Sie Liebt Dich" had been a joke among Jack and me since we were seven years old), but it was nice to actually own the album itself.

How I Discovered: Joe Dassin

People pride themselves on having non-mainstream or unusual taste in music, but I can say that I only know two other people who had heard of French crooner Joe Dassin before I introduced them to his music. The first was my good friend Jack, who first showed me his song "Salut" after discovering it somehow in middle school. We laughed at the song's obviously somber yet otherwise inaccessible message and its cheesy 70s vibe and forgot about Joe Dassin for a long time. The second person to have heard of Joe Dassin was one of my closest friends, a French exchange student who cracked up and wondered how on earth I had heard of him.
As I later came to discover, Joe Dassin is basically the French equivalent of Barry Manilow. I think that says it all, really.
It should come as no surprise at this point that my exploration of Dassin's music was greatly facilitated by my decision to subscribe to Spotify last year. Now Joe Dassin is more than a punchline to me; he is the man responsible for the hauntingly romantic "Et Si Tu N'Existais Pas (And If You Did Not Exist)," the bouncy and fun "Les Champs-Èlysées," and even some English songs like "Sunday Times." It's good to really mix things up every now and then, and Joe Dassin is an extreme outlier in my music library.

Favorite album: Joe Dassin (1975)
Favorite songs: "Salut," "Les Champs-Èlysées," "Piano mécanique," "Carolina (Sad Sweet Dreamer)"

Other: "For Mathew"

As Victor Hugo once said, "Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent." It has an incredible ability to express, share, and even influence emotions that otherwise would go ignored or misunderstood.
It's with this thought in mind that I created the playlist "For Mathew" as a way of getting into character for Millbrook's fall play, Anne of Green Gables. I was cast as Mathew Cuthbert, the loving father figure to Anne Shirley, a very significant and challenging role. I had auditioned with hopes of being cast as Mathew but knew that it would be a daily struggle in rehearsal to discover, remember, and convey who exactly this old, quiet man that was basically a total opposite of me really was to the audience. He only has so many lines on which an actor can base his understanding of the character, so a huge brunt of the work was on me to bring the character to life! Mr. Kotzian, the theatre teacher, had mentioned making a "character playlist" before, and without even realizing it I began to create my own a few weeks before the show.
Though musically dissimilar, each song has some significant piece that reminds me of who my Mathew Cuthbert was. Many of them have lyrics that remind me of Mathew's actual personality or role in the show, like "Suddenly" from the Les Miserables film or Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's "Our House." Other songs spurred me on to develop a totally unique Mathew Cuthbert; for example, I imagined Mathew as a talented choral singer who had been forced to give up his musical dreams in order to take care of his sister and the family farm. It's for this reason that I included "The Pasture" by Z. Randall Stroope. One of my favorite songs from "For Mathew" is "The Water is Wide," which is  traditional Scottish song that Mathew could very realistically have known and loved in 1910 Canada.
The one song that will always remind me of Mathew Cuthbert, though, is probably the biggest outlier on the entire playlist. After a long day of rehearsal, I remember sitting in my car and hearing "Can't You See" by the Marshall Tucker Band and thinking, "This is Mathew." In my mind, the soft-spoken and loving Mathew Cuthbert was not always a shy old grandfather-type. He had once been an exciting young man with hopes and dreams that reached far beyond his home of Prince Edward Island, with a future and a lover and a story of loss.
Hearing that song that day is a moment I will never forget and one that will always remind me of both the beauty of theatre and the power of music.

How I Discovered: Alfie Boe

There is a difference between meeting an artist and discovering their music. I discovered Alfie Boe's music during the summer before my senior year when my friend suggested that I listen to his version of "Bring Him Home" from Les Misérables. Being a huge fan of the musical but also being more familiar with Colm Wilkinson or even Hugh Jackman, I remember saying, "He is almost too good of a singer to be Jean Valjean." I then largely forgot about him for a while.

Months later, as I sat in a New York restaurant for preshow dinner with my aunt, I noticed a black shirted, backpacked man walk straight past the tables into some sort of private underground room. I remember saying to my aunt, "I think that's Alfie Boe." We had flown up to celebrate my birthday by watching my all-time favorite musical, and frankly I had been somewhat disappointed that Ramin Karimloo's run as Valjean had come to an end. There's a certain magic that is felt when you actually see a celebrity, though, and I just had a feeling that this normal-seeming guy was none other than English tenor Alfie Boe. In some small effort to confirm my suspicion, I tweeted at him, "Am I hallucinating or did I just see you at the restaurant I'm eating at before the show??"

To my absolute surprise, he replied. I have never been more overjoyed by the word "probably" in my life, but in my mind, I knew. It had to be him.

A few minutes after this Twitter exchange, we made our way to the theatre and sat down. I had been waiting to see the show for weeks by this point, but now I was also hoping to see if the normal guy I had seen in the restaurant was actually the heroic Jean Valjean.

I will stop myself from overly gushing details about the performance itself. However, I will say that everyone in the house knew that "Bring Him Home" would be something incredibly special, and it was.

I will also say that my brief conversation with Boe made it obvious: he is a fantastic performer, a genuinely kind man, and unquestionably the man I saw at dinner that night.

Favorite album: Alfie (2011)

Favorite songs: "Bring Him Home" is so far ahead of the others that it's the only one I'll include

How I Discovered: Rod Stewart

There are only a few things I own that I consider irreplaceable, and each of them have a memory attached to them. Two of them, I got on the same night as a random surprise gift from my friend's dad: a practically mint condition Babicz acoustic guitar and an album which I had never heard, Atlantic Crossing. Though not my first introduction to Rod Stewart, the album was the first time I listened to his music with eyes that looked at his music as more than just one or two good songs.
I will say that I'm still in the process of discovering Stewart's music. He has a staggeringly large catalog, and I have only really explored two of his early releases. However, it doesn't take a lot of listening to realize how thoughtful and honest he is as a writer. One of my favorite songs off Every Picture Tells a Story has the line "Oh I never was good with romantic words/ so the next few lines come really hard," which was something of a revelation to me. Rod Stewart is certainly old, and he grew up in a time completely different from me in a country different from mine in ways I don't even realize. When both of us are honest with ourselves, though, we have the same doubts, joys, struggles, and thoughts as anyone who's ever lived. His songs are about the love and life every person experiences.
As a fun side note, Rod Stewart's music has helped me grow as a performer. I've used songs like "Sailing" and "Mandolin Wind" to help me get into character before plays, and his mandolin-heavy Every Picture Tells a Story has inspired me to purchase and try to learn the mandolin for myself!

Favorite album: Every Picture Tells a Story (1971)
Favorite songs: "Maggie May," "Mandolin Wind," "Sailing," "All Right for an Hour," "(I Know) I'm Losing You"

How I Discovered: Paramore

I was first really introduced to the group around sixth grade, even though I had been aware of their existence for years because of my brother's "emo" phase. My exposure to Paramore, like most of my exposure to music throughout elementary and middle school, was heavily influenced by my two friends Jack and Trevor; the three of us exchanged songs and basically created one large music library. I convinced Trevor to buy Riot! on iTunes, and it was this album that truly hooked me on Paramore with its heavy guitar, relatable lyrics (especially at the time), and generally new and young spirit.
In contrast to some of my other favorite artists like The Beatles or Queen, Paramore are a very recent artist. They released their first album, All We Know is Falling, in 2004 and rode the pop-punk/ emo wave of the mid 2000s with bands such as Cute is What We Aim For, Fall Out Boy, Panic! At the Disco, and other ridiculously named bands. Of course, the pop-punk wave crashed, and many of these groups found themselves without their fans, their relevance, or any real artistic output.
Not Paramore. Where Riot! allowed me to form my first really strong connection with the band, 2013's Paramore sold me on them being a truly great band. The album shows diversity of styles, lyrical and compositional maturity, and a fun, hopeful spirit throughout. The album was on repeat during my freshman and sophomore year, and because they are a modern band, I got to experience them in an unforgettable way: live and in person during the growing periods of the band.

Favorite album: Paramore (2012)
Favorite songs: "Grow Up," "Ain't It Fun," "Brighter," "crushcrushcrush"

How I Discovered: Run River North

It's hard not to notice a rock band comprised entirely of Asian-Americans, yet I never would have heard of them at all had I not been incredibly bored on a flight on March 28th, 2014. On that day, I read an article in American Airlines' inflight magazine, American Way about a new up-and-coming band and made a note of the band in my phone so I'd remember to look them up when I landed. For whatever reason, the band didn't really stick with me for any significant amount of time after.
Two years later, I rediscovered the band through Spotify and have certainly not forgotten them since. Their self-titled debut album is very folk-influenced and not something I would normally listen to otherwise, which is perhaps why I never really stuck with the band back in 2014. By contrast, their newest album, Drinking From a Salt Pond, quickly became one of my favorite albums ever when I sat down to give it a listen. As a musician, I love the sound they've developed through their newest album. As the son of a second-generation Filipino-American immigrant, I appreciate the way the lyrics of their first album in particular give subtle nods to the immigrant experience I've seen my dad and his sisters navigate.
The most exciting thing about Run River North is that they are musically and career-wise the youngest band I listen to on a regular basis. Unlike classic rockers or dissolved boybands, their story is still in its early stages. I'm excited to see where it goes next!

Favorite album: Drinking From a Salt Pond (2016)
Favorite songs: "Elam," "Pretender," "David Robinson"

How I Discovered: *NSYNC

At the end of my sophomore year, my friend and I took a fateful trip to F.Y.E., a music and video store at Triangle Town Center. Both of us being huge rock and alternative fans, we of course decided to purchase *NSYNC's Greatest Hits for $2. We laughed our heads off in the car at how ridiculous the lyrics, production, and singing generally were.

One year later, I'm wearing an *NSYNC t-shirt as I type this review. I do not think they're the greatest band in the world, nor do I even think the majority of their songs are of any artistic merit at all. A lot of the time, the band is genuinely laughable. That's exactly why I love them. They are a perfect picture of what a boyband should be: over-the-top, cheesy, unnecessarily serious, dated, and unashamedly marketed at teenagers of the time.

I love listening to albums all the way through, and my experience of *NSYNC has been primarily defined by my journey through each of their releases. My thoughts while listening to Greatest Hits were mainly, "This band is hilarious." After listening to some of the songs on The Essential *NSYNC, my thoughts were, "This band is actually kind of good." The Essential, which is a more comprehensive look at the band's career, includes one of my all-time favorite a cappella tracks, "I Thought She Knew." I dare anyone to listen to that song and tell me the five aren't incredibly talented singers. At the same time, I dare anyone to listen to No Strings Attached's "Just Got Paid" and hold in their laughter. *NSYNC is, with all their faults and cheesiness, fun to listen to.

That's enough for me.

Favorite album: No Strings Attached, 2000

Favorite songs: "I Thought She Knew," "Just Got Paid," "Thinking of You (I Drive Myself Crazy)," "Selfish," "No Strings Attached"