A friend once told me that there’s a graph of Owl City. He told me that the x axis was years and the y axis was how much he listened to Owl City, and the graph had two peaks. One in 2009 and one in the year he met me. I often recount this to new friends because I believe it is the optimal way to characterise myself. Also I like analogies that I can visualise with MATLAB code.

I struggle to define my music taste. From an objective standpoint, my top three music artists seem to be geared toward Christians – despite being a non-Christian myself. I once left my Youtube on autoplay and returned an hour later to find it had settled onto “1 hour of the world’s greatest worship songs.” Spotify recommends a playlist to me called “Christian Alternative.” With that being said, I don’t think I would define my music as being Christian, though I do enjoy an occasional hymn. At gunpoint, I would say my music taste is Owl City.

But why Owl City? It’s not something I can slur over a pint or mumble in the office print room as we indulge in birthday doughnuts. Even in the comfort of my own blog and word document, I still struggle. I feel pressure when asked this question because frankly, I don’t have an answer that will satisfy you. As a people pleaser, this is a source of great stress to me and I often practice the conversation in my head just in case it crops up. But that usually leads me down a rabbit hole to panic; so I just end up listening to Owl City instead. So in an effort to avoid my problems by using the internet, take this blog post as my warm up and stretches for the next time I’m asked the question. Also the only way I know how to communicate is through a series of overly exaggerated anecdotes – so here’s the spiel.

In my early years, I remember listening to music because I felt I had to. Thus I jauntily hopped along to Rihanna at school discos in baby pink jumpsuits. (Evidently, whilst I felt that I had to listen to what everyone else listened to I didn’t hold the same viewpoint on fashion.) Then in 2009, a charming soul first introduced me to Fireflies. It was like someone had recorded what the inside of my head sounded like and mixed it into synth beats and boops. I devoured the entire discography and it soon became the soundtrack to my life, loves and losses. I rode the mothership to weird and wonderful lands that few dare to venture to. Over the past ten years my gradient has been ever shifting. Sometimes it’s positive, sometimes negative, and it can grow and shrink in great measures. But for all this time, my +C has always been Owl City.

It has led to movie magic moments. Sunsets from Houston to London, escapes to New York City, and even a backdrop to falling in love. It has seeded the best friendship I could have dreamed of and provided me with comfort whenever I’m staring into an abyss. So whilst I never can eloquently explain to you why it is so special to me, I’m confident I won’t stop trying.