A Pentatonix Christmas

CHRISTMAS is just too irresistible a time of year. Some of the happiest moments of my life always return to me when December draws near, such as the one when I played babysitter to my little cousin, Paxton. I was ten then, he was four. At one point in the afternoon when we had exhausted all the fun things we could do, and he had refused to take a nap, I ended up playing a random Christmas CD from my parents’ music collection. It was so ancient and foul with carols sung by young children who must have been taught that shouting the melody is the height of beautiful singing.

The Afternoon I Was Carrie Underwood

Carrie Underwood

I’VE never been cheated on by any guy before. I don’t even have a boyfriend for crying out loud. But I sure know that feeling. That’s because I’ve been at it, singing Carrie Underwood’s Before He Cheats day and night, for a good two weeks, in preparation for R-Factor, my school’s version of Britain’s Got Talent, held on October 16. And “R,” surprise, surprise, stands for “Raffles.”

When My Music Goes Bang, Bang, Bang

A world without music would be like a world without restaurants, bakeries, cake shops, and might I even add, toothpaste. In fact, a world without music would be a world sliced of a big chunk of money, the billions of dollars generated by the music industry from musicians to producers, songwriters to singers, and a whole slew of folks that make the world of music tick.

Let’s just consider a small sliver of this big-money universe. Korean cultural exports, of which K-pop is a big part of, is worth more than $4 billion according to 2011 statistics by Korea’s Culture and Information Service. No music in this world? Yes, it would be boring for sure, but take away all that money? Now, that wouldn’t be funny.

Music, the World’s Only Real Language

JUST to prove a point, I’ve chosen to write this essay with my Mellow Nights Spotify playlist humming away softly from a Bose. Presently, Birdy is singing Tee-Shirt, that heartwarming love song from the film, The Fault in Our Stars.

Music is a constant feature in my life: in my waking hours, at MacDonald’s mugging, at home slogging with homework, in the school bus on the way to school, on the treadmill watching my heartbeat hovering around 124 beats per minute, in the shower, even while taking a dump.

In these instances, you can say that music is intimate. It permeates every aspect of our lives. I’m thinking of the word, “ubiquitous,”of how music has that wondrous ability to remind us of special moments and memories—friendships and fun times, nostalgia and melancholy, breakups, and love, of course.

World Without Music

CHRISTMAS is not Christmas without the carols, the jingles, the Yuletide music. A party is also not a party without the music. Even a mall is a strange one without music. And in our noisy, never-asleep urban landscape, city lights must flash with music that comes with in-your-face advertising.