What is your favorite genre of music?
My taste in music has always been a mixed bag. As a child growing up in the ‘80s, I preferred the music of the ‘60s and the ‘70s. New Wave was okay, but I’ve always just had a hankering for nostalgia even when I was about knee-high to a grasshopper.
I also come from a family, nay, a nation that’s in love with musicals, so the love of show tunes was also ingrained in me while I was very young.
The background music of my childhood was a cacophony of FM radio and TV variety show music, my aunt’s Ray Conniff cassette tapes, Kids’ Praise, and musical records.
And then New Kids on the Block came along, and I learned early on that I was a sucker for cute boys. It will soon become apparent in this post that this penchant never left.
As I entered my angst-ridden teenage years, grunge exploded in the music scene. I totally bought into it and the succeeding alternative music scene, fangirling over the pretty boys of various garage bands.
Around 1995, I started developing an aversion for any new music that was being released. That’s where I got stuck, not only music-wise, but fashion-wise, information-wise, etc. as well. (I still refuse to accept that Pluto isn’t a proper planet.)
For about two decades, I stayed blissfully in my 1900s bubble, maybe letting a handful of really good songs in, but I pretty much limited myself to yacht rock, classic rock, and early ‘90s alternative music.
Let me say this part fast because it still hurts. In 2021 during the thick of the pandemic, my father passed away from Covid. I couldn’t read, watch, or listen to anything I typically liked because it all reminded me of my dad, and, at that time, my grief was just too enormous that I was desperate to be distracted lest mourning suffocated me.
Around this time, I started looking into what BTS (short for Bangtan Sonyeondan or Bulletproof Boy Scouts) was all about. I already had a vague idea of who they were since my sister was into them at that time, and I had already heard exactly one song (Dynamite), thanks to YouTube recommended videos.
At first, it was curiosity. I had never had any interest in Kpop prior to that – didn’t know what it was and didn’t care to find out; thus was my prejudice.
But with every video I watched, my interest grew. It was soon nuanced with admiration and respect. Their songs are intelligent and well-crafted. They are unique in their messages, and how the inspiration and encouragement in them aren’t contrived or cheesy. Their work ethic was exemplary. They were humble, respectful, and genuine. They were a breath of fresh air after exposure to the toxic behavior of many famous musical artists.
Of course it naturally helped that I found them cute and quickly developed a huge crush on Worldwide Handsome Jin. It also didn’t hurt that BTS has one of the best underdog stories ever. Don’t we all love a good underdog story? Theirs is mostly detailed in their book, Beyond the Story (If you’re inclined to check the book out, please do so through this affiliate link. I’ll get a very small commission at no extra cost to you.).
So is my current favorite music genre Kpop because of BTS? No. As it turns out, Kpop isn’t a genre; it’s an industry. The artists in it produce songs in a wide variety of genres. For instance, the genres of BTS songs range from hip hop and rap to EDM and Latin pop with many others in between. If you would like to give BTS a try, I suggest starting with Proof (affiliate link), their last album as a group before they started serving in the military. An anthology album, it has a mix of some of the best songs from their decade-long career, plus three new ones.
Do I like any other Kpop artists? Nope. I’ve given several a whirl, but it’s really just BTS for me. Like right now, I’d listen to BTS and alternate it with Gordon Lightfoot. After that, I might listen to some French jazz and Con Te Partiro by Andrea Boccelli.
My taste is obviously very eclectic, but, right now, you could say that the dominant sound is Bangtan.
This Small Life 