I, perhaps like everyone else on this Earth, am a self-proclaimed music person. I love listening to music, all the time and anytime — in the car, if I visit the grocers by myself, and especially when I walk or take the bus to class. I bought a record player against my parents’ wishes when I was 15, and I can’t even tell you how large my collection is. I can even recall certain parts of my life if I hear a song, because it’ll remind me of how often I listened to it, how much I loved it. With that being said, readers might be confused when I declare that I am also not on Spotify. That’s right — I was a college student for four years and never took advantage of the $5 per month student subscription offered by Spotify or Apple Music. Why, may you ask? There are a few reasons, but the largest one is that I always found everything I wanted and more on YouTube.
YouTube is an endless resource; there’s no telling what kind of content you may stumble upon. And, while that can be good or bad depending on what you’re delving into, for me it’s been pretty good. Many relics you might recognize: Who hasn’t heard Jon Cozart, better known as Paint, sing about the not so happily-ever-after of the Disney stories? I can still recite some of Goldentusk’s movie theme parodies from memory, 10 years after I first saw the videos. I also have a special place in my heart for CinemaSins, a satirical channel that identifies the “sins” of different movies and TV shows. I’m odd in the way that I don’t keep up with other YouTube personalities; I never kept up with Connor Franta or Tyler Oakley. What I do keep up with is playlists.
There’s nothing I love more than a good, strong YouTube playlist — a playlist to keep me on track when I’m doing my homework, when I’m writing for fun, exercising or doing any of my other hobbies. I love finding music that helps me romanticize the little things I’m doing in life, like cooking or baking (especially if I don’t need my phone out to study the recipe). And especially studying. Through YouTube and playlists created by channels like Nemo’s Dreamscapes, Lapreezy, and others, I’ve been introduced to new songs that have made a strong impact on me and my creative flow, new earworms that delight me every day in a pleasant way.
A lot of these songs are older, such as some of the older classical numbers I’ve used to help me concentrate while studying. A recent project I’m working on has required a lot of older tunes; it’s set in the 1920s, so it helps if the background music reflects that. Every time I sit down to write, I feel like I’m sitting across from the characters because the music gifts me the illusion that I’m there with them.
I’ve also picked up a lot of Nancy Sinatra due to her appearances in my recommends and now I quite enjoy “These Boots Were Made for Walking,” “Summer Wine” and her duet with Lee Hazelwood, “Some Velvet Morning.” Some newer bands include Bedroom, where I fell in love with “Nothing Lasts,” and later the rest of the album, and Current Joys, who perform “Fear” and “New Flesh,” songs that I had never heard of before. Just recently, I was streaming “Harry’s House” on Harry Styles’ channel, but don’t worry — just like the others, I’ll be downloading that to my phone. If I can download individual songs, I will, but other times, the playlists I adore are only available via YouTube.
I really enjoy YouTube because people are so creative on there. Nemo’s Dreamscapes, for instance, has a channel dedicated to videos that are “Oldies playing in another room and it’s raining w/ thunders.” What’s super cool about these videos is that the music is somewhat softened so I won’t get distracted by the lyrics; unfortunately, depending on the project, I can’t have lyrics sung too loudly because I won’t be able to concentrate.
This problem isn’t unique to me. In fact, an article by Penn State titled, “Can Someone Efficiently Study While Listening to Music?” explores this idea. “Listening to music without lyrics has a positive effect on your study habits,” they declared, proving what some of us already knew on our own, based on our own study patterns. However, everyone is different. The “oldies” channel on Nemo’s Dreamscapes is still perfect for background noise, at least for me. The video edits, which add rain and thunder noises in the background, immerse you completely. You get so sucked into focusing on the project at hand that you forget your outside surroundings. I can’t tell you how many times I finished a project, turned my music off, and was surprised to see that it hadn’t rained outside at all. Not only that, but I couldn’t believe how much work I’d gotten done either.
When you’re scrolling on YouTube, the names of the videos promise to pique your interest. One of my saved videos is “songs to slow dance to in the kitchen at 2 a.m. with the one you love.” How cute! How creative! You wonder how people come up with these titles, and how they artfully curate a collection of music to put us right into our feelings. And I tell you that this video is one of millions; while I enjoy a bunch now, there are endless playlists for me to fall in love with later.
I love YouTube because of its versatility. While there are some darker corners of the video-sharing app, for the most part, it’s been a wonderful resource for me. It’s helped me through my undergrad years by recommending songs that I consider part of my success. My brain is stimulated by them, and my memories are painted in these melodies. All you must do is figure out what you like and what you need. That was different for me every time; for some projects, I could listen to words and for others, I couldn’t. After figuring it out, I found so many new songs and tunes that I never would’ve found anywhere else. And for that, I’m eternally grateful.
