Month: October 2019

Yes, I listen to Harry Styles. Am I embarrassed about it? Well sometimes. But, his music makes me happy and it’s fun to listen to so I don’t see a problem with me liking it. Let me be happy!

Harry Styles in “Lights Up.” 2019. Rain Magazine.

His first and most recent album, Harry Styles, was released in May 2017 and it was the only thing I listened to for the next three months. After he toured the album, he seemed to disappear for a while. There was no word as to what he was doing. There were the classic rumors that he was talking to the other guys from One Direction and they are going to get back together. Other than that, he was quiet.

THEN, all of a sudden, he just pops out of nowhere and posts a picture on his Instagram with the words “DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE” (Figure 1). Obviously this led people to believe that he was about to drop a new song, which he did. “Light’s Up” was released on October 14, 2019. While I was very excited that he released a new song, to be truthful, it isn’t my favorite.

It isn’t something I would normally listen to. If I just had alternative radio station playing on my phone and I heard a song like this, I would probably skip it, but I would definitely not add it to my favorites playlist. However, because I enjoy his music so much, it is staying on my playlist and I keep trying to give it second chances; maybe my opinion of it will change later.

 

Figure 1. Do You Know Who You Are? 2019. DYKWYA.

 

I am not a big fan of Styles’ choice to use his head voice for the majority of the song. I personally like it when people use their chest voice more because I feel like the majority of the time, you can express more emotions when you have the power of your voice coming from your chest. Therefore, my favorite part of the song is when he does sing in his chest voice and when he sings “Shine, step into the light // Shine, so bright sometimes // Shine, I’m not ever going back” because, for some reason, I can just feel more emotion coming out of him when he belts this. It’s also too repetitive of a song for me; I wish there was more variety in his lyrics. His music video was just too weird for me too. Not something I would particularly want to watch again. As I said before, it’s just not my style.

I don’t mean to bash one of my favorite artists. It hurts me that I can actually write a whole blog about how I don’t like Harry Styles’ new song. I hope his alleged new album, which is rumored to be coming out soon, is something I enjoy and will have a variety of different genres peak through each song as he did in his first album. I will keep trying to listen and find more things I like about this song. I refuse to hate it. Keep an open mind!

 

Okay, bear with me. There’s a chance you might have seen this on Instagram or Tik Tok, but if you haven’t it’s actually pretty cool. I don’t usually take personality tests, besides the fun-filled not-so-serious food Buzzfeed quizzes. I don’t even know what this test is based on, but I feel like my results had some truth to them. I also don’t fully believe in the practices and all of the information the websites talk about, I just wanted to take it for fun. I was told by a random person on the internet to take an Enneagram test to find out what personality I am. The quiz is kind of lengthy but can be filled out pretty quickly if you think you know yourself, and some of the questions repeat itself.

Figure 1. Enneagram Results. 2019. Arya’s Fangirl Lexicon.

Now for the fun part. Once you know what number (or numbers like me because I didn’t want to take another test to narrow it down), you go to Apple Music or Spotify and look up the artist Sleeping At Last (or click this link) and your number. Find the album called Atlas: Enneagram and click on the song title that corresponds with your number.

This next step is important. Take a second to sit down, breathe, and relax your mind. These songs are more peaceful and can relax you if you’re feeling stressed, FYI. Anyways, clear your mind and just focus on the song when it starts to play. Listen to the beat, the instruments, the tone and stress of the singer’s voice, and especially, the lyrics. Listen to the lyrics and maybe close your eyes. Or listen to the lyrics and read along with them. You need to fully immerse yourself into the song.

Figure 2. Sleeping at Last. 2019. Poema Podcast.

Once you do this, the goal is that there is some emotion caused by the song. The lyrics were written to relate to the different personalities described at the end of the test. For example, if you were a Type 2, The Helper, the song constantly brings up the idea of selflessness. These songs are written from the artist’s point of view, but you should imagine it as if you are writing the lyrics. Are the words that the artist is saying related to something you think about? Is what they sing about something that you feel strongly about? Or are you learning something new about yourself and having a revelation that you are this personality type because these words just make you “feel some type of way?” I hope you feel something out of this if you do this. I was very happy that I could feel a relationship with the music and with the artist upon listening to him for the first time.