What is your favorite genre of music?

Daily writing prompt #12

I don’t like these kinds of questions. The instant anybody asks me to name my top three albums, or favourite songs, I feel the pressure to narrow things down and how could I possibly restrict myself and what about all those I will have to leave out? 

If I had to, I would have to say soul music. Old school soul. Motown. Atlantic. Stax. The labels alone have the power to quicken my pulse. I was born in 1960, so I was growing up with this music exploding all around me. All over the radio, spreading its glorious finger-clicking goodness.

‘Songs In The Key Of Life’ was the first album I ever chose for myself. I was sixteen, freshly working, finally earning my own money — and that’s what I spent it on. Expensive at the time, but worth every penny. But I had been obsessed with The Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, since I knew what music was.

The thing is, it is hard to stick to one genre of music. There is good to be found everywhere. I like Chopin and Yo-Yo Ma, have a little thing about Dolly Parton, have favourite Taylor Swift songs and can sing along to One Direction songs.

I know every word of the Fleetwood Mac album Rumours but don’t really go for that AOR stuff normally. I adore Coldplay, U2 and REM. I think Adele, Barbara, Aretha, and Dusty have sublime voices.

I have an hour-long playlist of favourite club tracks. I have even danced to some of them in public, while sober. It was a long time ago and I promise not to attempt it now.

I think Prince, George & Stevie are musical gods; they wrote, produced and performed. They are a triple threat of musical genius and perfection. 

I like the way music is one of those things that can connect people, despite age gaps or different cultures; you can usually find common ground in music. You can usually find something everyone in the car can agree on listening to. 

I like curating a playlist with other people; you discover music you have never heard of and it keeps your ears fresh and tuned into current things. There are no borders to music. The universal language and maybe the one thing we can all agree on.

I like living in these times where my music and playlists can be saved in the cloud, and if my house were to burn to the ground, I would still have my music collection. There was a time I could feel slight panic at the idea of picking which albums I would try and grab before leaving the house.

I always find it weird that I grew up with music. I know we all do, but I actually grew up as music did. At the point where I was born, it was four years after Heartbreak Hotel was released. There was very little back catalogue; it was all being written around me as I grew up. 

Somebody born now has a vast catalogue of music to access and play at will. Log into Spotify, and it is all there for free. I have spent a fortune on various formats of music in my lifetime. Vinyl singles, albums, cassettes, Cd’s, iTunes, and finally streaming. At one point in my life, I liked music so much that I brought a whole record shop. 

My computer has 18.6k tracks of music. I am not sure how that compares to others. It sounds like more than reasonable but less than an obsession. The point is, they are not all one genre of music. There is stuff from everywhere.

Music as the soundtrack to your life, people you have loved, people you remember, people you have danced with, people who have made you laugh, people you have made music with, sang with.

People. My favourite genre of music is people. That’s my answer!