Sophomore Gillian Flynn holds a guitar at Pepperdine University on Oct. 22. Photos by Melissa Houston
“Lighten up while you still can. Don’t even try to understand. Just find a place to make your stand and take it easy.”
These lines that famously appear in the chorus of “Take It Easy” by Eagles encapsulate the simplicity of life — a simplicity senior Mattie Davison said she strives to find in music.
“I really like old rock songs and stuff because of the messages they get across,” Davison said. “I feel like it’s more bigger picture about life, taking it easy, don’t let other people bring you down with their thoughts and opinions, that kind of stuff.”
Junior Lucca Jacome said he remembers when his music taste purely consisted of what he described as “sad rap.” With his music taste being heavily influenced by his friends in high school, he views his music taste as an evolution of itself.
“Sooner or later I just stopped listening to rap,” Jacome said. “I still like all that other music, but I only find myself listening to old rock or alternative rock or indie music.”
Davison said her music taste has been pretty solid from the start. Regardless of what age she looks back on, there was always one constant: rock music.
Parental Influence
Davison, Jacome and sophomore Bridget Porter all said their parents heavily influenced and shaped their music tastes into what they are today.
For Porter, this has even helped her discover new music from the same eras and with the same style that she enjoys. She said her mom once asked her, “You know The Smiths?” and then proceeded to recommend similar artists, which helped broaden her music taste even more.
But this has also helped deepen her relationship with her parents too, Porter said. Some of her fondest memories with her dad include long car rides where they listened to music for hours, realizing they shared the same music taste.
Jacome said with his mom growing up in the 1980s, he now sees the profound influence her music taste has had on his own.
“My mom was an 80s girl and when I was growing up she controlled the aux,” Jacome said. “She really put me on to her music taste.”
Jacome’s favorites from his mom’s recommendations include Foreigner, Duran Duran and Michael Jackson. However, he said his love of old music goes beyond just his parent’s influence.
Jacome said he often wonders what it would be like to live in the time his parents grew up in — a time he believes would be simpler.
“You could think of the time period your parents lived in, and just think about how lucky people had it back then,” Jacome said.
When Davison was growing up, she said she remembers her mom working and her brother being at sports constantly, leaving her and her dad at home together. The two didn’t enjoy silence, so no matter what they were doing, whether it was cooking, playing outside or going for a car ride, there was always music playing.
“Just singing with him, it was our way,” Davison said. “We didn’t really connect on a lot of things, but we both knew and loved these songs and would connect through them.”
Not only are these Davison’s first memories of music, but they are also the ones she’s creating now, she said.
“I feel the first song lyrics I really memorized were these old songs because my dad loved them so much,” Davison said. “As I’ve gotten older, I’m realizing what these lyrics are about and saying.”
If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It
Jacome said he firmly believes modern music has lost its taste in terms of meaning, composition and general popularity. He considers artists like The Smiths, Michael Jackson, Queen, Guns N’ Roses and others who made their claim to fame during the 70s and 80s.
“Back then, everyone was good,” Jacome said. “They were just all good in their own way.”
Even those not at the forefront of these popular bands or artists, such as Queen’s Brian May or Johnny Marr of The Smiths, proved to simply be excellent musicians — all of them, Jacome said. This is something he believes modern music lacks.
“New music has lost a little bit of its flavor,” Jacome said. “It’s just kind of less meaningful.”
Porter said she won tickets to attend BeachLife Festival, a music festival in Redondo Beach, Calif., earlier this year. One of the headliners for the event was the Beach Boys, and just one month later, Brian Wilson died.
“I was like, ‘Oh, man, like, that was my last chance,” Porter said.
Porter now carries this reminder every time she considers attending a concert, she said.
Porter emphasized the esteem that older artists hold in the concert world today. She said she remembers being unsure about going to a Creed concert once, before reminding herself that if she didn’t go this time, she may never get the chance again.
“Going to concerts — like Creed for example — they’re dying off, so you have less of a chance to go,” Porter said.
Davison said she has never broadened her music taste to include genres like modern rap because she doesn’t agree with the morals presented within the songs. She has always stuck with her tried and true genres and artists, because she knows she’ll be listening to something she agrees with in her heart.
Davison was reminded of this recently in one of her classes, she said.
“The other day in one of my classes, we had a question on the board that said ‘Who do you want to be down the line?’” Davison said. “Most of the people were writing about ‘I want to have this career,’ or ‘I want to have accomplished this.’ But I was more focusing on, ‘I want to be a better person,’ ‘I want to be calmer and kind to the people around me, a loving wife and mother and a person that people can depend on and trust.’”
Davison expresses and searches for her morals and core values through the music she listens to, she said.
“Those are more of the things that I value in life, is just having relationships around me and being a good person,” Davison said. “Rather than maybe more of the monetary things or materialistic things that I feel like songs nowadays will prioritize.”
Similarly, Porter said she views her gravitation toward old music as an outward expression of her indulgence in old things more broadly. She loves owning thrifted clothing and buying vinyl records, which both play a role in her day to day life.
“I guess I kind of have a taste for the older type of stuff, like secondhand type things,” Porter said. “I love going to record stores because it’s something to think about — like, ‘Oh, I wonder who owned this before me.’”
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Contact Amanda Monahan via email: amanda.monahan@pepperdine.edu
