Lilypie

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

A Room-Ful Of Music

I do not come from a musical family. I got sent to music classes at a young age, like a lot of others, but my parents do not really listen to music. They do not believe in buying cassette tapes or CDs, and only listen to music in the car. Even then, the music they listen to are Chinese oldies. So I was not exposed to English pop until secondary school age, when my classmates were gushing over New Kids On The Block, and the stupid me was asking in wide-eyed wonder, “What is NKOTB?” to the chagrin of my classmates.

Then I got exposed to Michael Jackson, Tommy Page, ABBA and various other pop artistes. After that, my musical tastes started getting more and more wide-ranged, even though I started having my own favourite kinds of musical genres. I used to listen to Perfect Ten 98.7, but now I listen mainly to Gold 90.5 (oldies – songs from the 80s and earlier), Class 95 (anything from ten years ago to about two years back, nostalgic songs) and Power 98 (catchier songs, hip hop, anything from the eighties), with the occasional Symphony 92.4.

Because I listen to primarily English songs now judging from the kinds of CDs I have, many are surprised I can belt out Mandarin tunes during karaoke sessions, because, well, I do not look like the type that can even speak Mandarin. I do have my own favourite Mando pop singers and songs too. Recently, I started listening to music again in my room. As I said, my parents do not buy cassette tapes, so we never listened to songs at home. We did not even have a radio or tape player! My parents viewed these as “unnecessary expenses”.

Thus when I finally got the Walkman I badgered for, I plugged in the earphones and listened to Perfect Ten 98.7 (latest hits) all day long. I listened while I was studying, while I was reading, while I was in the car when my parents were driving. My mum used to frown on me from listening to music, but that was my only source of entertainment since my mum banned me from watching television during school days, and she banned me from reading books when I was studying. I could not even go out with my friends or on my own! Without music, I would have been bored to death.

As the years went by, one guy I dated gave me a CD player. I could then buy CDs and tuned in to the radio at the same time. But it broke down after a year or so, so I got rid of it since it was too bulky for my liking anyway. Then later, another guy gave me a Phillips 3-in-1 clock-radio-CD player, with a unique alarm. The alarm can be set to a normal alarm, radio alarm or CD alarm, so I can wake up in the morning to my favourite tunes or favourite deejay.

I really like this gadget! It is small and handy too! My room started being flooded with music whenever I was around. Then work and other activities took over and I did not use that for more than a year. For some reason, I started preferring peace and quiet, would just like to sleep whenever I am in my room.

Until recently. I started listening to music again, started playing music in my room again. Why? No idea. I just find music soothing. I see the gadget sitting on my bedside dresser, and thought it would be a pity not to use it. Plus I have so many CDs and I do wish to listen to them all over again. Hence, I started my usual routine of bedtime music again.

It used to be a few things I must do at night – pray, read, listen to music, talk or message my loved one. Now the last one is off the routine, and for a long time, the rest were also off the routine. Thus I thought it would be good to get into the grind and start living again, after losing my direction for quite a period. There will definitely be more rooms full of music in the future!

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