While growing up in a mostly white community, in a small farming town, as a kid, I grew up listening to Backstreet Boys, Insync, and Spice Girls, as well as Shania Twain, and Dixie Chicks. Learning about heartbreak, love, and how it felt good to be a woman. Then I moved to a more diverse community, and I had a bit of a culture shock. I discovered Eminem, 2pac, and Lil Bow Wow.
I would be in the car with my mom at one moment, jamming out to “It’s My Life” by Bon Jovi, and the next moment rapping with Eminem. Because my mom grew up in the 70s, I got to experience a wide variety of music from country to pop to R&B or Rap. I loved it and felt connected in many ways to those genres because when I was little, it was just boy bands and girl groups.
As I got older and started to get into gaming and Japanese anime, I started to enjoy anime and game OSTs. Even when most gaming music didn’t have words, I felt at peace. And even though I didn’t speak Japanese, I fell in love with various anime music from classics like Inuyasha, Full Metal Alchemist, and Naruto, and those shaped most of my junior high and high school music tastes.
As an adult, I’ve expanded my music even more, but I always go back to old songs that I’ve always loved. It’s like it comforts me and makes me feel cozy, safe, and like a warm hug. I have a few I listen to just for times where my life gets better or worse, like listening to “arms of an angel” after a loss of a pet, or “when I’m gone” when I am missing someone.
90s music shaped my childhood, and I will always love it, and it definitely made me the person I am today. I wouldn’t even be the same person if I didn’t have some of these songs and bands. The 90s was a great era to be alive.
