“What kind of music do you listen to, Emmett?” I paused and realized I didn’t really listen to music of my own free will. I blurted out something like “The Minecraft album”, which I’d only heard while playing the game. While I now love C418’s Volume Alpha and Volume Beta, I had no connection to any form of music that I do now.

Music plays a critical role in my life now, and I’ve learned a lot just by listening. But when I started at Seattle Prep, I wouldn’t have been able to say that.

I used to play piano, but after years of apathy and a busy schedule, I stopped around sophomore year. Ironically, that’s when I really started taking my listening seriously.

TikTok was an early source of musical knowledge, introducing me to artists like MF DOOM, Childish Gambino, and Thundercat. Looking at my playlist from freshman to sophomore year, most songs are from those artists, as well as Kanye West, Joey Bada$$, Baby Keem, or TikTok edit songs. That 19-hour playlist lasted me a while, but I took a drastic turn mid-sophomore year.

This is when I started taking my dad’s recommendations, focusing on artists like Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Steely Dan, and Pink Floyd. Around this time, I also started listening to one of my favorite artists ever, The Smashing Pumpkins. A song I hold closely is “Drown”, which resonates with me as a soon-to-be graduate. The first few lines go “No matter where you are/I can still hear you when you drown.” Billy Corgan is saying that no matter how far removed someone is, he will always hear when they’re in trouble. I feel the same as I move on to college – it wouldn’t be right to simply forget the people I’ve spent the last four years building relationships with.

At the end of sophomore year, I re-explored hip hop again after listening to Barry Bonds by Kanye West – oddly specific, but true.

After two years of taking recommendations from TikTok, my parents, or friends, I began exploring more for myself. I challenged myself to listen to one album a day, as consistently as possible. On and off, I’ve now listened to 147, with genres spanning from rock, jazz, hip hop, EDM, metal, funk, reggae, and indie. A recent listen was titled “the book about my idle plot on a vague anxiety” by toe, a Japanese math-rock quartet. The album is entirely instrumental, but the rhythmic guitars and drums are absolutely amazing.

I pride myself on this listening diversity because I learn so much from what I hear. One of my favorite hip hop groups, Makiza from Chile, formed in 1997 and criticized the military dictatorship of the time. I drew inspiration from them for my AP art portfolio, which investigated where superheroes are needed in our society today.

In fact, music hasn’t only shaped my art – it’s shaped how I see my own growth. For a variety of reasons, I’ve been looking back through my camera roll from the last few years. Regattas with teammates, bad haircuts, old friends, art projects, dances, and graduations. But looking back at my musical journey tells me something a photo can’t. It shows how I’ve grown on the inside as a student, a son, a friend, a teammate, a coworker, and an artist.

So, my senior word of advice: don’t be afraid to use music as a way to learn more about the world, yourself, and others.