English Listening - Music
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Welcome to the Listening Time Podcast. Hey everybody, this is Connor and you're listening to episode 210 of the Listening Time Podcast. I hope your English learning is going great. I hope you're motivated to practice your listening with another episode. And I'm excited for this episode because I'm finally going to talk about music.

This is one of those topics that you would have expected me to talk about maybe as one of the first topics, perhaps, because it's such a basic, general topic that many people are interested in, and I've gotten requests over the years to talk about this topic, and I

I never have, and as I was preparing my notes for this episode...

I had to go back and check to be sure that I had never talked about music in general because it seemed a little bit strange to me that I have made it this far into my podcasting career and I've never talked about this topic before.

Which is, like I said, a topic that's very general and simple. And I think the reason for this is because I'm not a musical person, plain and simple, meaning this is the simple fact.

I'm just not a musical person, plain and simple. I don't really listen to music in my everyday life. I know for some of you that sounds outrageous. How is it possible that I don't really listen to music? I listen to hymns, like traditional church spiritual songs. I love hymns, but

In terms of other types of music, I don't really listen to music nowadays. However, in the past, I listened to a lot of music, like many people.

Again, I was never super musical in terms of being talented at playing instruments or even needing to be listening to music all the time like some people. But I have listened to different types of music during different life stages and

So I thought it would be cool to talk about the different music that I was into during different phases of my life, and I'll talk a little bit about my relationship with music nowadays. So I'm sure you'll all enjoy this topic and that it will be great practice for your listening, as always.

And of course, remember, you can check out my advanced podcast episodes, as well as my listening practice seminars and my pronunciation seminars, in which I help you pronounce words and phrases more like a native speaker.

You can check all of that out by clicking on the link down below and you'll see the different levels of my membership. And remember that when you sign up, you get all the past content for that level as well. So many, many different levels.

individual trainings and episodes and videos. So check that out and check out my US Conversations podcast in which I talk to different people from around the country about different topics. I've recorded some interesting episodes recently, so you'll want to check that out. That link is also down below. All right, let's get started. Are your ears ready?

You know what time it is... It's listening time!

Okay, let me talk about music and more specifically, let me talk about the different music that I listened to during different phases of my life. So what are my earliest memories of music? What type of music do I remember listening to as a young kid?

Well, simply put, I listened to the music that my parents listened to, particularly my mom. My mom always had music playing when she cooked or did other things. And so because I was home with her, I heard that music. I didn't choose this music. It's not like I chose the artist to listen to.

I simply listened to what my mom listened to, or sometimes my dad, perhaps, in his car. And so the first two people, the first two artists that come to mind are

James Taylor and Jack Johnson. I don't know if you're familiar with these musicians. They're pretty famous. James Taylor is someone who has been making music for a long, long time. So many people who are older might have grown up with his music and

Jack Johnson is more recent than James Taylor, but he's been around for quite a while as well. These were the two artists that my mom would listen to the most.

I remember hearing some of the greatest hits of James Taylor, and I remember one particular album from Jack Johnson that my mom would put on repeat. And like I said, I didn't choose these artists. However, because I grew up listening to them, I heard their music at a young age, and

I ended up listening to them later on in life. I actually started intentionally listening to their music on my own later. I think I even went to a Jack Johnson concert at one point. So my mom kind of gave me that interest in those artists. And a little bit after that,

I remember being influenced by my older sister who at that time, she was probably nine or ten years old.

And she loved listening to boy bands, you know, like Backstreet Boys and NSYNC. They were huge back then. And she liked listening to other pop stars like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, I think. I know I'm forgetting some famous ones, but I remember those in particular often.

I also remember Aaron Carter. I don't know if any of you remember him, but I think that he was just a few years older than me, perhaps. So he made music at a young age, and I remember listening to his music and listening to those other pop stars and boy bands because of my sister,

It wasn't my choice. My sister was into them, so I heard their music and their songs got stuck in my head. As we say, this means that you keep singing the song in your head. It won't leave. We say it gets stuck in your head. So as you can see, my mom and my sister and my dad to some extent,

really influenced my earliest experience with music. And then I started listening to rock music on my own when I was probably 10 or 11 years old, I would guess. I think that's when I really started listening

liking music just because I liked it and not because my mom or my dad or my sister made me listen to it.

So my first experience with buying CDs for my CD player and things like that

I think that was mostly with rock music. And I also liked classic rock as well, like older rock music because of my family's influence. That one was from my parents, my family. But I listened to more contemporary rock music just because I liked it. So that was kind of

my first experience choosing music on my own to listen to. And then a little later on in middle school and in high school,

I listened to a lot of pop music, a lot of radio songs. I remember that everyone would listen to the radio to hear new songs back then, and they would play the same songs over and over again. If there was a new hit song,

You could guarantee that you would hear that song at least once every hour, probably more. I don't remember, but I listened to a lot of pop music on the radio. And at that time, YouTube was not a popular platform yet. So we didn't just go on YouTube and search for songs and music videos on

That still wasn't big yet. And other music services were still kind of new and you had to pay for them. They weren't very popular yet. So really, the radio was the best way to listen to new music. So these were the songs that I listened to back then.

And I listened to rock still, but I also started listening to hip hop. This was mostly because of the people around me, my friends, my circle, they liked hip hop and that's what was playing on the radio on many stations all day. So

I listened to hip hop. I think, like I said, it started because of other people, but then I kind of got into it on my own. And I remember getting my own car when I was 16. After I got my license, my parents bought me a cheap used car that honestly didn't last me very long. It wasn't

the most reliable car, but I thought it was so cool and I was really thankful that my parents got it for me. And when I got that car, I remember that choosing the right music for my drives was extremely important to me.

I think this is the case for every teenager in the U.S. when they start driving. They want to have their particular music and sometimes they roll their windows down and have their music playing so other people can see them and hear their music.

You know how teenagers are. So I was a little more intentional about choosing which CDs to have for my car. I remember having certain rock CDs, certain hip hop rap CDs, and I was like,

It felt so cool to be driving my own car, listening to that music. And so just like many teenagers, many people at that age, music was a big thing for me. It was part of my image, my appearance. It was something that you could talk about with your other friends because music

A lot of people listened to the same songs back then because, like I said, we all listened to the radio. That's how we heard new songs. So we had a lot in common in terms of music that we would listen to. I think it was harder back then to discover a bunch of new artists and indie artists, like independent artists,

It was a little harder back then before YouTube and Spotify and these other platforms. So a lot of people listened to the same songs because of the radio. And so that was a big part of my life when I was a teenager. And I wanted to add this weird, interesting little fact about

Many of you know that I went to film school when I was 18, and when I was 17, I spent a ton of time watching movies thinking that I was preparing myself to become a good filmmaker, and I started getting really interested in movie soundtracks, the songs that play during movies, and I would associate soundtracks

songs with certain movie scenes. And I remember making playlists of movie songs that I really liked. And so that was kind of an interesting thing. I don't know why I was so into that, but I remember during my film days, I really liked associating songs with movies and I liked music

different movies soundtracks. I can remember a couple movies that had really good soundtracks that I bought the CDs for because back then you could buy the CD for a movie soundtrack. I'm sure you can still do something similar nowadays, but it's not in CD form like back then. And then as a young adult, I

After high school, during my college years, this is probably when I was the most thoughtful and intentional about listening to music. Before that, I was influenced a lot by my family, by my friends, just...

listening to what was on the radio, it wasn't quite as thoughtful and intentional as when I became a young adult and YouTube became really big and there were other ways to listen to artists and discover new music for free. And that's what I did.

I was more into music at that point in my life than in any other phase of my life, I think. I was constantly discovering new artists. This was a bigger part of my life. In terms of the genre of music that I was most into, I would say that it was country folk music, we might call it.

I wasn't a fan of country music that you hear on the radio. I never really liked that, but I always liked the more independent music

country artists that maybe didn't have the same style as the country you would hear on the radio, at least at that point. I don't know what it's like nowadays, but at that time, many people thought that the country music you would hear on the radio was

was kind of cheesy, we might say. Like, you can't really take it super seriously. It's kind of silly. I'm not saying that it's all like that. And if you're a country fan, I don't mean to insult you, but...

That's kind of how it felt to me when I listened to a lot of those songs. But when I discovered independent artists that had a more folk style to their country, I really liked it back then. I listened to a lot of relatively unknown musicians, mostly because I would find a song or two songs of theirs that I liked that

And I would listen to those songs over and over again. I would add them to my playlists.

I was never the type of person who would follow artists very closely and knew when their next album was coming out and I wanted to go see them in concert. I was never that type of person. I would usually choose the songs that I liked from that artist and listen to those songs along with other songs from other artists. I never really...

followed musicians closely. So I just listened to what sounded good to me. And at that time, it was country folk music.

for the most part. There might have been another genre or two, but it was largely that type of music. And when I hear that type of music nowadays, it makes me think back to that period of my life. Music can do this. When you hear certain songs, it takes you back to a certain period of your life and

You remember the highs and lows, the heartbreaks from that period. For me, that's how it is when I hear certain songs that I used to listen to as a young adult.

I get a little emotional or sentimental sometimes depending on the song, because I associate it with a certain feeling, a certain period of my life that might've been difficult that I was going through. And this is the case for many people, I think. And so, uh,

I have that feeling a lot when I hear this type of music nowadays because I don't really listen to it anymore much. We all belong outside. We're drawn to nature, whether it's the recorded sounds of the ocean we doze off to or the succulents that adorn our homes. Nature makes all of our lives, well, better. Despite all this, we often go about our busy lives removed from it.

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What do I listen to nowadays? Well, I mentioned at the very beginning that I love hymns, right? Traditional Christian music that you might hear played at different churches. So I love hymns, but I kind of classify those differently because they're spiritual songs, right? They're not the same as just music you might listen to on the radio or whatever.

But in terms of other music, once in a while, I'll put on music when I feel like listening to a particular song or a set of songs that I used to listen to in the past. And like I said, it's once in a while.

So I don't listen to music in my everyday life. For some of you, that seems preposterous. That seems crazy. How is it possible? I've known people that just can't not listen to music like they are always listening to music. Honestly, I can't.

stand this when there's music constantly playing all throughout the day in the background. It's just not something that I like. I actually enjoy periods of silence. I enjoy the sounds around me. Like right now, if I stop talking, I can hear the birds chirping outside my window. I can hear the wind if it's windy.

I like that. I don't need music playing in the background, but I know many people do this, and so I don't mean to offend you. I'm just talking about my personal preference. I don't want music playing in the background all day, except perhaps if it's classical instrumental type music that's very low.

I still probably don't want that all day, but I don't mind if that's on in the background. But I'm not someone who likes hearing...

the radio on constantly in the background. That's not me. And the thing with me is I don't multitask with music. I know many people do this. They put on music while they do something else. For me, I don't do this. I think one of the reasons why is because I

When I listen to music, I always do it with intention. Like if I'm going to listen to music, it's the only thing I'm going to do right now. I'm going to concentrate on

everything inside me to the listening of this music, right? That's not something that most people do. Most people don't mind multitasking, having music on while they do something else. This is just not something I do. I think when I listen to music, it's usually...

Pretty powerful. I don't put music on often, like I said, maybe once every couple months or something. So when I do listen to music, it's very intentional and I choose songs that are very meaningful to me, usually songs that remind me of my past, to be honest. It's kind of nostalgic for me.

I don't discover new artists or try to find new songs to listen to. I usually listen to songs that remind me of certain periods of my life, maybe even certain people, for example. There are certain songs that if I listen to them, I can only think about my mom, for example. And this is not something I want to do every day, necessarily.

because it adds more emotion to my day. And oftentimes I don't need more emotion. I need to be a little bit more concentrated and focused and not thinking about other things that take my mind somewhere else. So I do this once in a while. And when I do it, I usually just

think of the past. I think of people in my life. I think of time periods. I think of trials that I went through, meaning difficult times I went through. I think of happy times. This can also be a really happy experience for me. But I think you get my point.

Listening to music is a pretty powerful experience for me. It's pretty emotional when I do it because I do it with intention and I listen to songs from my past. I always associate music, I associate songs with something else. Just like I mentioned when I was in high school and I associated certain songs with certain movie scenes, that's kind of what I do now.

terms of just my life periods, my life stages, certain songs are associated with those periods. So I know this sounds a little funny. I know that this might sound a little weird to a lot of you probably, but this is my relationship with music nowadays. I like music like everyone else. I

when I'm listening to a good song or a good musician playing live for sure. But I don't really think that much about music in my daily life. It's not something that I incorporate into my routine. I don't put it on in the background. I just kind of get the urge to listen to music every day.

Every once in a while. And then I listen to certain songs and I reminisce. I get a little nostalgic and I don't do anything else. I just lie down.

listen to those songs. So I know I'm strange when it comes to this. You don't need to tell me that. I know. But this is probably the reason why I haven't really talked about music at all in any of my episodes. And now you know why I'm

I'm weird. I don't really listen to music. And when I do, every once in a while, it's with a very particular purpose. It's sometimes emotional. It's powerful. It's...

for reasons that, uh, might be strange for a lot of people, but that's kind of how my relationship with music is nowadays. So now, you know, now you've, uh, heard a little bit about my journey, uh,

with music throughout my life, different genres, different periods, and my strange relationship to music nowadays. So I hope you enjoyed this episode and I hope that it was good practice for your listening. Remember to check out my advanced episodes, my training, my pronunciation training, my listening training, my sound training. You can click on the link down below to check all

all of that out. I'm sure that that content will be helpful for you. And check out my US Conversations podcast.

in which I talk to different native speakers from around the country at normal speed, and I provide the transcript with the definitions of key words and phrases so you can follow along more easily. That link is also down below. And please give this podcast a five-star rating and write a review if you can. All right, thank you so much for listening to this episode, and I'll talk to you on the next episode of Listening Time.