In my junior year of high school, I enrolled in a honors creative writing course called ‘Search for Self.’ The class helped students discover personal identity, meaning and purpose through a series of creative writing prompts and literature. A few solid reads that I recall from this class include A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Pearl. My favorite assignment that came out of this class was one called ‘Soundtrack of My Life.’ Each student was asked to curate a music album composed of 10 select songs and write a paragraph for each song about its context to your life. It was an assignment that really complemented my “ikigai” and I’ve made a conscious effort to continue doing this assignment periodically over the years. Music is one of the few constants in my life and best illustrates my mental health and headspace in that time and moment. After nearly a decade, it is refreshing to go back and review the different genres of songs I was feeling during that time in my life, as well as which songs have truly stayed with me and still remain in my ‘top 10.’
“Together Again” by Janet Jackson
It’s been ages since I last listened to or even heard a Janet Jackson song being played but this is one of those classic songs that you get hyped up when it randomly pops up. This song reappeared during lockdown when I was at my parent’s home in New Jersey when one of my friends had the initiative to get all of our friends from all over the world to participate in a full fledged lip dub. It was fun to be a part of this project that captured us all in our habitat during an unusual time, while promoting an optimistic message that we will eventually be together again post-COVID.
“Grind and Hustle” by DROELOE
Prior to jumping on my flight to Taiwan, I was contemplating on taking language courses in Taiwan and had been doing research by watching a bunch of Youtube videos on peoples experiences at the various programs offered. I came across a Youtuber that documented his experience taking a gap year after graduating from college. From his videos, it seemed a large portion of that year was spent in Taiwan where he took Mandarin classes at Shida for several months. He used this song in one of his vlogs and really enjoyed it as it was a very upbeat, motivational song.
“刻在我心底的名字” by Crowd Lu
Upon completing my 15-day hotel quarantine, I reacquainting myself with things that I haven’t been able to partake in during shelter in place. At the time, I remembered feeling oddly naughty doing something as mundane as watching a movie at a theatre, knowing full well that my friends back in the States were stuck in their homes. This song blew up last year after being the feature song of a popular movie called, “Your Name Engraved Herein” that got five Golden Horse Award nominations. This song definitely helped round out the entire mood and feeling of the movie which was sentimental, romantic, and emotionally frustrating at the same time.
I generally don’t choose Taiwanese films to watch by choice as from the movies I’ve watched before, the acting usually leaves much to be desired but I was pleasantly impressed with this film. They had casted two relatively fresh leads that had great on camera chemistry and the acting felt natural and authentic to me. It was funny because after this movie and song blew up, I would constantly hear this song being played in retail stores, cafes and performances by outdoor street performers where it got almost borderline annoying.
“怪天氣” by YELLOW, 9m88
One of the things that I missed during lockdown was taking my biweekly dance classes at Alvin Ailey in New York City. When I got to Taiwan, I was looking into dance studios in my neighborhood and came across one called “Jimmy Dance Studio” through Youtube. I was sold after watching this dance video from one of their hip hip instructors that used this song in their choreography. I am a huge fan of this sort of style which is more smooth, groovy, and jazzy. In the States, I have found it really difficult to find instructors who have this style so I was pleasantly surprised to come across this on their channel. This led me to taking a few one-off classes before purchasing a class package.
“Butter” by HowZ
Upon arrival, it didn’t take long before my Spotify playlist inevitably began populating with Taiwanese songs. Discovered through the radio feature on Spotify, ”Butter” by HowZ was one of the first few songs that I saved from a more local artist. I can’t say that the lyrics are particularly well written but the song is smooth and just oozing with… dare I say, butter? When I attended my first live music concert in Yuanshan, HowZ coincidentally happened to be one of the guest performers and that’s when I was able to officially put a face to the name.
“Joy” by FKJ
I love all of FKJ songs because they expertly integrate jazz, groove and hip hop into their songs and it especially sounds amazing in a concert setting. I remember after taking the workshop of one of my hip hop instructors from Jimmy Dance Studio, he extended a public invitation to his students to come attend a performance in Yuanshan that he would be DJ’ing at. I was probably the only one who attended from that group he extended an invitation to but I thoroughly enjoyed it as it had a very “underground” vibe to it. This was the first concert I attended by myself and “Joy” was one of the first few songs that was played to pre-hype the crowd before the performers came on stage.
“I think too much” by Christian French
At Ultra (a music festival that happened in Taiwan last year), I met these two English teachers and for one reason or another happened to be discussing a lack of authentic Mexican food in Taiwan. They recommended a decent place called ‘Twinkeyz Tacos’ that was one of the best that they’ve found in Taiwan. I ended up going the next day and happened to take a few live photos of both the food and interior design. Later in the day, I was reviewing photos and because the photos were live photos I caught of snippet of this song being played in the background. I spent an embarrassingly long time with the help of my awesome roommate from New York dissecting the lyrics to this song. I related to this song because in certain aspects of my life, I know that I can be a huge over-thinker which is a trait that I believe I’ve acquired from my mom. Over the years, I have conditioned myself to think less in the greater aspect of things because they don’t actually matter, but I related to this song because there was a lot going on in my mind at the time that provided a lot of unnecessary stress in my life.
“Never change” by enjoihu
I first heard of this 18-year old independent musician when first attending one of my favorites bars in Taipei called “Draftland.” That time we went there was some sort of ongoing collaboration featuring both a local graphic artist and musician (in this case, enjoihu). I am a huge advocate of these sort of community-oriented events as they are engaging and adds a level of change to a given space which promotes retention. I remember specifically taking note of enjoihu’s playlist in the second room on the first floor and thought his mix completed the concept of that space very well and gave a rather nice ambient mood. I have since followed him on Soundcloud and I’d say his music is such a mood to me as his work is inspired by the lofi genre, and is my favorite combination of lofi, classical notes, rap and old school hip hop. In my mind, he is considered to be the Tennyson of Taiwan.
“睡不著” by 壞特 ?te
This artist was one that also gained a lot of recognition from a local perspective last year and I would commonly hear her songs more often being played at local coffee shops as her style is more mellow, artistic and more suited for those sorts of chillax environments. I applaud her for being able to create such a distinct brand for herself as she never shows her face as its oftentimes hidden by an oversized sunhat. My friend once went to a dinner and told me that some relatively well known female artist with a big hat that covered her entire face was performing and I immediately knew it was her. Initially I thought it was really just her aesthetic but I eventually found out that her day time occupation is a doctor the reason why she dresses like that is because she has to conceal her identity.
“別問很可怕” by J.Sheon
This is one of my favorite songs and proud to say that I can read almost 90% of the lyrics in Chinese for this song even though I still butcher it a bit during KTV. I don’t know too much about his background but I believe J.Sheon is a ABC and has since moved to Taiwan. This was also one of the first few local songs that popped up in my music playlist and I really enjoyed it as it was melodic, easy to ingest and was very smooth. Fun fact, I heard he owns or is an investor at the bar Vine Bar in 東區
