Family and a Touch of Music

Quick little disclaimer before getting into the blog: 

I'm not attacking either of my parents, more specifically my mother, in this blog, so please don't think that.

Music is a big part of my life, some of you may know from my last blog or some of my other blogs. If not, welcome, tl;dr for my previous blogs, music is huge and listening to it is usually a daily ritual for me. Of course, for those who have seen my previous blogs, I'm sure you get the general gist of my taste in music. It's pretty expansive, give or take, since I listen to just about anything and everything to an extent. But I don't get this sort of music taste from nowhere and no, it wasn't some weird self-discovery that happened because I left the house. In fact, my diverse taste in music comes from both of my parents and my love for it, my father.

So first, let me give a "quick" biography, starting with my mother, and no, I'm not giving names, but you will get to see faces! Back to the topic at hand though, my mother! She was born in Beaufort, South Carolina to a military family, of which moved to Ohio shortly after. Eventually my mother moved back down to Beaufort, where she, along with the rest of my immediate family, resides. My mother, from what little she'd actually answered, listened to a lot of swing and oldies when she was younger, the swing being from my grandmother and the oldies from my grandfather. However, she personally was more into rock with her favorites being Bryan Adams and Bon Jovi. Over time, friends had introduced her to country and hip-hop and eventually reggae when she met my father. Although, her favorite kind of music nowadays tends to be the more dancey stuff. The reason this is also has to do with her view on music as a whole, which is that music is a means to relax and a way to get into, and move, your body.

Here are a few songs of her liking for those who are curious!

Similarly to my mom, my dad believes that music is a way to feel, be it may the body or soul. However, differently, my father also believes that music is not just a way to be yourself, but a way to be with the community, bringing people together. My father grew up in Talo'fo'fo, Guam, a small island near the Philippines and a territory of the US. He then moved here to the States sometime later and remained here after meeting my mom. As you could imagine, being across the world definitely makes a difference when it comes to culture and that also applies to music. While the radio between my mother and father were the same, the more localized music was vastly different. Where in Beaufort, there's Gullah, in Guam, there's Chamorro. Similarly, but also not, Chamorro music, traditionally, is more about the people and their lives. There isn't any one particular instrument used, however something I'd like to share, and something y'all will get to see, is that they use conches as horns. Now, my father didn't exactly have a favorite song or dance in regard to his native culture, however, he did favor the things around those songs and dances. He very distinctly spoke of how his friends and family used to gather around a bonfire with a few playing various different instruments, most notably a guitar and harmonica, and sing all sorts of different songs, which was more like karaoke than say a cover.

Here's something personal, but also related, a video from my fifth birthday, as well as my first time visiting Guam! For context, this is Chamorro fiesta.

As I'm sure you can tell, the music between my parents is just about as vast as the distance of their birth places and as a result, when they had me, I had just as vast of a range in music, some of which grew their own tastes as well. But those are stories for another time.