MY KIND OF MUSIC

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On June 18, I wrote this piece about living and writing against time. I also shared my carefully curated playlist and said that I would share an album daily. I did the playlist on Spotify, and I have created one on YouTube so that more people can enjoy it, especially because the principalities of Nigeria’s system make it impossible to pay for “Naira-priced” Spotify subscriptions with Naira debit or credit cards. For the albums, I tried to get a YouTube list, but it is a lot of work, so we’ll have to make do with Spotify.

This cathartic exercise got me thinking about my kind of music. I have loved music since I can remember. While I got my love for books from my father, I got the love for music from my mother. She often played music on the cassette player in the car, and I enjoyed reading the album leaflets, learning the songs, and singing along. We also had Kids Praise with Psalty and Donut Man as our regular entertainment, not just at home but in neighbours’ and friends’ houses. Just like that, music became a critical part of my spiritual, social, and psychological formation. Dear parent reading this, could you consider playing music in the car and singing along with your children? Could you consider Christian music videos in place of or along with cartoons? If you start early, maybe they will love it and it will draw them to God?

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My taste in music is eclectic. I love music across different genres. I haven’t studied music yet, so I don’t know music or the technicalities of music. But I love lyrics, rhythms, melodies, and harmonies. They do something for the soul that nothing else can. Music can be cathartic, soothing, evocative, provocative, motivating, cleansing, or even redemptive. Music is like fire; depending on who wields it, it can be good or harmful. For this reason, even though I am open to engaging and enjoying a variety of music, Christian and non-Christian, I run away from any with anti-Christian lyrics.

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We need devices to listen to music with, and music players have evolved in my 35 years. I remember the record player or gramophone, and I think there were some Bob Marley records in the house when I was teeny tiny. It still surprises me that we transitioned from records to cassettes before we got to CDs. CDs should have been the common-sense transition, in my opinion. I grew up with the cassettes, but I am glad we have moved on from those things, even though I still have my bags of cassettes somewhere (unless my mother or sister have finally thrown them away). 

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Just thinking through the evolution brings interesting memories like copying songs from friends’ songbooks, those songbooks hawked in traffic and at motor parks. I remember recording songs on the radio with cassette players. Brenda and I were skilled at that. We knew the playlists of our favourite radio presenters and noted the songs we wanted to record. Somehow, we knew just when to press the red button on the radio to record our songs, so we could listen to them whenever we wanted. But they were stressful too. Why did they have to have sides A and B? Sometimes, we had to use our pens or pencils to rewind manually, and those brown films inside them would cut sometimes, and we would have to tape them. If there was a track you didn’t like, you would have to manually fast-forward, and if you wanted to listen to a song repeatedly like we often needed to when we wanted to learn the lyrics of songs that didn’t come with their songbooks, you would have to manually rewind.

Those blessed rechargeable lanterns with radio players must rank high among inventions of the 20^th century. Once, my dad bought a top-quality and expensive rechargeable lamp for me to take to school, but it did not have any FM radio or cassette player. What was I supposed to do with it? I had to look for an excuse to buy another one, talking about backup, in case we did not have light for an extended period. I had a Walkman too, for travelling, and studying in the library.

Then, CDs and DVD players came, and even though we could not use them to record songs on the radio, it was easier to find CD compilations of different genres of music. Ada gave me my first Discman. No need to rewind or forward. Just skip! It was exciting. In 2007, my parents bought my first laptop. By then, we could rip songs from CDs to our computers or copy with our flash drives from friends’ computers. My Windows Media Player library was enviable (still is 😊). There were those “illegal” sites we could download songs from too. Then Apple took it a notch higher, setting the stage for the likes of Spotify and Boomplay to rescue some of us from sinning and give the creators of the music we love to enjoy the chance to earn some coins. I wonder though: What does the future hold for music players? What kind of invention will come again to disrupt the music space?

Music was a critical part of my spiritual formation, and for most of that, I have Integrity Music, Maranatha! Music and Acappella to thank because they sang the Holy Scriptures. It is still a delight to read the Bible and recognise the verses because of the similarities with a song I love. It is redemptive to call these songs or verses to mind when my heart is overwhelmed, to pray these songs when I have run out of what to say. Therefore, when I was thinking of my 35^th birthday, I thought about some of the songs that God has used to save me and keep me sane, songs that express my gratitude to and adoration for God in words that I would not have conceived myself, and albums that I have enjoyed over the years. I created the Turning 35 Playlist on Spotify and YouTube. I also selected 35 albums for the 35 days before the birthday.

The songs and albums were curated with love and excitement. When I decided to extend the playlist to my loved ones, I was afraid because 35 is such a small number of songs. I already couldn’t have all my favourite praise and worship songs and albums, and I would have to let go of some more? But love has been part of my journey with music. Sharing music and singing along with loved ones is a favourite pastime. Thankfully, some of them sent the songs I wanted, and the others enriched my range with songs that I wasn’t thinking of, and I have come to love. I would not have this list any other way.

·       When one of my senior friends sent the hymn, “Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven,” the first song on the playlist, as his contribution to my playlist, I had goosebumps. On January 1, this year, I woke up with that hymn in my head. It was very clear and somehow, I knew all the lines, even though I didn’t really know them. It was a message of hope for the new year because 2021 had been a very rough one. I had forgotten about January 1, and God used his selection to remind me.

·     The fourth song on the list seemed out of place to me when one of my aunties sent it, but I loved that song when I first heard it through her in the early 2000s. She spoke to me about it, and I bought the cassette and loved every track on it. And this song is a reminder of that time in my life when I didn’t see any obstacles, just a clear highway to heaven.

·       On January 6, I woke up at 2 AM, and the song in my head was “Sing His Praise Again”, the sixth song on the list. I was very anxious that season and that song calmed my soul.

·         I listened to Panam Percy Paul in the 90s. We sang song 19 on the list, “Come Let’s Praise the Lord”, a lot during family devotion. One time he came to Warri, but I cannot recall if we attended live. Then the Assembly of Unibadan Christian Students’ Fellowship (AUCSF) invited him, and it was such a glorious time that I cannot forget.

·       “Gratitude”, the 28^th song, sounds so much like something the person who sent it would write and sing. The lyrics also remind me of a favourite from Donut Man (Rob Evans) “I’ll Give My Heart”.

·         I heard “Stand” by Bez Idakula in November 2021, when I was falling apart, and it was just the song I needed.  I wish the song would get millions of plays. It is the 34^th on the playlist. Listen to it. It’s on YouTube too.

·     Since my 15^th birthday in 2002, I start every birthday morning singing Great is Thy Faithfulness and You Are So Faithful. I cannot remember the reason for this tradition, but it is still relevant. Every birthday, I am reminded of God’s faithfulness to me. It is only fitting that it’s the last song on the list.

I could tell stories about all the other 28 songs, but I don’t want this to be a very long piece, so I picked seven of them because seven multiplied by five gives thirty-five. (Yes, I love to play with numbers. I find prime numbers fascinating, and I play with them on my gift list too. Ones, fives, and sevens, all divisors of 35. You’ll count 35 books of different kinds, an additional 5 books about writing and reading, seven jewellery sets, and only one odd 2 just because I wanted to make the even number odd.)

I am creating another playlist of 35 praise and worship songs. If I get more than 35 songs from you though, I could create another list of 35, and another, if need be. After all, there is no limit to the number of 35-songs playlists I can create!

If you haven't listened to the playlist yet though, what are you waiting for? Really?!