How I Turned My “Not A Audio Person” Boyfriend Into A Rock Audio Admirer

This posting is penned by a college student writer from the Her Campus at UCLA chapter.

When I first started out chatting to my boyfriend, he virtually instructed me, “I’m not a songs person.” I thought that was about the silliest factor somebody could say for the reason that how can you not be a audio particular person? Does that indicate you really do not like music? Result in that is significantly incomprehensible to me. Until finally I met him, I imagined that was a little something that people today reported to seem quirky or aloof. Not for my boyfriend. It’s not that he did not like music. He just didn’t know something about it. I never assume he understood who Elton John was. Or Fleetwood Mac. Or (heartbreakingly) Jim Morrison. He questioned me who that “creepy male on my wall” was. It was a poster of David Bowie. He equally questioned my poster of The Smiths. 

I, on the other hand, bear in mind telling my fellow to start with-graders on the playground that my favourite song was “About A Girl” by Nirvana (I been given lots of looks of confusion). Like lots of modern rock new music enthusiasts, I obtained a nutritious audio training from my Gen X, live performance enthusiast moms and dads. In other words, I was indoctrinated from a youthful age. 

Arctic Monkeys grew to become my most loved band in sixth grade just after I listened to Favorite Worst Nightmare, and my appreciate for them became (from my will) fairly of a character trait. My buddies and coworkers practically change to me any time Arcitc Monkeys or Alex Turner are stated. I manufactured two (I guarantee, that is it) Alex Turner edits for pleasurable on my nineteenth birthday, and both of those went viral on YouTube. And, yes, I designed my boyfriend enjoy them. In advance of we started out courting. 

Soon after I recovered from the whole shock that he did not know just about anything about any of my preferred artists, I understood that the problem was form of intended to be. I acquired to relive the pleasure of listening to my favourite tunes for the initial time by the perspective of a person I liked. I obtained to share one thing that I beloved with him. And that was pretty amazing. 

I begun effortless, with modern-day rock artists like (you guessed it!) Arctic Monkeys. We slowly listened to their albums in get, starting with Regardless of what Folks Say I, Am That’s What I’m Not. I do have a Spotify playlist of each song Alex Turner ever produced or collaborated on (in chronological purchase), but I thought that was a tiny excessive. I can proudly say that my boyfriend now knows all the lyrics to “Arabella” (amid a several other folks), specifically enjoys “Fake Tales of San Francisco,” and can participate in the riff in “Do I Wanna Know” on guitar. Neither of us plays guitar, so it was super exciting to master it together. Whilst I did have a slight gain at initially simply because I participate in piano and cello, he obtained really into it and can admittedly play superior than me now. Drawing inspiration from a great number of traditional rock artists, from Lou Reed to David Bowie to Black Sabbath and The Beatles, Arctic Monkeys were being an excellent introduction to rock tunes.“That rock and roll, eh? That rock and roll, it just won’t go away…” 

From there, I tried a “song a day” strategy with vintage rock. We listened to Fleetwood Mac, The Beatles, The Doors, The Smiths — the checklist goes on. I even received him to listen to David Bowie immediately after we viewed an episode of Rick and Morty, and I pointed out that “Moonmen” was inspired by “Starman.” Spoiler: he loved it. He now asks me to set on Bowie. 

For our 6-month anniversary, I persuaded him to go to his first concert with me, which proved to be really a critical turning position in my boyfriend’s new music journey, but not in the way I would’ve envisioned. The live performance was an Inhaler live performance, 1 of my present preferred rock bands. Conveniently, the direct singer is Bono’s son, so I was also able to introduce him to U2 as “concert prep.” At the concert, we started off chatting with the few standing up coming to us, and they informed him he “looked like he listened to Soundgarden.” I imagined that was hilariously specific. It was also at that second that I realized I experienced reworked my genius, Pc Science Engineering Microsoft Intern boyfriend into a grungy Kurt Cobain lookalike. His wavy, dirty blonde hair was developed out due to the fact he knew I favored it lengthy, and he was sporting a muted blue and black flannel with Vans. Why wouldn’t they feel he listened to Soundgarden? 

However he relished the live performance itself (regardless of complaining about acquiring to stand far too extended and not becoming able to listen to immediately after), that couple’s comment ended up remaining the most pivotal second of the encounter. Quickly immediately after, my boyfriend found out his really like for grunge. He begun with Soundgarden, listening to Superunknown straight via several situations ahead of discovering Nirvana, which became his amount a single Spotify artist this year. I think he landed in their top 3% of listeners. Quite the feat. Now he could possibly know extra about the band than I do, after watching countless interviews and concert recordings and listening to their discography on a loop. I however recall how stoked I was when he explained to me he listened to MTV Unplugged in New York, my initially Nirvana album on vinyl, all on his possess. 

In excess of a 12 months afterwards, my boyfriend is now quite the “music human being.” He even astonished me with a competition (one thing he swore he would hardly ever do when we very first begun dating) for my birthday to see a single of my most loved artists, Father John Misty, stay. The most attention-grabbing recent improvement in his audio journey was his discovery of The Get rid of soon after listening to “Boys Really do not Cry.” I acquired tremendous fired up over that a single, as The Remedy was a staple through my freshman calendar year of higher school sad woman section. 

I know the title of this report suggests I “turned” my boyfriend into a rock enthusiast. But, in the conclusion, I just released him to rock new music. He ultimately observed the songs that resonated with him, and I am so grateful I received to take pleasure in that journey with him.