Hey everybody! It is the fourth and final week of our September coffee shop music theme. It is also nearing the end of my first full month as a blogger! I have really enjoyed learning about the blogosphere through writing and reading various blogs. This is such a great community here on WordPress; I love how you can literally read and write about anything under the sun! I have also rediscovered my love of writing through this process, and I can’t wait to refine my style and learn even more about blogging in the coming months!
For this blog post, I just casually want to chat and share some of my personal experiences and thoughts from the past month. I’d also love to get some input from you all about my first month of blogging. How am I doing? Do you all like the format of these posts? Am I missing something? Is there something else you’d like to see on the main blog page? Please feel free to give me some criticism!
LIFE UPDATE
This month has been quite hectic for me personally. I’ve been in the process of job hunting, and I tell you what, IT IS STRESSFUL. I have been searching for church music directing positions in my area for a while, and I am realizing just how hard it is for people right out of college to find work in their field of study. I finally got accepted to do an audition at a church close to Nashville, TN, and I traveled there a few days ago to visit and interview with them. I conducted their choir and met a lot of nice people; I believe it went well! I’ll keep you all updated on the job hunt, and for anyone in the same boat as I am, DON’T GIVE UP!!! The right opportunity will come along for you…keep applying (even if it gets tedious) and keep trying (even if you get turned down). Have faith that everything will work out in the end; I surely have to keep reminding myself this!
STORY TIME
As you can probably tell by my blog posts this month, I LOVE COFFEE!!! Coffee has gotten me through music school, provided me with a paycheck last year, and has given me a small caffeine addiction that I am oddly enough okay with. Working as a barista helped me to appreciate coffee, where it comes from, and all of the work it takes to get from bean to mug. Coffee has given us such a fascinating and fun culture too; coffee shops provide a great venue for creativity and a chill atmosphere to relax and enjoy life. Whenever I visit a new place, one of the first things I do is scout out the local coffee shops. I think local coffee speaks for the location itself! Everyone should go and support their local coffee shops. Who knows? You might just find a new, cool place to hang out (or better yet, a new favorite beverage)! Go feed your own coffee addiction!
WHAT HAVE I BEEN LISTENING TO THIS MONTH???
For those that ask me, “What is your favorite song”, I can never give them a direct answer. My taste in music changes so much and there is so much great music out there, so I can never pick a “favorite song”. Listening to new music is also a fun hobby of mine, I highly recommend it! I will, however, come across songs that leave an immediate impression on me. I call these my Jams, and at my discretion, I have every right to change them or to find new ones 😊 Here are some of the Jams that I have been enjoying this month:
LOVE YOURSELF 承 ‘Her’ by BTS
So…I have recently fallen down the rabbit hole that is K-POP, and I am not ashamed to admit it. This is a whole other realm of music that I had no idea existed until about five months ago, and it has been SO MUCH FUN learning about all of these highly talented groups and listening to this great music! If you haven’t given K-POP a try yet, do yourself a favor and DO IT! Okay, back to my point. BTS, or 방탄소년단, has released a much awaited new album this month called LOVE YOURSELF 承 ‘Her’, and everyone is FREAKING OUT. The seven-member group has gained much international recognition since their Billboard Music Awards Top Social Artist win back in May, and as of today, their most recent music video for the album’s title track “DNA” (posted above) has received over 55 million on YouTube. Impressive, right? I have had their album on repeat since it came out last week, and I highly recommend every song on it! With its diverse musical genres and socially conscious lyrics, this is an album with a little bit of something for everybody!
Here is another song from the album called “MIC Drop”, performed live at the BTS Comeback Show globally streamed live last week. One thing that I have always admired about this group is their tactful combination of choreography, catchy songs, and socially aware lyrics. This song in particular talks about overcoming the struggles that this group faces as award-winning entertainers, and they end the song by quite literally dropping the mic for the haters. If you liked this song or “DNA”, go support these boys and check out the rest of the album wherever you listen to music!
I hope that you all have enjoyed learning about coffee shops and the music they play as much as I have this month. Maybe you have learned about a new artist and have checked out some more of their music. Or maybe you are just craving a coffee now. Either way, I hope that you have a take-away from this month’s music! Thank you for reading my posts and sharing your thoughts with me this month! Stay tuned for next month’s new musical theme, and check in every Monday for more Music and Muses!
♪ Lauren
Twitter: @ofmusicandmuses
Listen to the September Coffee Shop Playlist here!
Learn about this month’s featured musical artist here!
Why do public places play music? Find out here!
Of Music & Muses 