Welcome to When I Hear This Song! This is a space for writers to ramble, wax poetic, explore, pick apart, delve into one song that is meaningful to them. It’s not their favorite song and it definitely doesn’t have to be a popular song, but it is a piece of music they deem most evocative, soul-grabbing, emotional, yada yada yada.
Every person’s taste in music is one of the most personal and intimate aspects about us. The songs we love, hate, even just don’t understand the hype about, are all delicate squiggles that compose our audio thumbprints. After I was compelled to write about a song that broke my heart and uplifted me simultaneously, and asked my boyfriend if I was the only one who felt this way when listening to certain pieces of music, (this was the 906th time in our relationship he responded, “No, it’s not just you”), I began thinking of my brilliant friends whose song stories I’d love to read as well. Besides being a space for me to remember how I connect to a song at a certain time in my life, I hope this is a space to discover new music, revisit music you already know in another light, and appreciate someone’s story and perspective.
The writers here are selected by me and their essays are unedited. This exercise is not about music writing, criticism, or clickbait; it is about an intimate connection to a piece of art, even if you never saw it as art before. Allowing myself to explore one song and examine it was challenging, cathartic, and taught me more about myself than I expected. My wish is that the contributors here have similar experiences, and that this tiny corner of the internet can be a lo-fi hangout for us. Thanks for stopping by!