If you asked my friends to describe my music taste — or my taste in general — they would probably say “indie,” or “artsy,” or “artsy-fartsy” if they were feeling a little silly. They’re not wrong — I’ve always been someone who enjoys reading between the lines. 

In English class, it was clear to me that the green light across the bay was more than just a green light. I find comfort in artistic spaces that aren’t overcrowded, and I feel rewarded finding something that I can call my own, whether that be a hidden gem book or a barely streamed song on Spotify.

When it comes to music, I think that calling my taste “indie” represents a misunderstanding of why I listen to what I listen to: While it’s fun finding new artists or giving seasoned musicians some overdue recognition, I don’t collect songs in an indie gauntlet like a kid collecting rare Pokémon cards.

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I’m not preparing eagerly, hungrily for that one battle where I can whip out “say it back” by Ella Woolsey in order to out-indie some other poser’s pedestrian pick of Adrianne Lenker’s version of “Vampire Empire,” because hasn’t everyone heard that song?

I listen to music because I like music. I like listening to as much music as I can because I never know what I’ll like until a song is over and the experience can cement itself in my brain, regardless of artist, genre or decade. I swore off country music for years until I heard Johnny Cash playing in a pizza parlor while visiting my grandma in Montana, and I haven’t recovered since. You just never know!

I am unashamedly a Shazam-er, especially in public. I look up songs that I hear in movies or TV shows. I listen to entire albums for hours, scouring them for any new songs to enjoy that I would never have found otherwise. I add songs directly from TikTok if I like the hook and give them a second listen later to see if I like them or not. I still listen to the radio through an app on my phone. Why should I swear off any music at all when it stands to be enjoyed?

This may come as a shock to some people who know me, but I am a lifelong Swiftie. I trade notes and statistics with other Taylor Swift fans like old men with brewskis at a tailgate who have $500 on the line in their fantasy football league. I have never cared whether she was popular or not, only that some of her music felt perfect to me — though her new album was not my favorite.

I grew up on One Direction thanks to my older sisters, and, to this day, there is a one-in-eight chance that I am listening to any one of their five flawless albums at any given moment. You can toss on another eighth that I’m listening to 5 Seconds of Summer at my geriatric age of 20. 

There’s also a really good chance that I’m listening to something that you’ve never heard of or maybe a song that you forgot about entirely until now. That’s because I treat listening to music like it’s my full-time job.

Yes, it’s objectively artsy-fartsy and ridiculous that I own two kinds of CD players and am the general to a legion of plastic CD cases that I constantly shuffle around, depending on my mood, when streaming is right there. Yes, it’s objectively ridiculous that there are staff members at Amoeba Music in Hollywood who know my name. Yes, it’s objectively artsy-fartsy that the app with the highest screen time on my phone is Spotify.

But it all stems from a love of the game. When it comes to any piece of art at all, I feel lucky to have stumbled upon it, considering the sheer multitude of art that already exists and the infinite amount of art that is yet to be created. 

Who cares where or how I found it, a folk song with a thousand streams on Spotify can enter my esoterically named playlist alongside Ayesha Erotica’s “Yummy” and yeule’s version of “Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl” for the “I Saw the TV Glow” (2024) soundtrack simply because that’s just the vibe. 

I’m not just in it for the underbelly of music, I’m in it for the entire ordeal. Life is one long collection of finite seconds, and I plan to fill as many moments with music as I can because if I like it, I like it. It’s as simple as that. 

“Jam Journal” is a rotating column featuring a new Daily Trojan editor in each installment commenting on the music most important to them. Anna Jordan is chief copy editor at the Daily Trojan.