Up until now, my music tastes have mostly been centred around songs I can sing along to, and not just quietly hum as you can do along almost anything. Regardless of my mood, happy/angry/sad etc., nothing would ever make me feel better than being able to put on a song in my vocal range and belt along. Musical theatre became a huge escape on difficult days for this reason, and I always remember how strange I'd feel if I ever lost my voice or had a sore throat from a cold and couldn't fulfil the urge to jump in the car and belt out a showtune. Finding new favourites in musicals I'd never listened to was so fun and was always a huge incentive to try something new.
If I wanted something to just vibe along with while gaming or working, I'd choose one of my favourite pop artists - usually still with a focus on vocals given it was my passion, and I would always enjoy vocals with lots of harmonies so that I could pick and choose which part to sing on any given day.
However, mid-2023 I had a very sudden and unexpected hearing loss in both ears and music became almost unbearable to listen to for a while as I slowly adapted to my new way of hearing. Even 8 months later, I hear quite a bit of distortion with certain instruments or singers (mostly female singers) and struggle to pitch my own singing in tune with any music. My husband has assured me I still sing in tune with myself if there is no music playing, but I can no longer hear the music properly, therefore can't hear where I'm meant to be pitching my own melody.
New music has become so difficult to follow along with! I can barely understand lyrics now, only catching a few words here and there, and because I don't know what to expect, quite often things sound out of tune to me. Anything with too many instruments or harmonies just sounds messy and chaotic now - which is the complete opposite to what I used to enjoy!
All my old favourites still remain the same - my brain knows what lyrics and tune to expect, so it fills in the gaps for my ears when they fail me. But finding new music has become an insanely huge challenge - something I used to find so much joy in doing.
I've recently realised that I need to step outside my comfort zone, and try some different genres. I stumbled across a rap/R&B artist that I've been enjoying. There aren't many instruments, no vocal harmonies, and his songs have a great percussive beat that I can hear really well. The rapped lyrics fall on deaf ears (quite literally!) but I can enjoy the timbre of a male artist because I hear much less distortion at that pitch.
My relationship with music took a huge turn last year, and while I know I will probably still enjoy musical theatre for a long time, I have found myself choosing these playlists less and less as I've started to build new playlists for myself based around what sounds good to me now. I'm really glad that I've not had to give up music entirely, and that I can still find new genres to enjoy! My friends and family may just have to put up with my out-of-tune singing, and probably many, many incorrect lyrics.
