A Self-Titled Album & Serendipity

Serendipity: noun – the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.

Serendipity is a sweet, special thing.

It’s one of the best of life's pleasant occurences, because of its unexpected, pure nature. It is also fun to say. Try it. Serendipity.

We all obtain our own strokes of serendipity in our lives, some more memorable than others. There is discovering a couple dollars on the street, and there is winning the first game you've ever played in a sport you've never played before. Small things, but each can hold a deeper significance to the person it happens to.

My most memorable moment of serendipity: Deciding for once, instead of ignoring the Youtube list of suggested videos that I was nearly certain my life’s course would never lead me to watch, to heed the suggestion This choice – a very brilliant one, in retrospect – led me to the discovery of the Band That Started It all, The 1975, in the middle of March, 2015.

I have grown up with music being a steady beat in the background of my life. My parents taught me to appreciate it in its many forms. However, prior to that March, I had only cared for a very specific few: Nigerian music, gospel songs so good you could feel the praise hours after the service; the very best that 2000s hip/hop and R&B had to offer, old 80s records practically ordained as family road trip soundtracks (e.g. Tracy Chapman, Rod Stewart, every song Michael Jackson ever made), and the radio-produced, nationally-recognized Pop Top 40.

In March 2015 (a date I remember because of its significance as the catalyst for several other serendipitous moments to come), I listened to the song “Girls” by The 1975. Then I listened to it again. Then I listened to it ten more times. Then I listened to the band’s entire discography. Not one song went unheard. And thus, my personal love for music began.

After The 1975 came Arctic Monkeys, Swim Deep, Tame Impala, The Strokes, Chance the Rapper, Beirut; throngs of emo bands in the same playlist as classical piano, cello, violin. 

Gradually, I began to learn that music was a gift. 

Every new band, new album, new song, or thrumming bass line that you can feel just as much in your ears as your fingertips – every listen felt like something monumental had occurred. Something I’d have rolling around in the back of my brain for a long time.

Music’s importance in my life has manifested in the things it’s inspired – poetry, technicolor dreams, great days, late-night philosophical musings concerning the experiences a lyricist writes about, and its relevance to me and others around me. Several educational opportunities have risen from listening to songs of historical periods I could now better understand as they were expressed in freedoms ballads, spoken words, music videos depicting the world in all its diverse, turbulent, beautiful glory.

Music will forever be one of my most favored art forms. Its simplicity and influence serves as a constant reminder of the beauty of serendipity.

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