And Hayley Williams is my effing idol

As I mentioned in my post on religion, music has pretty much always been a big part of my life. I live with depression and honestly, I'm not sure where I'd be without music in my life. A major part of my depression, at least, is feeling melancholic and like the weight of unresolved emotions is just pulling me down, and one of the most important skills I had to learn was how to try to dissipate some of that weight. Listening to music has always been one of the best ways to do this. If I hear a song and it resonates with me, I can identify some of the unspecified blobs of emotion, and if I can identify it, I can usually scream out the lyrics and cry and feel a bit better. The idea of musicians putting emotions into lyrics I can hold onto for support is something that I've honestly been eternally grateful for. This is why, in a lot of my personal blog posts, I'll punctuate paragraphs with lyrics. I understand that this is pretty much a stereotype of self-absorbed emo kids, but the way the lyrics resonate with me makes me feel like I could never express how I feel as well as that one line did. If that makes me emo, then I'm fine with that.

I could talk about the other ways music is important to me, or the ways it's influenced my life, but that honestly doesn't sound very fun to talk about or to read, so onto the meat of the post: music itself.

Obviously, not all music has to invoke emotional epiphanies. Some are just fun. To that end, I wholeheartedly recommend Ke$ha. Her combination of the vulgar and the trashy with the upbeat and the catchy is really disturbing at first glance, but if you can get past judging yourself for enjoying it, it's usually ridiculously fun. Pendleton has some valid reservations about auto-tuning, but I honestly find it a tool that can be used to great effect. An artist doesn't need to be a virtuoso to be worth listening to. Most of my recommendations are going to be based on my iTunes play count, so according to it, my favorite Ke$ha song is Grow A Pear. It's fun and shallow and meaningless that has been made infinitely better by evoking a mental image of hardcore gardening.

Favorite lyrics: But you cried 'bout this and whine about that. When you grow a pear, you can call me back.

No post about my taste emotional lyrics could be complete without a few requisite Taylor Swift lyrics, and I'm quite fine with that. She has a fantastic ability to write songs that are both specific enough to feel personalized while general enough to relate to. Yes, pretty much all of her songs are about love (either gained or lost) but she does what she does well. She also has plenty of songs about anger and revenge and there is nothing wrong with empathizing with those a little too much (better than actually being vengeful and vindictive).

Favorite lyrics: And she is yelling at a bridesmaid somewhere back inside a room wearing a gown shaped like a pastry.

The rest I'm going to sort of group together (probably unfairly): my assortment of pop punk bands with guy lead singers. This includes Forever The Sickest Kids, All Time Low, Mayday Parade, The Maine, The Cab and Every Avenue, just to name a few. Their songs vary wildly between heartrending sob stories (more like Mayday Parade) and shallow, Ke$ha-rivaling dance music (more like Forever The Sickest Kids), but I tend to group them together because 1) people who hate one usually hate most of them, and 2) though I have my favorites, few stand out as having a unique sound.

(Exceptions include Hit The Lights first two albums and Cute Is What We Aim For's first album. Hit The Lights because 100% of their songs are in some way angry, generally violently so, and CIWWAF for being very overtly sexual and sensual.)

That said, this particular brand of music has been labeled Kelsey music and, in general, tends to make me very happy. Since this has so many artists in it, I'm going to pick a few favorite lyrics from a few different points on the spectrum

Favorite lyrics: I'll have you know I'm scared to death that everything that you had said to me was just a lie until you left.


What am I supposed to do (oh oh) when she's so damn cold like 20 below?


I want the good life, spotlights fortune and fame. Make me rich, can't be poor, can't be broke anymore.


She'd sink lower than a body in the Hudson could ever do.


You got in my heart, you got in my head, and I believed everything you said

Rise Against gets onto another honorable mentions list with my post. I really like their sound and usually their lyrics are thought-provoking, but I don't have enough of a connection with them to really put them on my main list. Other honorable mentions are My Chemical Romance and Escape the Fate for pretty much the same reasoning.

Favorite lyrics: We've all been sorry, we've all been hurt, but how we survive is what makes us who we are.


You are so beautiful, you are the kind of girl who has the chemicals to make me fall in love


But you really need to listen to me, because I'm telling you the truth, I mean this, I'm okay (trust me)