Claire's Music Culture

Hi, I'm Claire Mormando. I'm really into literature. And Waffle House. I love Waffle House. I am also not actually a red-head, much to my dismay. I am, in fact, a blonde. Blonde-ish. Dirty blonde. I just dyed it recently and am already making plans about what color to dye it again. I might have a problem. (Probably no one was wondering, but now you have a piece of useless information about my hair-dying habits, from me to you.)

My favorite music genre is rock of any kind -- classic rock, pop rock, 80s rock, punk rock, the works. If it has drums and a beat I can headbang to, you can bet it will be in one of my 70+ Spotify playlists. My favorite band, and my current (and forever) go-to is All Time Low. It's basically agony to try to go through all of their songs and choose my favorite, because they're all so good, so I settled on the one that's been stuck in my head as of late, "Getaway Green." It's been the first song I play when I start my morning drive to class every day. 

There's no heart-wrenching reason why I like them or this song so much. ATL makes my ears happy. I think that's reason enough.

Note: Many, if not most, of All Time Low's songs are explicit. If you're not fond of expletives, I don't recommend listening to their other songs. The song I embedded below is clean, so you can give it a listen if you'd like :)

Unlike the previous category, this next song has quite a bit of meaning to me. My dad introduced me to "More Than a Feeling" by Boston (1976) when I was about fourteen or fifteen. He played it on our family computer loud enough that you could feel the bass pumping through the floor, and he, my mom, and I danced around the room together to the song. It's one of the best memories I have. 

My dad's mother's name was Maryann -- my Nana -- and she died in 1999 from breast cancer. One line in the song is "Till I see my Maryann walk away," and it always makes me think of her. It's bittersweet to listen to, and it makes me grin and cry and dance around my bedroom like a lunatic. (It's also a great song to air-guitar to.) It starts out a little slow, but it picks up quickly.

Note: I put in an audio video instead of the live performance because of sound quality; but if you would like to watch it live, you can watch it here.

Onto a type of music that I've never really connected with: screamo/heavy metal. Now, as someone who listens to a little bit of everything and a lot of hard rock, I can certainly see the appeal. But personally, I've never been fond of songs with people screaming the lyrics. I can hardly hear what they're saying, and it honestly kind of hurts my ears to listen to.

But hey, everyone vibes with something different, and if screamo is your thing, I'm happy you've found something that you enjoy!

Here's a song from Black Veil Brides. The specific "screamo" moment starts around 1:03. 

Bonus round! I'm Polish. Granted, I have more Italian in me genetically than I do anything else, but culturally, we have more Polish traditions and events that we celebrate. For instance, every Christmas Eve we host a big dinner for our family called Wigilia (pronounced vih-geel-yah). I won't bore you with the details, but sometimes I'll take a break from traditional English Christmas music and play a few Polish songs off of YouTube (not necessarily Christmas songs, but Polish-style music to get hyped).

Here's one of my go-to songs. No idea what they're saying (something about going to a stable, I think), but it's pretty either way.

Polish Catholics take Christmas very seriously, as you can see tell.

This kind of got away from me. My bad. But I hope you enjoyed the song choices!