Growing Up Grooves

Growing up Grooves

Track 1- “Wannabe”- Spice Girls

Track 2- “Ill be missing you”- Faith Evans featuring Puff Daddy

Track 3- “Graduation”- Vitamin C

Track 4- “All my Life”- K-Ci and Jo-Jo

Track 5- “Wide open spaces”- Dixie Chicks

By: Courtney Harris

Growing up Grooves has been in the works since March 29, 1988. This CD gives a wide variety of music genres with a whole lot of meaning. Each song has significance and represents a specific time in my life, and the emotions I felt during these times. Music has been proven to have a great effect on human emotions. We relate events, feelings, and even the simplest things like the weather with specific songs. What makes a party all the more fun? What makes a car ride worth the mileage? What makes that one special event that much more sentimental? The answer of course is MUSIC!

“Wannabe” by the Spice girls brings me back to my childhood. This was my very first CD and I could never get enough of it. I knew each and every word and would sing along with all my girlfriends. The Spice girls were frequent guests at all of our slumber parties. This CD would follow me wherever I went. I remember times where I was outside swimming with some of the kids in my neighborhood and played this specific song on repeat for almost an hour. I would give anything to go back to those days I always find myself saying. Back then things were easy and everyone was carefree. When this song plays my girlfriends and I still have the same reactions and sing at the top of our lungs. The kids in all of us will never die, and this song is my getaway when things are just to difficult to cope with.

Track Two on my CD is “Ill be Missing You” by Faith Evans and Puff Daddy. This song represents two specific times in my life where I experienced a great loss. In seventh grade my grandmother died as a result of lung cancer. This was the first time I had experience a death, and the first time I had ever seen my father cry. As tragic as the event was it brought my immediate family closer with my dad’s side of the family. From then on we all tried to meet at least once a week to catch up or just have a bite to eat. I felt as if my grandmother passed away just as we were getting closer and beginning to truly understand each other. I miss her so much and this song completely sums up my emotions into words. The second tragic event that happened in my life was when my best friend’s father died of a heart attack my sophomore year of high school. This was truly a shock to everyone and opened the eyes of many. It was great to see how many people from my high school attended the wake and funeral. He touched the lives of so many and it really showed during the ceremonies and during the mourning periods. It is really sad because he was the dad who attended all of the volleyball games and brought everyone waters and snacks for after. We dedicated a moment to him before each game that season and put his favorite song on our warm up shortly after. This song also sums up into words the emotions I felt during this time. This two very important people in my life will be truly missed.

Track three, “Graduation” by Vitamin C sums up the end of my grammar school career and my move into high school. This was a very nerve racking time for me because I would be going into an environment that I was unsure of. It was sad to think the people I had spent the last nine years of my life with would not be in classes with me everyday. Graduation, as sad as it was, was a very fun time with a lot of eighth grade activities. This was the first time I attended a semi formal with a date and had my hair done. This was the last song played at our eighth grade dance and reminds me of the good times I had with those friends. This was one of the first times in my life where I realized I was growing up and would soon have to make bigger decisions then what to bring for lunch the next day? I know it is very cliché that the song reminds me of this time in my life, but it truly brings me back to the good old days.

First love is something that can never be forgotten. It is a time in our lives where everything seems to fall into place and all things are all the more greater. You have someone that you feel is your soul-mate that you can share everything with and that will be there for you no matter what. In high school I found this person who made my experience amazing. The first time we said I love you to each other was magical, as corny as it sounds, and the feeling I experienced at this moment was unforgettable. “All my Life” was “our” song being that it was the first slow song we danced to right after we said I love you to each other. Each and every time this song would play it would remind us of each other and the great times we shared. Till this day even though we are not together it brings back those feelings. Not only was this boy my boyfriend, but he was my best friends. We shared different kinds of love and this song hits on all of these aspects.

The transition between high school and college was by far one of the hardest and most nerve racking experiences in my life thus far. I am an only child and leaving my parents was unbearable. Thinking about not seeing them everyday was something that I could not even fathom. I would not see my best friends that I had spent my whole life with for months at a time. With all of these thoughts running through my head I found it almost impossible to leave home and start a new life as an independent. “Wide open Spaces” by the Dixie chicks was put onto my going away CD from my best friend. Immediately when I heard this song I began crying. It was a complete reality check. I would be leaving my home to find my dream and make a future for myself. I would be leaving my comfort zone and moving into wide open spaces with room for error. The risks we take and the boundaries we cross define who we are. This is the absolute perfect song for my journey to maturity.

Growing grooves has given me a chance to put my emotions into lyrical form. When hearing these songs I hope that the audience experiences some of the same reactions I do when hearing these songs, and can understand why I chose each of them for my CD. On the CD cover I put a man and women dancing. I chose this particular picture for a few reasons. The title of the album uses the word groove which is another word for dancing so it coincides with the title. The man and women are in love which applies to track number 4 on my CD dealing with love. Lastly, there is a point in this paper where I talk about the graduation song being played at my eighth grade dance, and dancing to spice girls with my friends and this applies to those tracks as well. Every part of the CD was well thought out. It is from my heart to yours.