They’re Playing Our Song
By Fred Gonzalez, The Miami Herald
Mar. 28–When getting to know someone in the early stages of dating, music is the great equalizer.
The DJs in Miami this week for the Winter Music Conference would probably tell you that. So too, most likely, several of the people attending the pool parties, club sets or the Woodstock-like Ultra Music Fest.
But it’s not just limited to the rhythmic beats we are hearing this weekend.
It goes for any kind of music: Top 40, hip-hop, country, Latin, etc.
How many times are you on a date and a song comes on the radio in the car, or at a restaurant, or in an elevator and the topic of conversation switches.
“You know this one?” or “You remember this song?”
“What kind of music do you like?” is asked on every matchmaking website in existence, and discussed during a speed date or first meeting.
Music can also provide humorous moments, (reality checks, if you will), when you realize how much of an age gap there is between you and your date.
One of the first women I dated in Miami surprised me when she told me she enjoyed listening to the ’70s and ’80s weekends on 97.3 FM. She knew the songs by such artists as Journey, Ambrosia and Little River Band.
I looked up Ambrosia’s How Much I Feel, a song we both had talked about and listened to. 1978! She wasn’t even born yet!
There are moments you share with people during your dating life that end up being associated with music. And when you hear certain songs, they take you back, for a brief moment, to those times spent with one another.
(Conversely, when you are in the midst of a breakup, why does it seem like the DJ at your favorite radio station plays EVERY sad, depressing relationship song ever written in a nonstop music block? And for those who were married before, that choice of song for your first dance becomes the newest definition of a one-hit wonder.)
Music can also provide a connection between two people who enjoy each other’s company but have a language barrier. Two summers ago a friend of mine met a woman who was visiting from Brazil.
My buddy didn’t speak Portuguese and she didn’t know but a few words of English. But when he drove all of us around and hooked up his iPod to the car stereo, she liked the music he played. She would go through his playlist, select a song, and he would select an additional song in the same genre to see if she liked it.
Two years later, her English is superb, he still doesn’t know Portuguese, their iTunes collection is massive, and they’ve been married for eight months.
On a recent date with CoolGirl, I realized we had very similar tastes in music. A song would be on that we liked, and we would whistle a portion at the same time. We revealed our guilty pleasures — like Hall & Oates and Rick Springfield — and validated them by admiting we either owned an album or saw the artist in concert.
We enjoyed the same hip-hop tracks they play (repeatedly) on Power 96 or 99 Jamz by Jay-Z and Kanye West. And both being bilingual, we have a new appreciation for Juanes’ La camisa negra.
Then one night with friends at Prive, we found ourselves singing and dancing to a remix of Maroon 5′s Makes Me Wonder.
Now that’s a musical irony, I’d say.
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