Life Soundtrack Changing Moods: The

Life Soundtrack Changing Moods: The Soundtrack of My Life The title of my soundtrack is "changing moods" because I feel that my life has gone through very distinct and very different periods, not simply in terms of my growing up but in the situations I faced during different parts of my life.

Everyone, of course, goes through different periods of understanding themselves, and likewise everyone changes their perspective on the world around them, becoming not entirely different people but changed persons as they grow and experience more of the world around them. I don't know if I have experienced this in a unique or especially strong way -- probably more than some and less than others -- but when I look back over my life the different periods seem so distinct that I could not avoid the issue.

It seems as though the different perspectives I have had, and the different feelings I have experienced, are the most definitive feature of my life to this point, and this is why I chose to focus my soundtrack around this aspect of my life. In my early childhood and into the time of my first memories, I was a very active and easily excitable creature, so I chose Louis Prima's "Jump, Jive, and Wail" to represent this period of my life.

Most toddlers are full of energy, of course, but from descriptions of myself at this time that I have hard from family, I was something else entirely. I was also very happy throughout my childhood, however, and the exuberant energy of Prima's voice and the band behind him makes me think of the same type of energy.

This song and its compelling rhythm continues to make me feel happy and excited similar to how I felt as a toddler whenever I hear it, and this makes it a very enjoyable part of the soundtrack of my life. As I grew older, I grew more serious, though no less passionate about my interests. Rachmaninoff's "Piano Concerto No. 3," as played by David Helfgott, is similar to what my mood was during this time, in some ways.

I was still generally happy, and this song is somewhat dark, but there is an intensity and at the same time a broodiness to the music that I still find quite compelling. Though my energies had turned more inwards in my later childhood -- I read books instead of bouncing off the walls -- I remained deeply excited by life, and this song touches those same places of deep excitement.

There is something in this song that seems to embody the mystery of the world and the anticipation of new and exciting discoveries, and this is very similar to how I felt during this period in my childhood. This excitement turned into a great deal of frustration in my early adolescence, and for some reason the song "Sway," covered by many but song most wonderfully by Dean Martin, seems to have the same type of frustration.

This cannot really be heard in the lyrics, but the minor key of the near-tango that comprises the song is reminiscent of the feelings of intense passions unfulfilled, in many different areas of life. From the age of about eleven to fourteen or fifteen, I felt as though I had do much to bring to the world, but I couldn't really figure out how to do it.

The incessant percussion, dark harmonies, and smooth melody of "Sway" are somewhat like the bittersweet notion of feeling as though one could possibly touch greatness, yet being frustrated time and time again in the attempt to actually reach out and touch it. I have come to enjoy this frustration more now, but at the time it was maddening. I thought I had found my way of achieving greatness during my rebellious phase, which began when I was sometime in my fifteenth year.

"We're Not Going to Take it," that purposefully cliche Twisted Sister anthem that remains a perennial favorite of teenage music fans everywhere is the perfect accompaniment to this part of my life. I rejected authority figures out of hand, without really taking the time to hear what these individuals were trying to say (though I still maintain that some of them were complete idiots). The song's powerful beat and its bold assertion of rights still gets my blood pumping, albeit not without a giant grin also making an appearance.

It is bold, brash, in your face, and simply enjoys.