As a child of the '80s and early '90s, I grew up on the likes of great R&B artists who set the soundtrack to much of my childhood. Artists such as Luther, Anita, Freddie, Alexander (O'neal), Troop, Levert and many many more. The common theme of these artist was that ineffable feeling you get about that person who is most important to you. Pardon my use of "ineffable". We used lots of words such as this in my psychology classes at USC.
Music has always been something that's been deeply rooted in my soul. But, this all started the Christmas my parents got me my first AM/FM cassette player. This sparked my love for music instantly. I think I may have been 6 years old. For years, all I would do is record the "Quiet Storm" every single night just to listen to it as I did my homework after school each day. I swear so many these songs illustrated the most vivid examples of love I could ever imagine to this very day.
My "Quiet Storm" playlist has continued to this day. I have every and any slow jam that you could think of in my library. Anything from love ballads, lustful slow jams, and your begging you to come back to me songs. I've come to realize that my "flirtatious" ways just may stem from my fondness of this genre of music. But, I will never confirm or deny that. Judge me as you may but I tend to call women beautiful because no one has every told me it was the wrong thing to do. I've grown up hearing it said in many of the songs I've listened to night in and night out. And most of all I've felt it was something every and any woman should hear. No game here, just pure truth.
As I've gotten older, listening to my "list" has low-key depressed me since I haven't ended up with this mythical woman that I've pieced together in my brain. "Soft lips", "silky hair", "smooth skin", "body of a goddess" were all things imprinted in my mind as ideal qualities in a woman. I've grown to realize that is NOT reality. Well, soft lips and smooth skin is a must tho. Call me fickle if you must, but I'm not kissing chapped lips and flaky skin :). But I digress. Even the song titles spoke of love. Titles like "Quality Time", "If This World Were Mine" "Time Will Reveal" just state the obvious and yet take it to another level to explain the definition-less definition of love.
Songs such as these have taught me that love has and will always be about spontaneity, unselfishness, kinship, unspoken moments of understanding and respect. These songs made love sound so simple when I was a child. Now as I listen to these same songs as an adult and I view love as a complex algorithm that has yet to be solved. How could this be? How could my view change so much? Simple answer, Izzo has yet to experience that ineffable emotion. Year 29, still in search of...
-Izzo
Songs I've listened to during the writing of this post:
"If This World Were Mine", "Anyone Who Had a Heart", "So Amazing", "Here and Now" by Luther Vandross
"Let's Chill" by Guy
"Quality Time" and "I Can't Wait Another Minute" by Hi-Five
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