Music

Music filters into our lives all the time, often without us noticing. It sets the tone for a scene, enhances a moment, or sometimes interrupts it in a way that’s impossible to ignore. 

Think about the music in a shop or café, it’s shaping the mood before we even realise. Some tracks lift us, some irritate, and some strike such a chord they feel like they’re part of us.

When I reflect on my life, music has played many roles:

• Childhood: pure joy, birthday parties, “Agadoo,” and shaking a tree like no one was watching (even though everyone was).
• Early teens: discovery, finding songs that matched my angst and helped me figure myself out.
• Late teens: dance music and release, a soundtrack to freedom and fun.
• 20s: car journeys alive with chart hits on the radio.
• Adulthood: getting serious. Kiss FM was replaced by Radio 4 and LBC. News to keep up with. Opinions to form. Music took a backseat. 

Sure, I went to the occasional gig. Enjoyed it. But it didn’t pull me back in fully.

Then the pandemic hit.

Lockdown was tough.

Like everyone else, I went looking for anything that could offer escape, energy, and joy.

One day, I jumped in the shower, hit play on a playlist, and BOOM, the shower disco was born. Something in me reignited.

I started making playlists, rediscovering songs I hadn’t heard in years, and noticing how music changed my mood. With the right soundtrack, I could focus like a demon. That’s when the experiments began: music as motivation, music as medicine, music as mindfulness.

At first it was just fun. I went for dancy, upbeat numbers. Songs I hadn’t heard for ages that took me to another time. I went cheesy. Full-on Fanilow. Disco. 80s.

So here’s my first invitation to you:

Explore what music ignites fun in you.

Not sure? Flick through some radio stations and see where you land. There’s a station for every genre imaginable. When you listen, focus on fun first.