so, I have an older brother that’s a decade older than me
Let’s call him Elliot, for privacy purposes and all that. Now, I don’t see Elliot as often as I used to which is understandable since he’s in his late twenties and he has a job and all.
We barely see each other and our age gap is just– dude. So you would think we wouldn’t exactly be really close.
Buuuuuddy you’re so wrong. Kinda. Decide for yourself.
Just a while ago, Elliot and I were in the car (he was driving and I was in charge of the music as usual). You see, we are quite different people (he’s more aggressive than I am whereas I can be a stone cold bitch who shoots glaciers out of her finger) and our age gap is well, big, so we never really end up talking about very deep things a lot. Our conversations are usually just us making jokes, complaining about our parents, him explaining shit to me while he gets frustrated at how much of a “millennial” I am and occasionally, we have conversations where I end up crying on his shoulder.
However, Kanye started playing. We were just rapping and singing along and one time during the ride, he turned to me and said “love you baby sis”. Adele was playing at that time and I choked back tears as I said “love you too”.
On our way back home, I saw Fall Out Boy on my spotify and played it since I “haven’t listened to FOB in a while. Huh”. We were on the highway.
“Dude, I haven’t driven this fast in a while” He said out of the blue. It was true, so I laughed. When he heard Centuries playing, he looked at me for a split second and smiled.
So there we were, on the highway, with the moon up in the sky and the lights passing by in a blur all around us. I could swear I felt the speed of the car on my skin as my brother tapped (or banged tbh) on the steering wheel to the beat of the song.
I mentioned people freaking out over MCR possibly reuniting.
“But no, they were just re-releasing Welcome to the Black Parade with demos we never heard.”
He responded with “Do you have MCR on your phone?”
I didn’t but shit, I knew that we were gonna sing and I desperately wanted to so I fumbled to turn my data on (I may have spent unnecessary money) and went to “My Chemical Romance”.
We heard the G note and he shouted “Yes!”. For the rest of the ride, we sung songs from Teenagers (I asked him right after: “Are you scared of me?” He gave me this look and flatly said “No” as he reached into the back seat to get something. I didn’t know whether to be offended or amused.) to Helena (I was banging my head. He tried to. Cause you know, he’s fucking driving) to The Ghost Of You (I gasped and told him I remembered him and our brother playing this when I was younger. “I joke about MCR, FOB, and P!atD being my lullabies, you know.” Every line and tune was familiar to me as I saw him smile at the road ahead of us.) to Na Na Na (”Baby sis this song is fucking amazing” “Bro, I know”).
At one point, he asked “Do you have that The Weeknd song? You know, the one”. He struggled to remember the title and I immediately searched for it.
“Can’t Feel My Face?” I read from my screen. He nodded. I let it play.
So as we were nearing closer and closer to the house, we were just singing (read as: trying to sing) along. We may have danced like one of those inflatable dancing flowy things you see in carnivals. Or groceries idk. We paused in front of the garage and our car ride ended with him asking
“Do you have your own keys right now?” I cocked my head to the side. He sighed. “Of course you don’t”. I fumbled into my bag and screamed “WAIT NO I DO” while he opened the garage door.
I went inside the house ahead of him and straight into my room. He passed by just to use the bathroom. I made some sort of sound at him as a way of saying “Goodnight”. He laughed and said “Night”.
He went to his room.
The car ride reminded me of something.
Music isn’t just what we listen to on the radio, on our phones, our CDs, or whatever we listen on.
It’s so much more than that.
It’s part of our lives; music intertwines people, memories, situations, events, emotions, and everything else we could possibly think of.
I cherish these car rides so much because when I play a certain song or album or artist, I can forget that my brother and I were practically born into different societies surrounded by different people and different ideals. We experienced things differently and will continue to for as long as we live. But when a song is playing, we’re one and the same.
These songs, albums, artists, carry so much and it’s no wonder that we can get so attached to them.
It’s because music bridges gaps that other things in life cannot.
