I started listening to My Chemical Romance when I was 13.
It was for a noble reason: impressing a cute emo kid I liked. (Yes, if you're wondering, it worked.)
Though their sound was a little rough for me at the start (I was deep into the trenches of k-pop fandom), they soon became an important part of my listening routine. Never could I have imagined then how essential they would be to my growth: it was their music that helped me push through the hardest moments of my teenage years.
I will forever hold close to my heart their concert I was able to attend in Bologna in 2022 It was one my the most special experiences of my life and I couldn't be grateful enough that I got to be there, singing and screaming in the crowd.
My favorite album? Why yes, it is Danger Days: such an energetic set of songs that scream determination and will to live through all of them, such an encouragement to power through and well— "keep running"!
Not to mention the post-apocalyptic setting, the aesthetic of it all... God, what an amazing album. It has the exact energy that I wish to exude in my life.
I feel blessed to be alive at the same time as this amazing band. I will never, ever get over how lucky I was to be able to see them come back just one year after starting to love them (hey, by the way, can we talk about how awesome "The Foundations of Decay"is? Gives me the fuckin' chills I love it so much)
You guys are going to have to pry this band's music from my cold, dead hands. God, I love them so much.

I started listening to Hozier in the summer of 2023.
It was just one or two months before Unreal Unearth came out: I was entranced by one of the early tracks of the album and just had to get more of it. Of course I already knew a couple songs like "Take me to church" and "Sunlight", but I had never really looked into his music before then.
My friends all know I can't resist a good intertextual reference, and well... as it turns out, Hozier's music seems to be just the thing if you like cultural references in your music. A whole ass album dedicated to Dante's Inferno?? The sheer amount of greek mythology referenced through the albums? Fucking Jonathan Swift's "A modest proposal" revisited in "Eat your young"? I may have dropped out of Classics in high school, but God... I am so not immune to the beauty of intertextuality.
But that's not all: the poeticity of it all, and the way the emotions course through every word of his songs... Hozier's music is so unbelievably human and so incredibly intense that I think I'll die sometimes, just listening to it.
I lack the words to describe it. Maybe it's because he already says it all. For the love of God, go give a listen to any of his songs... oh, you'd like a reccomendation? Some of my personal favorites are "Work Song", "In a Week" and "Through Me (The Flood)".
Ah yes, last but not least. You know how often times love ties so deeply into politics? If you don't, you'll definitely know after listening even just a bit.

Ah, Mother Mother...
I guess I don't know exactly when I started listening to them. It was probably around 2019 or 2020. Like many others, I came by their music through TikTok trends. I didn't really expand my listening habits out of the viral songs for a while, but I guess more and more of them just added up in my playlists over time, and lo and behold... I was suddenly a fan.
Because I became familiar with their music gradually, I never really went through the phase of learning about (and obsessing over) the band members, though of course I have a general idea of who they are.
What really sealed the deal for me with this band were two main factors: one, Grief Chapter coming out and two, seeing them live in Milano in 2024.
Grief Chapter is a special album that has accompanied me through the last year and has helped me, more than once, to cope with the concepts (and the reality) of loss, the meaning of life and sitting with the pain of my own struggles and difficult feelings.
It's tough not to try and run away from hardships, but Mother Mother helps me stay in the present and validate the suffering I'm going through, without trying to push it away or hide it deep down inside myself.
But that's not all: this band's music also has a peculiar energy to it, it feels restless, explosive, it pours out of every sound. In that way, it feels a lot like being in my own body and mind, wanting to live and to do oh so much more than this, to want to grow and feel it all, not one inch of the universe left unexperienced. When I listen to Mother Mother I feel the very energy of life running through my body, as if I'm being hit by a car— and you wouldn't believe how good that all feels.

Yeah, yeah... we all know Miku is not an artist per se, but she does deserve her little space on this page.
I first became familiar with Miku & friends through Project Sekai (i.e. "Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage") a few years ago. I'm a big fan of rhythm games (like, paid-for-Geometry-Dash kind of fan), and Pjsekai provided me with both a stimulating game and adorable... everything XD
Anyway, after getting into the game I started exploring the worlds of Vocaloid and vocal synths in general, and I was completely fascinated by them. Like, everything is so cool!!! rawr XD
It'd take forever to name all of the artists I love, so I'm going to name one song that I really love: call me basic, but I just cannot get over "Romeo and Cinderella" by doriko. Just, foaming at the mouth with how much I love it. Aaargh.
Not really music related I guess, but my favorite meme? "Guuuumiii have you seen my pigtails? I have a show and I can't find them anywhere!" etc etc...

Oh yeah, did I mention I love musicals?
Now, I have to admit I'm the kind of guy who obsesses with one thing for months at a time and ends up never expanding on his knowledge within the genre, so I actually know like five or six musicals... but hey, I know them really well!!!
I was lucky enough to see two musicals performed live so far: Aladdin and Mamma mia.
Anyway, here's some of my all time faves:

• Legally Blonde: the musical
  I do not even have the words to begin to describe how much this musical means to me. I just don't.
  Other than it being (in my modest opinion) like... the best musical adaptation of a movie ever, there is not one thing about it that I don't love. It is just so so special.
  Aaaaaargh. I just can't— God. Yeah. Just do yourselves a favor and go watch it already.
  One kind of fun fact about me and this musical is that I watch it every time that I get to the end of an exam season. Both the movie and the musical, one after the other. That's my little tradition. Little "So Much Better" moment of my own. Great way to bask in the light of my own achievements for a few hours.


• Hamilton
  Does it feel silly obsessing over a musical about the founding fathers of the United States? ...yeah, it does.
  Nevertheless, this was my first musical and it is very dear to me. I have many cherished memories of singing my heart out with old friends while reenacting the whole thing in front of the TV. And also... lots of crying XD It is "Dear Theodosia" that always gets me (apart from like... the whole second half of the second act)


• Heathers
  Someone who knows me might not be able to predict how much I'd love a musical like Heathers, because the humor in it can be a bit too dark for my usual liking.
  However, the dark element in Heathers is so well-executed, that even someone like me (who had to do literal exposure therapy to become sort-of-able to say swear words) can't help but appreciate it.
  This is a musical I'd recommend to someone who wants to have a laugh (and who isn't too bothered by the representation of heavy themes like homicide, death by suicide and sexual assault in media).
  I think my favorite song currently might be "Dead gay son", though it really is a difficult choice...


• Ride the Cyclone
  Here's another special one.
  Ride the Cyclone is very comical in its way of representing death, but it also has a really sweet element to it that I can't quite place. I'm not going to elaborate too much here, but I will say that this musical helped me find a lot of comfort and relief when it comes to the themes of death, loss and grief. Listening to it feels like a big hug, occasionally interrupted by laughter— because you love the person you're hugging so much, that you just can't help it.


• Six: the musical
  Man, it really seems I love a little history lesson together with my musicals.
  There we have the six (ex) wives of Henry VIII, quite literally rocking it on stage.
  How many times have I cried to Kate Howard's "All you wanna do" and why is it simultaneously way too many and not nearly enough?
  If I had to pick a musical that I think does social history and the rewriting of women's past right, this would definitely be it. Really recommend it.