The first time that I ever heard them was when my family and I were on the way to Florida. My dad was driving, so naturally, he had complete control over the choice of music that we would be listening to throughout the drive. I remember trying to fall asleep with the steady hum of the wind outside and the boredom of being in the car for hours finally beginning to take its toll. Just as my eyes started to close, the booming base of drums, the ringing of electric guitar and the angsty voice of a male soloist filled the air.
“Dad, could you please turn that down?” I said, feeling agitated that the pleasant silence had been interrupted.
“Sorry, the music is too loud! I can’t hear you!” was my dad’s reply, continuing to turn up the stereo’s dial to max volume.
Knowing that it was a lost cause, I simply sat and listened as the male singer rang out lyrics about how he promised to always be faithful to his girl, no matter what their friends thought about their relationship. It did not take me long to find out that the song was “Buddy Holly” by the 90s alternative rock band Weezer.
Throughout the years, the same occurrence would happen frequently. Anytime we would take a drive, my dad would play whatever new hits Weezer had released that year along with various other hits by famous rock bands.
My dad has had an undying love for rock music since he was a kid. This was inspired by taking guitar lessons at a young age and being a part of a rock band with his friends in high school. From bands such as the Eagles and The Who, this inspiration is still evident in almost all of the music he listens to. He would share these types of artists with me by stopping me from whatever I was doing at the moment to say, “Let’s have some rock 101. What song is this, and who is this by?” or “Hey! This song is great; you’ve got to listen to this!”
When I was younger, I used to just shrug my shoulders and let him play whatever new song he wanted to share, usually just paying half attention to whatever song he decided was worthy for his “rock 101” that day.
Despite my initial lack of interest, somewhere along the way my attention began to shift. Instead of choosing to tune out the blaring solo guitar riffs or not really caring about the messages in the songs, I found myself humming softly with the flow of song melodies like “Go Away” from Weezer’s album “Everything Will Be Alright in the End.” Eventually, it turned into me belting them out whole-heartedly and nodding my head along with the beat. I even found myself asking my dad if he has heard of a specific band or artist and making him listen to them if he hasn’t.
I think I started listening because I knew that what he was playing more than just a band name or an artist. He was sharing something with me that was a part of him: his passion and love for rock music. Over time, I taught myself to stop and listen to what he was trying to show me. This led to me having my own appreciation for the talent and all-encompassing feeling of being swept away by the passion expressed through the lyrics and instruments.
Even now as I sit in my dorm room, Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo is singing out his band’s rendition of Toto’s “Africa”:
It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never have
I struggle to resist the urge to keep turning the volume up so that I do not wake up my roommates. The thought makes me smile as I think of all the times when I was in the car with my dad. There are three things that my dad and I definitely have in common: our passion and love for the music we listen to, our not-so-great habit of listening to it a little too loud and our shared appreciation for rock 101.
