Illustration by Maika Suaya, Music Editor
Music is pleasure and a tool that can completely take you away from the space you may be in. It’s a serotonin provoker that stimulates the brain towards thinking and feeling.
Being a college student, indulged in the constant environment of stress, you forget to keep doing the things one loves. More specifically, everything becomes routine, including the music you listen to.
Your playlist remains wedged, and one cannot help but just go back to the same old rotation of songs. All this because the external stress of school corners you into doing the same thing every day.
This routine gets disrupted with a weeklong vacation: spring break. The first opportunity in spring semester for students to sit down, breathe, and most importantly, discover new music.
The Panther staff was tasked with finding a new song throughout their break away from campus.
To kick off a great week in the desert of Palm Springs, news writer Britney Henderson, a freshman English major with a journalism emphasis, streamed Mt. Joy’s newest single “Coyote”.
“I had been waiting for ‘Coyote’ ever since it was teased by Mt. Joy, and its release was the perfect way to start my break,” Henderson told The Panther.
Leonardo Ribeiro de Brito, a junior film and television production major and one of our features and entertainment staff writers, tuned into the indie scene and found “Godstained” by Quadeca, a slow serenade backed by finger picking guitar variations.
For whimsical road trip vibes, photo editor and senior business administration major Emily Paris recommends “California” by Joni Mitchell. On the other hand, if you’re looking to ignite a rhythmic head-nod throughout the drive, listen to “Ain’t Got No Haters” by Ice Cube, suggested by news writer Maya Hawks, a freshman English journalism major.
Upholding the Chapman University spring break tradition, The Panther’s opinions editor Sarrah Wilkes, a senior psychology major, flew out to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Between the lively social scene and time-spent at the beach, Wilkes listened to “Lavender Girl” by Caamp to start off her day.
Yet, sometimes a break will cause you more troubles than actual relaxation. Throughout her trips to New York City and Las Vegas, senior documentary major and editor-in-chief Ashley Kuckler faced a series of severely unlucky events.
“On day one, my beloved, treasured and very real four-leaf clover broke. I attribute a lot of the great things in my life to hard work and, of course, my lucky four-leaf clover,” Kuckler told the Panther.
This event was followed by getting stuck in an elevator and golfing 15 over par, completely throwing Kuckler off the edge. To encapsulate it all into one melody, Kuckler chose the song “Maybe This Time” by Liza Minnelli.
As for myself, taking a break from it all drives me to find live music. While visiting friends from abroad in Madrid, I chose a night to run off to a live blues hole-in-the-wall bar called La Coquette Blues Bar.
I struck gold, getting to see Chicago native and three time Grammy nominated John Primer sing live. His cover of “Got My Mojo Workin’” by Muddy Waters specifically grabbed my attention, making me stay for his entire set. It reignited my love for music, but most importantly my curiosity towards finding new tunes.
Through it all, pursue curiosity that permits you to discover new things and pushes you to come back to the things you love to do the most. Don’t let break be the only time you permit yourself the space to do so.
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