Everybody do the iTunes shuffle (now let me see you do the...)

Happy Winter Break blog-readers! Winter Break means you are about to get a barrage of posts on this blog, some of which may be really great, and some of which may be... not so great. I'll let you be the judge of that. I've been struggling to come up with topics to blog about, so I turned to the one thing that can help you think of anything when you are out of ideas: the Internet, more specifically Pinterest. I found several like "30 day blog challenge" type things, and printed a BUNCH of them out, and plan on pulling ideas from them to blog about while I'm home on break, and even after Winter Break has ended. A lot of these are going to dive deeper into the mystery of "Who exactly is Kelsey Monica Struck, and what makes her tick?" Sooo, if you have no desire to learn anything about me, my likes, my dislikes, or my life in general, you should probs find a new blog to follow or something better to do with your time. This is your last warning!


If you made it to this point, you've decided to continue reading and learning more about my life! Congratulations!
Anyone who knows me will be able to tell you that music is my life. It's who I am, it's what I do. Not only do I love to make music, but listening to music is one of my favorite things to do, right behind binge watching Netflix, but that's a post for another day. My iTunes library is home to 3,540 songs, which is quite small in comparison to some of the people I know. A big shout-out must go to one of my BFF's Kam for literally providing over half of the music in that library. I know he's probably reading this, so you're the bomb dude. I'm not going to write about all the songs in my library because let's be honest, I just don't want to. But, I am going to put my iTunes on shuffle and write about the first 10 songs that come up. I'll talk about how I feel towards that song, any memories it brings back, etc, etc, etc. There is a possibility that there will be songs that I am listening to for the VERY FIRST TIME as I'm doing this blog post because I haven't even had a chance to listen to half of the music that Kam gave me, because he gave me a bunch of music. A bunch. Literally, so many songs. So without further ado, here we go.

Song Number 1: Hungry Like the Wolf- Duran Duran

• I have a huge obsession with 80's music, especially 80's pop music. I have seen every special that VH1 has ever aired about 80's music. The 100 Greatest Songs of the 80's, the 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders of the 80's, I Love the 80's, all of them. I actually used to sit and watch them with a piece of paper and pencil, and whenever I heard a song on their that I liked, I would write down the title and the artist. And I of course went and obtained all of those songs legally (heh, heh, heh.) Duran Duran actually has a ton of good tracks, and I'm kind of disappointed in myself that this is the only Duran Duran song I have in my iTunes library. May need to fix that. Duran Duran was also beautiful in the 80's. And their British, can't go wrong there. 

Song Number 2: Mistletoe- Jukebox the Ghost

• You may be asking yourself "Who the heck is Jukebox the Ghost?" If you are asking yourself that very question, GO LOOK THEM UP RIGHT NOW AND LISTEN TO ALL OF THEIR SONGS. Once again, Kam is to thank for introducing me to this band. I owe him super big because this band literally changed my life. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail because there is going to be more posts in the future that explore my love for Jukebox the Ghost and how exactly they changed my life. They don't have a bad song at all, but this certainly is not one of my super super favorites. But again, they don't have a bad song, so I'm not sitting here cringing just waiting for the song to end. Kam and I are actually going to see JtG in February and I'm freaking beyond excited for it. Here's their website, I was serious about checking them out: http://www.jukeboxtheghost.com

Song Number 3: Blue Ocean Floor- Justin Timberlake

• This is off JT's latest album, and this is the first time I've heard this particular track from that album. So you, readers, are getting my first hand opinion of this song. I've loved JT since his N'SYNC days so we will see what my opinions are of this song. First impressions: JT's voice is like fine wine, it just gets better with age. The instrumental tracks are also pretty good, the way the volume and different sounds play together make it feel "wave-like," which makes sense since the title involves the word ocean. This is just really pretty, and very chill. I've been big into chill music lately, and this is probably going to get added to my chill music playlist. I wouldn't mind having JT just come serenade me with this song. The instrumentals at the ending just made this song. Good stuff. 

Song Number 4: I Will Always Love You- Dolly Parton

• Yes kids, it's true, Whitney did not originally sing this song. I'm not bashing the Whitney version at all, because that song is one of my faves to put on when I just need to belt really really loud. Dolly's version is not nearly as bombastic as Whitney's, but a lot of it's beauty for me is in the simplicity. Simple instrumental backing, and Dolly's light country voice. I'm not nearly as big of a country fan as I used to be, but Dolly will always rank up there in my tops for female country artists.

Song Number 5: I Want to Hold Your Hand- The Beatles

• The Beatles. The Fab Four. Literally my number one favorite band, hands down. I haven't done a story yet, so I'll do some stories with this one. I went to Hawaii for Spring Break last year, and there was a Beatles tribute/cover band playing at some fancy hotel down the street from where we were staying. I went to this show with Kam and his roommate Chase. This was the first Beatles tribute band I had ever seen, but Kam and Chase had seen several because they are also both huge fans of The Beatles. This band was not that great, and Kam and I ended up going to see a band do a bunch of Beatles covers in Cherokee, IA a few weeks later that was way cheaper and way better, but I digress. The best part of that entire show in Hawaii was how Kam and I just kept talking about how the guy playing George looked like a creepy serial killer. Anyway, Beatles: fantastic, good, love them. 

Song Number 6: You're Nobody Til Somebody Loves You- Michael Buble

• Oh, Mr. Buble. Easy listening, Sinatra-esque music is one of my guilty pleasures. Mr. Buble definitely delivers on this song. I envision myself in like the 1930s in some speak-easy laying on the grand piano drinking a Gin and tonic while Michael sings this song to me with the horns backing him up on stage. Too much information? #SorrynotSorry. Being an instrumentalist, I'm a killer for songs with good horn lines and horn sections, and this song delivers. 

Song Number 7: Always- Paul McCartney

• Another song that I am hearing for the first time right now. Being that it's a song by Paul McCartney, I know it's not going to suck. I appreciate the simplicity of the accompaniment: bass and guitar. What more do you need honestly? Oh now we've got some piano and some brushes on the drums, a light jazzy feel. Me gusta. This is another song that I wouldn't mind someone singing to me (hint hint to any future suitors out there, or any musician friends who need to give me a birthday present.) I really want to learn to play guitar, random side-note. Another random side-note: I think my Uncle John looks a lot like Paul McCartney. I don't think he has the musical talent of Paul McCartney, mainly because Paul McCartney is a wizard and my uncle is not.  

Song Number 8: Huron Carol- The Five-Fifths

• Yay, a Christmas song! This is off an Irish, Celtic-y Christmas album. We love Christmas in this house, and we love Christmas music more than we love Christmas. We have an entire CD case that is just Christmas CD's. I'm not even kidding. This is not one of the well-known Christmas carols, so if you've never heard it let me give you quick synopsis of the song: it's about Jesus being born. AKA it's about Christmas. It has some cool instrumentals: guitar, like a recorder or lute or something along those lines, violin, finger cymbals. A stereotypical Celtic sounding song, but not in a bad way. And it ends with a Picardy 3rd (for non-music people, a major chord in an otherwise minor key.) 

Song Number 9: Stairway to Heaven- Led Zeppelin

• This song is just a classic. I don't know what more to say about it. The guitar part is probably my favorite part of the song (I tend to either really love the guitar part or really love the drum part, in terms of instrumentals.) One of my mom's high school prom themes was "Stairway to Heaven," as many schools probably did after the song became popular, so that's a fun fact. I would ask her more about her "Stairway to Heaven" themed prom, but she's sleeping since she actually has to get up and be a contributing member of society tomorrow, unlike me (well, I don't have to contribute until 3:00, so I've got some time.)

Song Number 10: All For Love- O-Town

• Another guilty pleasure is boy bands. Now, I was not nearly as big of an O-Town fan as my big sister, because I was a NSYNC loyalist (although I also listened to BSB, but don't tell anybody.) Young, teenagey voices singing about love and how it's all for me, who doesn't need that stuff in their life every now and then? If nothing else, it provides a fun flashback to childhood and the simplicity of it all. I don't even remember half of the names of the dudes in O-Town, just Ashley Angel because he was my sister's favorite and his posters adorned her bedroom. 

So, there you have it: a small sampling of my vast iTunes library. As you can tell, I listen to lots of different stuff, and possess lots of music that I haven't even had a chance to listen to yet (partly because I have lots of songs [thanks Kam] and partly because I tend to get into moods where I fixate on one particular playlist or one particular band for months at a time. Like, lately it's been a back and forth between 3 particular bands, who I'm not going to mention now because they may or may not get their own blog posts in the near future, who knows?
Let me leave you with one last piece of advice: GO LISTEN TO JUKEBOX THE GHOST!!!!