Hannah Leigh: My favorite music.

Day #... I can't remember. 12? 13? Anyway.

A Picture of my favorite band or artist.

I feel like in this day and age, people are trying out new bands all the time to discover the next big thing. Everyone wants to recommend a new artist to their friends so that they can claim they found them before anyone else. The more obscure, the better the music.

THIS is what iTunes has done to music listeners everywhere.

People can download one or two songs for a couple of bucks, so that they can give the band a trial period. Pretty smart idea. But what we get is teenagers and people in their twenty-somethings taking pride in the fact that they have 20 new bands this week that they like. In a month, they will be old news, but will still be cataloged into their brains as something they can bring up at dinner with friends. As a result, people have too many half-hearted allegiances to too many bands.

So who cares? It's just music. Well to me, the music I listen to is deeply personal, and it takes a lot for me to seek out a new band and add them to my listening collection. Most of the music I listen to now is music I listened to in high school. It's kind of embarrassing in a way. Maybe I never grew up. Also, much of the music I listen to is a result of what my brother Oliver liked. I always wanted to like the same things he liked, so I still listen to his old favorite bands. He's moved on, and I'm stuck with 90s alternative bands who are now in their late 30s and early 40s, going through mid-life crises.

The worst part is that even though I am a musician, I have the worst time memorizing lyrics. I have been listening to the same songs for years, and I still don't know the words to many songs. I'm not sure why that is. Nevertheless, I am fiercely loyal to my music.

So there is a preface. I will name some of the bands that have stood the test of time.

Better Than Ezra