University Honors

Music discovery in adolescence plays a considerable role in the development of personalidentity, culminating in the expression of music taste and how it informs the ways in whichadolescents choose to express themselves to others—whether that be through preferences,beliefs, or actions. And though this impact of music on identity can be seen and felt everywhere,it is a topic that receives little attention relative to its importance. This is what my creativeproject intends to address, while also standing as a strong piece of creative writing in its ownright. Listen to Me is a realistic fiction novel written in verse and presented as a music playlist,where the text in its entirety is considered the “playlist” and each poem within is a “song.” Thenarrative consists of vignettes surrounding a central protagonist and follows his coming-of-agethrough the songs he associates with moments in his adolescence, as experienced through hismemories. The novel deals with themes of death, love, grief, time, memory, displacement, andfamily. And by using real songs spanning a plurality of genres as the narrative frame, where eachpoem is named directly after the song that inspired it, I illustrate the nature of musical expressionin adolescents and how it closely coincides with processes of self-discovery and identityformation, specifically as it affects emotions, beliefs, behaviors, and, ultimately, the transitioninto adulthood. Thus, it allows readers to consider their own relationship with music.