Personal Narrative: The Reverb Used In Pop Music

It was the summer of 1998. I can remember like it was yesterday. My mother was doing her weekly cleaning while blasting her favorite album at the time. My brothers were engaged in a video game, my baby sister was crying, and I was trapped in that moment of time. That moment is when I first fell in love with music. I did not just fall in love with Music; I fell in love with literature, sound, and life. The music that had me engaged that day was Lauryn Hill’s Miseducation album. Back then I didn’t clearly understand the lyrics, but I understood the exhilarating feeling I had as every track played. By the time I was six years old I was singing every Lauryn Hill song verbatim. By the time I was seven years I was recreating every Lauryn Hill song.

Pop music has a very unique and distinctive sound. The music is mostly up-tempo and dynamic. The frequencies and amplitude are always constantly changing. The equalization and reverberation in the music always seem to be on a different level compared to other genres of music. The reverb used in Pop music causes the sounds to seem far and out of space. The reflected sound waves always harmonize perfectly with the artist voice. My absolute favorite music is Go-Go. Go-Go is a popular music subgenre associated with funk that originated in the Washington, D.C., involving a great number of bands. Most of Go-Go sounds are predominantly in the mid and low range. Live performances are usually filled with ambiance because of the large crowds. Others who are not prone to Go-Go music do not appreciate the creativity and substance of the sound. Recently, I have learned to appreciate sound, the production and engineering it takes to create a clean mix. This allowed me to explore a wide range of music outside of my culture. I appreciate music that does not irritate my ears with loudness, or produce a muddy distorted sound. However, I favor music that can appeal to my emotions, for it is the reason I fell in love with