Wowee I am currently in the first week of my last semester of graduate school! I will probably write more in-depth reflections on that later, but one of my first assignments this semester for a composition class was to create a playlist of artworks of any kind that we felt represented our identity as composers.
At first, this was something I really struggled with. I think I felt some kind of internal pressure to pick things that I didn't just think were cool, but that would be seen as "cool" or "intellectual" or "important" in some way by my peers. But when I really got down to it, I realized the things that had the most impact on my art and how I think about media in general are things that I have some sort of personal connection with (which, typing it out, seems obvious, but I think it challenged some internal biases/shame around what worthwhile art is and what that means). A lot of the things on this list are things that are deeply woven into my life in some way, whether I saw them performed live, or met the performers, or experienced it at a time in my life that was formative. Some of them are wildely popular, and some of them I had to dig through random YouTube links and emails to find.
While I'm sure this list will shift and change as I continue to discover what kind of art I want to make, I wanted to document it here. I don't think it's all encompassing, because some things that deeply influence me are harder to put in this format. For example, this website and the discovery of indie internet culture over the past 6 months or so has made a big impact in how I think about personal expression. Regardless, I hope you enjoy (and maybe you'll even discover something new!)
A couple of these aren't available on the internet, but for ones that are I've included a link if you're interested! I've organized the list in alphabetical order.