IELTS Speaking Part 2 & 3 - Topic: Music

Trong bài viết trước, Aland đã cùng chúng mỉnh khám phá chủ đề Films khá quen thuộc trong bài thi IELTS Speaking. Hôm nay, chúng ta sẽ tiếp tục hành trình 30 ngày chinh phục bài thi Speaking với một chủ đề vô cùng quen thuộc và gần gũi với mọi người đó là chủ đề Music (Âm nhạc).

PART 2 - Chủ đề Music

One of the songs that strikes a chord with me the most when I hear it is Everlong by Foo Fighters. Foo Fighters is an alternative rock, post-grunge band from USA whose frontman, Dave Grohl, wrote this song during one of the low points in his life.

According to him, he wrote the song on Christmas after having just got divorced, which he had ended up sleeping in a friend’s floor in a sleeping bag. And at the same time, his guitarist and his drummer were about to quit the band. In the middle of this maelstrom of chaos, he wrote down this love song in less than an hour.

It has never been revealed who he was thinking about when he wrote this, but it is about being connected with someone so much that there is a connection that transcends from physical to spiritual. It’s an ode to love and the process of it all. The feelings of hesitation at the beginning, the excitement at any development. It truly conveys how powerful love can make you feel, and I think that is why it resonates so much with people, those who have loved and those who haven’t.

There’s also one more thing I find interesting about this song, which is that it was not an immediate hit. The song had to be stripped down to an acoustic version, to its raw core before people really started listening to it and fell in love with it. After that it became many fan’s favourite song and Grohl has gone on recording, saying that it is the song that most fans quote to him.

PART 3 - Topic Music

1. What do old people like to listen to?

I would imagine that they listen to the music of their youth in order to recapture the same feelings they had once upon a time. It’s music they already know the lyrics and rythm to. It seems every previous generation judges the newer ones for their music. They simply don’t understand newer music, and the familiarity of music they know is a great motivator to stick to it.

2. How would your grandfather feel if you gave him some hip hop music to listen to?

To be honest, it is quite probable that he would be horrified by so many aspects of hip hop music. Hip hop music is extremely different to the music from his time. He lived his life on the straight and narrow so I think he would think that hip hop glorifies inappropriate themes like drugs, sex and violence. But I think if he gave it a chance I could find some hip hop he would be able to enjoy. Especially any artists that focus more on singing about passion, goals or hard work, he would have an easier time relating to that kind of content.

3. Why do you think people of different age groups have different favourite songs?

The reasons are twofold, in the first place it’s down to trends over time and in the second place it’s due to nostalgia. Music is not immune to trends, the 70’s had disco, the 80’s had synthesizers and the 90’s had punk and grunge. Depending when you are born, there will be trends that will shape your life experience and music is not an exception. And as people grow up, they stop consuming music as often as when they were younger, so you develop feelings of nostalgia for what once was which closes their mind to new music and causes rifts between generations.

4. What kinds of music do (small) children in your country like to listen to?

Small children in my country are very much into pop songs that are remixed into or turned into parody children’s songs. They prefer songs that are repetitive and with a swift beat, which makes it easier for them to learn them and sing along. A perfect example of this is Baby Shark which has swept all over the world. It’s a catchy tune with a simple repetition pattern. It’s not poetry as far as songs go, but children took to it like a wildfire!

5. What do you think influences a young person’s taste in music?

I would say the the first people who create an impact on a young person’s tastes is their family and friends. Children are often subjected to whatever music the adults like at first during their time at home, travel and simply leisure time. The adults control the selection at first, so many of the first bands or singers that they enjoy are the same ones that their parents do and that’s where the friends or siblings come in. They provide new and exciting alternatives to what the parents have already provided which broadens their musical scope.

6. How has technology affected the kinds of music popular with young people?

I think technology has made more music available to the public in an amount that is unprecedented. You now have access to the world’s entire catalog of music in one way or another. I have a multitude of genres from which to pick from, an unlimited number of artists at the tip of my fingers and music from everywhere in the world. Do I feel like listening to an American pop singer? Or maybe some Mongolian hardcore rock? Or even some Australian techno DJ? Along with the selection, social media has made it much easier for people to feel closer and identify to their favourite artists and it has become an integral part of marketing. So artists who are social media savvy tend to be more popular than others.

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