[Team XQ]

How can music complement your activism and push you forward? What careers do you want to explore? What questions do you have about getting there?

[Lalah Ariana]

I feel like music is a great way to express how you feel, especially your thoughts about a specific topic. I want to be apart of the music industry and the acting community. How can I get my music out there? How will people notice me?

[Ty Boyland]

Consistency is the key! Be sure to create as often as possible, find perspective about topics you’re writing about from others, use and grow your network by capitalizing on your social media platforms. The other biggest part is to make sure that your personal brand matches up with your musical brand. Authencity is a currency in the music industry!

[Nicole Williams]

Have you leveraged social media? I think TikTok and Youtube would be great places to share your music with the world! I love discovering new artists that way!

[Madison Skeldon]

Music is a great outlet for everyone and it can complement my activism and push me forward by driving me to write about important issues. I wish to explore the careers of songwriting, writing for film, and teaching. The questions I have are; what are the steps to take post-college and how do I stand out?

[Carlee Strathmann]

Great question… A simple way to stand out is to use your own authentic voice and speak genuinely about your experiences — you’re the one and only YOU! When it comes to making your way in the music scene, creating your own music with friends is a great place to start. Looks like you’re already on the right track! As for next steps, internships are a great place to apply your skills and start building your network even during college. Here’s a blog post my friend wrote with more info about how to get an internship: https://xqsuperschool.org/rethinktogether/how-to-find-an-internship-high-school-college/

How to Find Internships in High School (Advice From a College Intern)

[Anna Kalumbula]

Being a songwriter or a sound producer would be really cool. I enjoy working on sounds and words. Music is about bringing people together and is a way to show and express feelings. You can have a song that so many people could relate to or look at differently. but it will unite people one way or another.

[Joanna Sunjo]

Music has a way of communicating feeling and emotion in a way that words cannot. I’ve never had trouble expressing ideas, but when it comes to expressing emotion I hit a wall. My topic is all about emotion, lack thereof and that weird in-between that places itself in the back of your head. I want to learn studio production to be able to master my own songs. Something I’ve been wondering about is what kind of challenges I will face if I am not fluent in a spectrum of instruments.

[Ty Boyland]

Hi Joanna,

I teach music production at Crosstown High and I’ve been a music producer/songwriter for almost 30 years. The term producer has changed meaning many times over the years, but on the topic of being fluent in different instruments, you don’t have to be. It helps, sure, but a producer at its core is a person being able to delegate ideas. Quincy Jones is a great example of this. Even if you can’t play a specific instrument, find someone who can and tell them what you want them to play. You can do this until you have that instrument mastered yourself. Always remember, your creativity is never limited by your own ability! As far as expressing emotion, it comes with time, it comes with experience. Understanding how you feel is the most important part of the process. Expressing those feelings is a matter of giving sound to those feelings.

[Faith Skeete]

Music pushed me to help the voiceless in the community. To show my feeling and real color all the hurt that i have bottle up from the pain i see will come out in the music i listen to and sing