Cheers To This
This is the first post on here, so I figured I'd start with why I'm doing this at all.
A few months ago, I got laid off from my job as a Senior Music Coordinator at TMZ. The job market is rough for everyone right now, and I've had more free time than I know what to do with. Somewhere between sending out applications into what feels like a void and wondering what the hell I'm supposed to do next, I started asking myself a question I'd been avoiding for years: what happens if I actually take Sarahtonin Sounds seriously?
Getting laid off sucks. Looking for work in this industry right now is genuinely hard, and I'm not going to sugarcoat that part. But I also didn't want to spend all this time sitting around waiting for the next job to show up.
For the first time in a while, I've had the space to focus on myself and the things I've always wanted to do. And somewhere along the way, I realized that this little project I'd been building on the side since 2019 deserved more than whatever time and energy I had left at the end of the day.
So, here we are!
The part that surprises me most is the writing itself.
Having any kind of presence online has always been hard for me. I've always associated it with being on camera, constantly posting, and performing some version of myself for an audience. And while I love sharing music, that part has never come naturally to me.
Writing feels different. I can put a thought out into the world, step back, and let it exist without having to put myself in front of a camera. Maybe I'll get there eventually. I'm not ruling it out.
But for now, I basically get to cosplay as Carrie Bradshaw, typing away and overthinking a song.
And I think I can get behind that.
What I want to write about goes beyond sharing playlists, although there will absolutely be plenty of those.
I miss sitting with a song and asking what it's actually doing in a scene, in a particular moment, or in the world around us. I miss following those questions and seeing where they lead.
Sometimes that might mean writing about a song and its relationship to a protest movement. Sometimes it'll be about why a particular needle drop works so well, or how a song can completely change the way we experience a scene. And sometimes, it'll just be me talking about a record I've had on repeat for a week for reasons I can't fully explain.
I want room for all of it.
Music has never existed in a neat little box for me. It's tangled up in politics, history, culture, and the people who make it. It's in the stories of who got credit and who didn't, what made it onto the radio and what got buried, and how a song can take on an entirely different meaning depending on who's listening.
I want a place where I can follow those threads without feeling like I have to justify why a music person is talking about something other than music.
This is that place.
But there's also a much simpler reason for doing all of this, one that has nothing to do with building an audience, growing a brand, or figuring out what the hell I'm supposed to do with my career.
I want a record of my own thinking.
I want somewhere to put the things I discover, the songs I fall in love with, the questions I can't stop thinking about, and the opinions that might change as I learn more.
Even if only three people ever read this, I'll have something to look back on. A little archive of what I was listening to, what I cared about, and how I saw the world at a particular point in my life.
And that alone feels worth doing.
So here's the first one. Not a mission statement, not a rebrand, just me deciding to actually use this space for what it was always supposed to be for.
Cheers to this!
Cheers To This
This is the first post on here, so I figured I'd start with why I'm doing this at all.
A few months ago, I got laid off from my job as a Senior Music Coordinator at TMZ. The job market is rough for everyone right now, and I've had more free time than I know what to do with. Somewhere between sending out applications into what feels like a void and wondering what the hell I'm supposed to do next, I started asking myself a question I'd been avoiding for years: what happens if I actually take Sarahtonin Sounds seriously?
Getting laid off sucks. Looking for work in this industry right now is genuinely hard, and I'm not going to sugarcoat that part. But I also didn't want to spend all this time sitting around waiting for the next job to show up.
For the first time in a while, I've had the space to focus on myself and the things I've always wanted to do. And somewhere along the way, I realized that this little project I'd been building on the side since 2019 deserved more than whatever time and energy I had left at the end of the day.
So, here we are!
The part that surprises me most is the writing itself.
Having any kind of presence online has always been hard for me. I've always associated it with being on camera, constantly posting, and performing some version of myself for an audience. And while I love sharing music, that part has never come naturally to me.
Writing feels different. I can put a thought out into the world, step back, and let it exist without having to put myself in front of a camera. Maybe I'll get there eventually. I'm not ruling it out.
But for now, I basically get to cosplay as Carrie Bradshaw, typing away and overthinking a song.
And I think I can get behind that.
What I want to write about goes beyond sharing playlists, although there will absolutely be plenty of those.
I miss sitting with a song and asking what it's actually doing in a scene, in a particular moment, or in the world around us. I miss following those questions and seeing where they lead.
Sometimes that might mean writing about a song and its relationship to a protest movement. Sometimes it'll be about why a particular needle drop works so well, or how a song can completely change the way we experience a scene. And sometimes, it'll just be me talking about a record I've had on repeat for a week for reasons I can't fully explain.
I want room for all of it.
Music has never existed in a neat little box for me. It's tangled up in politics, history, culture, and the people who make it. It's in the stories of who got credit and who didn't, what made it onto the radio and what got buried, and how a song can take on an entirely different meaning depending on who's listening.
I want a place where I can follow those threads without feeling like I have to justify why a music person is talking about something other than music.
This is that place.
But there's also a much simpler reason for doing all of this, one that has nothing to do with building an audience, growing a brand, or figuring out what the hell I'm supposed to do with my career.
I want a record of my own thinking.
I want somewhere to put the things I discover, the songs I fall in love with, the questions I can't stop thinking about, and the opinions that might change as I learn more.
Even if only three people ever read this, I'll have something to look back on. A little archive of what I was listening to, what I cared about, and how I saw the world at a particular point in my life.
And that alone feels worth doing.
So here's the first one. Not a mission statement, not a rebrand, just me deciding to actually use this space for what it was always supposed to be for.
Cheers to this!