Music Wars
For as long as I can remember, my sister and I had a sibling rivalry. Mostly my fault. She was four years younger than me, after all, and we were two very different princesses. Our bedrooms were directly opposing from the other, separated by a bathroom in the middle of the two. I deemed her room Heaven, the bathroom Purgatory, and my room Hell. So if you face the bathroom to your left was an open door showing a pretty, white room with white sheets and pink things. But then you look right and you see a shut door with a sign that said, “Danger: Kelly’s room, Enter at your own risk.” And if you dared go inside, you’d find a room with posters of bands, a wicked sound system and dark bedsheets. Do you really have to ask yourself which room our parents would show off to our guests?
Sure we got along, somewhat, on trips since we had to sit next to each other in the backseat of a car, but I was usually listening to something while my dad drove and my mother spoke to the GPS machine before smart devices existed… she expected that damn thing to talk back to us… if only we knew she was way ahead of our time. And my sister and I would sit in the backseat, each of us in our own little world. I was so detached from my family because I was the black sheep and refused to go to church, but the princess didn’t. She did what she was told-- back then anyways.
I remember one weekend we were going to the beach and we both slept in the guest room. Why? I don’t remember. But when we woke up that Saturday, I remember we both put our stereos on the dresser and we both decided to play music. We were having a music war. She had a smaller silver stereo and mine was a bigger box with separate speakers. I don’t remember which songs were the soldiers. I just remember seeing her turn the volume all the way up right after I started playing my song. I know, rookie move. That’s like winking every time you’re trying to bluff. But don’t blame her, she was still young. So, she turned it up to ten without the blood curdling realization that my stereo went to eleven. So, I merely looked left and turned my knob all the way to the right and my song roared out of the speakers. About ten seconds later, my father walked into the room and demanded to tell him just what the hell we were doing blaring music at 4 in the morning. Yeah, our first, real noise complaint. I think I was 14 and my sister was 10. We immediately turned down the volume and my mother explained that we were excited to go to the beach. My father, annoyed, let it go and walked off with my mother.
I also remember entering High School. We would take turns going in the front seat on the way to school. The front seat meant control of the stereo. We each had our own CD’s that we would put in the CD player. I’m not going to embarrass her and tell you what she was playing then because that would just be wrong. I’m also not going to tell you that she had a one year faze of playing “It’s My Life” by Bon Jovi every single morning while she got ready on repeat before going to school because that would also be wrong. Oh so wrong. Maybe as divine punishment I was destined to know the lyrics perfectly to that song instead of my favorite song. Way to smite me there, Lord. But yeah, we didn’t really ever talk. There was always music to fill that silence. And even if I was in the backseat, I still had my discman and my accordion CD case. What it housed, I don’t really recall. Here’s an attempt at remembering: Billy Talent, Flyleaf, Eminem, Evanescence, Avril Lavigne, and then mixes with something sharpie’d on them. Point is, our rivalry was dead and we were just at a civil peace. I didn’t bother her and she didn’t bother me.
Fast forward two years. Ah, 17. Yes. The best age to be. I was a junior. Things between my sister and I were more civil. I never really spoke to anyone in the house and minded my own damn business. Always in my room blasting music and not being bothered. I would hear evidence of my sister’s taste in music every time a song ended and gave a few seconds for the next one to play. We had pretty different tastes, but I didn’t really care since I was in my cave happily listening to Billy Talent or something in the rock genre. My sound system was still superior to hers and I had a secret weapon. That’s right. A sub-woofer. My dad got me a Sharper Image sound system that hung on the wall with the speakers and could hold three CDs at the same time with my precious sub-woofer on the ground that would shake the room like a damn earthquake.
My sister and I had our own lives, however different they were considering we were raised in the same house. She had a completely different routine than me, she had a better relationship with our parents than me. She was extroverted, me, an introvert. She was in Heaven and I was in Hell. Then one day we were both getting ready for school. I woke up and immediately turned on my music. We both did our getting ready routines and go off to school. I don’t remember who rode in the front that day or who rode in the front on the way back home. I do remember that she seemed sad on the ride back though. She wasn’t talking or doing much of anything. We got back home and we both went into our rooms. Again, I go straight to the stereo and start blasting. And yeah, I let it play whenever I would leave the room so I had something fulfilling to enter to. But something possessed me that day and I decided to pause the stereo. I opened the door and saw that her door was open. Also quiet. But she was in there. I went to the kitchen to get a drink and came back and a familiar song filled my ears.
It was Technologic by Daft Punk. I was in a satisfying kind of shock. I went into my room, but left the door open. I wasn’t sure what my sister was doing in her room, but I knew that it was job to rectify one thing. I went over to my sound system that I upgraded from the Sharper Image stereo (even though it was still hanging in my room as a piece of art)… I believe the sound system that I had then was a Bose sound system with a beautiful sub-woofer, but I don’t recall exactly. Why does this matter? Well, frankly, the song wasn’t on loud enough and she had it on as loud as it could go. So as any music fanatic would, I put on the same song and turned it up to eleven. Technologic was blasting fairly from her room and majestically out of mine. I heard her turn off her stereo and I walked out of my room. She was standing in the doorway, smiling at me. The first sincere smile I saw her shoot my way since I can remember. Hell, it might have been the first one ever at the ages we were at. I gave her a head nod with a little smile and we kept our doors open for the entire song. We didn’t become best friends right then and there, but there was a moment of enlightenment for both of us.
And that’s why Technologic is my favorite Daft Punk song. (Besides One More Time. And Around the World. And Aerodynamic. And Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. And Digital Love… and fuck you get the idea, they’re all amazing…) but Technologic is my blood and hers. That’s one of my most cherished memories that I doubt she remembers, but our bonding began with music. An epic, absolute classic song. One song that ran out of two sound systems that were usually at war. That song broke my stubborn silence around her and it let her know that is was okay to talk to me. It started that relationship that should have started the moment she left the womb. And I know siblings don’t always get along, but I would give my life for my sister and even though growing up around me wasn’t fun for her until I hit 17, better late than never.