Personally for me, finding media that affected me took time and being in love and being best friends with unique people who helped to change my views and perspectives on life.
Media is fascinating and brilliant because a single piece of media can change the way we look at a situation almost entirely. After my breakup, I sat in my dorm, finals imminent, high out of my mind, & ate 4 crumbl cookies, nearly the first thing I’d been able to keep down in two days. My life had fallen apart, and instead of healing, all I wanted was to forget he’d ever existed. I spied my fluffy coat in the corner, modeled after Clementine’s from the movie, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which I had never watched. I slinked over to my computer, laden with love poetry, and pirated it. Two hours later, I sat shell shocked, asking myself the very question the movie aimed to answer, and feeling grateful that I had once found someone I felt understood me, even if they were cruel, and so very very human. Music and books are similar, tools of liberation, peace, and chaos. Here is pieces of media that changed my life, now go find those that change yours.
Often your media will become a mosaic of all the people you loved once, for example much of the music I loved, my ex loved. All the music i love from the 70s and 60s come from my mom & dad! A lot of the films I love, my best friend has showed me or loved. For example, one of the bands on this list, my good friend Pres, learnt my favorite song on the bass and now every time I hear it, I think of her, and my heart feels light and warm.
Also ps. find your own interests, be niche, be underground, be unique,
but don’t let it be performative. Some things are popular because they are good! Never hate on things others love unless it is objectively bad art (e.i. Rupi Kaur’s poetry) It may not be your cup of tea, but you don’t have to sprinkle salt in it for those who are drinking it…
Top 3 books, in no particular order;
Glennon Doyle’s memoirs
Rabbits for Food (Binnie Kirshenbaum)
Ada Limon, Ocean Vuong, Sue Zhao & Hala Alyan’s poetry
Film + Tv that changed me, in no particular order;
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Black Swan
Nana (The Anime)
“The answer is not a hut in the woods” by exurb2a on YouTube
Olisunvia’s philosophy channel on YouTube
Someone Great on Netflix
Sex and the City
Daisy Jones and the Six
Tekkonkinkreet (The anime)
Music that changed my life;
Oh wow… This is a long one.
Secret Boy (the album) by Wicca Phase Springs Eternal
Your Arms are my Cocoon
Afraid of Heights, and Ketchum, ID by Boygenius
Charly Bliss
Nine lives by Odie Leigh
Scott Pilgrim vs. My GPA (the song)
Complex by Katie Gregson-MacLeod
Party 4 u by Charli XCX
Writer in the Dark by Lorde
…and so so so many more…