Disclaimer: Before you start reading this, I suggest you listen to the song above while reading this.

Last year I participated in a social media music analysis where their system would scan your Spotify library and identify your top music genres. My most listened or replayed genre was Pop Music, mainly charts or popular music or basic as hell music. Though Pop can be categorised into many sub-categories like adult contemporary, J pop/K pop, Teen pop, Dance pop; the only pop songs I listened to were the major basic ones or the ones that were popular in 2011 or even earlier. I'd say I was stuck in my high school pop fantasy as I enjoyed music from artists such as Justin Bieber, Halsey and Taylor Swift. They were artists I grew up listening to.

I was never the type of girl who would listen to rap or R&B - I never liked it. Kanye West, P Diddy? Nope, not my cup of tea. Eminem's famous song Love The Way You Lie was probably the only song with rapping in it that I could handle. Growing up, my friends, mostly the guys would listen to Nirvana and Eminem and I remembered that one time, I forced myself to memorise some of their songs to not feel left out. I did it, but I didn't enjoy it. When I got lazy to "fit in", I reverted back to emo songs from Taylor Swift and country music. My taste in music then evolved in 2013 into House, EDM, Skrillex etc.

Fast forward to 2020.

Ever since the Movement Control Order (MCO) was enforced almost two months ago, I took the opportunity to browse Spotify for some cool tunes but I rediscovered some of my favourite country songs by Faith hill. I added about seven old songs like There You'll be, I Need You and There You'll Be into my 2 hour and 9 minute Emo Oldies playlist on Spotify. I listened to this playlist every single day for the first 2 weeks of the MCO. I listened to it when I was working, when I was showering, sleeping, staring at the wall. It was on loop! 

But guess what happened?

I got bored and was over it.

One night, after binge watching One Tree Hill for the 100th time, I was browsing Youtube and stumbled upon this band called Wallows. An American rock band (but their vibes are more like the Band, 1975). Before even listening to any of their songs, something caught my eye.

"hEYYYY isn't that that guy from 13 Reasons Why?"

I clicked the video.

Almost instantly I was feeling it. Not bad Dylan Minnette, you can act and sing. Not bad. I started watching their other videos. I remember listening to their other hit "Are You Bored Yet" and I didn't like it, then "Remember When" etc. and didn't like them either. I started watching their interviews on Youtube and I knew what was coming. 

I was about to fan girl. This always happens and I hate it, Why do I always allow my self to fan girl and be a groupie from 8,710 miles away. Whyyyyyyyyyy?? I listened to the song OK, everyday. It's embarrassing. Every waking minute. Remember in the paragraph above I mentioned that I disliked their other songs, I kid you not, I forced myself to listen to them more than ten times and I finally got hooked. I was OBSESSED. I was telling my friends Yan and Georgia how obsessed I was with the band and their music. At this rate, I had watched all their videos, their behind the scene videos, interviews etc. I even started looking at merchandise on their website. 

I really wanted their band t-shirt. 

Adamant to get my hands on one. I browsed their website quickly and added a USD$30 ($15.99 for freaking international shipping and because of the crazy COVID-19 pandemic, shipping would take about 4.6 weeks). Checked out and proceeded to the billing tab. I keyed in my details and address but when it came to the country drop down menu, Malaysia was not in the list!!!! 

My heart sank to my stomach. "No, no, no, maybe I missed it", so I went through the whole list again from A to Z and stopped at M because Malaysia starts with an M. Nada, nothing, zero, 404 error cannot be found. Countries like Sudan, Zimbabwe, Réunion Island (like where is that anyway), Papua  New Guinea are in the list but Malaysia isn't? At first I thought, okay may be its because we are a developing country but then there are countries listed who are third would country members. This really made my blood boil and thought I'd e-mail them  (I also tweeted this and tagged @wallows on Twitter just like how any other millennial would when they want to show dissatisfaction in practically anything). I slept it off and the next day I got a reply from Eric (Wallows store admin). Yes Eric, I am name dropping you, but I am a nice girl and will not include your surname.

His reply:

"Hello Sara, 

Thank you for contacting us. We're terribly sorry, but if your country is not listed, then online ordering is not currently available for that specific country at this time and we aren't certain as to if/when this will change.

We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and hope you have a great day.

Regards, 

Eric

Wallows Store " 

First and foremost, excuse me. Have a nice day? Seriously?. Secondly, the nerve of some people when they decide to exclude your country and include other smaller countries. Like how do they even come up with the list during their march meetings. Now I only like the band probably 5% less. I really wanted their t-shirt and was even contemplating on getting it sent to Yan in London and paying Royal Mail Postage to be shipped to Malaysia. That was the kind a monetary sacrifice I was about to make for this upcoming band. I decided not to in the end (for now) because the cost of it would be too crazy. I would actually cost me more than me buying band merchandise in KL. Also can someone send me message to clarify why some countries are not listed in the shipping drop down menu? Or why Malaysia is excluded from certain shipping routes when Singapore who is like 321.4 miles away from us isn't? 

Will that t-shirt be worth it? Will I regret my decision? Will the t-shirt be comfortable and feel a fluffy soft cloud on my Asian skin?

No body knows.

Stay tuned, I might change my mind and pay that extra moolah for it.

This is honestly my take on a 2020 Horror Film - I am ranting over a stupid cotton t-shirt. What has Rona done to me...

SJY