OMFG TECH

What It’s Like for a Deaf Person to Hear Music for the First Time

The first thing I heard was my shoe scraping across the carpet; it startled me. I have never heard that before and out of ignorance, I assumed it was too quiet for anyone to hear.

[…]

When Mozart’s Lacrimosa came on, I was blown away by the beauty of it. At one point of the song, it sounded like angels singing and I suddenly realized that this was the first time I was able to appreciate music. Tears rolled down my face and I tried to hide it. But when I looked over I saw that there wasn’t a dry eye in the car.

I recommend reading whilst listening to Lacrimosa.

Music is amazing.

And then:

Following that experience, Chapman did what any smart Internet-connected 23-year-old* with a question for a crowd would do: He turned to Reddit, asking, “I can hear music for the first time ever, what should I listen to?”

The response was tremendous, running more than 14,000 comments and garnering the attention of Spotify, which gave him six months of free membership and a 13-hour playlist that covers a huge range of music.

The Internet is amazing.