When you ask a musician what brings them joy, a typical answer you might expect is the “thrill” of their performances. For senior Seoyoung Choi at Los Gatos High School, her love for music is not so much related to the aspect of playing… but singing and listening to patterns intertwined by layers of different instrumentals and guitar effects.
To give you a sense of what I mean: when her mom introduced her to Korean indie music, she instantly fell in love. She has since recorded her own songs for fun and performed song covers in Korea and the US after she moved in 2022. At the same time, her music curiosity has led her down several YouTube spirals, exploring everything from classical to pop albums, and eventually introducing her to genres from the 1950s. But alas, her search concludes. She’s found a favorite music genre: shoegaze, a rock genre characterized by its dreamy and immersive quality, with ethereal vocals and guitar effects blended into its instrumentals.
“It sounds kind of noisy, but the pedals make it different from the regular guitar sound,” Seoyoung said. “I like how there is a balance between noisy guitar and soft vocals.”
Her favorite shoegaze album is Loveless by My Bloody Valentine. As she listens to similar songs recommended by Spotify, she collects them in a playlist. Eventually, one playlist led to another, and now, she’s made over 34 playlists, carefully curated to match a certain mood or vibe.
“I have a playlist for when I’m sad called ‘Blue in Us’ and another for more summer fantasy songs,” Seoyoung said. “I also have a playlist called ‘Cloud’, including ambient music that feels airy and spacious like nature. One artist I found made me fall asleep while listening, and that inspired me to create my own sleep playlist, in hopes it can help someone else sleep easier, too.”
Whether it’s understanding different perspectives on someone’s life through music lyrics or creating her own music club at school, called MP3 Music Club, music allows her to build connections with others and express her own emotions.
“Music has been a way for me to connect with my feelings, even ones that others may not fully understand,” Seoyoung said. “It liberates my soul. When I listen to dreamy music, I think about my goals and what I want to do in life. Other times, music is like a mentor guiding me through my emotions and memories.”
Though listening and performing have been the forefront of her music passion, it was through digging and engaging in deep listening to different music that shaped her music identity and aspirations to become an artist and study music production in the future.
But…music isn’t her only outlet; photography has given her a new perspective on life. In particular, Seoyoung enjoys capturing the little patterns nature creates.
“I notice that a lot of photographers tend to focus on capturing the full landscape or architecture,” Seoyoung said. “But, I don’t like to capture what I see or where I am, I enjoy capturing photos of how I feel about certain things or patterns in nature that people tend to overlook, and create photography that pushes people to dive beyond the surface to understand.”
Her photography has been recognized with an honorable mention by Scholastic and featured in the New Museum Los Gatos ‘ArtNow’ exhibit.
“A lot of people think that art is difficult, that only certain people can make and perform music. But there is no right answer to art. Just start creating, and don’t worry about what other people think.”
– Seoyoung Choi, 2025
More of her layered photography:
Teens of Bay Area 
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