A you may have read in another post where I wrote about Funeral For A Friend being the first band I ever truly loved and connected with, I said I would go over slightly, the journey that took me to getting to where I am musically now! It’s by all means not going to be the whole package, nor for that matter will it be in order, as time has passed and the initial steps are either not great or lost to time!
I don’t really have a solid idea of how it started, but I think my parents actually played a part. I can always remember having music and the radio as a kid, I think my parents used to get me ‘now’ tapes so I was listening to things that they wouldnt normally touch. This is good as I’m not sure where being 26 and listening to Jimmy nail would have got me!
Oasis – this is the first thing that I can remember being of worthwhile interest to me (actually now I say that Euro96 had three lions, that was possibly the first memorable song I have). Retrospectively though oasis came to the fore, with what’s the story morning glory featuring however I think the album that got me into music as such was be here now. If I’m honest nowadays I don’t mind the older stuff but I wouldn’t go out of my way to listen to them!
Dance – this section I don’t really get, at the time it wasn’t like a hardened clubber situation, but this was what I liked, went well with video games and stuff, and frankly I’m glad this phase happened as a kid and I didn’t turn into the carbon copy fans of house or whatever else these days. Like anything I’m not closing doors to it, but unless its amazing then I’m unlikely to have any interest and even then, that will fade quickly!
Rap – this stage was a bit longer and isn’t something that has disappeared, I will gladly stick on some Jay-z or kanye into my playlist, really liked childish gambinos last record too. This started early high school with repeated listens to the Marshall mathers lp and the slim shady lp, two records that I would still listen to today, however there’s just not the same connection!
Nu metal/nirvana – not really sure which came first, rap or nu metal however this was a genre that I listened to a lot at the time, mtv2 and kerrang were a pretty big influence at the time, which knowing how they aren’t all that ahead of the game these days seems odd, however this was at a time of living in the countryside with awful internet! Still got time for this kind of thing on nights out and stuff, but it’s not going to find its way into my play queue regularly!
Coldplay & chili’s – maybe a strange mix to put together, however I remember around the end of year six and these two dropping by the way and a rush of blood to the head and absolutely loving them both, and then exploring more and finding califonication and parachutes. I get that they”re different but they had equal play time, however I still hold coldplay in high regard, not sure I can say the same for the chili’s!
Indie/punk/pop punk – once sixth form came and I went to a bigger place with a different mix of people, then my tastes suddenly broadened. This is when I found funeral for a friend but before this the early work of the killers, razorlight, arctic monkeys, bloc party and Franz Ferdinand figured, alongside a massive love of the libertines.
This is also when I found out about the pistols the clash joy division and so on, now I’m not saying these are people I listen to religiously however I acknowledge the influence they had on what I listen to now and the pioneering work they did!
Also at this time I found blink properly, discovered taking back Sunday and my chemical romance and generally developed in general. This was the first time I had got to a point where I didn’t give a shit what people thought about tastes and expressed myself without worrying, possibly the best thing to come from the time!
As you can see it’s kind of been all over the place, so much stuff has come in that I can listen to all sorts. I don’t see the need to shut out things simply by genre I listen to what I like. Because a lot of it happens to be pop punk and related sounds doesn’t mean I can’t like other things, or wouldn’t like a suggestion someone had for me. Look at my last fm and you see it goes all over the place, even in the last three months!
Thanks for getting this far! Please feel free to give a comment! and find me on twitter; tumblr, GiffGaff or last.fm!
mdickinson35 