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Post by strat-0 on Nov 3, 2004 21:58:04 GMT -5
I couldn’t think of a place to put this, so I’ll start a thread – maybe someone will want to comment on it or post their own views. I’ve been musing lately about Music – what it means to me and how that meaning has evolved during my life. If there’s one common thread among all of us here, it’s a shared love of music and its importance in our lives. It’s the thing that brought us together, despite wide differences in tastes, ages, socio-economic status, education, political leanings, religion, etc., etc., etc., worldwide. The way I view music and its place in my life has changed over time – sometimes in ways that have concerned me, and that’s why I’d like to share these thoughts and see if maybe any of you have experienced anything similar (or not). When I was in my teens and early twenties, music was a huge part of my life at all times. Like many here, I followed all the new bands and trends, built up collections, and was listening to music virtually at all times. My appetite was voracious. I began playing guitar at 19, and continue to play today (as most of you would know). But in recent years, I’ve noticed a change. For example, I could listen to music all day now at work if I wanted to, but I seldom do. I think there are several reasons for this. One, when I listen to music, I listen[/b] to music. My work as a writer and course developer requires a lot of concentration, and if I try to listen to music, I begin to concentrate on the music – I can’t just let it run in the background. Two, I actually have my own stereo playing some kind of music in my head most of the time anyway, and I can just listen to that. But even at home or in the car, I don’t play music nonstop. I wonder if this is due to the energies and time I spend in making my own music, because that has sort of eclipsed being a passive listener. Now, don’t get me wrong – I still love to put on some good tunes and clean out my ears, or even kick back with some classical, but it’s just not as frequent as when I was younger. The other thing is that I find it difficult to locate good sources of music these days, and most new music I run across is the pits. I know that I could burden you guys and get turned on to all kinds of music that I would like, or I could try harder to seek out good new music, but it generally is scarcer than it used to be. I have done some of that, of course – Don P has sent me several exquisite, personally compiled collection tapes, Howenstein has sent me new stuff that I’ve enjoyed, Stratman has shared excellent videos of some of my favorite bands, and others have pointed me in some cool directions and enlightened me to stuff that I have enjoyed and appreciated. When I first surfed into RS.com, I participated in many different discussions that were strictly musical in nature, but over time, I found myself gravitating to other (sometimes musically related and sometimes not) topics. I was looking for something more than just in-depth discussion or debate on particular bands or albums, etc., and something more personal. For example, my affinity for CE and Bared Souls/Brains is pretty well established! When I see some of you guys going into detailed discussions on scores of different artists and other current nuances, I think it’s the coolest thing, but I just don’t have much significant to add, y’know? I guess having less free time these days may have something to do with it. Music’s importance to me has not changed, but something has. Another noteworthy aspect is that after my divorce five years ago, listening to music left me totally cold for a year. I mean, it just lost its magic and couldn’t get through to move me at all. Playing still worked. But that’s all better now, though.  Anyhow, it’s been on my mind. Is it a function of age, boredom, shifting priorities, or what? Has anyone else faced what they felt might be a “musical crisis”? |
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Post by ModernDeathTrend on Nov 3, 2004 22:59:35 GMT -5
This is an interesting thing. I find myself plagued with the same problem. However, I have different levels of music for different times. I find that I study much better when I have music playing. It helps me work things out to a certain flow. Particularly classical fused metal such as Nightwish, Virgin Steele,Samael,MOrtiis and Savatage works really well for me.
Then comes the times when I am in my don't care mood, and I listen to poppy party stuff like Kiss and Andrew WK. True my personal fave is metal, but my interests also go further. As long as it sounds good to me that is all that matters. However, there comes times when I find it harder and harder to find new stuff because you reach a certain point in your collection where it is next to impossible to find something new. Then comes the times we live in, when there is virtually nothing that I am into. I got completely depressed with the state of music in the US.
Now I am at the point where a majority of the music I am into is overseas. Bands like Primal Fear, Nightwish, Samael, Mortiis, etc are what really get my grooves going.
I know music was a big part of my life then and still is. Just the places have changed to protect the innocent.
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Post by Nepenthe on Nov 4, 2004 2:33:59 GMT -5
Wow this could take awhile. I will start by saying that music has changed so much. Music has always been big in my life. As a kid my older brother, who is 8 years older than me, was into Hendrix, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Van Halen, AC/DC ect.. oh and of course Classical music. He plays guitar as well. My older sister (she is only 18 months younger than my brother) was into Elton John big time, The Eagles, The Beatles, The kinks, Hermans Hermits, The Doors, Bread, America, Elvis, and various pop. My mother was and still is into country music, Neil Diamond, Elvis, Streisand, Celine Dion and stuff like that. I loved Neil Diamond when I was little. My dad is into jazz and blues. I was surrounded by music all of my life. My main influences rooted with my brother though. The rock and metal stuck hard and to this day I love it. Mainstream rock was so much better during the 70's and 80's imo. I think pop music was the BEST in the 80's as well. Pop music never bothered me like it does today. I miss bands/artists like Foghat, Bad Company, BOC, Eagles, Boston, Chicago, Kansas, REO Speedwagon, Styx, Journey, J Geils, Dire Straits, Peter Gabriel, Hall and Oats, Robert Palmer, the Cars, Devo... just to name a few. I also like quite a bit of country music but I really don't listen to it anymore because it has become too poppy. I like the older school stuff as well. As for metal, well everyone knows I am into the old school sound. My favorite type of metal is thrash and classical Power metal (despite the wide spread belief that I am a big hair metal fan). This is hard to find in the States today no doubt. Europe has such an appreciation for this type of music. It is unbelievable how many fans in Europe there are of good old school metal. The biggest music drought for me was back in the early 90's when the grunge and manson/nin/Korn era came into the picture. I loathed the radio and stopped listening rock stations completely. If I had the radio on in the car at all it was on a country station. Then we had Nu Metal usher in BLAH! Until I got connected with the newer European Metal (new oldschool metal I should say) I was pretty much in a rut, starving for what I love the most. I have PH to thank for much of that.  One thing is true though, it is hard for me to listen to music as much as I use to and as much as I would like to. I was so bad as a kid and teenager that I had to have the radio playing all night long just to sleep. That actually continued for a bit after I moved away from home, but a certain someone I lived with put a stop to that. He couldn't sleep with it on (my ex). One of the reasons I think for this is cause when you have children in the house, you can't blast the music 24/7, and just responsibilities in general. who coined that term hair metal in the first place? This must mean that nu metal is bald metal. LOL Not true actually, if you consider Fear Factory the originators of Nu Metal. They all have long hair, and oddly they are one of the very few Nu Metal bands I like. |
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Post by pissin2 on Nov 4, 2004 15:07:11 GMT -5
Music is and always will be a big part of my life. I often wonder why I don't try and make music. I sort of started to play guitar once.
I never really find it hard to find good new music. Even if it's something old that grabs my attention, it happens all the time. Like recently for example I can't get enough Bad Religion. And with all the shit going on in our country and the world, there's been a bit of political fire lit underneath me, so I keep going back listening to older protest songs, then more bad religion, anti-flag, Rage Against The Machine, etc. I mostly listen to just rock, but different types for different moods or times.
Like in the morning I have to set my cd player to wake up to something hard and fast usually, with a good opening riff that will get me up. Usually Metallica, Guns N' Roses, AC/DC, Bouncing Souls, Ramones, etc. But then when I get in the car to go to work I'm in chill mode, and it's A Perfect Circle, Pink Floyd, Tool, Mad Season, and anything acoustic or mellow from bands like Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Opeth, STP, etc. Then when I got out of work it's faster punk, or just heavy metal. It always different. Usually I have to listen to punk when I'm partying with my friends. Some people want to doom and gloom, some people want to crank the death, some people want something "bumpin" Fuck that, throw on some Dropkick Murphys or H20 and toss me a godamn beer.
I really like to listen and pay attention to music, but I can also use it as background. I listen to music all day in work (though my job isn't that hard). But sometimes at night I'll try to write stories or poems and shit, but I can still listen to music while doing it. It usually doesn't affect what I'm writing, besides mood anyway. I don't start stealing ideas or lines from songs. It's weird because out of all my friends I'm the only one that likes heavy metal, grunge, hard rock, punk, blues, stoner rock, some nu metal, ska, rockabilly, I even like just about all Metallica! Some people think I'm crazy because on a friday night I'm shouting Operation Ivy songs or Social Distortion out loud with my drunken friends, or I'm at the bar pumping the jukebox full of Slayer, but then during the week when I'm just chillin in my room I'll be listening to Tori Amos or Nine Inch Nails.
I don't know where I'm going with this now, but all I know is I'd go crazy if I couldn't listen to music.
Oh and my favorite band is still Aerosmith. No matter what they do from here on out. An obsession I've had since 1993 when I heard Livin' On The Edge and then realized soon after they also did shit like Dream On and Sweet Emotion. I've since gotten everything, and will admit to some of their later poppy stuff sucking, but Honkin On Bobo was pretty awesome. They just bring my favorite sound. Basically because of the two badasses on guitar - Joe Perry and Brad Whitford. Great when you're sober, stoned, drunk, gettin laid, drivin somewhere, even some to fall asleep too. It's only rock n' roll but I like it.
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Post by rockkid on Nov 5, 2004 11:22:45 GMT -5
My musical tastes are so varied I’m all over the board, always have been.
The single & most interesting thread (through out my life atleast) is I can time line so much to different songs.
You know the old “everyone remembers what they were doing when such & such a historical event occurred” well for me it’s with music.
I can chart my life to it. Scary or normal either way the whole aspect of being able to do that so clearly amazes me still.
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Post by pissin2 on Nov 5, 2004 11:44:35 GMT -5
I do that too. I remember when I met certain people, or which house friends of mine were currently living in at, at the time and I'll go "No, you were at this house, because that's when A Perfect Circle put out their first album. I remember" I also lived in Virginia a certain point in my life throughout the mid 90s, which I hated, so much in fact the only good thing I remember was all the good music I was getting into at the time like Green Day, STP, The Offspring. I consider certain albums "Virginia albums". I also remember when I started certain jobs because of music.
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Post by bowiglou on Nov 5, 2004 12:27:44 GMT -5
strat-o...interesting and intriguing musings, many of which I can totally resonate to...music has been a huge part of my life since I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan show Feb of 1964 as a 7 year old...then of course gravitated to many artists since then.......the Stones, Monkees, Doors, Elton John, Bowie, Iggy, new wave, punk, etc etc..................but the time I have expended in music has waxed and waned with life events..when I became married with two very young step children, I had other life priorities that precluded much involvement in music...then after a tumultuous divorce, I found much solace in music, which was in conjunction with joining RS.com, and further galvanized/rejuventated my interest in music, both old and new..............however, now that I have re-married and again very involved in family activities as well as starting my own consulting firm, though I have kept somewhat in touch with music, I haven't kept up near the extent that I did when I'm single....so I have noticed, that my involvement in music, especially in my later years (I'm 48 years old) is contingent on the prevailing life events........
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Post by Philemon on Nov 5, 2004 16:32:45 GMT -5
I think I've done this a few times on different RS.com boards back in the good/bad ol'days but here we go again. A personal Reader Digest rambling resumé ... I just hope I won't bored myself to death(HÉ ! I know how the story end)before I finish writing this thing ... As far as I can remember, there's always been music in our home. My mother played piano and one of her sister was a semi-pro opera singer. I was raised on a steady diet of classical music, French and Québec singer/writers music. The first album in english I remember hearing was my sister's "Peter, Paul and Mary's In Concert" album; nice intro to Pete Seger and Bob Dylan music btw. Then The Beatles came along followed closely by adolescence right in the middle of the "roaring" 60's ... YESSSSS !!!!! Being an adolescent meant three preocupations at the time : (1) Make out with the girls ! - No HIV ... (2) Movies and Music - Other Major Making-Out opportunities ... (3) Getting a car - best place to Make Out ! I remember entire weekends spend in some basement with a whole bunch of nice "Dudes and Dudettes" discovering the music of Jimi Hendrix and Santana and learning how to unhook a $%/?*&?$" bra !! Then it was Pink Floyd and the(late)discovery of Marijuana ... The best of times ... It really was ... Then you got to College and started to lose touch with the old gang and kept just a few friends(but lots of girlfriends) ... Having discovered Jazz in the early 70's, I made two trips to NYC each year of college staying in low-budget hotels near Washington Square trying to get in as many Jazz(and Blues)concerts as I could and buying 20 to 30 Jazz albums each time ... First trip to Europe and being without music for the first time, you had to hang out in bars and Cafés and put a fortune in jukeboxes - Hotel California and The Year of the Cat being the two big hits everywhere that year- except in Greece where the colonels still kept a tight rein on what the youths in that country could listen to(which was strictly Greek music) !!. I remember walking in a French village one day and coming upon a house where I could hear some old Crosby, Still, Nash and Young tunes blasting from the speakers inside, I just had to knock on the door and invited myself in, telling the guy I had to listen to some good music !! Then on December 8th 1980, John Lennon was shot dead. That night I got blindy drunk with some friends and it's a good thing somebody hid the key of the bartender's car because we wanted so badly to get to NYC just to be with the mourning crowd. One of our friends simply stopped playing guitar and quit his garage band after hearing the news of Lennon's murder ... One month later, Ronald Reagan became president of the U.S.A. and the 60's were finaly and definitely over. So were the illusions of our youth ... It was the start of a 10 years "desert crossing" as far as music was concerned for me, highlighted by the destruction in a fire at my ex-girlfriend appartment of all my music collection(thousands of LP's and hundreds of ¼"reel-to-reel tapes) and a winter parenthèse retreat in the mid-80's spent in the deep snowed countryside with 40 goats, an Irishman named Mike and 40 Frank Zappa's albums ... During those 10 + years, I worked on movie sets on location for weeks or months at a time and travelled throughout Southern Europe and North Africa the rest of the time, effectively living out of a suitcase with friends and family, hotels all over the province or abroad. I don't think I bought one music album during all that time ... Then I met a wonderful woman and seeing I was fast approaching my 40's, I thought it was time to settle down. After a few years of living together(me still working mostly on locations)when that lady told me it was "Babies Time" or "Get Back on the Road Jack Time", I KNEW the moment was well chosen to start building up a new music collection ... Funny thing is, my Better-Half doesn't share my passion for music, never did and never will ! She likes music alright but not enough to get up and put some on and I try to keep Janis Joplin or Mrs. Bungle off the speakers when she's around ... Her parents never listened to any music as far as I know and in the 18 years I've known her, she has bought the grand total of ONE music cassette, mistakenly getting a Pearl Jam album instead of the Talking Heads' she was looking for ... The first CD I got for myself when buying a new -small- sound system was Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band first reissue. I also bought four other copies for some old friends like I had done that beautiful June morning of 1967, waiting at the music store door to be the first one to get that Beatles album(still in their cartons)and get it for all my friends... The beauty of starting a music collection anew is you get to acquire only the most essential works from the most influential artists of the past. Because money doesn't grow on trees and the family budget has priority, I try to get one seminal album and then an Anthology from each artist of my youth, exceptions being -principally- made for The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Miles Davis and - of course- FRANK ZAPPA ... I've always said -half-jockingly- that my new criterias for buying an album are : (1) The artist must be dead. (2) The band must be separated for a while. (3) The album itself must be at least 5 year old. Maybe this is what "getting old" really means but each time I hear one of the many new artists/bands you guys talk about effusively, they all sound the same to me or I'm sure I,ve heard something quite similar in my "Good Ol'Days" ... Now don't get too upset with me because I'm sure it's only a misguided perception doubled with a small dose of bad faith on my part. Sigur Ros probably being the only band I really got in in the last few years, Wilco, Belle et Sébastien being the others I can think of quickly. I'd rather buy a great Jazz record made 40 or 50 years ago than take a chance on the new « Flavor of the Month » band. Maybe next year I'll ask you all if The Stroke's « Is This It ? » still qualifies as a Must-Buy album ...  The last 3 albums I've bought are all compilations : Jackson Browne – Sly and the Family Stone - Talking Heads (told the Better-Half it was for her – don't think she bought it !!) Well I did take parenting seriously and got the kids -Eldest Son & Second Son- on a steady diet of Beatles/Zappa, Blues, Jazz, World and Classical Music from the moment they were born ! Father(proud) and Sons(5 and 6 y/o) in a chairlift belting away Zappa's DON'T EAT THAT YELLOW SNOW to slightly bemused skiers below(and Better-Half insisting on taking another chair Ü)is one hell of a good memory ... Alas, kids insist on growing to inflict(musical)pain on their father and now my pimpled adolescents are blasting Nordic/Heavy/Speed/Death/Hair Metal in their own Boom Box, much to the chagrin of their parents. TURN IT DOWN ! (Joe's Garage). Mais bon sang ne saurait mentir and I know deep in my little « hippie » heart all that Zappa music they listened to when they were toddlers will(subliminaly at least)come back to them one day and open their ears to other music genres !! Right now, as I'm writing this, taking the best part of that first snowy day because of the bloody english language, I'm listening to a CD I burned with different covers of some of the best Leonard Cohen's songs along with the originals. I really think I would die without music and I try to listen to it as much as possible. When I'm working, reading scripts or writing reports, like Strat, I've noticed I cannot listen to music because I cannot concentrate on both and background music is sacrilege to me ! Smooth Jazz anyone ... ?? I always find it funny when people lament that good music is hard to find there days. Of course, in these days of formatted, homogenized, make'em/copy'em/throw'em away/start again, the music industry has accustomed us to, it is harder to find real creative and original artists/bands but all you have to do is step away from R'n'R for a minute to discover new genres and also try looking backward instead of always waiting for the next music savior. Back in the late 60's, early 70's, commercial radio stations went to great lenghts to discover and present as many genres of music as the artists were trying to create back then. Those were the days ... One thing I've never been able to do is discuss musical opinions with other people, other that saying : « DISCO SUCKS THE BIG ONE ! I HATE (S)PUNK !! FRANK ZAPPA IS A GENIUS !!! ...  Feelings and rapport to music are very personal and tastes are best left alone as long as the owner of said feelings is respectful of others' tastes as well. Of course Britney Spears and other mindless Bubble Gum-Boy Bands' ignorant fans are always free game target of ridicule and shame. Discussions about the sociological rôle of music in our lives is entirely another subject and I love(d) reading Mary and Ken discussing the influence Punk had on their lives. Doesn't make Punk more musicaly palatable but there you go !! I miss being part of a team, working on « real-life »projects with other people and toiling alone in front of a computer all day is such a drag – even though I love the work- the boards give me a chance to communicate with people I've come to care about one way or the other, even though I've had less and less to say in the past year ... Anyhow, it’s been on my mind. Is it a function of age, boredom, shifting priorities, or what? ... It's All of the Above !! SNAP OUT OF IT !! ;D ;D |
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Post by Philemon on Nov 5, 2004 16:40:59 GMT -5
Holy shit ! THat was a long winded, head-in-his-own-ass post ...
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Post by bowiglou on Nov 5, 2004 17:50:12 GMT -5
not really Phil, I rather enjoyed reading it.......sheds even further insight into your problematic, um, delightful personality.......
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Post by ScottsyII on Nov 5, 2004 18:17:41 GMT -5
Where do I begin with this one... I have neither Phil's years or wisdom, but I can start at the beginning for me... When I was a kid about 9 years I remember commandeering the family cassette recorder and taping songs off the radio... this became something of an obsession, and I must have gone through countless cassettes making radio mix tapes. Most of the stuff I recorded was the crappy commercial shite of the time, you know around 1984 / 1985 which must have actually been quite a low point musically...lol... but an obsession had begun. For my twelfth birthday, I was presented with a shiny black dual cassette portable stereo, and i have never looked back since... my first cassette to play in was a gift from a lady up the road who was a family friend, and it was Midnight Oil's self titled first album... it was something like ten years old already, so my days of taping pop songs off the radio were already limited... What then ensued was an almost pathological support of Midnight Oil... my aim was to have every single one of their albums on cassette, and damnit, I was going to achieve that goal!!! I cannot begin to tell you the immediate joy tha came from hearing 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 on cassette for the first time, and every other subsequent update of my Midnight Oil collection was equally a joyous occassion!!! :-) But a music fan cannot live by one band alone, and my sole Midnight Oil obsession was soon to be broken by the discovery of two other key bands in the development of my musical tastes... namely, two rather different bands musically, REM and Genesis...  I discovered out of Time by REM and it instantly forced me to think outside of my meat and patatoes straight ahead rock mentality... it soon follwed that I was seduced by the progressive rock and keyboard tones of Genesis, so my sole rock fan days were again being broken away and reshaped into a broader perspective and understanding of music. Of course my Genesis fan - dom then led to my admiration of Peter Gabriel and all that he has done, so again, I set out to collect all that he had released... Once I left high school and entered College (or as we call it here "Uni") I continued my obsessive collecting of Genesis and related artists, whilst broadening my perspective to harder edged music of the time... Pearl Jam came into my life at about that point, which was to be a stepping stone to louder and more heavier bands later. Leaving College was a major turning point in my life in that I had a pretty bad misfire to the start of my career, which thankfully I look back on now with barely more than a "meh" that was a bad start... It was in this year my tastes really started heading all sorts of directions... now having the disposeable income to fund my listening habits... I really start to get interesting as a listener. Aside from my usual obsession with prog rock, I branched into both metal and electronic music kinda simultaneously... at the same time listening to more mellow music whilst getting more brutal in my tastes. 1999 was the year I embraced Fear Factory, Type O Negative and Tool... as well as Gerling... a fairly dance oriented band hee in Australia. Clearly I was branching out alot. Then, early in 2000, I met Melissa and my entire perspective in life shifted in a radical way. I'd had crushes and dates before, but there had never been a relationship like this in my life before... it was simply all encompassing, and i knew I'd found my life time partner... even though she lived half a world away!!! This was another watershed year in my musical listening... I discovered david Bridie, veteran Australian singer / songwriter.... Melissa and i fell immediately in love with his debut solo release, "Act of Free Choice". This album remains my favourite album of all time... it was also the most gentle, refined, textured thing I had ever heard up to that point... but that didn't stop me buying more metal that very same year. :-) The next biggest discovery for me was only a couple of years ago. Hearing the Church's "After Everything Now This" would be yet another shift in my listening tastes... back to the progressive, experimental angle. In my usual way I sought out everything recorded by the band, and what I found is a timeless, consistently brilliant band, which unfortunately for the world is sadly overlooked. So that is the journey that has carried me thus far, and i don't see any sign of it slowing down... I will always be a music lover and I will always have thirst for something new. I can't say I am getting any younger, and as I do my taste becomes more discerning, more refined, but in doing so I don't feel as I am moving within the same circle all the time... there's still alot out there to discover... I largely avoid the retro - rock movement, because its just rehashed. I'm looking for a good tune, a good wall of sound, whether it be soft and atmospheric, or hard and brutal, I'll take anything that feels good, but I won't be bothered with hype... I'll like what moves me, and what I need is an involving lyric a complex composition and lots of feeling. I think with those things in mind I'll be scouring record stores for years to come... |
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Post by stratman19 on Nov 5, 2004 19:45:31 GMT -5
Holy shit ! THat was a long winded, head-in-his-own-ass post ... Bullshit Phil, I thought it was great. |
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Post by ScottsyII on Nov 6, 2004 8:50:45 GMT -5
It was indeed good Phil! It inspired me to write my own little piece! I dare say mine is not even a mere shadow of your good piece of writing! Enjoyed it immensely, I did!
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Post by strat-0 on Nov 6, 2004 16:07:46 GMT -5
I'm immensly enjoying all of these responses - getting a little deeper into some of our personalities is fun and often surprising! Perhaps Don will also pop in and share some of his well-known, flowing and vivid prose with us...
Yes, we are lucky when parents and especially older siblings provide a guiding influence and steer us clear of the crap! I think I first became aware of music in a serious way when my older brother turned me on to the Who - specifically "Tommy" in 1972. I would put headphones on and listen to it in its entirety and it would just take me to another place. I still love that music. I didn't realize at the time that they were really a balls-to-the-wall rock and roll band! The first album I bought was Faces' "A Nod is as Good as a Wink to a Blind Horse" - the one with "Stay with Me" on it. I discovered them and the Moody Blues on my own. I would do the headphones thing with the Moodys too - I thought they were so "profound"! That was my way of "tripping" before I got into "other" things, heh, heh...
To be brief, from there I moved into a steady diet of rock and roll - meat and potatoes stuff, y'know - Led Zep, BOC, Pink Floyd, the Who, Rush, BTO, Black Sabbath, Bowie, Clapton, just to name a few, plus all the peripherals like the Beatles, CSN, a little Stones, a lot of Blues, and some "Glam" (Mott the Hoople, New York Dolls, etc.), Hendrix, Lou Reed, the Dead. Lots more, of course...
I have to say that to me, though, it really all gets back to the Who. To each his own, but to me, that's the epitome and pinnacle of Rock and Roll. I really enjoyed my trip last summer to Tampa - getting to see the Wholigans and meet Wholi, then seeing Molly Hatchet, BOC, and Paul Rogers was great. Really took me back. Haven't given up on rock and roll yet, though.
Man, like Phil, this makes me remember some of my old posts from RS.com (RIP). But where would we be without the music...?
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Post by Ryosuke on Nov 10, 2004 3:14:43 GMT -5
Count me in as someone else who can't work and listen to music at the same time. I suppose for some of the really easy stuff where I can churn out translations pretty much mechanically, I could do the job with a Clash tune blaring out from the speakers - especially since I tend to not care much abut the quality of my work for those stuff. But for the ones that, you know, require actual brain power, having music in the background would be nothing but an annoying distraction.
As for my history as a music fan, I'm not going to bother recounting it here, but I will say this - I never, ever imagined when I was a teenager that I would still be checking out new music at the age of 26. I don't know why, but I just figured that I'd be one of those old geezers who always complain how there is nothing in current music that compares to the stuff that was around when I was a youngster. Which is funny, because with my taste in music improving over the years (naturally), a lot of the current music that I listen to now is infinitely better than the stuff I listened to as a teenager in the mid-90s. I have more financial resources, better sources of information (and yes, the folks here play a big part in that), and the sense to not buy into hype (fucking hell those music journalists are so clueless).
But having said that, music isn't that important to me. I honesty don't know why I chose music as the object of my obsession, and I can easily imagine that obsession being directed at something else under different circumstances. I actually am quite passionate about Japanese comic books, or manga (although I cannot emphasize enough how they are misrepresented in the English speaking world - most of the stuff that gets published over there is the comic equivalent of Britney Spears or Linkin Park, and it would be nice to see someone translate an Iou Kuroda or a Kyoko Okazaki work, but I digress), and there are plenty of other interests (movies, live theater, books, comedy, food, whatever) that could serve as potential replacements should music be somehow taken away from me inexplicably. So yeah, even though music plays an enormous part of my life, I'm not going to die or anything without it.
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