Music Tastes

When I was growing up, I listened to whatever my parents were listening to on the radio, the cassette tapes I owned, and The Beatles. I think it was like this until I was about 7 or so and the Spice Girls came out. Everyone at school listened to them and they were on the radio, and they were brilliant. I still think they're... well. Entertaining to listen to, for sure. Anyway, I think the Spice Girls "Spice" was the first CD I actually personally owned. And it all just sort of went downhill from there. I think out of anyone I grew up around, I probably had the biggest CD collection of anyone. It's massive and despite the fact that I rarely buy CDs nowadays, it is still growing. I even have 3 new things to put into it from the time I left it in Michigan, until now that I'm back in Toronto. This doesn't even touch my DVD collection which is the most ridiculous ever, but this is about music, so we won't get into that.

Anyway, I guess when I was about 11 or so I discovered the magical wonders of MTV and music that my parents had never heard of, which was great. It was also around that time that I discovered the internet in terms of listening to music. But... y'know, barely. This was only 2001 mind you. When I was 12, I saw Switchfoot on VH1 and thought their singer was cute, so I had my mother take me to see them at the then State Theatre. And honestly, I don't care what you say, to me, it will always be that and never The Fillmore. Fuck The Fillmore.

When I was 15, my mom and I went to see The Rolling Stones at Comerica Park. Not because I liked them... but because they were famous as hell and I had never been to a show like that. I walked out a fan. Liking them, meant I went and looked up other bands they had played with and sounded like. And later that year was my first foray into early punk rock. That being, my obsession with Sid Vicious and the Sex Pistols. Subsequently, I did my end of year English paper on the influences of punk rock in today's music and subcultures. Which was fun as hell and led me to yet more bands I now adore.

I don't remember the first time I saw Billy Elliot, but it was love at first sound wave for glam rock and I. T.Rex remains one of my favourite bands to this day.

An obsession with all things English led me to The Clash, and the fact that half my high school friends were in ska bands, led to my love of ska. So I guess a lot of music I came across was from being influenced by my friends and movies. Another thing about my music in high school was I had a crush on this boy named Greg... who is pretty much an encyclopaedia for movies and music. So I'd stay up late talking to him about Spoon and They Might Be Giants, while he stayed up late talking to Hillary about who knows what. So then she'd go to bed, so he'd go to bed, and then I'd go to bed because no one else was online at 3am. And then we'd all be tired in photography class the next morning. How I adored high school. Dear God.

Having a car was my in to the world of hardcore/screamo/whatever. When I was 18, I knew nothing of the scene except there was screaming and I didn't listen to it, and the girls had crazy hair that I wanted. My friend Libby wanted to go see Chiodos. I had never heard of them, but I liked shows, so I told her I'd totally drive her. This small decision pretty much changed my life. So we went to the show, and stood in the front row, and my mind was pretty much blown. I literally and legitimately have not been the same since.

I looked up all the bands, went to see them in different places on different tours with other bands, and from there, my knowledge of the scene and of the bands that played within the genre, exploded. I looked up all the bands I saw, listened to their music, listened to who they toured with, checked out their influences, and pretty much built it up from there.

And now I have the most insane taste in music ever. Right now, I'm listening to The Monks, but as soon as I'm finished, I'll be listening to Paint It Black.

But then, you'd know this if you saw my last.fm.

There's a whole bunch more to this story, but I'm tired of typing it without letting my arms rest on my laptop, or my laptop rest on my lap... so I'm just going to leave it at that.