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Your Musical Autobiography
ShimSham
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So it's 6 in the morning. I'm not tired at all. I've been up all night with one of my best friends chilling and listening to music and just catching up, since it's been a while since we really did that. I've known him since I was like 4 years old. Music has always been a huge part of our lives. We never played, couldn't, but we loved music. I mean we grew up staying up late just going through piles of tapes and CDs just doing nothing but listening. As we got older and into high school we both had a portable CD player with us at all times. Both of us had a big 200 CD case we'd carry with us instead of most of our books. I mean that's all we did. Hell we almost never left my computer when we first learned about Napster.
There's a great movie that came out several years ago starring John Cusack, called High Fidelity. Most of you probably know it. During one part of the movie he decides he's going to reorganize his music autobiographically. He can tell you how he got from listening from one band to the next. Most people are pretty good at really being able to tell you what they were listening to when something else was going on. So here's a thread from that. Tell us what you grew up listening to, what you listen to now, and how you got there.
1995-97 - Late elementary school.
Really started it all for me, by that I mean when I really started listening to music. I was about 8-10 years old at the time, and it basically started with me and my best friend taking our older siblings' tapes and CDs.
Albums I remember listening to just countless times were
Sublime - self titled,
311 - self titled,
Nirvana - Nevermind,
No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom,
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik,
Smashing Pumpkins - Melion Collie & The Infinite Sadness,
Oasis - What's the Story Morning Glory
and surprisingly Jewel's Pieces of You. (which is an album I still love.)
There were more, but those albums really stick out to me when thinking of 3rd 4th and 5th grade. Several of those albums probably should have never made it in the hands of 9 year olds but we loved it. The first CD I ever bought for myself was Tragic Kingdom by No Doubt. Before then all my music came from what I could listen to at a friend's house or what I could record on a tape from the radio. Our only CD player was in the living room and I would just sit forever in front of the stereo and listen. I can't say I've even done that in the past year.
1998-2001 - Middle School
This was middle school, roughly. Probably the best way to describe early middle school was Metallica. Me and my best friend got REALLY into Metallica at this time. I mean to a crazy degree in which was basically only listened to Met albums for a good year and a half. S&M came out during this time too and we were pretty blown away at the time. Thought it was great. We didn't both have all the albums so we'd have to share. One of us always wanted Master of Puppets, that was fun. Met was a huge part of middle school for me, and I still love the band.
Next, I actually went through a really crazy KISS phase for a good while. I started taking guitar lessons and my teacher introduced me to them, all I knew about them before that was just some guys in makeup that were old. Holy shit I fell in love with that band. For about 2 years I listened to a ton of that band, bought a lot of their albums. Double Platinum was the first one I got, which was a great introduction for them to me. Also the first song I learned how to play on the guitar that year was God of Thunder. Can't imagine what my mom was thinking, she gets me an acoustic guitar and lessons and I'm playing acoustic KISS songs and playing their sex filled albums all the time. I carried around a KISS music book with me for a while, but guhh I sucked at guitar.
The KISS thing for me was really an off and on thing. All during this I was also listening to a ton of Nirvana. I had listened to a lot of Nevermind years before, but I really got into Nirvana at this time, just going back and getting into their older albums. This started when someone gave me the Nirvana live album, From the Muddy Banks of Wishkah, an album that I listened to so much that my copy basically stopped playing for the most part. I got all their albums, that's what I was listening to in my CD player while I waited for the bus to pick me up in the morning. I did a damn book report in the 8th grade on a biography of Kurt Cobain.
Then came Blink 182. I had heard of them, and a song or two before Enema of the State came out and got popular around 2000. But I never really listened to them. Me and my best friend fell in love with Enema of the State, and we went back and got Dude Ranch which is easily in my top-10 favorite albums still. Blink had just as much of an influence on my dress and attitude at the time too. I was pretty impressionable at the time, as most 12-13 year olds are. And starting in those years and lasting til about my senior year in high school, I wore Dickies long shorts and a pair of Converse chuck taylors just about every day. I still love Blink and hate they're broken up now, but they really turned into a different band in their last album. And TOYPaJ was weak as an album, but had some pretty great songs.
2001-2004 - High School.
Best way to start out describing highschool was Tool. Me and my best friend were already pretty huge fans of Tool from Aenima, and to a lesser degree, Undertow. Then Lateralus hit in 2001 and that CD did not leave my CD player for a solid month and a half after I got it. That was just about it. And then in 10th grade me and my friend got his parents to drive us to Birmingham to see Tool and the Melvins play. Coolest concert I've ever been to. It was outside, it was October and it was pouring down rain, HARD. And during Aenema when Maynard is singing, "Cause I'm Praying for Rain, and I'm praying for tidal waves." When he sang that the whole crowd was singing with him, and they pulled up the house lights and you could just see absolutely golden rain falling down with the band in the middle of it and oh my gosh.
Starting around 9th grade me and my friends started learning of a lot of local concerts from small bands traveling here and there. This is when we really got introduced to hardcore-metal, all different types. There were a lot of bands popular now that came through we got to see. A band called Luti-Kriss was the first local show we really went to, and Luti-Kriss eventually changed their name to Norma Jean. Norma Jean was great until they changed their singer, and their old singer went on to start the band The Chariot.
We also saw a lot of the early startings of bands like Mastodon, mewithoutyou, Underoath, As I Lay Dying, The Agony Scene, Beloved, etc. I remember seeing Mastodon in a room barely big enough for the band and maybe 30 people. They were still loud as all get out. Then I saw them a few more times, and then again in 2003 at an outdoor festival where they were so loud that my chest hurt, and I was about 50 yards from the stage and it was outside.
Most of highschool was all metal, and literally countless hardcore shows. There was usually at least one a week at this local place or the skate park, and there would be 3-5 bands. I have ton of shitty t-shirts from bands I can barely remember.
2004-Now
This has really been a mixed bag. For a while there I didn't listen to anything at all really. I've developed a huge appreciation and love for hip-hop over the past few years. Something I never had until recently. Now a pretty fair portion of my library is hip-hop. Other than that it's been mostly me revisiting old music I had forgotten, or albums that basically just got lost in my collections and things like that. I mean, all the albums I've really talked about are mainstays of my collection, but I mean I also went through different stages between those big stages that I forgot about. Like when I was really super into pop-punk and ska punk for a while there and just had a few piles of albums from The Vandals, Less than Jake and others. So it's mostly been me looking through old stuff and thinking, "Oh shit wow."
Can't believe how much I typed. I've just developed some form of insomnia or something over the past year or so. I just don't get tired and I've just been staying up listening to music.
You don't have to write out your life story like I did. Part of that was me being reflective. But I think it's a cool exercize. Really interested in seeing how people went from one band to another. I really went from mid-90s alternative to metal, to heavy metal, punk for a minute, then nothing for a little while and then hip-hop and then back to 90s alternative and metal.
ShimSham on
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I managed to inherit Mum's love of Chinese opera, pop from the '50s to the '80s and classical music from the Romantic period. My brother's tastes have remained fairly similar over the years and thanks to him, I started enjoying Linkin Park, Fort Minor, Adema, Limp Bizkit and Metallica.
In the past couple of years, I've mostly found out about new music through - and this is slightly embarrassing - TV ads (Apple and Volkswagen are pretty good in this respect), but also through friends and Last.fm.
Currently, I have an incredibly eclectic collection of music. Amongst my favourite music these days are ABBA, The Beatles, The Divine Comedy, Basia Bulat, The Decemberists, Chairlift, Empire of the Sun, CCR, Delia Derbyshire, Chance Thomas' QFG V soundtrack and the Pomp and Circumstance marches.
I am very proud of my music collection, mostly because I get from it that most reassuring of feelings: one of being slightly weird.
Weird Al
The Over the Top Soundtrack
weird shit i inherited from my older brothers (including a 2 live crew single. good job, guys)
Junior High:
KISS
Motley Crue
Megadeth
Soundgarden
Pearl Jam
old butt rock and new grunge mostly
High School and beyond:
Against All Authority
Germs
GG Allin
Casualties
X
puuuuuuuuuunk rooooooooock
Currently:
just about fuckin' anything
it struck me that 80% of every genre is bullshit, but why discount that rad 20% by just liking genres
on a given day you might hear patsy cline, children of bodom, eric b & rakim, vnv nation, and tom waits
ALL BACK TO BACK
High Fidelity Soundtrack
"I'm gonna go through you like gas through a funnel!" *chugs gas out of a can*
"Holiday In Cambodia" was the song that changed my life, though. It was the first true punk song I ever listened to, and this sensation just came over me. That classic distortion lead-in, the fast paced lyrics, holy shit I was hooked.
Grade school:
Weird Japanese pop music and MC Hammer/that era (What I lived in Japan)
Middle school:
Weird Japanese pop music and Ace of Base I guess
High School:
Thanks to this Academic Decathalon class I had back then, I developed a love of Jazz, 50's and 40's music and generally like the floodgates of "things that were not jpop or american modern hypnopop" opened
Now I am cool with everything except of course modern country, which is Satan's tool to control the damned (using a Telecaster)
Throughout middle school I still didn't get myself very involved, only sticking to a few bands and not expanding, namely Linkin Park, Godsmack, and Smashmouth. Also some techno worked its way in.
What got the ball rolling in high school was an evening with some friends where we synced up the Dark Side of the Moon LP to the Wizard of Oz. I immediately became interested in the classic rock genre, and began to build up my collection without a computer or mp3 player of my own. I stopped listening to the aforementioned 3 bands from middle school, then realizing they were pretty crap (in my opinion) in comparison to everything I was discovering. One of the most fun aspects of finding all this music was that I really knew it all already due to my father playing it all the time on the radio. I knew the tunes, I just didn't know the names.
After acquiring an ipod halfway through high school my library expanded significantly, encompassing oldies, all forms of classic rock, some 80s pop/rock, techno, and then branched to classical and jazz. The latter two came about from my involvement in the school symphony, jazz, and pep bands.
Today my musical tastes range of classical, big band, jazz, swing, rhythm and blues (the classic version, not new R&B), oldies, classic rock, some metal, techno, D&B, 80s pop, 90s swing, and a bit of ska. I've experimented with newer music, but still cannot find any love or appreciation for any and all types of alternative rock (and sub-genres), 90s pop, country, new R&B, rap, or hip-hop.
Marylin Manson
Switchfoot
AFI
Cold
Static X
Ill Nino
Basically metal and angsty crap
12th to now:
Placebo
Modest Mouse
Marylin Manson
Silversun Pickups
These are the only staples that I go back to fairly often
As a side, where could I find more music like the song "You think I ain't worth a dollar but I feel like a millionare" by the Queens of the Stone Age
Middle School: Blink-182, Pixies, Gorillaz, Weezer, Tenacious D
High School: Andrew Bird, Arcade Fire, Blur, Weezer, Pixies, and a lot of what I used to listen to but I found a whole new appreciation for.
first off, I'm not going to waste time trying to rank what music is most important to me so that in the extremely unlikely event I'm stranded on an island but also happen to have a means of playing music and just happen to have my top 10 or 5 or 13 or 2 albums with me oh lucky day
second, what you choose doesn't reveal any deep truths about who you are as a person aside from perhaps the fact that you actually waste time thinking what albums are most important to you in such a hypothetical situation
that is all for now
so I could burn it
All Dely wanted in middle school was another baby.
At the very beginning, music was anything my parents were listening to. I got a lot of Beatles, Clapton, and BB King from my father. Celine Dion, Boy George, Bruce Springsteen, and Billy Joel from my mom. Early on I was solely a pop guy because that was essentially the only thing I knew.
The very first album I ever bought with my own money was Savage Garden's self titled album, and to this date I have listened to it all the way through more than two hundred times.
I owned every Backstreet Boys album. Every NSync album. I was afraid to discuss my musical tastes with people.
But the defining album of this time period in my life? Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Such a masterpiece of music. There was something tangibly different from the other music I had. It was still Pop music but it opened my eyes and my mind to that possibility that there was other music out there.
The start of middle school saw me branching out musically. Sadly it saw me branching out into the standard angsty teenager shit. Linkin Park and Three Days Grace were at the top of my playlist. I picked up Red Hot Chili Peppers around here as well.
The end of middle school came with my introduction to Metallica, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest. I also started listening to a bunch of "grunge" acts that had died out not a few years before.
High School brought me Smashing Pumpkins and Muse. Muse absolutely blew me out of the water, and from there I dropped into Radiohead and other such acts.
High School was a good time for me because it was when I finally became comfortable with myself as a person. The sense of being open had me borrowing music from everybody, and from there acquiring tastes from everybody. Got some hip hop, got some stoner rock (holy shit Queens of the Stone Age dominated my playlist for a while), got some Death Metal and Metalcore, and topped off graduation by purchasing the complete works of Chopin.
College right now? Anything and everything, I'll give it a listen at least once.
I get an involuntary erection every time I hear that song by the Crash Test Dummies.
That has to reveal something about me.
Back then life was demanding, without understanding. But I saw the sign.
middle school: nirvana and wu-tang and rage against the machine and bush. i remember one dance, all slamdancing to bush's comedown. it was the best. i just wanted to fit in with the cool kids
high school: lots of rap, dmx , outkast, goodie mob, the roots, stp, reel big fish, buckonine (lots of ska), fuel, lifehouse, phil collins, weezer, saves the day, a lot of pop like backstreet boys, spice girls, christina aguilera. it really depended on my moods
college: whole lot of emo, juliana theory, taking back sunday, OAR, dispatch, jam bands of all sorts, michelle branch, and a coworker got me into bouncing souls and against me and minor threat and whole lot fo punk, plus whatever i can put in a mix cd i would totally present to my secret crush and she would realize how awesome my music taste was and would fall madly in love with me and etc etc
Now I listen to a lot of blues/jazz and metal ( death metal reigns )
And Hanson...
by Condor Moments.
that's it.
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The man was a genius dammit
I would not have assumed that from your av and sig.
I don't really remember specific eras, but
past:
limp bizkit, korn, disturbed, nu metal shit like that, creed, live, I fucking loved that song from mulan
more recent past:
Pantera, black label society, a bunch of other stuff that was half way between rock and metal, opeth
now:
a bunch of bands that next to no one would recognise (or you could just look at my lastfm in my sig), Opeth pretty much singlehandedly stopped me from being a pussy about harsh vocals (growls/screams), and from there I started to get into more extreme metal (originally mostly melodic death metal, then folk/viking metal, now I'm starting to enjoy plain death and black metal more)
kpop appreciation station i also like to tweet some
This is basically me minus the Nu-Metal. God I hate that shit.
I get to see Necrophagist pretty soon.
So stoked
Blackwater Park was such a great album, Opeth can really write some stuff man. Like, some real striking melancholy going on there.
One of the bands I am most proud of is Dimension Zero (old in flames members), for they have never changed, and are thrash as hell.
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t Bear: I fucking love Dimension Zero, good to know that Jesper Stromblad hasn't lost his touch.
The last In Flames album was a god damned abomination
I would go gay for stromblad.
Everything past whoracle was balls.
you heard the newest Beneath the Massacre?
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Same (about the nu metal), I absolutely fucking despise it now. I'm excused though, it was my teenage rebellion phase. Glad I got over that quickly.
also: A teacher at my school played 'why does it hurt when I pee' to his sex ed and health classes as an introduction
bear: Fuck yeah, bleak and the title track are probably my favourites. I have boners for still life too, one of my favourite concept albums.
Oh I also remembered that Crimson I and II also did a lot to get me to realise that harsh vocals are awesome. Dan Swano must have received the talent that was intended for the entirety of a small nation.
kpop appreciation station i also like to tweet some
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Brutal Death Metal is basically all I've listened to for the past few months.
I'd try to make babies with Muhammad Suicmez if I ever meet him
I uh... I actually kind of like the latest IF album. Everything before that and after Clayman is disgustingly terrible though. Half of clayman is shitty too.
kpop appreciation station i also like to tweet some
also GantZ, yes it is definitely worth it
BRAAM BRAMM BRAM BRAM DOODLEDOODLEDOOWHEEDLEDEEDLEDOLOODLEDO BROM BROM BROM B-BROM BROM BROM WEEDLEDOODLE (BRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEROOOOOOOAWWWWWRGH)
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Isn't Mastodon coming out with a new album this year?...
I hope it doesn't suck.
Still, the fun was that I ended up growing up liking pretty much any style of music, although I seem to be listening to Frank Zappa prettty much exclusively at the moment.
I listen to mastodon for the great drumming
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfwZYgdO6Ds&feature=channel
you don't wanna fuck with me.
If I'm correct the next Necrophagist album will be the first featuring Romain Goulon behind the kit. That dude is insane.
Should be good!
Kali
kpop appreciation station i also like to tweet some