Other Music I Like

I've always liked music a lot. But for a period of my life as a kid, I didn't listen to it. Basically, due to problems with my ears, I was more or less deaf. Not quite deaf, but my hearing was a bit different. But then it cleared up. But then for a while I was just sort of apathetic towards music. I wasn't deaf then, AFAIK, but it just didn't appeal for me. Seems so strange,

When I was really young until I was about 10 or so, I liked disco (the Village People in particular), some classic rock (although then it wasn't called 'classic'), in particular Queen, REO Speedwagon, Styx, some misc stuff, including New Wave. I really like Men at Work, Devo, Rick Springfield (I know, hardly new wave, but his Human Touch was, sorta a), Peter Schilling (Coming Home, which was recently in 2002 remade as a trance song), etc.

Then I was sort of deaf for a while, then when I got ever it, I wasn't really interested in music. Then when I was 15-16 or so, I suddenly got interested into it again. (Probably had to do with getting a car).

I started out with the Who. Then I branched out into other classic rock I liked, Billy Thorpe, Mannfred Mann's Earthband, Styx, Jimi Hendrix. Once I got a cd player when I was 17, I really got into music (tapes kinda sucked). Pink Floyd's Momentary Lapse of Reason was the first cd I bought. Then I think Styx's Grand Illusion. Then Steve Miller's greatest hits (I know, but it was cheap). Then Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.. Then I don't remember (at one time, I wrote the order down on the cd itself. Why, I dunno).

I bought most Who albums on cd. Then I somehow or the other I got into the Moody Blues. It took me a couple years, but I finally bought all of their albums (which is about 15-16 or so). And I was also buying cds from Styx, Boston, Jethro Tull, Yes, Doors, etc. I never really liked the Rolling Stones much, or the Beatles for that matter. I was more into the progressive rock sound, or heavier, guitar stuff. It took me a while to get into Led Zeppelin, but I eventually bought all of their albums.

When I left for college, my roommated really really hated the Moody Blues. So, to be nice, I stopped listening to them. Yes, as well. He did like the heavier classic rock, though, and from a friend of mine, I first heard the band Rush. I liked them a lot as well.

Anyway, while in college, I started being exposed to other stuff.. Most notably 'alternative', which when I started listening to it, actually was. But also some speed metal and heavy metal, and guitar gods like Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson, and Steve Vai. But for the most part, it was more a passing phase.

Alternative though, I did like. It started with School of Fish. I heard 3 strange days on the radio, and immediately got their album. I loved it a lot. Then their second album came out, and it was pretty good, if harder. I also listend to Ned's Atomic Dustbin, the Posies, the Breeder, Collective Soul, Aimee Mann, Live, STP, some others I'm forgetting. But then, with Live's second album, it became really mainstream, and got overplayed. And well, dumbed down.

I'm not against commercialization of music. After all, most of it is meant to make money. But sometimes artists set out to make a sound that is commercially pleasing.

Anyway, thanks to the Crow Soundtrack (which came out about a year or so before the movie), which I had bought to get STP's "Big Empty", I was exposed to other music. Most notably My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult.

Starting with them, I got into industrial music. They aren't quite industrial. But close to it. Through them, I also got into Nine Inch Nails (but who didn't at the time), Skinny Puppy, KMFDM, Front 242, Ministry, Machines of Loving Grace, Killing Joke, Psychic TV, Young Gods, etc.

Sort of simultaenously, I got into stuff like New Order, Messiah, and Lords of Acid. Which are all more dancier than industrial/EBM. And stuff that in retrospective could be called trance, but at the time wasn';t really called it (BT and Faithless's first album, this would be about 96-97 or so).

I made a brief foray into techno, but I really didn't like it. Industrial might be labeled as emotionless, but in reality, it's very angry sounding (at least modern day stuff, the original throbbing gristle style industrial is mostly just boring). Techno OTOH, is emotionless and boring. Very reptitive, no melody, something like R2D2 of Star Wars talking on and on and on about something dull.

I started listening to more dance music in general. And going to clubs and reading live broadcasts from clubs, just to hear the music. Then in the middle of 98, I was wandering in Best Buy looking for something to buy, and came across a cd called "Trance Trippin"

The description on the back sounded cool, but I hadn't heard the name trance before. But it also had a cool looking cover (I'm partial to flurescent green), so I bought it.

And after listening to it, I was hooked. Hooked big time. It was the music I was looking for all my life. It combines the best aspects of disco, progressive rock, and with lyrics similar to those of the Moody Blues, which tend to be disgustingly sappy, but I like that.

And ever since, that's pretty much all I listen to. Though I find I still like older New Wave stuff. There is a huge similarity between that and trance, except that is much slower. I really really love the long version of Soft Cell's tainted love. That is so close to trance, especially in terms of BPM (beats per minute, or tempo).

I also like house. And disco, it's forerunner. There's a lot of other dance music, but I mostly like trance.

Worst song ever?

DJ Galaga - The Game. Trust me, you don't want to ever hear it.

Worst song that is bad in a funny but enjoyable way? (ie, campy)

Leonard Nimoy - The Hobbit Song

He really shouldn't be singing, much less a song like this.

Especially since it has a a line "Fuzzy wooley toes"

"Bilbo, Bilbo Baggins, the bravest hobbit of them all"

Well, actually, I would vote Frodo or Samwise.

The whole thing is really f*****ed up. Perhaps it made sense if you were a hippie and on acid.

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