vanblah

There are a couple of threads such as:

Ten Perfect Songs

Albums That Changed Your Life

that got me thinking about things that I thought were life altering or things that I was passionate about that have now maybe cooled over the years.

For instance, I thought Michael Jackson's <i>Thriller</i> was the all-time best album ever ... when I was 12. I can hardly stand listening to it now, except maybe on a kitsch level. It was certainly a defining album for the time, but with 25 years on me I feel it on a different level now. Did it alter my life? Maybe. I can't really tell.

I also thought that Goth/Industrial was the best genre of music because it could be so raw and beautiful at the same time. 15 years later I have to ask: did these bands and albums change my life? Probably. Is it possible that I'd be the same person I am today if I'd never immersed myself in that scene? No.

So what do I like today? Music with passion, music with soul*, music with truth. It is hard for me to put either of the two things I mentioned above into any of these categories. Music (for me) is much more than stringing together a pretty melody and combining some vocal acrobatics. It has little to do with production. It has little to do with virtuosity. I know it when I hear it. That's all I can say. Does my own band have it? Maybe. I certainly play it like it does. That doesn't mean you'll hear it.

My point is: what albums, songs, bands, styles did you absolutely love 25 years ago that you can't really stand today (or just don't care for)? 15 years ago? 10 years ago? Did those things actually change your life? How different is what you listen to today? What were your criteria for "good" music in the past? What criteria do you use now?

*not the Stax/MoTown soul(tm) ... although some of that music has it.

lankrypt0

Vanilla Ice - To the Extreme
Young MC - Stone Cold Rhymin'

At the time, they changed my life because I used to base my like of music on waht was cool at the time. So it made me friends.

Those albums are completely different than what I listen to today. As you said, music has to have a soul, has to be alive. I want to feel the passion of the people performing the song. I have no one specific taste in music and range from Green Day to Matisyahu.

Cynthetiq

I think that's why Greatest hits albums and reunion tours exist, people wax nostalgic about things all the time, from music to video games, books to movies. We all seem to want to connect to a feeling we know is safe back in the past.

Now, ironically I worked in the entertainment industry for 11 years, and didn't pay attention to anything in the way of music. Quite a feat I tell you.

Oingo Boingo

Old School Ska music: Fishbone, Untouchables

Yacht Rock: Little River Band, Hall and Oats, Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan

They all give me a little piece of my past.

Right now I discovered Amy Winehouse, I'm loving both albums Frank and Back to Black.

I just like something that is good to listen to.

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Redlemon

I find that I still enjoy the music of my past, as well as other music from my past that I didn't like at the time. However, I'm a bit stagnated right now.

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vanblah

Oingo Boingo; Steely Dan; etc. Yes, there are things that sort of transcend time. I listened to some Boingo a few days ago. Some of those songs are just incredible and have truly stood the test of time. Others ... not so much.

Some music from my past is still in my regular rotation.

Leto

It started with the Partidge Family ( I had a thing for Lori) and segued quickley to the Beach Boys (Endless Summer) but then friend turned me onto the Beatles.

But I bought Queen (Night at the Opera) as my very first album. I still have it.

But back then my group of friends was really into Focus. I am still into Focus, as they didn't age too badly.


I did like the Moody Blues a lot. But now not so much.

As for Ska? I love the Specials.

kutulu

I wouldn't say I ever loved it but I'd put rap and poppy music up there. Thankfully I came to the realization that it sucks.

ratbastid

Thriller was the first album I bought with my own money. I listened the grooves off that album.

All through high school and into college, I was completely obsessed with Pink Floyd. There's no question that their music had a hand in making me who I am today. Even now, I guess I'd probably still say they're my favorite band, although the fact is, I haven't listened to them in several years.

roachboy

repetition has destroyed an awful lot of music for me that i used to really love.
the beatles for example.
most everything that you hear on publick house jukeboxes from led zep to bob marley.

like ratbasid, i loved pink floyd once. now i only enjoy "piper at the gates of dawn" really. the post dark side stuff i cant listen to at all any more.

i dont like this , but there seems to be nothing to do about it. it pains me that it pains me to hear "strawberry fields forever" for example because the tape loops are great--but i still like "tomorrow never knows"...because it was not in Rotation....

stuff that i used to like that i lost interest in entirely:

yes
traditional irish music
fusion
steely dan (something happened. i figured it out the other day actually: it seems to me that the world changed around the synth sound---fagen's love of trumpet presets once was just dandy. now it isnt.)
new jack
most electric blues (there are exceptions--muddy waters, john lee hooker, elmore james...)
bluegrass. all of it.
"classic rock"---i fucking hate it. all of it. i hate everything about it. i hate most that it never changes.
the doors
new order
public enemy
almost the entire standard european classical symphonic repertoire. you know, the warhorses. (example: i cant deal with hearing beethoven's third or ninth in particular...i have heard them over and over and over and over and over since i was a small child. over and over and over. but i really do not like this situation. lately, though, i have been listening alot to his string quartets and love them dearly...i hadn't explored them at all previously. i dont know what i was thinking on the one hand---on the other, i am glad that it turned out this way)

stuff that operates in constant danger of being unlistenable because i have heard it so fucking much, but which i struggle with because i dont want it to be this way:

jimi hendrix
the ramones
the sex pistols
the clash
alot of the mothers of invention (this is SUCH a drag...)
kraftwerk
eno
joy division
beethoven symphonies that are not 3 or 9.

stuff that i have learned to hear differently, that i love now but not in the same way as i once did:

charlie parker
beach boys/brian wilson
can
the stooges
roxy music (early)

stuff that floats outside of all the above somehow:

captain beefheart
king crimson's larks tongues in aspic and starless and bible black.
dj/rupture: minesweeper suite
howlin wolf
sam the sham and the pharoahs (i dont understand this either)
my bloody valentine
schoenberg's piano music
sun ra
andrew hill (r.i.p.)
thelonious monk


what i learned: move constantly. there is so much excellent music out there. eat as much of it as you can. forward in time, backward in time, it doesnt matter. pillage libraries. make networks and share music. listen to everything.

current favorites:

asa chang & junray
franco & ok jazz (from the 50s-60s, when they were a rhumba band. so good)
john cage: sonatas for prepared piano
luc ferrari: petit symphonie intuitive pour une paysage de printemps
sorry bamba: porra

and a fabulous compilation of 70s funk from bollywood films: the bombay connection. seriously. it's the shit, in the parlance of our times.

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fresnelly

Good question!

I agree with Roachboy that a song's saturation is a powerful deterrent and quickly ruins a favourite.

Hearing Led Zepplin in Grade 8 was a revelation and opened my ears dramatically, but then a few years ago I became so sick of "Classic Rock". It was everywhere in tv and film soundtracks, commercials, and the FM stations that played it had such narrow playlists and affected macho identities that I couldn't stand it anymore. I don't think I need to hear Pink Floyd's Money ever again.

And yet, by picking through my own collection and concentrating on lesser played tracks, I've been able to cultivate a renewed appreciation for some of those bands I left behind.

A co-worker recently put Guns'n'Roses' Use Your Illusion albums up on our office itunes network, and I've found that despite how ridiculous a character Axel was, and how overplayed their hits were, a lot of it has held up well. November Rain may be long dead to me, but I'm humming Garden of Eden right now.

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ratbastid

Seconded. But the day I learned it on bass guitar when I was 15 was a happy day.

AVoiceOfReason

When I was young--8 to 10 or so, I listened to Gary Lewis And The Playboys albums. My parents thought those were safe enough--along with The Monkees--and I liked them then. Now, I hear a barely competent cover band (or studio musicians) and a lead singer that has little range.

The Grand Funk albums I bought and played a lot when I was 13-15 haven't held their charm for me, either.

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