Friday, September 03, 2004
On music...
I'm a geek of many persuasions. I'm a roleplaying game fanatic. I'm an anime fan (but I ain't no otaku, hear!). I collect comic books. I play video games (and I play some of them online). I'm a war gamer. I like board games. I enjoy obscure and foreign films. I read and watch science-fiction. And I have a fairly eclectic taste in music.
As a kid, I grew up during that hellish period known as the Eighties. Music sucked. It was mostly pop rock by the likes of Phil Collins, New Kids On The Block, Madonna and others. I listened to pop music as a kid, but I didn't really become terribly interested in music itself until the late 1980s, when I began to learn to play the guitar. I took a strong interest guitar rock at that point. Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and, my guitar idol, Yngwie Malmsteen. As I started high school, I slipped out of playing guitar, and while I still have my acoustic and my electric guitar, I don't play anymore. Frankly, it's because I sucked.
College is where I really started to appreciate different types of music. When I entered college, I was on an old rock kick, listening to 1050 CHUM here in Toronto and listening to everything from the 1950s to the 1970s, with my preference being late 1960s and early 1970s rock music. I had gone through a new country phase and had pretty much abandoned it during high school, and then I went back to old rock.
However, college started broadening my horizons. I became intrigued by the gothic subculture and soon found myself listening to Bauhaus, Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Sisters of Mercy and other dark rock, gothic and industrial bands. That led to bands out of the mainstream. Nitzer Ebb, Cat Rapes Dog (I still love that band name), Beborn Beton (which is now my favourite synth-pop band), Joy Division and others. College turned me into an industrial music listener, although I listened to heavy metal in its various forms (which I took an interest in circa Guns 'N' Roses' Appetite For Destruction album back at the end of the Eighties).
I can probably blame my friend Tom (although it's blame in a good way) for continuing my education in the different forms of music. I had never really gotten into classical or jazz music, although I did enjoy some blues, before I met Tom. He showed that there was more to classical than Beethoven and that ilk, and I soon started listening to Klaus Schulz and Philip Glass. My classical music education continues, and is far from complete.
However, jazz is what really struck a chord with me. I'm far from being an expert on the subject, but it was nice to start understanding the music. To many, jazz (outside of the Kenny G and pop jazz stuff) sounds random, as if it didn't have any structure. The truth is it has a structure. It's just different from the structure of other forms of music. It's unique. And once I started to understand that and really listen to the music, I was able to appreciate it.
My guilty pleasure is that I enjoy country and western music. I'm not talking about new country here, although I do admit to liking Alan Jackson and a couple of others from 1980s and 1990s. I'm talking about old country music. If you can tolerate country and western, there's nothing quite like Hank Williams -- or Johnny Cash, for that matter. Add in some Willie Nelson, Kris Kristopherson and Waylon Jennings, and I'm a happy man. It's a mark of shame how often I listen to the Highwayman album.
Of course, like with anybody, there are music forms I don't like. Rap, outside of the Fresh Prince humourous rap, isn't really for me. Reggae is something I can't get into, either. Most pop music isn't my style. There are others, too.
I'm a geek of many persuasions.
As a kid, I grew up during that hellish period known as the Eighties. Music sucked. It was mostly pop rock by the likes of Phil Collins, New Kids On The Block, Madonna and others. I listened to pop music as a kid, but I didn't really become terribly interested in music itself until the late 1980s, when I began to learn to play the guitar. I took a strong interest guitar rock at that point. Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and, my guitar idol, Yngwie Malmsteen. As I started high school, I slipped out of playing guitar, and while I still have my acoustic and my electric guitar, I don't play anymore. Frankly, it's because I sucked.
College is where I really started to appreciate different types of music. When I entered college, I was on an old rock kick, listening to 1050 CHUM here in Toronto and listening to everything from the 1950s to the 1970s, with my preference being late 1960s and early 1970s rock music. I had gone through a new country phase and had pretty much abandoned it during high school, and then I went back to old rock.
However, college started broadening my horizons. I became intrigued by the gothic subculture and soon found myself listening to Bauhaus, Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Sisters of Mercy and other dark rock, gothic and industrial bands. That led to bands out of the mainstream. Nitzer Ebb, Cat Rapes Dog (I still love that band name), Beborn Beton (which is now my favourite synth-pop band), Joy Division and others. College turned me into an industrial music listener, although I listened to heavy metal in its various forms (which I took an interest in circa Guns 'N' Roses' Appetite For Destruction album back at the end of the Eighties).
I can probably blame my friend Tom (although it's blame in a good way) for continuing my education in the different forms of music. I had never really gotten into classical or jazz music, although I did enjoy some blues, before I met Tom. He showed that there was more to classical than Beethoven and that ilk, and I soon started listening to Klaus Schulz and Philip Glass. My classical music education continues, and is far from complete.
However, jazz is what really struck a chord with me. I'm far from being an expert on the subject, but it was nice to start understanding the music. To many, jazz (outside of the Kenny G and pop jazz stuff) sounds random, as if it didn't have any structure. The truth is it has a structure. It's just different from the structure of other forms of music. It's unique. And once I started to understand that and really listen to the music, I was able to appreciate it.
My guilty pleasure is that I enjoy country and western music. I'm not talking about new country here, although I do admit to liking Alan Jackson and a couple of others from 1980s and 1990s. I'm talking about old country music. If you can tolerate country and western, there's nothing quite like Hank Williams -- or Johnny Cash, for that matter. Add in some Willie Nelson, Kris Kristopherson and Waylon Jennings, and I'm a happy man. It's a mark of shame how often I listen to the Highwayman album.
Of course, like with anybody, there are music forms I don't like. Rap, outside of the Fresh Prince humourous rap, isn't really for me. Reggae is something I can't get into, either. Most pop music isn't my style. There are others, too.
I'm a geek of many persuasions.
// posted by Chris @ 10:13 AM 
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