When I was at school in 1994 you were either a grunger or a raver. It was strictly forbidden to like both. At the beginning of the year I was very much in the grunge camp but by the end of the year I made the controversial move to the rave camp. Sounds silly now but at the time it was serious and I did lose friends as a result.
In the late 80s when I was first into music I just liked music in general. Genres didn't really exist to me, it was all just pop music. I would however state a preference for what I'd call "shouting songs" that would typically be sung by men with long hair.
The early signs suggested I'd grow up moshing to guitars but instead I ended up dancing to beats. Except as much as I liked the guitar it wasn't the main attraction of the music. What appealed to me more was the hard edge and aggression of the music.
By the time many of the other kids at school had properly got into music I was a Guns N Roses fan. Although not a grunge band, the fact they were a rock band put me into the grunge camp. Being a grunger meant it was compulsory to listen to Nirvana. They weren't bad but I certainly pretended to be into them more than I was.
It was also cool to like heavier bands such as Metallica and Megadeth though both had somewhat softened up come the early 90s. Then even heavier bands like Pantera and Sepultura came into the mix. Then suddenly none of that was cool anymore. It had to be grunge or alternative rock (though I don't ever remember hearing the term "alternative" at the time.
By 1994 there were 2 trains of thought. Firstly the ever changing rules made it quite difficult to keep up with what was or wasn't acceptable. I took some flack for still listening to Metallica when I wasn't supposed to for example. Secondly the main criticism of Metallica was that they were too old, but all this music was essentially an evolution of even older bands from the 60s and 70s such as Led Zeppelin.
Rave on the other hand felt new and exciting but also had that hard edge to it that's always appealed to me in music.
At the time it did feel like I was going from one extreme to another. Now I look back though it wasn't until the whole grunger/raver thing came in that rave music didn't figure at all in my music tastes. The difference was that rave had evolved into something that didn't really exist in years gone by.
If we go back to the start of 1988 when I got my first Now album, "Now 11" I loved "That Jack That House Built" by Jack N Chill, on "Now 12" there was "Theme From S'Express" by S'Express and on "Now 13" there was "Big Fun" by Inner City.
In 1989 I used to sing "Ride On Time" by Black Box in the school playground all the time, a fact some other kids never let me forget years later. I can remember being blown away by "Voodoo Ray" by A Guy Called Gerald.
Then in 1990 I have clear memories of Guru Josh appearing on Top of the Pops with "Infinity" that spoke words to me even though it was an instrumental. I can remember the confusion of an act called The Adventures Of Stevie V appearing but it was a woman singing, or finding out that bloke I thought was Adamski was actually Seal, but was loving the music.
In 1991 I was really into KLF to the point that 12 years later a bloke came up to me in the pub and told me he remembered me as that kid who used to sing KLF and Queen all the time.
Then in 1992 I remember hearing The Prodigy's "Experience" album for the first time without knowing that's what I was listening to and I remember thinking this is the future. My favourite tune of the moment was "Fire" by The Prodigy.
It was only 1993 when you were either a grunger or raver that rave never really came on my radar. On that basis it wasn't the extreme move that it seemed.
