Myself and music - A history

These days my taste in music is simply anything that's good but there are still some genres I like more than others. Here's a history:

My earliest memory of hearing music which had an impact on me was back in 1987 when I heard Pet Shop Boys - It's a Sin for the first time. This probably set the scene for my appreciation of electronic music later on in life. In those days it was basically whatever took my fancy on Top of the Pops or The Chart Show then at the start of 1988 I got bought my first Now compilation, Now 11 which quite appropriately opened with a Pet Shop Boys track. Later on that year I heard the next tune that had a huge impact on me which was Guns n Roses - Paradise City. By the end of the year I started reading Smash Hits and the next couple of years I was very much into the pop music scene.

By 1991 one group which I took a particular liking to was KLF. I was too young at the time to realise what a crazy group they were but I just loved their music and used to annoy everyone at school by singing them all the time. At the end of 1991 when Freddie Mercury died I became a Queen fan and saved up my pocket money to buy a couple of their albums. This lasted a few months and then I became a fan of Guns n Roses. I was actually banned from having any of their albums because of the explicit lyrics but managed to obtain a couple on a copied tape from a school friend.

It was at this time that many people at school started getting me into music in a big way and being a Guns n Roses fan they got me also listening to bands like Nirvana, Metallica and Megadeth. This would then lead onto listening to more heavy bands such as Pantera and Sepultura. In hindsight none of these bands were really my cup of tea and I only really listened to them to be part of the scene. However there were 2 bands I got introduced to during that time who I still like to this very day, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against the Machine.

It then became uncool to like the heavier bands including Guns n Roses and those people were getting more into Brit Pop. However I was becoming sick of rock music all together and went through a phase of only listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers who I don't really see as being a rock band. I then heard N-Trance - Set you Free which was and still is a fantastic tune which prompted me to explore the world of Rave music. During this period up to 1998 I wouldn't listen to anything that didn't belong in the rave scene. Then in 1998 I started getting more into House and Trance but also opened myself up to listen to any genre of music. One band I became a big fan of was Alisha's Attic and I even made a now defunct website about them and became a member of their fan club.

In 2000 I started listening to Eminem which opened the door to Rap music. Then in 2001 I started to go off Alisha's Attic and became a fan of the Honeyz instead which lead me onto listening to R&B. The next couple of years I was predominately listening to Rap and R&B whilst at the same time playing in a Punk band. I formed a punk band because I enjoyed playing the guitar and writing lyrics and this seemed the appropriate style to do this in but my listening of punk music didn't really go beyond Green Day.

I started listening to more dance music again in 2004 but was finding that none of it was as good as it used to be, something I never thought I would say. In 2006 I discovered youtube and spent a lot of time listening to tunes I liked in the past but didn't own and hadn't heard for years. However I didn't want to accept that all good music was in the past and made the effort via the internet to find new music I liked. I found the Hardcore Lives website which released several compilations which were excellent. I also discovered several artists across a variety of genres such as Sander Kleinenberg, High Contrast and Digitalism.   

In 2009 I came full circle by buying a Pet Shop Boys album for the first time in my life. Despite the fact they were the first act to have an impact on me and I always thought they were good, they never really had a place in my musical phases of the past. Since then I have bought a variety of different music, stream many different things and am very much anything goes when it comes to music.