Music and me
Music has been central to my being ever since I discovered Billie Jean on a cassette which had FM recordings sent by my aunt in the US. This was 1988. College is where I discovered rock, mostly Def Leppard. Grad college is where I got exposed to various types of music, thanks to living in a hostel for 4 years. Music varied from A to Z, A-Ha to Beatles to Yes to ZZ Top. One band I got exposed to which really changed my love for music was 10,000 Maniacs. I eventually ended up owning all their music and all of Natalie Merchant’s music after she moved away from the Maniacs.
Once I started earning, which was also the first time I bought my first CD, Eagles – Hell Freezes Over, is when I started buying some alternate music like INXS (they were not so popular until Hutchence killed himself).
My idea of exploring music was to pick movie soundtracks or borrow music from friends and then pick a CD of an artist which I liked. I discovered gems like Sarah Mclachlan, Alisson Krauss this way. The financial muscle gave me the liberty to experiment with artists (since buying albums was a big risk – what if all songs didn’t turn out to be good?). And thus began my experimentation while also stocking up on all the rock classics like U2, Floyd, Led Zep and such like.
15 years hence and my urge to experiment has dwindled. Call it old fashioned or anything but somehow I just like the old music barring some pursuits in Jazz (mostly instrumental). Guys like Dave Brubeck make an evening very memorable, more so if you are nursing a nice single malt. I have tried a few interesting artists like Andrea Bocelli, Micheal Buble but the list is very small. Its funny. These days I have much more spare money to buy music but I guess I’ve lost the ability to borrow/buy music which I can explore and then build on.
Hopefully I’ll be able to find some interesting music in 2010. Any suggestions?
Tags: music
