The biggest musical influence of my childhood was my best
friend’s friend’s older sister, Britney.
I don't think Britney and I have ever been in the same room more than a
few times, but it was through her, by proxy of her younger brother Logan, that
I first learned about popular music, namely N*SYNC and The Backstreet Boys. At the time I thought Logan knew about these
artists and I didn’t just because he was allowed to watch MTV and I wasn't, but
I've recently come to think that Britney must have been the unknowing mastermind
that led three Kindergarten students to become boy band devotees.
For the next five years my CD collection was made up
entirely of pop music from the late 90’s and early 00’s, and at the center was
the Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius soundtrack. It was recommended to me by a fellow student,
who I remember nothing about except that he specifically mentioned a song
called “Parents Just Don't Understand,” originally performed by DJ Jazzy Jeff
and The Fresh Prince, but remade for the film by Lil’ Romeo, Nick Cannon, and
3LW. I think he may have been
black. Not because he recommended a hip
hop song; I just vaguely remember him being black. My mildly racist long-term memory aside, the point
is that his endorsement was well received.
Not only did the Jimmy Neutron soundtrack
include contributions by such esteemed artists as N*SYNC, The Backstreet Boys,
Britney Spears, and Aaron Carter, but “Parents Just Don’t Understand” quickly
became my favorite song. Never before
had I so intimately identified with a song’s lyrics. Parents really
don’t understand.
About two years later N*SYNC broke up when Justin Timberlake
went solo. I took it as a sign that the
boy band fad was over and tuned my back on them for good, also beginning a nearly
decade long grudge against JT. I had a
brief affair with hip hop, but it didn’t last very long because my mom wouldn’t
let me buy the CDs.
Sometime around middle school I became convinced that I was
a redneck. I watched Blue Collar TV, wore
camouflage baseball hats, and listened to a lot of country music. I even bought Larry the Cable Guy’s
book. And read it. It’s pretty easy for an impressionable young
person to fall down the country wormhole, especially in rural North Carolina,
because so much of country is about pride and confidence, and everything is
black and white. Country music is good,
America is good, God is good, Toby Keith is great, beer is better, and anyone
who disagrees is a liberal yankee wuss.
Did you think this was a game? This. Is. My. Life.
In high school I started to flesh out my musical tastes in a
big way with help from sources like VH1, Guitar Hero, Rolling Stone, and
anything else I could get my hands on. I
listened to hair metal and grunge and hip hop.
I dove into the works of Guns N’ Roses, David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix,
Marvin Gaye, Nirvana, A Tribe Called Quest, etc.
I’m ashamed to admit that around this time I had a brush
with music piracy. I was sure that
something so easy to do couldn’t possibly be that bad. I first started to regret my actions when I
was listening to “Here Comes the Sun” on a CD I had made from LimeWire
downloads. Something felt wrong about
enjoying something so beautiful without the people who created it getting their
due, but I waved it off. Eventually an
anti-piracy episode of iCarly was the
straw that broke the camel’s back.
Once I returned to legitimate music purchases every spare
cent I made went to digital download establishments. Every day I checked Amazon for a 4 dollar
album and every week I checked iTunes for free songs. One of those songs was “Ain’t No Rest For the
Wicked” by Cage the Elephant. Sometime
later their debut Cage the Elephant
became one of the 4 dollar albums. CtE
quickly became my favorite band and they still are to this day. I’ve listened to their sophomore album Thank You, Happy Birthday countless
times, much more than anything else in my frankly impressive collection. It’s an amazing tribute to the alternative
and grunge of the late 80’s and early 90’s, which is my favorite period for
music.
My sophomore year of college Spotify became available in the
U.S. I read years before that it was a
highly acclaimed streaming service in other parts of the world and anxiously
awaited its arrival in America. It was
well worth the wait and within months I signed up for a premium account. I now have access to far more music than ever
before and it’s much easier to discover new music, all much cheaper than buying
albums individually and much less morally despicable than not paying for them at
all. I delved even deeper into the catalogues
of the artists I already loved like The Who and Bob Dylan and found new levels
of appreciation for them. I developed affection
for certain genre’s I was previously only passingly familiar with like 90’s hip
hop, folk, and punk.
I’m currently going through another country phase, but with
more awareness of the genre’s faults than before. I favor alternative artists like Lydia
Loveless and Drive-By Truckers, along with older icons, especially Steve Earle,
but I still have a soft spot for more mainstream country musicians like Eric
Church, Keith Urban, Kacey Musgraves, and the Zac Brown Band.
Over the past few years I have become nearly obsessed with
Link Wray, a little known but highly influential guitarist who was born in Dunn,
North Carolina, which borders my hometown of Erwin. I’m quite sure I’ve listened to every song of
Wray’s that is available on Spotify. I
have a lot of love for his biggest hit “Rumble” obviously, but I may prefer his
gentler performances like “Black River Swamp,” the best portrayal of rural
American life that I know of, as well as a transcendent cover of “And I Love
Her.”
Lest you think that I only listen to old
music here is my Spotify year in review from 2013.
I have a bit of a pet peeve about
the idea that music has declined since whatever era you prefer. For as long as there has been good music
there has been bad music that was just as popular, if not more so, and that has
never changed. As for me, I mentioned
before that my favorite band is Cage the Elephant.
You can see below that my 2nd most listened to song of last
year was by Gary Clark Jr. who I believe to be the greatest living guitarist. Also, my top playlist, labeled “2013” because
I’m very creative and that’s why I’m a writer, consists of my favorite songs
of that year, one song per album. I’ve made one of those
playlists for the past four years in a row, including 2010 on iTunes, and each one is bigger than the
last. Of course, that may be in part
because of my ever growing love for music itself that began all those years ago. So, if you're reading this Britney, I thank
you, even if I kind of wish you were more into Teenage Fanclub or something.
No comments:
Post a Comment