When I was about 9 years old, I was well-rooted in music; I played and listened to music on a daily basis. Now, that might sound classy, but I wasn’t listening to the most intelligent stuff…or, was I? Am I now? Have I ever?
Here’s a timeline (best to my memory) in order of how old I was and what music I was mainly listening to at the time. Ride the wave of sh•tty pop, boy groups, girl groups, solo acts, ghetto rap, pop punk, punk, indie, hip-hop, turntablism, experimentalism, singer-songwriters and folk:
1992-1993 • Ace of Base, Boyz II Men, Janet Jackson, LL Cool J
1994-1997 • Montell Jordan, TLC, Da Brat, Brandy, Tupac Shakur, Bone Thugs n’ Harmony, Master P, Notorious B.I.G, Lil’ Kim, Outkast, Erykah Badu, Missy Elliot, Mase, Nas, The Fugees, No Doubt (a classmate with a skateboard gave me their 1st cassette release), Smashing Pumpkins, Veruca Salt
1998-2001 • DMX, Eve, Jay-Z, Beastie Boys, MxPx, Cake, Rancid, The Smiths (Thanks to 102.1 The Edge’s Adventure Club with Josh), Tsunami Bomb, The Rentals, The Get Up Kids, 311, Radiohead, Anti-Flag, The Casualties, The Exploited, The Misfits, Weezer, M.S.I, The Pixies, Bright Eyes, CKY, Kottonmouth Kings, The Descendents
2002-2006 • Kid Koala, DJ Shadow, DJ Swamp, Doctor Quinn (and fellow schoolmate), DJ Q-bert, A Tribe Called Quest, Jurassic 5, MC Chris, Björk, Aphex Twin, The Dresden Dolls, Devotchka, Tegan & Sara, Portishead, Daft Punk, Ani DiFranco, Ben Harper, Tom Waits, The Thermals, Lovage, Herbaliser, World’s End Girlfriend, MF Doom, Cut Chemist
2007-2009 Dilated Peoples, Atmosphere, M.I.A, The Cool Kids, Thievery Corporation, Santogold (pre-Santigold), LCD Soundsystem, Pinback, Animal Collective, Harlem, Girl Talk, Ratatat, Bassnectar, Thao Nguyen, Arcade Fire, Battles, Dan Deacon, ADULT., Diplo, Metronomy, Panda Bear, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Common, The Knife, Lykki Li
2010-2011 • The Heartless Bastards, Sarah Jaffe, Black Lips, M. Ward, Sore Losers, Damaged Good$, Reggie Watts, Florence & the Machine, Smith Westerns, Wavves, Fleet Foxes, Wale, Aloe Blacc, Big Boi, The Walkmen, Kid Cudi and so forth and so on with older favorites in between!
Interestingly enough…
When I was growing up, at times (90′s) I never knew if the music I was listening to was new or old; I was too young to know what was fresh and was had come before me. In composing this blog, I’ve found that I was always listening to what was fresh, with some classics intertwined. I also fell to some of the more mainstream, mindless stuff.
Throughout the journey, there’s one special someone I have to thank for sticking by me no matter how bad or loud it got…
Bean.
Music moves me. What music moves you? Let me know!
