I think I have always had music. It has been the one constant in my life. For example, as a child, my mother would sing songs like "Here Comes the Sun" by The Beatles to wake me up in the morning and other, softer, songs to put me to sleep at night. At first, my parents were the great influencers of my musical taste. I remember driving around with my parents in elementary school and the radio station was always set on an oldies station and I would belt out the words as loud as I could. I knew all the songs. In fact, sometimes I feel like I have so many song lyrics memorized, it's a wonder I can fit anything else in my brain. Despite my parents' efforts to point me in the direction of their music, I eventually settled on my older brother as my main musical influence. Daniel is two years older than me and we have always been close. I think it is because of him that I developed a deep affection for music. I believe it was around middle school that my musical tastes really began to change. My brother began to introduce me to grunge and punk, which I still love today. I remember staying up late on weekends listening to disc after disc of Black Flag, The Offspring, and Pearl Jam. I think the first official CD I ever owned was Weezer's blue album. Of course, we both continued to grow up and added new music to the music we already loved (with the help of many friends and mix tapes). My grandfather even got me into some Irish music like The Pogues. Today, I have an itunes library of over 9,000 songs ranging from indie to folk to good old 90s jams (even some rap) and it is always growing and evolving. For me, these songs represent me and my life, including the good and bad times.
I too turn to those close to me for musical influence. My brother has probably the greatest influence on my library. He's 5 years older, and is a professional musician. Although our tastes are a little different, he has gotten me interested in many artists and genres that I would have never found on my own. Weezer's blue album is a classic, but Pinkerton is their best album by far. It's great that you have such a diverse library, I think it really makes listening more interesting.
ReplyDeleteI also got most of my musical influence from my brother, which is surprising because we didn't live together or spend much time with each other, and there's quite a big age gap between us. I think having an older sibling to model your musical taste after has big impact. They become like a role model of music.
ReplyDeleteIm right there with you. I can't remember a time when music wasn't in my life. I think thats part of the reason i love it so much today. And i also have gotten a lot of my musical taste from the people i am closest to.
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