Inspired by a lack of new music to listen to, I thought about how I learn about new music. Usually friends recommend artists or songs for us to listen to based on their own taste and hopefully what they know of ours. Recently I've gotten some good tips from friends who have passed on mixed cds and suggested places I could go to find more music I might like. This is when I stumbled upon Pandora. This amazing site is radio from the Human Genome Project (which is a little scary at first) but then you realize what it offers. Custom made music stations designed by you. You can type in your favorite artist or song and similar songs will continue playing all day and into the night. This is a great way to find out about other artists that you may like. I haven't run into an artist that they don't have on their site and you can give each song they play a thumbs up or thumbs down that further focuses the custom made station. I have heard so many lovely songs lately that I have regained faith in current musical choices!
Further
Based on the assumption that most of my friends like music, I thought about those who have frequently exposed me to artists I wouldn't otherwise know about. I wanted to create a site that allows all of you to post reviews of what you are listening to. Your reviews can be of new artists, old artists you've just discovered, mainstream, indie or whatever you like. I know that we all have very subjective musical tastes but I thought that by creating a forum where we could discuss what we like (and why we like it) we could gather the best information and share with each other.
Lastly
I thought I'd start by sharing my personal musical tastes and a little of my history.
History: I grew up in a household that listened to "soft rock" and a lot of classical music. Alan Parsons Project, Boston, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Fleetwood Mac, A-ha, Jim Croce, Mike & The Mechanics and Michael Jackson's Thriller, were just some of my favorites. As I grew older I spent hours huddled on the oak floors of our living room with large headphones covering my tiny curious ears and played record after record. I began to notice not only the lyrics and the instruments played but small idiosyncrasies about each song as I listened to the same records again and again. Music began to be both an escape and an adventure for me. I slowly expanded my tastes and listed to my own music. Sure, I spent lots of Sunday afternoons listening to Rick Dees and the weekly top 40 but I also began to read Rolling Stone magazine and watch Mtv. It was a time that my life opened many new musical doors and there were an abundance of new things to listen to.
Musical Taste: What I've realized is that anyone who says they listen to "everything" is a liar. Myself included. I used to think that but there are certainly some things I draw the line at. Anyone who listens to everything means that they don't listen at all. If you really truly listened to music, you'd notice that there are certainly some very talented folks and some people that should be booted off the air once and for all! Growing up with classical music and being a musician myself, I appreciated the complex array of instruments that have historically been played in symphonies. Today, when I listen to music, I still notice many of those instruments but observe how they can be incorporated into different styles and genres of music. An example would be one of my current favorite artists, Brandi Carlile. She has some wonderful folk-rock songs that have amazing cello solos. My favorite brand of music is probably acoustic folk-rock. I love lots of classic rock (Foreigner, Bad Company and Pink Floyd), jazz (especially swing music), blues (Taj Mahal & Buddy Guy), crooners (Harry Connick Jr & Etta James), soul (like Aretha Franklin & Marvin Gay), cheesy pop now and then (Ricky Martin and Madonna) and some hard metal (Stavesacre & Social Distortion). We all have our own brands of musical taste and lets face it, it changes over the years. We may still hold a place in our hearts for music that helped shape and mold us or that we have sentimental moments with (such as Richard Marx's Everything I do, I do it for you), but what we truly hold close to our hearts may change. I definitely have my favorites, my all-time favorites, and the ones I'm listening to now. I look forward to sharing these with you and hearing about all that you have to bring to the table.
Happy listening, considering and contributing.
