Wednesday, March 16, 2011

if it's too loud

What are you listening to right now, no not this instant, but what is your "mix tape"?  What is your "go to" music?  Look at your collection, or should I say play list, and see if you are like me and are heavy into artists that you grew-up listing to.  I'm talking about grade school through college (or college years). 

My playlists are laden with late '80s through the '90s alternative "college radio" artists.  This would be the years that I would consider my growth years.  The years that I was influenced by friends, parents, my sister, religion, and anything else shiny or sparkly (I was a teenage boy).  I am just curious to know if other audiophiles have the same tendencies, a prevalence to go back to the roots?  I do listen to new music, but you can easily draw comparisons or six degrees of separation from the "then" to the "now playing".

I think for me it is easy to listen to my music, because it is my blanket my comfort food for the soul.  You have that one song that reminds you of your first slowdance, kiss, break-up, or hook-up.  There might be some songs or artists, maybe an album you can't even listen to anymore because of the emotional flood that it conjures up with every cord and verse.  TSA has their NO Fly list, I have my NO Play list.

I hate to admit it, but I am at an age, or more of a turning point where I don't like the music of the "next" generation.  Maybe it's not that I don't like it, it is I just don't get it.  I listen to music that came before my generation and have several go to artists that produced albums 10-20years before my birth.  I have found very few "new" artists that I like or can tolerate, and find myself always turning back to my faithful tried and true.

Somehow we emotionally tie time and space to music.  Some songs are tied to a specific memories, others are woven into a time period.  Try it.  Put on a playlist sit down and listen to your music, let the memories come rushing in.  Warning, some songs might not be all Shiny Happy People memories. 

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