I reckon everyone has a first, has to start somewhere. It's important to think of - in terms of ranting about music - where your taste originated from, and where it has gone from there
Growing up, it was just a mixtape my dad made, with a few bands who I didn't know by name at the time. Of course, looking back, I can easily tell you now:
Green Day
The Offspring
Marcy Playground
Santana
Collective Soul
Back then, I don't think tapes could hold music worth shit...y'know, after 8-tracks, but before CDs. They were flimsier in size, but it was a fair trade-off when you could have 5 and it wouldn't take up a shitload of space.
I was around 4 at the time when I started internalizing those kind of bands, and music only became more fun to listen to.
Beyond those bands, the city of Colorado Springs was pretty heavy on country - 2 or 3 country stations to 2 pop stations and 1 rock station in the area I resided - and it hit our family hard. I had cowboy boots to match m'dad's, and my ma cranked it in her Chevy pickup, Gracie, and I learned to sing along.
Sadly, I still know the words to a lot of older country songs
I say sadly, because as it got closer to the turn of the century, country got more pathetic and depressing to me. Eventually, for one reason or another, I moved up to Washington with my dad - folks were divorced - and that's where I got my first real taste of something new.
And by "new," I mean rock.
It wasn't necessarily hardcore, it was Linkin Park
It was something I hadn't experienced. I was 10, and shitty boy bands like 98 Degrees, N Sync, and Backstreet Boys were on their last legs. Guitar had a new purpose. Not some shitty twang, or gratuitous amount of slide (granted I learned other genres used slides in a manner I found more effective).
No, distortion guitar was where it was at.
LP was just the gateway band; whereas country made me depressed, rock let me have an outlet for my retarded pre-teen angst. Bands like Godsmack, Korn, Disturbed, and Drowning Pool all painted newer, angrier pictures that let me feel alive. I can't look back on these bands today and say they are tremendously talented, or at least as talented as I once thought they were, but they an important staple in my tastes, as the ideology of what the songwriters wrote about determined where I was headed.
Unfortunately, it was down a dark, daaaaark path: becoming a goth
Now, I didn't think that Satan was in my blood, dream of relishing in pain and despair, but I did like wearing black, chains, and big comfortable pants. I still have my Tripp pants for lazy days, when I want something roomy to wear, but otherwise I'm beyond that and stick with jeans more often than not.
From being a goth in my early teen years, I embraced metal in all forms. I took in Metallica, Megadeth, Invocations of Nehek, Cannibal Corpse, Lamb of God, Dimmu Borgir, and - probably the most prominent when I was younger - Cradle of filth. Dani Filth was probably the reason I thought I could get girls with eyeliner and black nails...I don't know why, but I did.
After that phase, I'd say I began refining my tastes, narrowing down the metal I listened to, and further broadening my horizons of general rock. Of course, with bands like Metallica, I made sure to embrace many classic rock bands that weren't just metal for its time - it was "heavy" metal.
At the tail-end of high school, I was pretty complacent with my metal variety, and got pointed in the direction of video game music - once I realized you could buy soundtracks to games. Video game music led to video game remixes, and remixes led to techno and electronica. Not just things like Daft Punk, but Justice, Danger, MSTRKRFT, Crystal Castles, and so on. Going through college, techno evolved into dubstep, and that's about where I am today. I still listen to all of the above, and have picked up on instruments myself.
Nowadays, I keep an open mind about what I listen to, even setting aside some capacity for rap - as long as the lyrics aren't the kind that reinforce negative stereotypes, or it's just blatantly funny. Thankfully, I avoided pop music and emo in general, as I've never had the urge to spread strawberry jam on my wrists...or to just be a little bitch.
When I look for music I like, I look for at least one talented instrumentalist - if not more - and how I might aspire to that level someday. If not aspire, then at least something I genuinely admire.
These aren't what I'd call credentials, but merely an anectdote for perspective.
Sure I don't listen to Korn as much, but I like seeing what's happened to those bands in the long run. Sometimes interesting things happen; Korn's newer albums went downhill, but Head made a really good solo album in my opinion. Sadly, many have gone downhill in my perspective. And downhill is what I'll have to describe in future posts about music in popular culture...
