Fun With Musical Phases And Old Memories!

**Galefore** · 05-14-2009, 02:44 PM

As a lot of you know, I often find a genre of music, listen to nothing but for several weeks, and then move on to yet another. So, in an act of self-indulgence that I can't say I'm particularly proud of, I am going to post about it here and then enjoy it being ignored.

To make this qualify as a topic and not a blog post, share your own musical phase chronology! It'll be fun and embarrassing (in some cases) and will help you get to know yourself better - or perhaps hate yourself more.

Phase 1 (2003-2004 (and a little into '05)) - 50's and 60's Doo-wop and Rockabilly.
I was heavily influenced by my Grandmother on this one (embarassing, huh?); she had purchased a set of CDs that collected hits from the 60s and I found myself heavily interested by the familiar pop gems that I was hearing. This one lasted a while, and as my family was proud that I wasn't into that 'hippedy-hop', I ended up just a little elitist about my fascination with these oldies, and at the same time, embarrassed. I distinctly remember posting that I was listening to a Temptations song in the What Are You Listening To topic and then nervously typing "SO I LIKE THE OLDIES, SO WHAT?". In terms of lasting impact this phase had, it did give me a heavy interest in harmonies and a taste for a solid song structure and melody. Even to this day I like to pop an oldies album in every once in a while and sing along. It gives me the sort of nostalgia rush that, as a kid born in the 90s, I shouldn't get, but hey, it's a good feeling.

Phase 2 (2005-late 2006) - 90s and 00s pop music.
At this point I accidentally discovered an old, worn-out walkman in a drawer in my room. It had an FM radio, so I started ****ing around with the channels, seeing what I could find. I found a few pop stations, and instantly realized that modern sounds were interesting as well. I absorbed whatever they played, whether it was the corny, sex-charged Hip-Hop of that period (summer, '05) or the lame pop-punk ballads I thought were 'edgy' and 'cool'. At that point, my favorite band was Green Day, and we're talking American Idiot Green Day, not respectable 90s alt-rock Green Day. After I got finished "crunking", I realized that I really wasn't enjoying what I was hearing. I'm not sure what snapped in my brain, but my tastes began to deviate. I didn't take much from this phase, but it did give me lasting memories and something to talk about when I'm older.

Phase 3 (late 2006-summer of 2007) - Emo stage.
No, I don't mean 'emo' or pop punk music; technically, that was part of the pop phase. I mean sad, over-wrought music full of despair that I was only into because I was at a slightly 'emotional' stage in my life, for whatever reason. This included AFI, Counting Crows, a lot of 90s alt-rock, and even Blue October. I was also into bands my friends like, like Coldplay and Yellowcard. Interestingly enough, it was during this phase that I also got into bands like Silversun Pickups and TV on the Radio, whom I came to really like a couple of years later (and into today). The only real influence I took from this stage was an unfortunate preoccupation with melancholy tunes and generally sad lyrics. I suppose I always had a predisposition for that sort of thing, but months of listening to only that probably intensified it a bit.

Phase 4 (August-October 2007) - J-Rock and J-Pop.
This was during the wilting year of my otakudom. This phase mainly happened because of bands like Dir en Grey and Asian Kung Fu Generation, whom I had discovered during the summer of that year. Although DEG and AKFG are ok bands in themselves, their generic imitators were pretty much all I listened to for a good steady 3 month cycle, even going so far as to develop a hate for all English-speaking music in general. I made up several excuses for this, and then made some **** up about disliking vocals in music (and pretending to be obsessed with 'instrumental' music to support it) as I continued to listen to the tremendously annoying Visual Kei stuff that devoured my collection. I don't own any of it anymore, mainly because it was all destroyed with my old computer last October, but I used to occasionally listen to some of it and laugh at myself. I took a slight drumming influence from this phase, because it was to these songs that I practiced on a drum-stool while I waited for my set to get fixed. Not much else, in terms of influence, came of this.

Phase 5 (November 2007-Now, technically, but the 'phase' ended in about February of 2008) - Muse, Radiohead and similar indie rock.
After going through a short phase where Muse was my favorite band, I happened to be reading a Time Magazine article that led me to In Rainbows, which I downloaded due to the promise of 'sad songs' like Nude and All I Need. I was instantly hooked, and got all of their albums within days, refusing to listen to anyone else. During this period I made many memories while listening to Radiohead's music, thus solidifying them as my favorite band of all time. This period influenced me the most of all, because it taught me to love slightly less accessible music than I was used to, and helped me develop a taste for many of the genres Radiohead themselves represented.

So, those are what I consider the "Big 5" that sort of formed my interest in music. Here's a list from memory of phases I went through last year and this year so far. Note that though I call these 'phases', I still listen to all of the music and artists represented. Also, some of these occurred simultaneously or only lasted in full intensity for a couple of days.

HEREWEGO

Prog Rock
Indie
Prog Metal
Trip-Hop
Prog (again)
Jazz
Classical Music
Math Rock
Electronica
Indie Rock (again)
Porcupine Tree (We're talking nothing but for a full month)
TV on the Radio (Nothing but for about a two weeks)
Post-Rock
Shoegaze and Dream Pop
Noise Rock and Art Punk (Dance Punk and Indie Pop included)
Classic Rock
Tom Waits (About two days, because then I got heavily into the next genre by chance)
Folk and Folk-Rock (currently, in fact.)

I may be forgetting a couple, but I think I touched on all of them.

Panfan · 05-15-2009, 09:44 PM

I admit that my musical tastes were pretty bad until about 2006. I was an a classic rock purist who only listened to "modern music" when it was The White Stripes, Green Day, or Weird Al. I had a Simple Plan kick when I was really young, but I got out of that really really quickly. I did enjoy some hip hop too. But it was mostly Queen, Jimi, Beatles, and Led.

2006 I balanced it out a little bit more. More White Stripes, more Weezer, more Green Day (less of the American Idiot kind too). Then in 2007 I started talking to Gale and Phaeral and I got into metal kicks and prog kicks (tons of Metallica and prog). I credit Gale for introducing me to the band that forever changed my view on music: Radiohead (though Weezer'z Pinkerton is what got me interested in songwriting and sparked my listening to more emotional music). You know this already though. Radiohead is the band that got me into more experimental music, which later led to trip hop and ambient, and tons more. It got me into indie music, which is what I listen to now. I also mixed Radiohead with other bands that I knew and loved beforehand (Coldplay, Muse, Tool, Weezer) and that turned me into what I am today.

I've gotten to major kicks of (no particular order):
Radiohead (and just Radiohead)
Hardcore Punk
70s Prog
Post-Hardcore
Ska Punk
Thrash Metal
Death Metal and Metalcore
Hip Hop (especially Alt. Hip Hop)
Trip Hop
Ambient
"Wolf at the Door" by Radiohead (I seriously listened to that song for an entire day, it was so ****ing awesome)

not as sentimental as Gale, but I don't care. I used to be stupid, now I'm awesome.

05-14-2009, 02:44 PM	#1
Galefore EXPLOSION GOD OF MUSIC Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Some studio somewhere Gender: Posts: 8,275 Thanks: 1,361 Thanked 826 Times in 535 Posts Blog Entries: 5	Fun With Musical Phases And Old Memories! As a lot of you know, I often find a genre of music, listen to nothing but for several weeks, and then move on to yet another. So, in an act of self-indulgence that I can't say I'm particularly proud of, I am going to post about it here and then enjoy it being ignored. To make this qualify as a topic and not a blog post, share your own musical phase chronology! It'll be fun and embarrassing (in some cases) and will help you get to know yourself better - or perhaps hate yourself more. Phase 1 (2003-2004 (and a little into '05)) - 50's and 60's Doo-wop and Rockabilly. I was heavily influenced by my Grandmother on this one (embarassing, huh?); she had purchased a set of CDs that collected hits from the 60s and I found myself heavily interested by the familiar pop gems that I was hearing. This one lasted a while, and as my family was proud that I wasn't into that 'hippedy-hop', I ended up just a little elitist about my fascination with these oldies, and at the same time, embarrassed. I distinctly remember posting that I was listening to a Temptations song in the What Are You Listening To topic and then nervously typing "SO I LIKE THE OLDIES, SO WHAT?". In terms of lasting impact this phase had, it did give me a heavy interest in harmonies and a taste for a solid song structure and melody. Even to this day I like to pop an oldies album in every once in a while and sing along. It gives me the sort of nostalgia rush that, as a kid born in the 90s, I shouldn't get, but hey, it's a good feeling. Phase 2 (2005-late 2006) - 90s and 00s pop music. At this point I accidentally discovered an old, worn-out walkman in a drawer in my room. It had an FM radio, so I started **ing around with the channels, seeing what I could find. I found a few pop stations, and instantly realized that modern sounds were interesting as well. I absorbed whatever they played, whether it was the corny, sex-charged Hip-Hop of that period (summer, '05) or the lame pop-punk ballads I thought were 'edgy' and 'cool'. At that point, my favorite band was Green Day, and we're talking American Idiot Green Day, not respectable 90s alt-rock Green Day. After I got finished "crunking", I realized that I really wasn't enjoying what I was hearing. I'm not sure what snapped in my brain, but my tastes began to deviate. I didn't take much from this phase, but it did give me lasting memories and something to talk about when I'm older. Phase 3 (late 2006-summer of 2007) - Emo stage. No, I don't mean 'emo' or pop punk music; technically, that was part of the pop phase. I mean sad, over-wrought music full of despair that I was only into because I was at a slightly 'emotional' stage in my life, for whatever reason. This included AFI, Counting Crows, a lot of 90s alt-rock, and even Blue October. I was also into bands my friends like, like Coldplay and Yellowcard. Interestingly enough, it was during this phase that I also got into bands like Silversun Pickups and TV on the Radio, whom I came to really like a couple of years later (and into today). The only real influence I took from this stage was an unfortunate preoccupation with melancholy tunes and generally sad lyrics. I suppose I always had a predisposition for that sort of thing, but months of listening to only that probably intensified it a bit. Phase 4 (August-October 2007) - J-Rock and J-Pop. This was during the wilting year of my otakudom. This phase mainly happened because of bands like Dir en Grey and Asian Kung Fu Generation, whom I had discovered during the summer of that year. Although DEG and AKFG are ok bands in themselves, their generic imitators were pretty much all I listened to for a good steady 3 month cycle, even going so far as to develop a hate for all English-speaking music in general. I made up several excuses for this, and then made some ** up about disliking vocals in music (and pretending to be obsessed with 'instrumental' music to support it) as I continued to listen to the tremendously annoying Visual Kei stuff that devoured my collection. I don't own any of it anymore, mainly because it was all destroyed with my old computer last October, but I used to occasionally listen to some of it and laugh at myself. I took a slight drumming influence from this phase, because it was to these songs that I practiced on a drum-stool while I waited for my set to get fixed. Not much else, in terms of influence, came of this. Phase 5 (November 2007-Now, technically, but the 'phase' ended in about February of 2008) - Muse, Radiohead and similar indie rock. After going through a short phase where Muse was my favorite band, I happened to be reading a Time Magazine article that led me to In Rainbows, which I downloaded due to the promise of 'sad songs' like Nude and All I Need. I was instantly hooked, and got all of their albums within days, refusing to listen to anyone else. During this period I made many memories while listening to Radiohead's music, thus solidifying them as my favorite band of all time. This period influenced me the most of all, because it taught me to love slightly less accessible music than I was used to, and helped me develop a taste for many of the genres Radiohead themselves represented. So, those are what I consider the "Big 5" that sort of formed my interest in music. Here's a list from memory of phases I went through last year and this year so far. Note that though I call these 'phases', I still listen to all of the music and artists represented. Also, some of these occurred simultaneously or only lasted in full intensity for a couple of days. HEREWEGO Prog Rock Indie Prog Metal Trip-Hop Prog (again) Jazz Classical Music Math Rock Electronica Indie Rock (again) Porcupine Tree (We're talking nothing but for a full month) TV on the Radio (Nothing but for about a two weeks) Post-Rock Shoegaze and Dream Pop Noise Rock and Art Punk (Dance Punk and Indie Pop included) Classic Rock Tom Waits (About two days, because then I got heavily into the next genre by chance) Folk and Folk-Rock (currently, in fact.) I may be forgetting a couple, but I think I touched on all of them.

05-15-2009, 09:44 PM	#2
Panfan AND HE PRAYS Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Grayskull Gender: Posts: 18,806 Thanks: 1,405 Thanked 2,250 Times in 1,338 Posts Blog Entries: 15	I admit that my musical tastes were pretty bad until about 2006. I was an a classic rock purist who only listened to "modern music" when it was The White Stripes, Green Day, or Weird Al. I had a Simple Plan kick when I was really young, but I got out of that really really quickly. I did enjoy some hip hop too. But it was mostly Queen, Jimi, Beatles, and Led. 2006 I balanced it out a little bit more. More White Stripes, more Weezer, more Green Day (less of the American Idiot kind too). Then in 2007 I started talking to Gale and Phaeral and I got into metal kicks and prog kicks (tons of Metallica and prog). I credit Gale for introducing me to the band that forever changed my view on music: Radiohead (though Weezer'z Pinkerton is what got me interested in songwriting and sparked my listening to more emotional music). You know this already though. Radiohead is the band that got me into more experimental music, which later led to trip hop and ambient, and tons more. It got me into indie music, which is what I listen to now. I also mixed Radiohead with other bands that I knew and loved beforehand (Coldplay, Muse, Tool, Weezer) and that turned me into what I am today. I've gotten to major kicks of (no particular order): Radiohead (and just Radiohead) Hardcore Punk 70s Prog Post-Hardcore Ska Punk Thrash Metal Death Metal and Metalcore Hip Hop (especially Alt. Hip Hop) Trip Hop Ambient "Wolf at the Door" by Radiohead (I seriously listened to that song for an entire day, it was so ****ing awesome) not as sentimental as Gale, but I don't care. I used to be stupid, now I'm awesome.