For those of you who know me, it does not come as a suprise when I say I have eclectic musical tastes.
For most of my first 20 years, my exposure to music was fairly intense but also fairly limited. Church Choirs jammed my head with numerous anthems and hymns but left me at a loss picking songs at the school dances. Video watching was limited to the often bizarre CBC Video Hits. In high school, my friends and I made mixed tapes by recording off the radio which created some very odd music compliations. I completely missed vinyl. My first tape was Van Halen "1984" and in high school I listened mainly to Steve Miller, ACDC, and classic rock. The MuchMusic Video Roadshow was a big deal.
University was a whole new world. My friends all had different musical interests and I found myself listening to everything from Inspiral Carpets to Nirvana to The Irish Descendents. It was amazing. At the end of university, I had a decent collection of different types of music - favourites included Tom Waits, Ween and The Pogues. However my musical memory of songs from this time easily ranges into the thousands.
After undergrad, my range of musical interests has been further enlarged as I have studied the branches of influences for various artists, tried to keep atop of current trends and simply just paid more attention to what is going on around me. Friends have also been very helpful in guiding me to new music - CXXXI's influence has been particularly strong and rewarding.
Technology has been an amazing bonanza for my musical indulgences. I have collected a terrific assortment of live recordings by favourite artists but also have been able to put together a great collection of new and old tracks. I now have thousands of songs at my fingertips, most of which I can recognize in the first bar or two. Quite a change from the choppy Q107 mixed tapes I struggled with 15 years ago!
Update April 20, 2006And my tastes continue to change. I'm still a big fan of Tom Waits, of course. My iPod hasn't been updated in a while as a haven't had my PC connected. I do most of my music listening at work where a pile of CDs is building. The current stack includes Solomon Burke, Radiohead, Nick Cave, Beta Band, Neko Case and Broken Social Scene. I've got a single CD in Karina's Car - Broken Social Scene's You Forgot it in People". Karina and I listen to the radio mostly in the car and I have come to undertsand why satellite radio might be big - the DJs (as opposed to commentators) of popular radio stations are idiots (Q107! The EDGE! are you listening?).
