Turning Points

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Everyone's music taste changes and evolves over time. Do you have an album or song that was a 'turning point' for you, musically? Perhaps you've had two or three turning points, or found that the combined power of a handful of songs made you think differently about a whole genre?

Are musical turning points always in the form of "OMG!" revelations? Were yours gradual or sudden?

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

(No polls today innit!)

My musical tastes have come full circle since I was a nipper - loved rave the first time round, then it was all about the pop, then RAWK, then indie, then techno, then back to pop. There were definitely some 'deciding moments' marking these shifts in focus and they mostly came in the form of albums instead of songs: Rave 92, the NOW series, Nevermind, OK Computer, Selected Ambient Works II. My link back to pop and rnb in 2003 was through individual songs though: blame Justin, Beyoncé and Nelly. My musical compass has been all over the place since then!

[hoshuteki.livejournal.com]

Totally gradual, dude. If you'd told the me of a year ago that I'd be a big fan of R&B I'd have been like "No way! It's all so rubbish and overblown. Oh wait, that 'No Scrubs' song, that was OK....." Sometimes songs get into your mind like a virus and live there for years before you exhibit any actual signs of interest in them or their genre, to use an analogy.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

this decade my turnarounds have come more from reading other people's convincing arguments of why the music they like is good. certainly in the case of a lot of contemporary american pop.

how i got into post-rave house and techno: reading dance mags in the mid 90s. that was quite a 180 turn after a couple of years of listening only to hiphop, pop grunge and jungle.

[miss-newham.livejournal.com]

I learned to love Europop when I was an exchange student, because that was the only music I ever heard. I remember going from loathing 'Barbie Girl' by Aqua to rushing to the dancefloor whenever it came on, though I think my real conversion point was the mighty 'Un dos tres Maria' by Ricky Martin.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Everyone's music taste changes and evolves over time
I beg to differ.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Perhaps 'increases' is a better word? It doesn't have to be a change from dislike to like (or vice versa).

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Yes, much better.

My now-getting-to-be-stock answer on "turning points" is discovering there was a vast library of (mostly non-rock) popular music 1967-75 that the canon-formers had largely written out of the official history.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Like Lt Pigeon?

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Possibly. Although:
1. I did know of their existence;
2. they are the epitome of rock innit. ;)

[mcatzilut.livejournal.com]

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" taught me to like music, and probably taught me to obsess over pop culture. I wrote a paper about this for a course once, about how the song recreated my social anxiety - and I'd never had a piece of artwork recreate me so perfectly. It was eye-opening. That one worked like a one-punch knockout.

An example of the reverse would be Joni Mitchell's Circle Game. I heard that song in so many different contexts over so many years of my life (from 2nd grade through today) that it changed meaning as I changed. I got the chance to grow up with the song, so the ways it has affected me have been subtle and gradual.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I wrote an essay about Nevermind for my A-level General Studies exam! Absolute rubbish, every word. Got an 'A'.

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

I wrote about the works of Madonna in A-Level General Studies and got an 'A' too.

[koganbot]

Let's see, wrote a term paper about the Dolls for Intellectual And Cultural History Of The United States, sophomore year; and my Senior Essay was entitled "Kicks" based on the Lou Reed song.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I wrote the lyrics to something angsty by Skunk Anansie (can't remember what exactly) on my Maths GCSE paper in French. I got a B. I suspect I lose this game.

[koganbot]

--Skeeter Davis "The End Of The World" (first pop song I loved)
--Kingston Trio "MTA" (turn to folk music and away from pop)
--Tommy James & The Shondells "Hanky Panky" and The Rolling Stones "Mother's Little Helper" (turn back to pop)
--Rolling Stones "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (innovative use of parentheses)
--Jefferson Airplane "Wooden Ships" and Bob Dylan "Like A Rolling Stone" (everything is fucked, let's dance)
--New York Dolls "Personality Crisis" (tough boys turn themselves into sweet desperate girls)
--Donna Summer "I Feel Love" (disco)
--Contortions (seeing 'em live) and James Brown (inspired by seeing the Contortions live) "Can't Stand Myself (When You Touch Me)" (parentheses reconfirmed, also the tension increases between foreground and background, the relevant and the not-so-relevant, the pertinent and the parenthetical)
--Spoonie Gee "Spoonin Rap" and "Love Rap" (somehow deduce from these that music of all previous turning-point records can be combined)
--Company B "Fascinated" (love toys better than punk boys)
--Trick Daddy & Trina "Nann Nigga" (love of musical form, music returns to my brain)
--Eminem "The Real Slim Shady" (Spoonie lesson reconfirmed, music returns to my gut)
--Ashlee Simpson "Autobiography" (music returns to my heart)

[koganbot]

I wish I had seen this thread before submitting my latest column. Will bring this subject up on my livejournal when the piece goes into print; will need to cajole you lot into expanding your ideas there.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

urning points in Musical Life Thus Far:
-'Stay' by Shakespeare's Sister
-'Weak' by Skunk Anansie
-'Don't Speak' by No Doubt
-Something I can't remember the name of which may have been a Braveheart remix of some variet that I heard on Dance Anthems awakens terrible urge for Meaningful Trance
-'Midlife Crisis' by Faith No More
-'Juicy' by Notorious BIG
-Eminem's first single makes me want to be offensive. At some point around this time I learn to rap however I have discovered I can't do it anymore which is very disappointing.
-'Papercut' by Linkin Park
[large gap]
-'Obviously' by The McFly begins to unseat rockist world.
-'The Show' by Girls Aloud delivers deathblow to said rockist world.
-Present day

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

TURNING not 'urning,' obv.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Hahaha I just got your original comment notification in my email - 'cascada cause problems for brain' = one of the best reviews I've ever heard!

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Haha, I decided that was too long-winded and pretentious, which was why I redrafted (also remembered something else but can't remember what now) although I wish I'd kept that bit in now. :D

[lisa-go-blind.livejournal.com]

"Psycho Killer" by Talking Heads. It's the song that took me from "music lover" to "OMG music obsessee."

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

Important turning points at various ages;

- seeing Duran Duran doing 'Wild Boys' on the first *evah* TOTP I got to watch, age 8. It was just so daft and overblown and hammy and fabulous.

- A-Ha, for several reasons, mostly the revelation that very popular pop wot got shown on kids' tv could also have 'proper songs' (so I was a bit rockist at 9, I fully admit it)

- the Pet Shop Boys, from the first time I heard 'West End Girls', for similar reasons

- De La Soul, from my aunt, who got me into some other reggae too. this was definitely the start of an interest in off-beat hip hop.

- the whole of 'Faith' & 'Seventeen Seconds', which I listened to religiously as mood music and really got me thinking about the subtler effects of music

- Prince, who dragged me out of an "all pop is rubbish, I'm just going to listen to classical music" phase in my teens

- the X-Ray Spex and the Ramones were way more important to me in punk terms than the Pistols, tho the Pistols had been a good early teens thing. Getting into my fiance's record collection made me less sniffy about rawk history, the sniffiness being something which came about from being a teenage goth in the suburbs where glammies were pretty much yer only other subcultural alternative, and the realtionship was an uneasy one. L7, Hole and Babes in Toyland were more important to me than Nirvana - I had Jennifer Finch all over my A/S level biology folder!

- Bauhaus' 'Kick In The Eye' and the 2nd Fields of the Nephilim album, which were simultaneously scary and thrilling.

- The Chameleons, a gift to me from a lovely and long-lost penpal.

- the realisation at the age of 20, upon listening to some of Morrisey's solo work, that I didn't have to hate The Smiths.

- various realisations about being able to enjoy electronic music, r popular music

These are all from when I was quite young, but I think that's probably enough for now! I couldn't say which was most important but they were all very influential in different ways.

[inhibitorylinks.livejournal.com]

I listened to a lot of classical music through my childhood, and about the only song I can really truly remember before I was about 10 was Paula Abdul's "Opposites Attract." I think I remember this because of the cartoon cat/fox thing in the video clip more than the OMG AMAZINGNESS of the song.

Ace of Base appealed to me when they were in the process of eating the world, probably because they were everywhere and resistance was futile. I also quite liked Vanessa Mae, and it was probably her that was responsible for dragging me into the world of popular music. Things didn't "click" until "Ray of Light;" I don't really know why this wasa turning point for me, but Madonna's powers know no bounds.

Since then I guess my musical tastes have expanded, though I can't really recall any other significant turning points per se.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

I choose list method, should be innaresting...15 distinct stages!

1. Age 3-6: Beach Boys on tape cassette/golden oldies station -- pop music is of the past, something that resonates with the childhood of my parents, and thus should also resonate with me.
2. Age 5: start piano training in earnest = separate musical life "outside of pop" until 18, somewhat coinciding with musicnerdiness.
3. Age 7: feel strange listening/dancing to stuff my sister listens to, Paula Abdul and New Kids. Feel that I should be listening to something different (gender differentiation?)
4. Age 8: Discovery of Metallica via new step-brother. Obsession ensues.
5. Age 8-13: Metallica, Offspring, occasional Nirvana, lots of Weird Al!
6. Age 13-15: Whatever everyone else happens to be listening to, slight G-funk phase (more like ~12?), Outkast and Eminem late in this period.
7. Age 16: Jealous of friends' U2 knowledge, decide to be "music guy," go out and buy SGT. PEPPER'S!
8. Age 17: 300 CDs and few lunches later I'm well on my way to a canon! Find Pfork, start compiling Music Lists of stuff to buy/listen to.
9. Age 18: Full-fledged wannabe music nerd, mucho indie, burgeoning interest in jazz accompanies abandonment of classical piano for jazz and some marginal pop writing (accidentally buy albums by BLOWHOLE and BELLY that I never listen to, lots of mistakes starting with B, also Balt Mink and Bwelve Rods and Bilys's Eccsame the Photon Band!)
10. Age 19: First writing gigs, faking it. (Unicorns stand out)
11. Age 20: Big writing gigs, still faking it but with a thesaurus. (Arcade Fire, Joan of Arc (boo hiss), Animal Collective, Kylie Minogue)
12. Age 21: Identity crisis, go to England (do not pass Go etc.). (Daft Punk, more Kylie...T. Rex?) Enter Skye Sweetnam, then Ashlee, then Lindsay. Obsessively collect old teenpop albums because (1) they cost a buck a piece, (2) I dig 'em, (3) my writing has improved (yay!)
13. Age 22: Deep into tha teenpop, find new internet buddies. Enter Marit, Paris.
14. Age 23: Present!
15. Future: Future!

[dorsalstop.livejournal.com]

Oh wow it's good to be back here. Bin an long time. My circular movements from and towards pop go thus:

Turning points list:
1. "Maid of Orleans" - Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
2. [i]Doolittle[/i] - Pixies
3. [i]Technique[/i] - New Order
4. [i]Parklife[/i] - Blur
5. "Leave Home" - Chemical Bros
6. "Get the Party Started" - Pink

Expl:
1 (age 9) - "OMG pop music isn't like stupid cheery kids' singalong music, it's weird and wonderful and emotive and deep"

* followed by years as mainstream pop fan, gradual drift into indie (Smiths) and pop.rock (U2)
2. (age 16) - "OMG indie and rock aren't just about feeling miserable, it can be weird and wonderful and stupid and cheery"

3. (age 17) - "OMG indie = pop = dance and it's the best ever" (a revelation most ppl I knew had that year, except their catalyst was the Stone Roses)
This should have been the defining turning point. But no...

* relapse into indie, or rather, alternative rock (Nirvana, Pearl...something *memory blockade*)
4. (age 22) - "OMG Duran Duran! yes I remember pop. Pop can be good as long as it's by proper used-to-be-indie bands"
5. (age 23) - "Yes I remember dance music. Can be good as long as it sounds like rock instead of dance"
* long relapse into indie (Belle & Sebastian), and general loss of interest in pop music. Until...

* the internets saved my life.
6. (age 29) - "Ahahaha, what's this silly inane pop fluff doing, freeing my mind and getting my ass to follow?"
* sudden explosion of revelations about having been an idiot for too long and embracing all that is pop (later that year, "can't Get You Out of my Head", "Work It" and N*Sync's "Girlfriend" clear up the rest of the hurt.)

[dorsalstop.livejournal.com]

Terrible when I think about it... 25 years of being pop music fan, and only 6 years of being a pop(tim)ist. Eine verschwendete Jugend.