Quite a while back I was working for a summer at Ridgecrest Baptist Conference Center outside of Asheville, NC. Very conservative, Bible Belt, Southern Baptist place. We had a small radio staion there which was extremely low-wattage and was basically just for the staffers lounge and the nearby dorms.
I had brought my record collection (which at that time was almost 1000 discs, this being back in the mid 70’s) to use there and while I knew no one was probably going to be playing any of the Stockhausen or John Cage I had, it did have quite a bit of good rock and roll, including The Doors L A Woman.
Well, of course we had one clown who didn’t know his music too well and decided to play parts of it. I was sitting out in the lounge at the time, when suddenly over the speakers, full blast, we hear:
"WELL, I BEEN DOWN SO GODAMM LONG…"
You never heard a stylus scrape across a record face faster in your entire life. I couldn’t stop laughing about it for the rest of the day.
Things I’d never admit to my friends, because they all seem out-of-character:
I love boy-band music. *N Sync, the Backstreet Boys. Don’t have any respect for the band beyond “Yeah, they can sing, but then so can most of the boys in my high-school chorus” but I like the songs.
'80s and early '90s teen-pop. NKOTB and stuff like that. I own “Teen Riot.”
I prefer the new-school Metallica to the old-school. Actually, it’d be more accurate to say I like almost all the Metallica, but the old stuff sounds better when they do it now. James almost sings now, he doesn’t growl. And the stuff is more melodic and less GWRAAARGH! Since I’m not seeing them in concert, just hearing it on CD, the GWRAARGH is hard to get a handle on. So I like the new stuff.
For some reason, the Carpenters get a bad rap for performing feather-light music. Au contraire! I’ve always been a fan of well-produced concisely played music. The Carpenters were perfectionists (well, at least Richard was) and you hear in their music. Besides, how could Karen’s voice not send chills down your spine when she’d hit a low note?
Mainly a small collection of horrid songs that were pop/bubblegum hits when I was in elementary school. “Chewy Chewy” by Ohio Players, for instance; or “Chirpy Chirp Cheep Cheep” by Mac & Katie Kissoon…
I have compilation CDs of MP3 files which I play on my laptop while doing tech guru stuff onsite. I’m rocking away to tracks from Enigma, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, etc, (courtesy of SoundApp) while upgrading a FileMaker solution to our latest version of it, and younger workers at the site are asking me about my tunes and then “Chewy Chewy” comes on.
I remember being laughed out of the classroom by other kids when I made the mistake of telling them I loved Three Dog Night. I still love their music…and have all their albums. (No, albums, not CD’s or tapes…although I do still have a couple of 8-tracks!!)
I never did understand why they disliked them. I guess they were too “sappy” or “bubble-gum” for a group of 6th graders.
Enya. I’m not really that embarrassed to admit it, actually, but I love her music. I’m sure I could think of a few more…like Bananarama…now, that’s slightly more embarrassing to admit in public.
Before hockey games, I got this whole “dressing ritual” at home before I leave. I put on the closing soundtrack to Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. Usually gets me in the mood to kick ass. . .
And I like to listen to Dire Straits, even though they’d hang me by the toenails if my friends found out. . .
Tripler
I hate the Bloodhound Gang. No talent hacks. There, I said it.
I’m just tired of people being ashamed of the music they like! I just dug out my Winger tape and remembered why I liked them so much. Unfortunately, just a mention of the name “Winger” produces such laughing fits in so many people, they dont stop to listen and realize that Winger had so much more musical ability and were downright more musically interesting than any other 80s pop-metal band. And now, Winger’s guitarist is playing for my favorite 80s band ever: DOKKEN. I love it.
And I keep asking myself, “Why do I like Savage Garden so much when they seem so much like today’s stale Backstreet/NSync pop?” Well I have realized that I like them because they DONT sound like that…for one, the boy band singers have that Boys2Men, hip-hop/R&B, 23 notes in one measure, passion-lacking sound, while the singer for Savage Garden sounds more silky and passionate, like Michael Jackson. Plus Savage Garden actually had drums and guitars…and most importantly, their lyrics just SAY a little more than the boy band fare; not just “Baby, I love you, I want you back, I cant live without you.”
Dont know why Im going on about this…nothing else to do. Oh, and I love Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode. Plus Metallica, Testament, and Alice In Chains.
Im proud of my musical tastes because they are so diverse…and therefore, I have no reason to be ashamed of liking any of it.