Living with a terrible taste in music
Music has always been very important to me. Throughout most of my life, Iāve listened to a lot of music, and itās played a huge role in defining my personality at the time I listened to it. In many ways, the history of the music Iāve listened to is a history of me.
Hereās a look at where Iāve been, and where Iām at now.
Country
My parents essentially listen exclusively to country music, and so itās basically all I listened to for the first decade of my life. And when I say country, I donāt mean old stuff, I mean proto-pop country:
Many, many people that I know now are quite surprised by this. Country is one of those genres that brings out a certain revulsion in people. It still comes up from time to time, and my understanding of country brings out a laugh. Once in college, I was in a friendās hometown, the Middle of Nowhere, PA. His brother rolls up in his huge pickup truck, blasting some George Straight. My friend looks at me, and rolls his eyes. With a straight face, I start saying the words as George sings them. The look of shock and confusion on his face was priceless.
In many ways, thatās exactly who I was destined to be: just a country boy gettinā down on the farm.
But then, I discovered skateboarding, and punk rock.
Punk
Of course, it wasnāt even good punk music, either. See, I had always thought skateboarding was neat, but wasnāt never had one because there was nowhere to ride it. I lived on a farm, we didnāt have any pavement anywhere. So I forgot about skating. But then I got a call from a friend, heād just gotten a new video game:
thps
Hereās the soundtrack list:
- āPolice Truckā by the Dead Kennedys
- āHere and Nowā by The Ernies
- āVilifiedā by Even Rude
- āSupermanā by Goldfinger
- āJerry Was a Race Car Driverā by Primus
- āScreamerā/āNothing to Meā by Speedealer
- āCyco Visionā by Suicidal Tendencies
- āNew Girlā by The Suicide Machines
- āCommittedā by Unsane
- āEuro-Bargeā by The Vandals
Pretty awesome. He also had this new album that came out at the same timeā¦
enima of the state
From there, it was all over. All this edginess combined with my (just budding, of course) testosterone meant I was pretty much set. The funniest part about this period of my life was that I actually wasnāt really a particularly rebellious child: I maintained pretty damn good grades, save for a few semesters, I still went to church, and I was generally a good kid. I didnāt even smoke pot! Yet even the act of possessing these albums was heinously offensive. I got grounded for half a year for possessing Blink182ās āTake off your Pants and Jacketā and Limp Bizkitās āThree Dollar Bill, Yāall$.ā This constant conflict over music with my parents dominates my memories at the time. I literally printed out all the lyrics and wrote two pages explaining why I should be allowed to own a copy of the Offspringās āAmericanaā even though they said āshitā a few times. Punk, even third generation pop-punk, really spoke to my desire for autonomy and my attempts to be my own person.
Metal
Of course, slippery slopes are everywhere, and so I started searching for harder and harder music. Always the min/maxer, I looked for loopholes in my parentās rules. The biggest hole: anything from the Christian Family Bookstore was fair game. So I scoured it for anything awesome. Thatās when I found Zao:
Screw punk, metal was way more awesome. I grew my hair out long and learned to headbang.
I donāt think I need to explain to you why metal is ridiculous. I mean, come on:
dethklok
Hardcore
Of course, there has to be a way to reconcile all this, right? Take two steps forward, one step back? Well, thatās hardcore.
My fascination with hardcore in late high school and early college was two-fold, like āhardcoreā itself: thereās āhardcoreā and then thereās āhardcore punk.ā Hardcore punk is a specific sub-genre of punk rock from the 80s, and hardcore is its continuation in the modern day, after that whole emo thing happened.
To recap: hardcore punk:
show flyer
hardcore:
hardcore
Uuhhh yeah. Hardcore punk also brought me to straightedge, which leads to silliness like this:
hxc sxe
To this day, I still donāt regret this tattoo, and anyone thatās seen me at a Ruby conference knows that Iām not straightedge anymore. But this music and philosophy defined who I was for about 8 years, which was, at the end of it, about a third of my life. It changed my college experience. Iām (basically) permanently marked by it.
But no, seriously:
hardcore
Party Rock
Anyway, so nowadays, this is what I listen to:
Hereās the thing: once I finally admitted to myself that I enjoy terrible pop music and stopped trying to apologize for my taste, I realized I was way more productive. Upbeat music with a vaguely positive vibe means I get shit done. Way better than the heavy, dreary, angry stuff I listened to in the past. I listen to hours of music a day, and Iād much rather have it be happyā¦
But thatās when I realized Iāve basically always had bad taste in music.
The thing is, thatās totally okay! Music has always provided an interesting backdrop for the rest of my life, and itās fit whatever moment I was living. Writing this post was a blast, because Iād forgotten about half of this stuff, and re-living it is a good time. I can remember debating my friends about the Casualties being street punk or hardcore, if some band had really sold out, or if straightedge still matters now that Ian MacKaye smokes pot.
I wonder what Iāll be listening to in five years.