Genre Maturity - What has been your musical journey ?

[Hawk]

This came up in a little conversation with Diavolo Thursday night.

We (JP, RobTheDrummer, Diavolo and I) saw an extraordinary performance by Bill Evans and his all star band playing "Soulgrass". (Watch for a report by JP in a upcoming PA Musician).

I said to Dom, "I wish more Rockpagers were here to enjoy this, and appreciate the talent on stage". He pointed out what it was like for him in his teen era. It was all about ONE genre, and everything else just wasn't good enough. But as he followed good drummers (playing other styles of music), he began to appreciate other music.

His point to me was, the genre maturation process can be a slow one. That made me reflect on my own genre maturation. As a teen, I was a music snob. If it wasn't Yes or Emerson Lake and Palmer or King Crimson or Progressive Rock of the day.......it wasn't any good. Only gradually did I begin to appreciate other styles of rock and jazz. Becoming open minded to all styles was a slow process for me.

But I'm loving the ongoing music adventure, always discovering something new. How about you ?

Please discuss your own musical journey.

[Team Transylvania]

I like alot of different stuff. from classical to jazz to death metal.
i DO NOT like rap, country, pop, or any top 40 shit. most modern rock makes me sick too!

[bassist_25]

If I were about one genre, I would shoot myself. As cliche' as the saying goes, I believe there are two types of music: good and bad.

One thing I have really matured on, though, is how my actual ear has developed. I've touched upon this before, but I remember how certain harmonies and such use to sound really dissonant to me when I was younger. Then as I got older, that stuff that use to sound dissonant sounds perfectly harmonic to me. I suppose that as one gets older and matures as a music listener, he or she can hear those more esoteric musical ideas. It's not all about tertian harmony and music based on the half-step scale!

[DrumAndDestroy]

i like punk rock.

other stuff is good too though...but it better make me all funny in the pants!

[burdman]

I started out listening to my dads music wich was pretty old even for him. He was way into the oldies 50,s and 60's stuff and thats pretty much all i listened to growing up. Its pretty cool when I know more of the words to an old song than someone who should. Then I really got into the beatles and I still am. THen it was alot of punk ramones rancid op ivy social d. Now I can listen to pretty much anything except for rap. I like having Buddy Holly, Slayer, and Pantera in the same CD case

[Jim Price]

As I told Hawk and RobtheDrummer on Thursday night, this is how it went for me...

My older brother used to bring home albums from college in the early 70's, including Led Zeppelin, CSNY, Santana, and a lot of prog rock from Emerson Lake & Palmer, Yes and Pink Floyd. I especially hooked onto Led Zeppelin and prog rock, and up through my school and college years and into the late 80's, if it wasn't hard rock, metal or progressive, I couldn't be bothered with it.

Then when I decided to start writing my local column for Pennsylvania Musician, I realized that I would have to go out and cover other styles of music apart from the stuff I liked. One night, I decided to take the plunge and cover a show by Xeno. I was not looking forward to it; at that point (1987), I equated Xeno with dance and hit music, stuff I couldn't stand listening to on the radio. But that night at the 4D's Lounge, my ears were opened wider as I experienced for the first time the jaw-dropping talents of folks named Randy Rutherford, Rick Wertz, Fran Hite, Paula Glunt, and (I believe at that point) Beau Saller. I not only survived the night, I enjoyed it, and wanted to see and hear more!

Little by little, I got turned on to other music through my work with Pennsylvania Musician. Witnessing Queen Bee & the Blue Hornet Band and the weekly Wednesday jam nights at the U.S. Hotel opened my ears to the world of blues and stretched my musical vocabulary out further. (Felix & the Hurricanes, Fat Vinny & the Wiseguys and others continued that expansion.) Events like Johnstown Folkfest, Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts and Blair County Arts Festival widened my musical horizons even more.

More recently, of course, my ears have opened much wider towards country and bluegrass...at least traditional old-school country. (And I hated country for the longest time.) Thanks especially to Songsmith and Rusty Gun Revival for providing the catalysts for that process, and Mt. City Grass, Mama Corn, Country Outlaws, Broken Pony and others for continuing it.

And I'm listening to jazz more now, and have developed enough of an appreciation for it to be blown away by what I saw at Juniata College this past Thursday night, when Bill Evans' Soulgrass worked their magic!

Bottom line, I can listen to nearly anything now, and as long as it is performed well, I'm liking it. And although my musical horizons have expanded over the years, I still like my hard rock, metal and prog as much now as ever. But they're now part of an overall, bigger world of music for me.

[HurricaneBob]

The more you listen to, the more you learn. Unless your happy with where your at in your playing.

[Colton]

Unless your happy with where your at in your playing.

Does that ever actually happen?

[Killjingle]

The more you listen to, the more you learn. Unless your happy with where your at in your playing.

Thats a quote of the year...

my musical journey starts with my dad seating me in front of the biggest Pioneer floor speakers u could imagine; I mean these things were taller than me. He would crank Hendrix's Machine gun and Voodoo Chile and say listen boy...

my musical journey will prob end with me setting my boy/girl in the middle of 5:1 surround sound system with Voodoo Chile cranked and say "its your turn"; take my gear and take the music somewhere new

[songsmith]

My journey's been circular.
My early childhood was filled with older bluegrass, honkytonk, gospel, and mountain music. Around age 9, I discovered Elton John, then the eclectic AM radio sounds of the 70's. As a tween, it was Kiss, and little else. From 16 and up, I ONLY listened to metal and hard rock, I couldn't abide by anything else (okay, a little George Jones and Bill Monroe, when nobody was around). Of course, when I began playing in bands, I concentrated on original music more than anything else, and, truth be told, I listened to a lot of stuff only to learn from it... what they now call hair-band music, I listened to because it was selling, and I wanted to sell. I can't really get into it now, it didn't make the trip through time for me.
When grunge hit, I turned to country, which was in it's last golden age at that time (early 90's). When that went pop, I revisited all the old stuff I loved as a kid, stuff my dad played on the tube-type turntable we had, or stuff Uncle Elby used to crank on the 8-track player in his Rambler station wagon. I also dug deep into Texas, Delta and Chicago blues then.
From there, I kept going further back in time, from Merle Haggard and Buck Owens, to Roy Acuff and Leadbelly.
Then the bluegrass bug hit, and you all know where that's led me.
Thanks, JP, I'm proud that I helped turn a friend on to something he likes so much. It makes me feel like I've accomplished something, but I haven't, really. Bluegrass has all these elements of rural life, combined with instrumental fireworks, relentless drive, harmonic beauty, simplicity and complexity, and a stark gothic darkness, all wrapped up in a package that puts rank beginners onstage with legends. Jim, you'd have likely found it on your own.
Where to next? Who knows? I really like stuff like Robert Randolph and the Family Band. I've recently discovered, through the help of rickw and ToonaRockGuy, the Tower of Power. My wife has also gotten me into alternative country like Cross Canadian Ragweed.
I'm also finding myself listening to stuff I thought was cool 25 years ago. I listened to REO Speedwagon's High Infidelity CD a week or so ago, for the first time in at least 25 years, and I remembered every single word to every song. In addition, I'm finding myself putting on some Thin Lizzy, AC-DC, or Priest, and listening HARD.
Like I said, it's a big circle for me.------------>JMS

[mistikalvalkrie]

Alot of my beginnings were from my dad's 70's stadium rock/ southern rock/ 50's and surfer rock/ whatever category Jethro Tull fits in music collection. And my grandmother was always a big influence with her old swing records (thats right, I said records...we used to have a rotary phone when I was a kid too) and old Italian-American singers like Dean Martin and Mario Lanza. Growing up in a religious AND musical family, we always sang in church choirs, so that was a HUGE influence for a long time. I'm not a christian any more but I suppose it still is to a point.
Then my brother introduced me to Iron Maiden, Alice Cooper, and the Ramones...and everything pretty much went downhill from there...lol
I didn't actually start seriously listening to music from my own generation until I hit highschool. It was like...Nirvana? who the hell is Nirvana?
These days, I'm probably of the same mindset as Paul...there's no bad genres of music, just bad music.
I suppose I was lucky enough to have a very varied musical upbringing to make me openminded enough to explore every genre I've yet explored...Lately I've mostly focused on metal and punk music but I can still sit down and enjoy everything from opera to rap, you'll even catch me listening to polka once in a while, sometimes, but I try to lighten up on the religious stuff these days...

[DirtySanchez]

I never met anyone who strictly listens to one genre of music who was older than 13. I can remember being introduced to punk rock and being like "This is exactly how I feel about everything these bands are talking about". Now that I'm older, and possibly wiser(or maybe just more of a cynic) I find myself listening to a smaller percentage of punk rock. Maybe I disconnected a little with that angsty young man inside of me. I still listen to ALOT of punk rock , but also listen to some blues like RL Burnsides, old country, some good groovy metal,ska, even some indie singer/songwriter stuff,and yes even some hip hop, if it's well versed. I will tell you one thing I cannot stand is jazz, and sadly it has very little to do with the music itself. I don't listen to jazz for the same reason that most people here do not listen to rap. The Image. Everytime people talk about music there will be differences in tastes. Different artists/genres/subgenres etc. But I have never seen people be such snobby little pricks like I have seen when jazz is brought up. It's like the escargot of music.
If I have to hang around a bunch of elitist douchebags to enjoy myself, I'll just flyfish more often. I, of course know not everyone is like that who likes jazz. ( I know/have met Hawk and JP, and both are quite the opposite.)
Just my personal musical evolution(or lack thereof) if you will.

[Hawk]

I have to add my recent immersion into the blues thanks to mjb. I would listen to it occasionally but I only have a few CDs in my collection that are blues discs. Sometimes I would put on the "Bluesville" station on XM. Other than that (it turns out) I was clueless to it's nuances.

Now that I have been focusing on it for a bit, I find it exciting yet raw and earthy.