Gray on 9/7/2006 at 20:41
I know we've done this before, but I think it's time for it again.
The premise is simple: music is important. Some music does certain things to you; some music you heard at crucial parts of your life. Name five artists that changed your life, and bonus points for explaining why.*
Name five bands that changed your life.
To start things off, here are mine:
1) Kraftwerk - I was just shrugging off the last remains of my Heavy Metal years, and wanted something different. And dang, 'Boing Boom Tschak' was different. I'd never be the same again. Hopefully, for good.
2) Depeche Mode - It's what saved me from my teen angst years. Also, Alan Wilder is a kick-ass instrumentalist/producer.
3) Judas Priest - It's when I discovered the power of rock.
4) Front 242 - How I discovered the power of angry Belgians shouting angry shouty things.
5) Autechre - How I (inevitably, probably) fell in love with noise.
* Michael Bolton fans, don't bother. Please, don't. No, really, don't.
SD on 9/7/2006 at 21:34
1) Kraftwerk. My dad is a big fan and I was exposed to them at a very early age. Beeps and beats and whistles, this electronic soundscape was what has shaped my musical tastes to this day. Even a child could become entranced by simple lyrics like "I'm the operator with my pocket calculator". I guess a lot of people have been influenced by this amazing band.
2) The Human League. Again, something I inherited from my father. Their seminal album Dare came out when I was two years old and just really beginning to learn to read. Beautiful lyrics about life and love married to beautifully simple tunes, and that album cover too - just faces. Lots of faces. That really grabbed my attention, and from then on I was hooked.
3) Pet Shop Boys. By the age of 9 or 10 I was listening to and appreciating a lot more music. PSB just had this amazing sound, basically electronic like the League and Kraftwerk, but so much richer, and with lyrics that were almost spoken rather than sung. I saw PSB last week and they were magnificent, and their latest album is brilliantly caustic about modern Britain and the repeated assaults on our civil liberties made by this government. They are modern poets and musical geniuses (not a term I would use lightly).
4) Sex Pistols. By my early teens I really begun to explore my dad's music collection. I'd heard of Sex Pistols, but never heard their music. I knew they had a certain reputation, and a young boy going through puberty is always going to be intrigued by anything remotely connected with SEX, so I put this tape on and was blown away. Such raw energy and that voice. Oh God, that voice. Like a demon from Hell. I still rate John Lydon as the finest vocalist these islands have produced.
5) Suede. I didn't really touch upon Suede until my late teens. I was away at university in the US and a bit homesick, and I saw Coming Up in the bargain bin at Fred Meyer. I recognised the album cover, although they had been renamed The London Suede for a transatlantic audience. I listened to that album a lot during my year in Oregon, it really cheered me up an awful lot and reminded me of home, but in a good way.
Gray on 9/7/2006 at 21:43
(Here's a clue to those that haven't figured out they're "old" yet; post on the internet, and have people say "well, my dad/mum/grandmother/tribe elder used to listen to band so-and so....")
I feel so... oldish.
Now carry on.
Para?noid on 9/7/2006 at 21:46
MY EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY OF THE SACRED WONDERKIND, YOU TOOK ME BEHIND A DISUSED RAILWAY LINE
but apart from that maybe paranoid android has been the only song that has "changed my life"
steve reich and cocteau twins make me cry quite a lot
SD on 9/7/2006 at 21:48
Aw Gray, you're only 6 or 7 years older than me ;)
I've just been very lucky to have grown up with a father who had amazing musical tastes (everything from Kraftwerk to Hendrix to Lee Scratch Perry to the Stones to REM) and who still buys a lot of stuff that I borrow straight off him (I have his Run DMC, Prince, Dr Dre and Prefab Sprout CDs sitting right here on my shelf actually :D).
PS Gray: post more
Gray on 9/7/2006 at 21:53
You were lucky! My dad listened to... well, not music. Or even listened.
:ahem:
Now carry on.
I refuse to post more often, on the grounds that I can't read. Mostly.
Shakey-Lo on 9/7/2006 at 22:10
I'm probably too young (I'm 18) to have any bands that have actually changed my life... but here are a few that have shaped it.
Queen
My dad ;) was/is really into them and had them on constantly. They were the band that raised me and therefore shaped my musical taste for the rest of my life.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Far and away my favourite band, Flea inspired me to take up the bass and this in turn has shaped my taste in music. They were the first band that I was really into - they were the first of many band shirts - and this is probably what led to me making the friends that I made, so I guess you could say they did in fact change my life.
Joy Division
The first band that I began to really appreciate the story of the band itself (and their era) instead of just the music they produced.
Fat Boy Slim
Does he count as a band? Anyway, my current Life Ambition(tm) is to become a director of music videos. While I don't think there was ever any one video or even artist to inspire that choice, I have always been a fan of this guys as well as the Peppers'.
OPM
Don't like the music any more but I nicked the singer's nickname to use as my online nick when I first discovered the internet and have stuck with it ever since :joke:
Gray on 9/7/2006 at 23:49
Quote Posted by Para?noid
maybe paranoid android has been the only song that has "changed my life"
Now that's a lie and we both know it. It's not the only song. Don't make me come over there. I know at least two other bands that changed your life. The other three, I don't know so much about.
So, now, spill.
From one to five:
Para?noid on 10/7/2006 at 00:36
no music has really "changed my life", i think it's a silly thing to say. <a href="http://www.last.fm/user/Noidypooz/">there's loads of music i adore and is mindblowingly good and that's it,</a>
but if you must know i lost my virginity to bob marley's "No Woman, No Cry"
Gray on 10/7/2006 at 00:41
Don't tell me BayRoot never changed your life!
