Hey, dudes! And dudettes. Was the opening sentence at all clear that I was doing a play on The Beatles song Hey Jude? My suspicion is that it doesn’t really translate as well in written form. I suppose I could have prefaced the opening with, “Imagine this is being sung by Paul McCartney:”, but I didn’t want to make the intro too clunky. Well, I’m glad I avoided an overly wordy introduction…
As you No Doubt have guessed, today I will be talking about music and what has influenced what I listen to. Enjoy.
Music played a very important role in my early life. I don’t know if this is just me looking back with rose-tinted glasses on, but I seem to remember there often being music playing during my childhood. Whether that was the radio in the car, my parents blasting something from their pretty impressive speakers in the living room (although one did end up with a cigarette burn in it from one of my parent’s annual summer parties!), or whatever was on TV (Top of the Pops was a big deal back in the day).
The funny thing about children with music is that they may know what they do or don’t like, but they’re usually at the mercy of what their parents put on for them. Even when they’re really young and only want to listen to nursery rhymes, this is still influenced by what YouTube videos mummy and daddy choose for you. Of course, back in my day, it was whatever was on TV or what VHS tapes my parents bought for me (Mr Benn, Rainbow, and Sooty were my go-to’s).
As you get older, you may start to develop strong feelings about ‘real’ music. There might be songs/artists that you really like or dislike. But again, the majority of the time, you will listen to what your parents play (for better or worse).
My parents definitely had a huge influence on the music I enjoy. In the car was my favourite. We’d be heading off to see grandparents or friends, and my parents would put some CD or other on for the journey. Stevie Wonder, Luther Vandross, Lou Rawls, The Jackson 5, Hall & Oates, Eagles, Marmalade, to name but a few. All artists that I still adore to this day. If you’re looking for a reason why Hotel California is my karaoke song, look no further.
If you were to ask my parents about any of the above artists, they’d probably say that they’re still very fond of all of them. The funny thing is, though, so impressionable was I as a child, I also latched onto artists who were probably more of a phase for my parents.
For example, my parents had one or two Jamiroquai and Lighthouse Family albums in the 90s. I don’t think either of them have particularly strong feelings on those acts today. But for me – because of me hearing these bands during my formative years – I feel very nostalgic towards them.
As I hit double digits (particularly when I started secondary school), a big influence on my musical taste – for better or worse – was the music that my peers were listening to. Garage was really huge around this time. It’s impossible for me to say now how much I actually enjoyed that music back then, or how much I pretended to enjoy it to fit in. What I can say with certainty is how much I love to revisit garage songs of the late 90s and early 00s now.
When I entered my teens, I suppose you could say that this was when I started my rebellious stage. Slight hyperbole, perhaps, as I don’t think I was much of a rebel. Even so, it was around this time that I found rap and rock music.
This may not be too popular with hardcore hip-hop fans, but my first forays into the genre were with Eminem. He was massive at the time, helped no end by his controversial lyrics and undeniable talent. Thankfully, Slim Shady proved to be a fine gateway to other rap artists, helping me to find many other rappers who I still idolise to this day.
With rock, this was very much fuelled further when I started attending live shows. Feeder, Muse, and Nickleback were some of the artists I saw live.
Quick sidebar: It’s likely Nickleback are nowhere near as bad as you think they are. They’ve become this sort of internet laughing stock over the last decade or so, often described as the worst band of all time. The truth about them is they are fine. Maybe slightly below average, but nowhere near the worst music ever made. It’s to the point now where if I hear someone say they hate Nickleback, I’m almost embarrassed for them. It’s likely they are just jumping on the bandwagon and have formed an opinion without really listening to any Nickleback songs (certainly not extensively anyway). If you don’t like their music, that is perfectly reasonable. But if you have a frothing-at-the-mouth hatred for them, I can’t help but think you’re a sheep just going along with the crowd.
Arguably, the most important factor on my musical tastes was the changing technological landscape. I don’t know if everyone feels this way, but I often think that people of my generation were incredibly fortunate with the timing of technological breakthroughs.
If you were born around the late 80s like me, you probably got your first home desktop computer at some stage between the ages of seven and 12 (if you were fortunate enough to have one). Kids pick things up so fast at those sorts of ages, so we have practically always known how to use computers.
Likewise with mobile phones. Chances are you got your first mobile phone between 10-14. Again, at a young enough age to learn the ins and outs of it all, without it ever feeling too foreign for long.
Social media started popping up during your late teens. You were still young enough to get the benefits of it, without having to deal with all the crap that goes with it while you were still at school.
But I digress. It’s music technology that moulded me. Firstly, with music television. Now, music television wasn’t exactly a new concept when I became a teenager; MTV launched a full two decades prior. But, what was a real gamechanger (for me, at least) was satellite TV.
There were literally about 30 music channels on Sky back in the day, almost exclusively playing music videos 24/7. It’s mad to think now, but my sister and I used to spend hours flicking through these channels. Whoever got downstairs/home first had dominion over the remote control, and thus, control over what music was listened to.
Music television definitely helped me to grow my knowledge and further hone my taste, but this was also further fuelled by internet downloading (all perfectly legal, of course…).
It will probably sound crazy to today’s younger people, but the ability to search for any song in the world, download it, then store it on your computer and/or MP3 player was a revelation.
Before the early 00s, owning music meant purchasing physical versions (be that LPs, cassette tapes, CDs, or whatever). As a teenager, you’d need a pretty hefty chunk of pocket money to acquire a decent sound collection. Even if money wasn’t a consideration, physical space could be an issue. Even if money and physical space weren’t a problem, it wasn’t exactly convenient to listen to music on the go. Just ask anyone who DJ’d 20+ years ago how fun it was lugging all their equipment and mountains of records around.
But then we suddenly had a very cheap, very easy way to grab digital audio, much to the chagrin of music artists and record labels. Say what you like about Napster, but has anything else had a bigger impact on the music industry over the last couple of decades?
Music downloads were quickly followed by the likes of YouTube, which was also quickly followed by music streaming services. At an age when I was slightly moving away from what my parents listened to, I suddenly had this whole new world at my fingertips (three different song titles in just nine words there!). It was a very exciting time.
However, as much as this technology helped me, it’s also why I worry slightly about kids these days. I don’t worry about the music itself. Sure, I don’t particularly care much for ‘modern’ music, but there’s two things I always try to keep in mind:
1) It’s not for me; most modern recording artists aren’t trying to market their songs to a 35 year old, sometimes blog writer. The songs, by and large, are aimed at teens and young adults, as they’re the ones who are going to buy albums and attend concerts.
2) I don’t have much time to listen to new music, so there’s a decent chance that there is modern music that I would like, but I just don’t know about them. For the record (pun intended), I really liked Raye’s Escapism from the end of last year. And I like Zara Larsson’s latest track. So it’s not as if I’ve sworn off all new music.
My worry comes from how many options kids have now. As I mentioned above, I listened to a lot of my parents’ music in the car. Although I’m very grateful for that now, I didn’t exactly have many options back then. Walkmans or personal CD players weren’t cheap at the time (though I think I had one of each…), and the hassle of taking tapes/CDs out with you in the back of the car was too much for me.
The biggest obstacle, though, was headphones. I don’t think I ever had a good pair as a child. I seem to remember saving the very cheap ones from aeroplanes and using those, but they really were awful. So even if I went to the hassle of packing up all my stuff, my music would bleed out of the headphones, and my parents’ music would permeate my music, so there was little point.
But now? It would be so easy (and relatively cheap) for kids to have a device loaded up with songs or 5G enabled so they can stream on the go. And you can pick up decent headphones for not much money. Hell, the airpods that come as standard with most iPhones do a more than passable job.
With this in mind, it stands to reason that kids will be listening less and less to what their parents are listening to. And I think that’s a real shame. Not because older music is necessary better. But because once you’re introduced to it, you have something that you can truly treasure for life. Or – to put it another way – you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
Thank you for reading what turned out to be a much longer blog than I had anticipated. I thought it was going to be Sweet Home Alabama, but it ended up being Free Bird. That’s the last music reference, I promise. How many did you spot throughout? I’m genuinely curious, as there’s no way I’m going back to count. And on that bombshell, take care and catch you next time. Mic drop (sorry!).
Rob Recommends
Hustle – Film – 8/10
Adam Sandler has had a slight career shift in the last few years. After a decade of jetting off to stunning locations to make (mostly) so-so movies with his friends, usually starring opposite a beautiful actress, he’s started to pop up in more serious films.
He was good in the Dustin Hoffman movie The Meyerowitz Stories. And I thought he was fantastic in the Safdie brother’s Uncut Gems. Here, he combines his acting chops and his comedic charm with a subject he is clearly very passionate about: basketball.
Featuring a host of former and current basketball stars (as well as being produced by LeBron James), this is an absolute must for basketball fans. I’m not a hoops fan, but I really enjoyed this film.
Sherlock – TV – 9/10
My wife had never seen Sherlock, and I hadn’t seen it since it had first been on TV (well over 10 years ago, for season one anyway), so we decided to give it a watch.
In some ways, it has aged quite badly. As one example, no one seems to have a smartphone, and there are even some Blackberries here and there. But, in-show technology aside, this is still a very smart and slick production.
Full of remarkable performances, not least from the two stars, it’s not hard to see why the careers of Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman took off in the wake of Sherlock. If you’ve not seen it, it’s well worth a watch. My wife liked it too!
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