Hip Hop -- was always into into as far back as I can remember. When the golden age began to show a glossy veneer, I looked to the past, found Eric B and Rakim, and wanted to become Eric B. (you cant tell me he didnt do shit!!!)
Jazz -- Bought my doctor sample 202 and raided my Dad's closet. The first thing I remember hearing was John Coltrane's "Live at the Village Vanguard," with "Spiritual" being the highlight. It talked to me like nothing before it. To me, thats what Ive always been looking for -- a free modal spiritual sound. As I've gotten older, Ive gone back a bit to bebob, especailly Bud Powell, and your more straight ahead fare. But I've always been into the out sounds since day one.
Avante/Exp/Synth -- In Santa Barbara (where I lived for six years) there was this crazy store called American Pie records with crazy Dr. D who owned and ran it. A very crazy guy and a gigantic rock snob. But after going there for a long time, he started playing me his weirdo acid records. Also I started meeting the wierdos who would come into his store and they started putting me on to Black Lucifer and such.
New age -- I lived in Santa barbara for a long time, and to say there was an abundance of this garbage would be an understatement. Also at this time I was learning about sampling. I was convinced one needed isloated sounds to sample, and new age records seemed to have a ton of them.
Rock and whatnot -- I didnt listen to any rock until I was about 23. My grilfriend made it her mission to soften me up a bit. Before then, the only music I listened to with vocals was hip hop.
I think to large extent, Im into what Im into, because of timing. When i first started, around 96, all of the soul and funk was dried up and cost dollars. All of the above shit seemd to be readily available, so I bought it up.
Radio - (UK's Radio 1 in the 70s/80s and pirate stations like Caroline 558 and later Laser 558). DJs like John Peel, Tommy Vance, Jeff Young, Tim Westwood, Mike Allen. All these combined would cover rock, pop, hip hop, punk, reggae... I feel lucky growing up on these DJs and stations with the wide-breadth of music they covered (unlike today which is so formulated)
My Dad - Had a dope jazz/soul collection, but also loved The Specials, Police, Squeeze etc.
School - 1984 and I start hearing hip hop/electro. Mixtapes used to get swapped around on a daily basis (same time as when Walkman came out)
Local youth center - had 1200s. First got to play around with them in 87/88.
Various UK gigs - Public Enemy, Ice-T, BDP, Jungle Brothers.
1991 - start DJing in local club. The madness took full effect right there. My bank account has never been the same since.
DJs like John Peel, Tommy Vance, Jeff Young, Tim Westwood, Mike Allen. All these combined would cover rock, pop, hip hop, punk, reggae... I feel lucky growing up on these DJs and stations with the wide-breadth of music they covered
soul/disco/modern soul/new-soul: I really don't like hip-hop as much. Not to say there isn't good shit, I just don't find a lot it as "engaging" or whatever.
eighties metal/rock radio....classic rock and metal zines-maximum rocknroll, flipside...punk, underground stuff friends....oddities and such...Jazz, Soul..in fact in was my friend Robert who played me a tape of Parliament "Osmium" in 90 or 91 and it blew my mind, it made me realize there was more to soul music than Sly and Aretha. Although I cant lie, over the last few years half of my 45 wants have come from fineiwne's playslists...dude plays the best shit around.
I guess jazz comes first...my Dad loves it, plays sax (just alto when I was a kid, now tenor & soprano too)in the basement for his own pleasure - when I was a kid he brought me to countless concerts at Berklee, mostly big band legends but some bop and other styles, too. I remember meeting Eddie Vinson & Arnett Cobb at 1AM at Lulu White's, a 20's speak-easy strip club that was a hot Boston jazz spot in the 70's, and he would also take me to see old films of Lester Young and Cab Calloway and the one with the most impact on me, Mingus '68 - all before I was 12. My favorite album in grammar school was Benny Goodman Live at Carnegie Hall, with Gene Krupa my hero.
In junior high, circa '81-82, everyone loved rap music. "White Lines" and breakdancing - and awful graffiti - were all the rage in my all-white neighborhood on the outskirts of the city. I would tape "88.9 at Night" when they would play 30 minutes of rap every night, using the big portable tape recorders everyone had back then. I took a covert subway trip when I was 12 to see Wild Style in Harvard Sq. Heads were dancing in the aisles. Hip Hop was my favorite music throughout the 80's and most of the 90's - although punk rock may have surpassed it sometimes - almost everyone I knew was into punk & hip hop, except for the rich kids who were only into hip hop reggae & the Dead.
My first paycheck ever from my first job, I went immediately to Second Coming Records and bought a live bootleg LP of The Jam that I had been eyeing for months. It was sealed and had a sticker saying "bonus 45 inside" and when I opened it there was no 45. I went back to the store and the guy told me "tough shit." I hated that store, but bought all my 99 cent Beatles & Kinks there - some of which I still own. When I was 14, this girl I had a crush on who was 3 years older, punk rock & beautiful made me a mix tape of punk - it was the primer for my entire punk existence. All through the 80's & 90's that I was buying new & old punk & hip hop, I was always collecting old jazz LP's, too.
Sample spotting came naturally to me, since I had already liked jazz & soul for years - I remember playing my Dad this remix of "I'm Still #1" by BDP that uses ..umm.."Stompin at the Savoy"(?) and he got a big kick out of it and made me tape it for him to send to his jazz DJ friend in Florida.
This LP was the basis of my sample-seeking soul/jazz habit of the 90's:
I played it every day for years - Cymande, Curtis, "Back Stabbers" - this LP definitely changed my life.
I don't like buying records to get some old sample - I like buying a record cause it will be good, and being surprised to find a dope old sample on it. There's a big difference.
Early influences were my Mum & Dad's tastes.. Rolling Stones, The Who, Elvis, Mamas & Papas etc[/b]. Big sister got me into stuff like The Police[/b]. My Dad has always been in bands. He teaches me drums about age 5, I've been into making music in one sense or another ever since.
***Play*** Enter Hip Hop. I'm eleven. I buy a Salt N Pepa[/b] 45. Then I'm getting into stuff like De La[/b] etc. Watched a few Kid N Play[/b] films etc.
I start making little tracks from my fave loops and sections on Hip Hop tapes on dual deck recorder. I then realise they were doing exactly the same thing on my Hip Hop tapes. Get interested in the original sources and keep collecting Hip Hop..
Cut to X years later. Lessons 1 2 & 3[/b]. Defining moment. Heard nothing else like it for a few years until....
***FFWD>> The Grunge period >>>>>>
***PLAY*** I hear J5[/b] - Find out about Cut Chemist[/b] - and turntablism via Return of The DJ[/b]. Get into a lot of the DJs on that. Start researching the original rekkids.
Then start getting into breakbeat after hearing a DJ Touche[/b] mix. Find out about Jadell, Deadly Avenger, Bronx Dogs, Dynamo Productions, DJ Format etc[/b]. That leads into the library and kitsch type sound.
Biggest turning point - Hearing an Essential Mix by David Holmes[/b].. realised everything else that was out there. Start collecting anything and everything good sounding.
The single biggest turning point that has influenced and framed alot of my interests was hearing Seraph - Musical Messenger.
Oh, and then one day about a year ago, enter Soulstrut.
1) Soul/RnB - Listening to oldies stations from when I was a little kid with my mom. Always been a constant. Later when I was in college I had a couple friends who were really into Soul and we started digging up the more obscure artists. That's when I first started buying 45s.
2) Rock - Elementary school from listening to the radio. Before I had a proper tape deck I just had a hand held recorder. Use to put it next to the one speaker on my clock radio and recorded songs to make my own little mix tapes. By Jr. High I started going to concerts. Sold all my records when I got into Metal.
3) Metal - That eventually led to Metal and my friends and I were in a bunch of bands by High School. Sold all my records when I got into Punk.
4) Punk - End of High School got into Punk and was in a bunch of bands and toured the U.S. a couple times with friends, put out a couple 45s, worked at Maximum Rock N Roll mag. Sold most of my records, but kept a bunch of 45s and some of my fav LPs.
5) Hip Hop - 1st heard Rap in the early 80s during Junior High School. Bunch of friends in my neighborhood were in breakdancing crews. My best friend down the street got Rapper's Delight when it first came out and we memorized every word of it. Probably when I first started hearing classics like Apache. Than that faded, but I got back into it in High School with Yo MTV Raps and BET. Use to buy everything on tape though which would later lead me to have to hunt down all my favs on vinyl. Got really into Hip Hop in college when I use to listen to Davey D's show on KPFA on Tuesday as I was driving back home from SF State.
6) Ska/Rock Steady/Reggae - Got into this from some Punk friends. Eventually led to being in a Ska band. Played a bunch of shows and put out a record. Sold most of my records except for a couple comps and have regretted it like selling all the rest of my older collections.
7) Funk/Soul-Jazz/Rock/Psych/Blues, etc. - Like many, that came from hunting down samples. Now just buy whatever sounds catchy to me.
Use to buy everything on tape though which would later lead me to have to hunt down all my favs on vinyl.
So true - I'm still doing this today. Just crossed a couple off the list this past year - D.O.C. & just the other day, Audio Two. Listened to D.O.C. on tape for like 15 years...
Use to buy everything on tape though which would later lead me to have to hunt down all my favs on vinyl.
So true - I'm still doing this today. Just crossed a couple off the list this past year - D.O.C. & just the other day, Audio Two. Listened to D.O.C. on tape for like 15 years...
What is so weird is I started collecting vinyl in Jr. High School and Rap was the ONLY musical form I ever bought on tape. Still don't know why I did that to this day.
What is so weird is I started collecting vinyl in Jr. High School and Rap was the ONLY musical form I ever bought on tape. Still don't know why I did that to this day.
Me too - and it's because (for me at least) I used to listen to Rap in my walkman constantly. I would always buy new Rap on tape so I could listen to it right then on my headphones, and have it for the subway. (Although it's true I could make tapes at home from vinyl...)
Music for me started with my dad (about 8 years old)... French stuff: Jean Ferrat,Georges Brassens..the classics... with my dad singing along deep voice in the car. Basically me loving dramatic arrangements
African stuff: My dad would have all the stuff from his home country senegal (toure kunda, youssouNdour) and from everywhere in the continent (He was and still is a collectro in his own right)I would just go dance crazy at every party with him and his friends
Classical/Gospel: I started in a professional choir when i was 10. It was one of the most renowed in the country the PCMR (hence the name) Our director was like a russian gymnastics coach. Never have I seen a grown man terrorize 10 year old children. We would have practice on sturdays from 9 to....9 and when I was singning with the montreal opera (special gig me and this other 'prodigy' kid) I would come home at 2am on weekdays only to see my check eaten up by the school. However I dont regret a thing in my 9 stay there. The guy was a hardass but he tought us to be the best and made me perform some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard and given me my first recording/performing experience. Further more he was a great arranger and he was pretty avant-garde. Our tour in Lousiana was a memorable one. Singing in Gospel church with REAL ass choirs from the 'ghetto' Memorable and powerful. I am blessed to have learned so much about musc through this experience.
Rock/Punk/Alternative (ie Rebellion). I was about 11 and at that time I was just pissed about staying in the choir. My older sister's musical taste had a huge influence on me seeing as it was the only CDs in the house. Jimi Hendrix, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Sonic Youth I was super into it. The I did my own thing getting a used green day CD and a Rage against the Machine tape. My sister also liked french rap...I went to a road trip one day and bought a copy of the Source 100. There my love with hiphop began
HipHop: The first paycheck i got was spent on All eyes on me/Nas it was written and i never stopped. Reading the source religiously always breaking new music to my friends getting them into hiphop. Back when the source had a serious editor I was even getting into a little activism, great articles about african and black community issues and I was sending letters to radio stations and our canadian MTV to play more hiphop (pre-method man/jay-z explosion) Started out basic (EPMD, Redman) then got into what i claimed was the real shit. Gangstarr made me fall in love with production I went primo crazy (at the same time Napster was peaking) then on to pete rock.. then Jay Dee (RIP) and then I got into more experimental stuff like madlib and stonesthrow, broken beat etc
Funk/soul: from that time classic transition: I started making beats and record fiending the strut and all lot of blogs have informed me greatly over the years. I had always loved reggae but other than perry and Marley/tosh i had no clue
Latin/Brazilian: My friend who joined me in creating our project with the shantytown children of peru Introduced me to salsa and I got hooked. Digging trip in Lima consolidated the lot, nothing like live salsa concerts until 5 am and riding back to Hector Lavoe in the cab. My dad finally gave me his collection and apart from incredible african stuff i found out he was a brazilian collectro combine that with the discovery of SeuJorge and the effects of Bossa on my my first official mack
And that is that Music is beutiful and songs have always been part of every stage of my life. Through concerts and records I have met incredible friends and creators and I hope one day to be able to contribute to the musical spectrum of the world.
I've been into music since my grandpa bought me my first radio at 7 or 8 years old. I listened to all sorts of radio stations from classical to AM, pop, salsa, etc. My tastes evolved based on reading liner notes, books, watching movies, and getting put on to music by friends. Now I'll buy almost anything that catches my eye, whether based on artists, label, session musicians, producers, or genre. I've gone through stages of taste, like being heavy into rock, or blues or reggae or hip-hop, etc. While going through these stages I was closed to a lot of other things but, now I'm open to all sorts if music. I very much agree when you say, "Why should I limit myself to any genre? I might miss out." Like most if not all on here, I simply love music.
jazz - mr. hackney (middle school jazz band teacher). i played violin in a small lil country town. which meant they put my fat ass on the double bass since i was the only one that played strings.
rap - church. all my church homies were from the major metropolitan area of fresno. and they liked the rap. thus i liked the rap.
pop - always liked this shit. then pretended like i didnt like it in college. then i got over myself and liked it again.
sissy rock aka alternative rock aka new rock - pj. my main man since 2nd grade. he was always into this shit like cure and smiths and blah blah blah and all his friends wore black and tolerated me and i guess when youre around something long enough you start to like it. i like it. kinda.
When I was a kid in the 60's my Step-Grandfather, who was an Italian guy who coulda stepped right out of "Goodfellas", had some records that fascinated the hell out of me.....everytime we'd visit them in Flatbush(Brooklyn) I'd play these records over and over...Sam Cooke, Hank Ballard, Harptones......then one day I stumbled across his "dirty" records....Redd Foxx, Rudy Ray Moore, Skillet & Leroy and it was like discovering gold......started buyin' records in about '64....while the other kids were into the Beatles and Stones I was buying Motown and The Four Seasons....even traded in my very first LP(which was a gift) The Beatles "Rubber Soul" for a copy of a Smothers Brothers LP....in '68 I discovered psychedelic music when I bought the Blue Cheer "Vincebus Eruptum" LP at a Red's Toy Store on Utica Avenue.....40 years later I'm still buying records...except now I listen to every imaginable style and genre...and I dig "Rubber Soul"!!
Like many on this board, I collect funk, soul, and spiritual jazz. And genres that blend those categories.
This dude at college was spinning records, and Scratch also inspired me to want to dj. I started collecting the illest (in my mind) stash of 12"s and thought to myself, once i get the time to do this ish, it's gonna be gameover. I've barely used those records cuz of time constraints and other priorities, and have since focused on buying records for purely "listening purposes". Hence my interest in funk, soul, and spiritual jazz.
Got my first phonograph at age five and here's how it all came down:
BLUES/COUNTRY - my dad used to play those musics all the time...these two categories were where his musical tastes basically began and ended.
SOUL - from watching Soul Train in the early seventies, plus my mom always had the soul station on in the car, and my friends' older siblings always had collections of the latest singles - it was just the music of the time and place. (Although I draw the line at anything past '75...I'm not a disco fan, and it galls me when I hear younger cratediggers talk about an Edwin Starr track from 1980 as if it were up there with his classic 60s/70s stuff.)
OLDIES RADIO - that's how I got into rockabilly, doo-wop, R&B, garage, and all the other genres and microgenres from the 50s and 60s. This also explains how I started listening to...
(EARLY) PUNK/POWER-POP - ...because when I first heard it at 10/11/12 years old, I flashed on how much it sounded like the stuff on oldies radio. As Billy Zoom from X has said, people forget that punk was a kind of roots music at one time.
LATIN - in the 80s, a local dusties DJ here in Chicago (Richard Pegue, then on WGCI) used to play the occasional Latin-soul track, like Joe Cuba's "Bang Bang." Then one day I found a copy of We Got Latin Soul (a UK comp of soulish salsa sides, including "Bang Bang"), and that led me to other stuff in the vein, including straight Latin with no black influences at all.
JAZZ - I'm not the biggest jazz guy, but I like what I like, and what I do like was mainly shaped by my coworkers at this record store I used to work at. I definitely owned more jazz records after I left the store than I did before.
There are other things not repped here, but that's because they either relate back to the above categories in some way (the first white rock I ever liked was on the oldies station, and that led me to the then-current stuff), or I just started listening to them out of thin air with no precedent (there's a couple of drum & bass compilations on the Unitone World label that I'm a fan of...).
I got into music through my parents, they had a big selection of tapes & a smallish lot of vinyl, stuff like the Beach Boys was always playing. I got into Metal from my older cousins so that started when I was about 11. I inherited my first very own record player (one of those 70s all in one hi fi turntable/tuner units and commandeered boxes of vinyl from my grandparents. This was everything from their rock & roll 78s up to my dad's & aunty & uncle's classic rock stuff that they left behind when they moved out, I would have been about 13. I started playing guitar & skateboarding/surfing that year too & got heavily into punk/hardcore from the older kids that I skated with & also the coverage of bands in skate vids was awesome (i remember getting the guys at the skate shop to pause the credits of videos as I wrote down new bands to check out). All through high school I was way into punk/hc but also had another musical side from playing guitar & getting hip to jazz & blues. I was collecting punk & metal vinyl & cassettes all this time as well as heaps of classic rock & rock & roll stuff. After I left high school I went on to study music & studied indepth the history of african american music as part of my course. This sparked the whole hip hop, blues,r&b, jazz, funk, soul etc. thing & got me collecting this sort of stuff seriously too. The main stuff I collect now is still punk, hardcore, soul, jazz & blues but I still have most of the essentials from other genres I've touched on over the years & then left behind, like the metal, rock, reggae, country, surf, rock & roll & local New Zealand stuff & of course if I come across any of that stuff cheap I still can't help picking it up for old times sake. I'm not really a hoarder, every 5 years or so I will go through & clear out genres that I don't feel like I'm into anymore. I recently got shot of pretty much all my local NZ stuff & a lot of easy listening & classic rock too.
Comments
Jazz -- Bought my doctor sample 202 and raided my Dad's closet. The first thing I remember hearing was John Coltrane's "Live at the Village Vanguard," with "Spiritual" being the highlight. It talked to me like nothing before it. To me, thats what Ive always been looking for -- a free modal spiritual sound. As I've gotten older, Ive gone back a bit to bebob, especailly Bud Powell, and your more straight ahead fare. But I've always been into the out sounds since day one.
Avante/Exp/Synth -- In Santa Barbara (where I lived for six years) there was this crazy store called American Pie records with crazy Dr. D who owned and ran it. A very crazy guy and a gigantic rock snob. But after going there for a long time, he started playing me his weirdo acid records. Also I started meeting the wierdos who would come into his store and they started putting me on to Black Lucifer and such.
New age -- I lived in Santa barbara for a long time, and to say there was an abundance of this garbage would be an understatement. Also at this time I was learning about sampling. I was convinced one needed isloated sounds to sample, and new age records seemed to have a ton of them.
Rock and whatnot -- I didnt listen to any rock until I was about 23. My grilfriend made it her mission to soften me up a bit. Before then, the only music I listened to with vocals was hip hop.
I think to large extent, Im into what Im into, because of timing. When i first started, around 96, all of the soul and funk was dried up and cost dollars. All of the above shit seemd to be readily available, so I bought it up.
DJs like John Peel, Tommy Vance, Jeff Young, Tim Westwood, Mike Allen.
All these combined would cover rock, pop, hip hop, punk, reggae... I feel lucky growing up on these DJs and stations with the wide-breadth of music they covered (unlike today which is so formulated)
My Dad - Had a dope jazz/soul collection, but also loved The Specials, Police, Squeeze etc.
School - 1984 and I start hearing hip hop/electro. Mixtapes used to get swapped around on a daily basis (same time as when Walkman came out)
Local youth center - had 1200s. First got to play around with them in 87/88.
Various UK gigs - Public Enemy, Ice-T, BDP, Jungle Brothers.
1991 - start DJing in local club. The madness took full effect right there. My bank account has never been the same since.
Heh, no shit!
this goes for me too..
zines-maximum rocknroll, flipside...punk, underground stuff
friends....oddities and such...Jazz, Soul..in fact in was my friend Robert who played me a tape of Parliament "Osmium" in 90 or 91 and it blew my mind, it made me realize there was more to soul music than Sly and Aretha. Although I cant lie, over the last few years half of my 45 wants have come from fineiwne's playslists...dude plays the best shit around.
(just alto when I was a kid, now tenor & soprano too)in the basement for
his own pleasure - when I was a kid he brought me to countless
concerts at Berklee, mostly big band legends but some bop and other styles, too.
I remember meeting Eddie Vinson & Arnett Cobb at 1AM at Lulu White's,
a 20's speak-easy strip club that was a hot Boston jazz spot in the 70's,
and he would also take me to see old films of Lester Young and Cab Calloway
and the one with the most impact on me, Mingus '68 - all before I was 12.
My favorite album in grammar school was Benny Goodman Live at Carnegie Hall,
with Gene Krupa my hero.
In junior high, circa '81-82, everyone loved rap music. "White Lines" and breakdancing - and awful graffiti - were all the rage in my all-white
neighborhood on the outskirts of the city. I would tape "88.9 at Night" when they would play 30 minutes of rap every night, using the big portable tape recorders
everyone had back then.
I took a covert subway trip when I was 12 to see Wild Style in Harvard Sq. Heads were dancing in the aisles. Hip Hop was my favorite music throughout the 80's and most of the 90's - although punk rock may have surpassed it sometimes -
almost everyone I knew was into punk & hip hop, except for the rich kids
who were only into hip hop reggae & the Dead.
My first paycheck ever from my first job, I went immediately
to Second Coming Records and bought a live bootleg LP of The Jam
that I had been eyeing for months. It was sealed and had a sticker
saying "bonus 45 inside" and when I opened it there was no 45.
I went back to the store and the guy told me "tough shit."
I hated that store, but bought all my 99 cent Beatles & Kinks
there - some of which I still own. When I was 14, this girl
I had a crush on who was 3 years older, punk rock & beautiful made
me a mix tape of punk - it was the primer for my entire punk existence.
All through the 80's & 90's that I was buying new & old punk & hip hop, I was
always collecting old jazz LP's, too.
Sample spotting came naturally to me, since I had already liked jazz & soul
for years - I remember playing my Dad this remix of "I'm Still #1" by BDP
that uses ..umm.."Stompin at the Savoy"(?) and he got a big kick out of
it and made me tape it for him to send to his jazz DJ friend in Florida.
This LP was the basis of my sample-seeking soul/jazz habit of the 90's:
I played it every day for years - Cymande, Curtis, "Back Stabbers" - this
LP definitely changed my life.
I don't like buying records to get some old sample - I like buying
a record cause it will be good, and being surprised to find a dope
old sample on it. There's a big difference.
[/formlessramble]
***Play*** Enter Hip Hop. I'm eleven. I buy a Salt N Pepa[/b] 45. Then I'm getting into stuff like De La[/b] etc. Watched a few Kid N Play[/b] films etc.
I start making little tracks from my fave loops and sections on Hip Hop tapes on dual deck recorder. I then realise they were doing exactly the same thing on my Hip Hop tapes. Get interested in the original sources and keep collecting Hip Hop..
Cut to X years later. Lessons 1 2 & 3[/b]. Defining moment. Heard nothing else like it for a few years until....
***FFWD>> The Grunge period >>>>>>
***PLAY*** I hear J5[/b] - Find out about Cut Chemist[/b] - and turntablism via Return of The DJ[/b]. Get into a lot of the DJs on that. Start researching the original rekkids.
Then start getting into breakbeat after hearing a DJ Touche[/b] mix. Find out about Jadell, Deadly Avenger, Bronx Dogs, Dynamo Productions, DJ Format etc[/b]. That leads into the library and kitsch type sound.
Biggest turning point - Hearing an Essential Mix by David Holmes[/b].. realised everything else that was out there. Start collecting anything and everything good sounding.
The single biggest turning point that has influenced and framed alot of my interests was hearing Seraph - Musical Messenger.
Oh, and then one day about a year ago, enter Soulstrut.
2) Rock - Elementary school from listening to the radio. Before I had a proper tape deck I just had a hand held recorder. Use to put it next to the one speaker on my clock radio and recorded songs to make my own little mix tapes. By Jr. High I started going to concerts. Sold all my records when I got into Metal.
3) Metal - That eventually led to Metal and my friends and I were in a bunch of bands by High School. Sold all my records when I got into Punk.
4) Punk - End of High School got into Punk and was in a bunch of bands and toured the U.S. a couple times with friends, put out a couple 45s, worked at Maximum Rock N Roll mag. Sold most of my records, but kept a bunch of 45s and some of my fav LPs.
5) Hip Hop - 1st heard Rap in the early 80s during Junior High School. Bunch of friends in my neighborhood were in breakdancing crews. My best friend down the street got Rapper's Delight when it first came out and we memorized every word of it. Probably when I first started hearing classics like Apache. Than that faded, but I got back into it in High School with Yo MTV Raps and BET. Use to buy everything on tape though which would later lead me to have to hunt down all my favs on vinyl. Got really into Hip Hop in college when I use to listen to Davey D's show on KPFA on Tuesday as I was driving back home from SF State.
6) Ska/Rock Steady/Reggae - Got into this from some Punk friends. Eventually led to being in a Ska band. Played a bunch of shows and put out a record. Sold most of my records except for a couple comps and have regretted it like selling all the rest of my older collections.
7) Funk/Soul-Jazz/Rock/Psych/Blues, etc. - Like many, that came from hunting down samples. Now just buy whatever sounds catchy to me.
So true - I'm still doing this today. Just crossed a couple off the list
this past year - D.O.C. & just the other day, Audio Two. Listened to
D.O.C. on tape for like 15 years...
What is so weird is I started collecting vinyl in Jr. High School and Rap was the ONLY musical form I ever bought on tape. Still don't know why I did that to this day.
Me too - and it's because (for me at least) I used to listen
to Rap in my walkman constantly. I would always buy new Rap on tape
so I could listen to it right then on my headphones, and have it for the
subway. (Although it's true I could make tapes at home from vinyl...)
French stuff: Jean Ferrat,Georges Brassens..the classics... with my dad singing along deep voice in the car. Basically me loving dramatic arrangements
African stuff: My dad would have all the stuff from his home country senegal (toure kunda, youssouNdour) and from everywhere in the continent (He was and still is a collectro in his own right)I would just go dance crazy at every party with him and his friends
Classical/Gospel: I started in a professional choir when i was 10. It was one of the most renowed in the country the PCMR (hence the name) Our director was like a russian gymnastics coach. Never have I seen a grown man terrorize 10 year old children. We would have practice on sturdays from 9 to....9
Rock/Punk/Alternative (ie Rebellion). I was about 11 and at that time I was just pissed about staying in the choir. My older sister's musical taste had a huge influence on me seeing as it was the only CDs in the house. Jimi Hendrix, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Sonic Youth I was super into it. The I did my own thing getting a used green day CD and a Rage against the Machine tape. My sister also liked french rap...I went to a road trip one day and bought a copy of the Source 100. There my love with hiphop began
HipHop: The first paycheck i got was spent on All eyes on me/Nas it was written and i never stopped. Reading the source religiously always breaking new music to my friends getting them into hiphop. Back when the source had a serious editor I was even getting into a little activism, great articles about african and black community issues and I was sending letters to radio stations and our canadian MTV to play more hiphop (pre-method man/jay-z explosion)
Started out basic (EPMD, Redman) then got into what i claimed was the real shit. Gangstarr made me fall in love with production I went primo crazy (at the same time Napster was peaking) then on to pete rock.. then Jay Dee (RIP) and then I got into more experimental stuff like madlib and stonesthrow, broken beat etc
Funk/soul: from that time classic transition: I started making beats and record fiending the strut and all lot of blogs have informed me greatly over the years. I had always loved reggae but other than perry and Marley/tosh i had no clue
Latin/Brazilian: My friend who joined me in creating our project with the shantytown children of peru Introduced me to salsa and I got hooked. Digging trip in Lima consolidated the lot, nothing like live salsa concerts until 5 am and riding back to Hector Lavoe in the cab. My dad finally gave me his collection and apart from incredible african stuff i found out he was a brazilian collectro combine that with the discovery of SeuJorge and the effects of Bossa on my my first official mack
And that is that
Music is beutiful and songs have always been part of every stage of my life. Through concerts and records I have met incredible friends and creators and I hope one day to be able to contribute to the musical spectrum of the world.
Hey Jonny, who's that guy on the right? He looks like someone I met at a party I was spinning at a couple months ago.
soul- mom. always rocked the oldies
jazz - mr. hackney (middle school jazz band teacher). i played violin in a small lil country town. which meant they put my fat ass on the double bass since i was the only one that played strings.
rap - church. all my church homies were from the major metropolitan area of fresno. and they liked the rap. thus i liked the rap.
pop - always liked this shit. then pretended like i didnt like it in college. then i got over myself and liked it again.
sissy rock aka alternative rock aka new rock - pj. my main man since 2nd grade. he was always into this shit like cure and smiths and blah blah blah and all his friends wore black and tolerated me and i guess when youre around something long enough you start to like it. i like it. kinda.
This dude at college was spinning records, and Scratch also inspired me to want to dj. I started collecting the illest (in my mind) stash of 12"s and thought to myself, once i get the time to do this ish, it's gonna be gameover. I've barely used those records cuz of time constraints and other priorities, and have since focused on buying records for purely "listening purposes". Hence my interest in funk, soul, and spiritual jazz.
Got my first phonograph at age five and here's how it all came down:
BLUES/COUNTRY - my dad used to play those musics all the time...these two categories were where his musical tastes basically began and ended.
SOUL - from watching Soul Train in the early seventies, plus my mom always had the soul station on in the car, and my friends' older siblings always had collections of the latest singles - it was just the music of the time and place. (Although I draw the line at anything past '75...I'm not a disco fan, and it galls me when I hear younger cratediggers talk about an Edwin Starr track from 1980 as if it were up there with his classic 60s/70s stuff.)
OLDIES RADIO - that's how I got into rockabilly, doo-wop, R&B, garage, and all the other genres and microgenres from the 50s and 60s. This also explains how I started listening to...
(EARLY) PUNK/POWER-POP - ...because when I first heard it at 10/11/12 years old, I flashed on how much it sounded like the stuff on oldies radio. As Billy Zoom from X has said, people forget that punk was a kind of roots music at one time.
LATIN - in the 80s, a local dusties DJ here in Chicago (Richard Pegue, then on WGCI) used to play the occasional Latin-soul track, like Joe Cuba's "Bang Bang." Then one day I found a copy of We Got Latin Soul (a UK comp of soulish salsa sides, including "Bang Bang"), and that led me to other stuff in the vein, including straight Latin with no black influences at all.
JAZZ - I'm not the biggest jazz guy, but I like what I like, and what I do like was mainly shaped by my coworkers at this record store I used to work at. I definitely owned more jazz records after I left the store than I did before.
There are other things not repped here, but that's because they either relate back to the above categories in some way (the first white rock I ever liked was on the oldies station, and that led me to the then-current stuff), or I just started listening to them out of thin air with no precedent (there's a couple of drum & bass compilations on the Unitone World label that I'm a fan of...).