Akira

I was fortunate enough to be exposed to a lot of music since I was born and also to buy what I wanted when I wanted new albums etc.

I guess the earliest music I would have been exposed to would be stuff from the 60s and 50s plus classical stuff as well. I started buying albums at about 8 years old which is when the biggest spurt in music started since once you get one ting then you want another and another and so on. I bought Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust when I was 9, among others, and Bowie from then on played a big part of my musical interest for some time afterwards. It was around that time also that I was taken to various live music shows, a lot of stuff at the time I enjoyed but most of it was new to me so I didn't appreciate it as much as I would have done if I were already into the artists. For example, I was ten or eleven when I saw Prince, who obviously blew my mind, but I would have loved it so much more if I had been a fan already.

So during that time I managed to get exposed to a lot of really good stuff, stuff that I still listen to today. In the late 80s, also, I was a member and mod on several musical bulletin boards which were great, and obviously exposed me to more music and some great albums. It wasn't as easy back then to come up with a list of classic albums, so forums helped immensely to share ideas of what to listen to and seek out. So throughout the years my collection has grown considerably, not even including my classical library. I am currently in the process of slowly digitising them, though only favourites go first and stuff I want to listen to.

As far as influences on what I listen to, I generally go for what I feel I will enjoy, by who has recommended it, or by what reviews say about it etc. I won't just give an album a listen because 'everyone else is'. I'm not interested in fitting in with any particular group or looking cool. I just want to listen to good music which affects me (in any way) and if other people don't like that music it doesn't affect my joy of it.

In mid-90s it was a bit odd as the majority of my friends didn't know much about the music that made up the majority of my collection, there were only two lads who I was close to who knew the joys of older classics, the rest mainly listened to current chart music. I started to listen to the radio also in my early teens, probably the most I have listened to the radio in my life. The soundtrack to our school was the usual mix of Blur, Oasis, Pulp, Nirvana etc, which was good because I enjoyed it all, though Nirvana was wearing thin by the time Cobain died. At least I could talk to others in my school about the same sort of music and try and get them into similar artists (which mostly failed).

After school was done and dusted I spent a lot of time attending gigs in various parts of the world, this time it was much better as I was long-time fan of most of the acts, got to meet and hang with some and become semi-friendly with a few.

Now, in my twenties, I have spent less time travelling for fun due to work, but I have still been expanding my library and exploring new avenues of music. Regrettably, in my older age, I was getting more frustrated with current music. It seemed like you would have to wade through more sh!t to get to the good stuff. And this is still true in my eyes today, and though I still listen to current music as much as I can, I'm not one for trying to listen to new music all the time. Some people are all about new music, but I'm more into music that's new to me, regardless of whether it is current or quite old. It's easier, though, to find good music from yesteryear as it has passed through the refining process of time and stood up, rather than with current music as most of it in the public eye is more about who's the latest trend. I'm more than happy, if it comes to it, to let other people wade through the crap and bring me the diamonds. In the meantime there is still a lifetime's worth of great music yet to be discovered that has already been made. (If all that makes sense, lol).

My general outlook on music is that I don't like to use too many labels to pigeon hole music. I don't mind general terms of genre, but I think that using, and getting too anal about, sub-genres goes against what music should be. I'm open to listening to anything, I won't say that I love all types of music because I hate it when people say that. I can't name every type of music that's out there and I'm sure the people who say that cannot either. I also don't like it when people say 'Oh I hate [insert genre]' etc, just because they have an idea in their heads as to what [insert genre] really is. It's usually a few tracks or artists that they have heard and don't like and from then on just completely blank out any similar stuff that comes their way. I think its a great shame that a lot of people automatically shut themselves off from potentially great stuff. I believe that no matter what type of music you prefer listening to on average, that there is something that will move you in all the other areas. I'm sure a lot of people on this forum have found albums that have shot to the top of their favourites or changed their outlook on music, which has come from an area of music that they never looked into before or maybe even had a prejudice against at one point.

Anyways, I'm sure I'm rambling as I have my music quite loud and it's a bit difficult to determine whether or not any of the above sentences have made sense to anyone.

Keep digging and sharing guys and gals.

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