Neapolitan

Trollheart,

Thanks for the advice and words of encouragement. How I feel is if I have any strength either I don't see them or they're in my blind spot. I'm more concern with what I don't know than what I do know already. I consider myself lucky (and and even a bit spoiled) because I where grew up was in a town that had a dozen or so radio stations each with their own different formats. So at a very young age I was always trying to learning something new, something different. When I was young I thought I had a pretty good survey of what was out there now I fell I only heard a small sampling of all the music in the world.

__________________

Trollheart

While radio used to be a decent medium through which to assimilate new music, especially the old pirate radio stations and of course Radio Luxembourg, it's not so much now. These days they just play whatever's popular mostly; time was when you could first hear new music on the radio, and this led to the purchase of various records by me, including Dan Fogelberg's "Windows and walls", Bob Seger's "The distance" and Jeff Wayne's musical version of "The war of the worlds". But before the advent of MTV and the internet, I used to get all my recs from friends.

I remember a guy in school had a cassette copy of Genesis' "Foxtrot", and this was the first time I had ever heard the band. I heard guys on a coach trip I was on singing (badly) "Stairway to Heaven" and didn't know what it was. A mate of my brother's brought in a single by the Tygers of Pan Tang, and I instantly wanted the album.

Then there were the record shops. We had one here in Dublin (still exists) where they played only rock and metal. You could go there and hang out for the day, listening to the best music around --- some of which was not even available anywhere else, as the guy regularly went over from Ireland to the UK to pick up the latest imports for his shop --- although you usually ended up having to buy something in the end. We didn't mind though, it was great music and the point was you got to hear it before you bought it. If you were interested in something, you could ask the guy what the band was like and he would put the album on for you, or else honestly tell you they were not great, why not try this one instead, and spin it?

I guess like most people I got my music in phases: prog rock, heavy metal, classical, country and so on, but the general rule I always applied --- and still do --- is that I don't listen to something just because it's in my favourite genre, or because I'm expected to like it. Though a prog fan, I still struggle with some bands like Spock's Beard, IQ, Dream Theater. Some metal I hate, eg doom/death. Punk I've never been into, nor dance music, and I just more or less steer clear of those genres, though I guess if I suddenly heard something I liked I would just get that artiste's music and not worry I was "crossing genres".

I've also tried to expand my somewhat limited musical tastes since starting my journal, deliberately venturing into areas I would traditionally abhor or avoid, as evidenced by my dissection of the (ahem!) genre of boybands. I think it's only fair that if you're going to slag something off you should know as much about the band(s) as possible, so that then you're talking from a position of some authority.

Anyway, again best of luck. I see you've posted your first review, and I have to say it's quite interesting. Keep it up, and like it says on one of the many sections in my journal, keep it simple.

TH

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Neapolitan

Trollheart,

I lend out about a half dozen Genesis CDs that never returned, we would had gotten along great as friends - you know provide we lived in the same country.

I like Dan Fogelberg. I have his greatest hits but I really didn't get into collecting his studio albums. The one song of his which grew on me which I heard constantly was Leader of the Band. Usually when people hear a song over and over it wears thin on them but the more I heard that song the more I liked it. I remember finding that song listed in the contents in a tab book - I felt like I won the lottery. I practice that song for hours trying to get it just right. I think the time I put into that song, is about the same time some people would use to hear quite a few albums. I'm not always into hearing albums in their entirety and I don't always feel the need to collect the whole catalogues. I feel that is the difference between album collectors and my approach to acquiring music - I get hooked on a song almost to the point of an obsession, so a copy of a song is just fine and generally they're one I like to learn on guitar, while their (the collectors') goal is to collect the whole catalogue of their favourite artist/bands.

__________________