I decided to write it, because I have nothing better to do.
When my mother found out she was pregnant with me, the song
Wuthering Heights was playing. I don't remember it, obviously. I love that song though.
When I was a kid, my mother (and thus me as well) listened to a lot of Italian music.
Eros Ramazotti was the most played artist in our house. I also have good memories with
Joe Dassin, a French guy, and
Randy Crawford. It took me a long while to love
Street Life, I didn't care much for it as a kid, but I love it now. It's part of my childhood soundtrack. Another important track is
Sara perche ti amo.
Of course this was all at a time when I wasn't very interested in music, so it was more of a background noise. I didn't understand much English (or Italian), so the lyrics of what was played were unintelligible, and I often wondered why they kept repeating "Baby" so much in English songs. Why did they all sing songs about babies? Aren't babies just annoying? ...such were the thoughts that crossed my mind at the time.
When I started I school I started noticing music on my own, albeit a lot later than the others. I would probably have loved the
Spice Girls if only I had known their music! But my family didn't listen to that kind of music, so it totally went past me. I knew that all the kids at school were absolutely crazy about them and I saw their pictures everywhere, and I stubbornly claimed to hate them with a passion. I rather liked this - it shocked the other kids deeply, and I felt pretty damn cool since I wasn't mainstream. Typical of my 7-8 year old self (maybe even my current self, haha). Anyway, my first dive into music was probably a CD released in Norway called "Hits for Kids".
(Before that I'd had no way of listening to the songs I liked when I wanted to, although I loved
Blue by Eiffel 65 ... and at some point there was also
Better Off Alone by Alice Deejay which I also never got the chance to listen to anywhere besides on the radio/at stupid school parties)
Actually the first one I acquired was "Hits for Kids 2". It included artists like
Backstreet Boys,
Britney Spears,
Cartoons and
Stig Van Eijk among others. I remember a girl from my class owning it and it was the "cool" thing back then, so I asked my mother to buy it, which she did (she probably felt it was good that I was finally developing a musical taste of my own, no matter how crappy). Since this was the only CD I owned for maybe a whole year, I listened to it -a lot-. I secretly loved the Backstreet Boys track most of them all.
Later I got the first CD in the compilation series (this opened my eyes to the LOVE that is
Together Forever (The Cyber Pet Song), more commonly known simply as "Tamagotchi") and then the fourth, which included a free Pokémon card. I got an energy card, which was disappointing, but at least it was one I could use for my deck.
At this point I became a huge Britney fan, and I guess this continued for the rest of my life. I started noticing her when she released
(You Drive Me) Crazy, I think. I also remember being totally mesmerized by
Born To Make You Happy when it was on MTV. My best friend back then and I would spend countless hours at her house listening to her second album, and most of all we loved
Lucky. Because of money shortage I didn't own the album myself until I was much older.
Somewhere along the road came a Norwegian idol group produced by a TV show called Superstars (I think? Or was it Popstars?). They were called
Cape and all teh kids loved them, including me. I bought their craptastic album for my own hard-earned money. Owning a CD was still very rare for me back then, and I had no access to music downloads or CD burners or the like. I recorded my favorite songs from the radio onto cassettes and listened to them, with a radio speaker intruding at the beginning and end of songs with his/her stupid comments. But somehow it was charming (and surely I was the only one who still listened to music this way!).
Because I was so hungry for the way too expensive CDs, I took everything I could get. When someone offered me a free or very cheap CD I'd grab it regardless of whether I liked the artist in question or not. Because of this I listened a lot to the
Coast to Coast album (I think it was?) by Westlife and a small, home-burned compilation of songs by a pop group called
Six, both of which I'd gotten for free from friends. I absolutely loathed the Westlife album, but because of lack of anything else to listen to I listened to it anyway in the hope of liking it more eventually. It never happened, and now I luckily don't have to suffer the Westlife fate anymore (no one can accuse me of not having tried to get into it). The Six CD was a bit more tolerable, but not much, really.
Two artists I have strong memories with are
Pink and
Christina Aguilera. I disliked Christina's first stuff a lot, but when her album
Stripped came out... I was a big fan. Of course, after the initial shock of the
Dirrty video had worn off! It was very controversial at the time, I remember it being a subject of discussion in the papers too. Now I can't for the life of me see why, really. Had we really not seen this before? Anyway, all the singles from this album as well as the album as a whole were very strong, catchy and lyrically decent tracks. This, and Pink's
mizundaztood, both owned by my lucky friend, were played a lot for a period.
I went to Paris in the sixth grade, and in Pigalle's McDonald's I saw the video for the song
J'en ai marre ! by Alizée. I fell in love with it and bought her album based solely on that single, a decision I never regretted. For a good couple of months it was all I ever listened to. I totally wanted to take French later in school (someone should have warned me!).
Somewhere along the road I learned how to download mp3s. A whole new world opened to me. I can clearly remember the very first mp3 I ever downloaded. It was
Girls Keep Secrets in the Strangest Ways by Ephemera. I had a dial-up connection at the time, which allowed to download at the maximum speed of 4kb/s. Each song that I managed to obtain was a treasure and I listened to every single mp3 a bazillion times. I remember listening to
Sum 41, of all people. Another very notable song is
The Last Goodbye by Atomic Kitten. I loved that song so, so much. If it was scobbled it would have like 10,000 plays, I kid you not.
In seventh grade sometime a girl named
Avril Lavigne appeared. I am not going to hide that I developed the biggest celebrity crush I've ever had on her. I was as in love with her as you get when it comes to celebrities. My room looked like a shrine for her. All the other girls had posters of some "handsome" guys and other people thrown in for good measure, however, my walls were entirely covered in Avril. Damn, I stared hard at these pictures every night before going to bed, and when I slept I dreamt that she was real and alive in my room.
Later I found out that like very other pop star she was little more than a product of her management, and it was quite a letdown for a naïve girl like me. But I continued loving her music, and I feel that it has grown with me. The first album was as childish as I was when it was released, with silly nonsensical lyrics and also some pretty stupid subject matter on some of the songs (...but even though we don't want to admit it, we all feel a bit like
Things I'll Never Say now and then.) The aforementioned song, and
Anything But Ordinary were my favorite tracks, but I loved them all.
Avril's second album was a bit more emo at some parts I guess, but it had nice upbeatness too. It was more mature than the previous one, but still a bit too...I don't know. Again it fit well for me at the time.
The third album was fun and upbeat, which reflects more maturity in my opinion. Being able to not take everything so seriously, letting your hair down and stop being emo is, the way I see it, also a way of finally letting go of the typical teenage stupidity. (Sounds weird I suppose, but I feel a point is hidden in that mess.)
Now I've gone a bit too far ahead. I've now reached an exiting time - my first experiences with Japanese, and Asian music.
It started with (don't shoot me!) anime. My favorite anime was (no, please, spare my life!!) was Tottoko Hamutaro. It was the first time I heard songs in Japanese. Now...
ミニモニ。 were voicing some characters in the movies, as well as singing the theme songs. These songs really were something special. I listened to them countless times, learned all the lyrics, the distinct voices of the four girls, and so on. Naturally I wanted to hear more of this, and so I became a huge ミニモニ。 fan. This was the ONLY Japanese music I knew of at the time, so I tolerated that the tracks were very silly and childish (they were a lot of fun though!). My mother hated that I played it all day long... However, simple lyrics like those allowed for me understanding more and more naturally, which was what awakened my single true talent in the world, the one for languages. I soon couldn't take any more unintelligible words, and this led to my Mission of Mastering Japanese. Yes, for the sake of ミニモニ。, and later
モーニング娘。, I decided this at the tender age of 13, and I never looked back.
So, yeah, I found out about MoMusu. My favorite songs were
Go Girl～恋のヴィクトリー～,
Do it! Now and
I WISH. I didn't have access to much of their stuff, really, all I had was Limewire. The one PV I remember very clearly is the one for Do it! Now, I absolutely loved it. The song I loved as well, so dramatic and catchy and with a lovely "rap" in the middle. After all these years it's perhaps the one song from that time that enjoy (almost) as much as I did back then. When I listen to it now I still get that special feeling...one that has been hard to find again in music later. (Now I understand the lyrics too, a big step forward).
A website called Toshinbu introduced me to early
berryz koubou,
美勇伝, and some other H!P stuff from that time. It feels like a golden age of H!P to me, but I think it was because it was new to me.
Back then I honestly LOVED everything that was served me as long as it originated from the Japanese islands. I didn't have years of jpop listening behind me, so it all sounded new and fresh to my ears. I hadn't developed an ear for what is "generic" and it didn't feel recycled or anything like I feel about a lot of stuff now.
Eventually I took the steps out of H!P, since Toshinbu had another section for non-H!P artists. I remember being totally blown away by every single song I heard from
SweetS (that was in the good old days, with BOUNCEBACK. Their sound was dramatic and a bit atypical of idol groups. Then came the generic crap...). My friend burned me a CD with their songs and I think I almost wore it completely out.
Simultaneously I had my first contact with the music of
ayumi hamasaki. Notable songs were
No Way To Say,
Evolution (OF COURSE.) and
Vogue.
When I first encountered jpop, it was all I wanted. I remember signing up for Last.fm in 2005, when the site still was named Audioscrobbler. My first scrbbles ever was Berryz. I had a period of Berryz obsession, which then turned into a period of intense dislike. For a while I couldn't stand them. (Now I listen to them again, I think it would be interesting to listen to their oldest stuff once more...just to see if I can handle it). I went back to listening to more Western music, and now it's almost at 50/50 I'd say (which is perfect. I feel that there is almost as much Japanese music being produced as there is English, they churn out songs in a mind-blowing tempo!).
I discovered what might quite possibly be my favorite genre in Western music - folk.
A thing that I feel is prominent in all of my music history is the lack of access to music. First because I never was a rich kid and couldn't afford many CDs, and later because I had no CD burner, a maximum speed of 4kb/s and 4GB of disc space on the entire computer for a long time. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. I had to listen to what I could get a hold of, and I had to listen to it a lot. I thus developed strong memories with this music, and I like that feeling of being able to listen to a song and recall my entire register of emotions from a certain point in my past. It's a very special thing, and to me it is the best way I can preserve a memory.
Being so limited with downloads also made each song I got a treasure. I would listen to them many times and really appreciate all parts of the song. One song I remember fighting for to get to download properly is
ささやかな祈り by Every Little Thing. That intro really captured me.. It's still my favorite intro for a song ever. I listened to this song again and again while daydreaming.
Now I have unlimited access to everything I could ever dream of. I can even listen to patriotic songs from North Korea if that's what floats my boat (Which I've done, just to see what they were like. Let's just say it's a funny, but not entirely bad genre). Like my previous situation this has its pros and cons.
I've discovered a shitload of new artists. "My library" in the Last.fm beta site has about 2500 artists that I've listened to, and if you think about it, that really is a lot. I mean, compared to what you are exposed to via normal radio and CDs that you own! This really is great and has broadened my horizons to the furtherest corners of the planet. Another thing I've experienced is that there now is at least -something- I am able to enjoy in every genre I've listened to. Music I earlier dismissed as "not my cup of tea" or downright bad has gotten a second chance and I now genuinely like a bunch of artists with very diverse styles of music. If you were to ask me what genres I like I'd have to list most of the genres I know of. (This doesn't mean that I'm not picky or don't have any defined taste at all, even though it might sound like it.)
However, these massive amounts of music available has resulted in me not "feeling it" as much as I did before. I don't mean that I don't get eargasms or whatever. But favorite tracks remain favorites for shorter periods of time, I get bored a lot more quickly, and I am not as easily impressed. It happens when I get into a new genre, but even then it doesn't last the way it did before. I can't recall being totally blown away by a H!P song in a looong while, and that really disappoints me. I miss the old feeling, the "Do it! Now" feeling, the listening to the voices of ミニモニ。 feeling. I am still waiting for that feeling to return. (Maybe the trick is to do a lot of repeat-listening, after all that's what I did in the past XD)
I feel that I now consume music in an entirely different manner. But don't get me wrong, they are both good in their ways.
I'll wrap up this story for now, some time later I will write more about the most recent events in my musical history. It pretty much stopped at 2004-2005 in this entry, and that's because the developments from there have to be written about in a different manner since there are extremely many new artists and genres. I'll write a separate story for each genre/type of music...because I like to bore the living shit out people with this. =)
Eros Ramazzotti
