music & me: a timeline: inspired by mike's awesome account of the formation of his listening tastes, here's a far less comprehensive take on my own.

1977:
i'm born.

1978-1981:

i can't remember much here, and i'm pretty sure music didn't play a large part in my life during this period.

1982:
we got cable. which means that we now had mtv. i had no idea what mtv was, but after a few minutes of watching it, i knew i wanted it. one of the first memories that i can still clearly remember to this day is of dancing to prince's "1999" in front of the television. mtv would soon become verboten in our house and having it on was a punishable offense. (oh, how my parents wish parental control and v-chips were around back then!) i'd go to a party for one of my cousin's and i'd first see and hear michael jackson's thriller. the day was dark and gloomy which, when combined with the title cut of that album, spooked me good.

1984:
when i was younger, my family would go on trips quite often, usually to vermont or atlantic city. vermont was about a 6 hour drive : when my sister and i were very young, my parents would play tapes of fairy tales to keep us quiet; now that we were slightly older, my parents played tapes of golden oldies and we'd have sing-alongs in the car. my favorites were the motown and classic soul tracks: this is where i believe my love of soul and r&b began. i remember being particularly fascinated by the feral growl of teddy pendergrass (whose name i thought was harold melvin; i mean, why wouldn't his name come first if he was the lead singer?) on "if you don't know me by now."

1985:
at day camp, we have talent contests. i'm in a group with older kids and we'd perform songs like "raspberry beret." i still remember getting dressed "cool" for these competitions, raiding my mom's jewelry box for bad-ass rings and looking like an extra from breakin' 2. 1985 was also an important year as it marked the beginning of my love affair with rap music. i heard doug e. fresh's "the show" which, as some of you may remember, has a keyboard riff taken straight from inspector gadget. i was amazed and i laughed and i thought, "this music is so much FUN!" at the day camp, we'd have kids who'd breakdance and they'd perform to songs like "the show" and other electro tunes.

1986:
by being in fourth grade, i'd finally be able to be a part of the school chorus. even then (especially then), i loved to sing and dance and getting to do so in front of large numbers people thrilled me even more. i don't think we ever performed anything modern -- indeed, we'd do oldies-themed shows. i'd perform my first solo this year (it was "a dream is a wish your heart makes" from a disney-themed show). performing music only made my love for it grow.

1987:
this year, i finally received an allowance from my parents, which meant one thing: money to spend! i'd buy my first cassette, bobby brown's don't be cruel. a good friend of mine at school and i were the only guys in our grade who liked r&b and dance music (the other guys were mostly into hair metal). i still remember getting called names and being made fun of for liking black music (guess the slurs that were being tossed around). it didn't stop us: we'd ape the singing and dancing styles and he would even start to dress the part.

1988:
my best friend was into a lot of heavy metal, probably because his brother was into it big time. he'd have posters of ozzy osbourne and the like all over his room and he'd usually be rocking out any time you went in there. it was here that i'd learn to hate heavy metal, and i pretty much still do. there are some exceptions and they were difficult to reconcile because of that hatred, but by and large, heavy metal and hard rock isn't something i'm into.

1989:
i entered junior high school, which meant meeting new kids, a number of whom shared my interest in music. i remember these days very fondly; they were some of the best of my life. with junior high school, we were introduced to the concept of the school dance. it was great fun, even if that many people didn't dance. the music was great: lots of house music and a ton of hip-hop. by year's end, more and more people would start to dance, even if they couldn't. for a brief moment, people seemed to enjoy all kinds of music: the popular stations in the area would play prince, bruce springsteen, madonna, technotronic, etc. all together and it was okay for white guys to like black music. if i recall correctly, 1989 was the year "u can't touch this came out." at this time, i was voraciously taping things off the radio and making mixtapes, a practice i continue to this day. i played the song for a number of friends and it just took off like wildfire, mirroring the country's strange obsession with the song. this may be the first time i realized how much joy i felt when introducing people to new music.

at this point in my life, i was listening to most anything: rap, dance, new jack, pop, and rock, but not hair metal or most heavy metal (though i did like some guns & roses). i was still basically just a radio and mtv kid; i didn't branch out into underground artists or really old artists...that would come later. as will the rest of the story.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

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