I have to say that I have friends and know people with very eclectic tastes in music, films, humor, books, etc. The main genre is music. I have friends who are hard-core hip-hop heads who name obscure guys like Just-Ice, Steady B, etc. who the next minute are talking to me about Neu! and Can. I have friends who are fans of the Strokes and Grizzly Bear and when I go looking through their iPods they have in there Guilty Simpson, Murs, Timbiriche, Chente, Jackie Mittoo and on and on. That is the norm now.
In high school, or at least in South Gate, you were labeled by what radio station you listened to. Either it being, KROQ, the short lived Y107, Power 106, KISS FM, and then you had K-Earth, KNAC, KLOS, Pirate Radio, etc. I listened to all those stations at one point or another. I'll admit that my first musical purchases were Chubb Rock's "The One", Color Me Badd's self titled album (Really!) and A Tribe Called Quest's "The Low End Theory" (My salvation) as well as what would alter my musical taste forever, Pearl Jam's "Ten"
My introduction to a lot of music was my parents and my uncles. My mom blasting Juan Gabriel, Antonio Aguilar or Rigo Tovar while she cooked and cleaned. My aunts and uncles were very influenced by the 80s. Being Latino, I had many family members live with us while they settled to this country, so I had the luxury of rummaging through their records as well as the libraries. One uncle had many 45s from the Beatles to M People. His collection initiated my love for classic rock and 80s new wave. He was a drummer for a band that covered cumbias and would always play at family parties. The first record I remember putting on the record player myself with no adult supervision was Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da. At that point, my musical experience was altered forever. I had a crazy aunt who was obsessed with Menudo, which was great, and still is, great pop music. Of course Timbiriche, Luis Miguel and many other Latin Spanish pop music would blare through our radios. So at a young age I would wonder where can I get more of this.
I would start going to the library for the sole reason of digging for records. I don't remember the name of the series but I remember it was released by Billboard and it covered a lot of music from the 60s and 70s. It would touch on the British Invasion (the Kinks, Stones), Motown (Marvin Gaye, Temptations), hard rock (Zeppelin, Sabbath) as well as many other genres. It was a huge collection. I even checked out the Classical music ones to see what the big deal was and at the time, I was not impressed. Anyhow, I would check this records out and record them onto cassette for my personal enjoyment. And play them I did. Over and over and over. I don't remember when I stopped doing this, but without realizing it, I was expanding my musical tastes.
At the time I had no one to share my tastes with because it was not a subject that was brought up a lot in 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. I remember everyone being into Bobby Brown, LL Cool J and of course Prince, Madonna and MJ. But I don't remember being blown away by it, although I really dug the music. But once middle school started, everyone started to try really hard to establish an identity. And one of the main ways kids did this was with music. My first love was the Cure. So naturally I went to Yuri's records to buy concert shirts of the Cure and of course Depeche Mode and the Smiths. Then came Doc Martens. Now I was never one to start trends but I can almost promise you that I was the third person in school with Docs. (Maybe fourth) I first this pair of kicks in pictures being worn by rude boys, punk rockers, some mods and then on Morrissey. I thought they looked awesome but where to find boots like that. Then came my friends Moises to the rescue (He would also influence my expansion of music tastes to Industrial and even more New Wave such as Aztec Camera, Blancmange, Japan, Alphaville, Red Flag, etc.) He told me you can find those on Melrose. Whoa, where is that? It was a great place to find some cool shit is what it was. Now it got taken over by shops I never step into but at the time, Retail Slut, Bleeker Bob's, Jet Rag, and Wasteland would define my fashion. So I found my Docs on this magical street by they were way expensive. I was bummed. But Moises knew of another spot in Norwalk, CA. ShoeTeria. Not only did they have these magical boots, but they had them in a shitload of colors. Blue, Burgundy, White, Green. Now mind you, I almost bought the blue ones, but then I thought of my mom and dad yelling at me for buying blue boots. As it is, I felt as my choice of boots would get questioned. So I bought the black ones with ten holes.
The first day of school comes and I am sporting my Docs. They got some weird looks and a comment here and there but I did not care. I loved them boots and I felt that because no one else had them, I would keep them until high school would end. That is where people started calling me a KROQer. I thought it was weird that I would be labeled by a radio station that I listened to. I thought a lot of people did. All because of a few Smiths and Cure shirts, some boots, some scribbling on my book cover with the Beatles, the Clash and the Buzzcocks and one mingy KROQ sticker. It did not bother me, but I thought it was interesting.
Needless to say, the Smiths obsession would blow up. Everyone would start buying Docs, Chucks and Monkey boots. And all in different colors. I thought it was awesome that everyone liked the same great music that was coming out. Like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Stone Roses, INXS, and even old favorites were getting massively popular such as the Cure U2 and Depeche Mode was on top. Then the Smiths and Morrissey would take over before Kurt Cobain shot himself and paved the way for Britpop such as Suede, Blur, Oasis, Pulp, Radiohead, Primal Scream etc. This was a span of five years. The whole Kurt Cobain thing was huge for music since the Grunge scene seem to die along with him. But Britpop was big with a handful of people and it was not coined Brit pop until a the late 90s when I would spend many a Thursday night at Cafe Bleu. At this time, 2pac would blow up, Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Black Sheep etc. That was great as well. It still is. I would like to point out here that Electric Relaxation will always be a better track then anything, and I mean ANYTHING that Lil Wayne calls music.
I can't forget that at this time Rock en Espanol would become a scene itself. Cafe Tacuba, Soda Stereo would lead it along with Mana, Caifanes, Maldita, Fobia, Aterciopelados and any other bands. Now some people would be into all this music, such as I. But others would separate themselves because of musical tastes. This is when i realized how powerful music was to some to establish an image. The goth kids would only hang out with other goth kids. Metal heads with metal heads. Skinheads, hip-hoppers, etc. Now I like to think that my friends and I were a very eclectic bunch, although you would hear somebody make a crack at someone for wearing Harley boots or someone who listened to Power 106, house. But this was a youth thing.
Nowadays, music has gone in every direction. You hear Nine Inch Nails mashed up with 50 cent. You hear R&B artists making songs with rockers. Rock bands using mariachis and Eastern European sounds. Drummers are replaced by machines. And maybe I speak about my age range and people I know, but it seems as everyone is into it. You can't pigeon hole someone because of music tastes. Yes there are people who have bad taste in music (IMO) but overall everyone is listening to all the same music. We are living in an age where individualism is important even at our age, meaning our thirties. You can't say someone is this or that (maybe indie or hipster). But overall we are all one and the same. The difference being our bank accounts but who is aware of that?
The point I am trying to make? I love music. Music is important to me as it is to everyone else. In one way or another. To some of us books, films, art is almost as important. But music touches everyone. There are songs that can take you back to a memory. When you first heard it, your first kiss, first date, first dance and you had to back off because you started getting a weird feeling below the belt....it can take you back to your youth. I started thinking about all this around my 33rd birthday. I started realizing that all the music I still love is aging with me. And they still look and sound great. They are timeless.
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