Exiting the Music Cave

Up until two or three years ago I was pretty firmly entrenched in what I'll call a music cave. Or a slump or stagnant pool of tunes, especially compared to my listening habits since joining Last.fm. I spent roughly five years listening to either stuff I already knew or classic stuff but almost nothing new. With a very few exceptions I didn't listen to modern music at all. To be fair, it wasn't totally stagnant. I greatly deepened my love for Pink Floyd. I also became a lifelong Led Zeppelin devotee whereas before I didn't care much for their music at all. I also came to know a lot more about Jimi Hendrix and a slew of others most notably Janis Joplin, The Doors and Bob Marley. There were a few other classic rockers I came to know better but, other than the above, I just listened to classic stuff I already knew.

There were a very few modern artists I came to know during this time as well. There was K's Choice, Mazzy Star, Queens of the Stone Age and Tool. And that's pretty much it. As far as modern music went those four were it. Add it all up and in the space of about five years I deepened my knowledge and love of maybe 20 musical artists or groups. Looking back I realize that's a pretty damned sad fact. I didn't listen to internet radio, I rarely visited YouTube and I never listened to regular radio stations if I could at all help it. Nope, it was just me, my best friend and Mary Jane avoiding reality, avoiding the modern world and it's soundtrack.

It wasn't all bad. It helped me get over a broken heart. But I missed a lot. I have regrets, sure. For the purposes of this journal I'll just say that I missed a lot of great music. Since joining Last.fm last August, and using other services for a while before that, I've been swimming ever deeper into a vast ocean of music. There is more music out there that I could have ever dreamed! Every day I discover more music to love and there is so much that I'm happily overwhelmed by it. I feel like I really am entering a much, much wider musical world than the one I knew before.

This sense of discovery reminds of the time period when I first discovered my deep and abiding love of music. I was about ten years old and my folks got me a stereo for my birthday. It had AM/FM radio, a cassette player and a phonograph. I remember that I used the tape player and the radio from time to time, they didn't go to waste. But I wore out needle after needle playing records. My folks let me listen to their records and I had a ball! That old collection was dominated by tons of Beatles records, LPs and 45s. But there was variety. I remember Jackson Browne, Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Alice Cooper and many, many others. All those old records made me realize that there was more to music that what was on the radio and "that old crap Mom and Dad like". Music could not only move the body, but the mind and soul.

Back then it was a confluence of events and things, just as now, that brought about this overwhelming sense of wonder at the world of music. When I was ten there was puberty and a new stereo and a crate of old records. Now there's no more Mary Jane, no more best friend and a different kind of heart break all bringing me into the positively gigantic world of internet radio. And while I miss certain things, especially the smoke, I'm enjoying this crash course in modern music. I've got a lot of catching up to do and a lot of discoveries to make and I'm looking forward to it.