Confessions of a Twenty-something music fanatic… pt. 1

      Growing up, as long as I can remember, music has been a huge part of my life.  My mother always played 1960’s pop music like the Temptations, the Drifters, the Shirelles, the Mamas and the Papas, the Beach boys, ect.  Why my father was always on the rock side playing for me at a very early age, bands like “Spirit”, not one of the most prolific 1960’s band, their only real hit was “Nature’s Way” which could have been an early call to realize that global warming is on the horizon.  This was all before the age of ten.  Although my father went to Life Bible College and was an ordained minister, and I was raised in the church, my father exposed me to a lot of non-Christian music.  In fact the only Christian music I heard besides the stuff played in church and Amy Grant was when my mom used to play Randy Stonehill and Honey Tree. 

       Two of my brothers were also musicians.  My oldest brother wrote his own songs and was a very talented singer/songwriter.  He even wrote the songs for his wedding.  My second oldest brother is still playing music and has recorded about five albums on his own and with various bands.  Needless to say, I have always been surrounded by music.

        From my sister who is seven years older than me I got the punk influence from bands like “The Misfits”, “The Dead Kennedies”, “Total Chaos”, and “Rancid”.  I also fondly remember a no-name ska band called “Punch the Clown”.  From my second oldest brother, I raided his CD collection and listened to the Smashing Pumkins, Oasis, Radiohead, the Beastie Boys, Jennifer Knapp(I didn’t even know she was Christian artist at the time), and God knows how many other random bands.

         It wasn’t until I was just about thirteen that I discovered the first band that I ever fell in love with apart from my family and that was Hanson.  I did not know who they were, but I saw there picture, thought they were girls, and couldn’t forget the faces.  Later I found out they were boys, and that they played music.  Needless to say, once I listened to their music, I was hooked!!!

         Not having an allowance of more than $2 a week, and not having cable until the age of sixteen, I rarely got to listen to knew music except over the radio.  My close friend at the time introduced me to Spice Girls and No Doubt who my sister said were grabage.  Which actually caused me to scrape up my No Doubt CD, which later my sister asked why… haha   Anyway, fell in love with the Spice Girls and Hanson and they were the only CD’s I owned until I discovered Limp Bizkit, I instantly fell in love with their rendition of faith and I played their first album just as much as I played “Spice” and “Middle of Nowhere”. 

         I continued to search out music and I rarely left the confines of pop music because again, this was before the internet was a really big thing and YouTube was nowhere near existence and Napster did not come into prominence until 2yrs later.  I was obsessed with Hanson pretty much until I stopped listening to secular music back in 2005.  It was only then that I let go of them, I listen to them from time to time to reminise, but that is about it.  I had two different websites made about Hanson. the last entitled “Hanson Live and Exposed” which is still up haha….  http://www.angelfire.com/ok/hanson126/

        Pretty much after I discovered Hanson, I became extremely obsessed with music, and writing it.  I always wrote music, but suddenly it became my life’s goal (which hasn’t changed) to become a successful singer/songwriter.  I felt alive when I listened to music it made me happy.  I don’t think even my close friend understood it.  She liked music and singing and dancing, but I breathed it!!!  I began to drive her nuts because even up until the end of our friendship my favorite thing to do was record myself singing with the video camera or make “music videos” with her.  It grew old for her after a while, but it never grew old to me…  I still do it to this day. 

         In 1998, I listened to all of the popular bands like Savage Garden, Third Eye Blind, The Wallflowers, Spice Girls, Hanson, Marcy’s Playground, The Offspring, Metallica, The Beastie Boys, Natalie Merchant, Jewel, Will Smith, Smash Mouth, TLC, Natalie Imbruglia, Cherrie Poppin’ Daddies, Brian Setzer Orchestra, Backstreet Boys, and many many other bands. 

          Well, the next few years were nothing special musically for me, just the discovery of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, which was awesome.  Then of course there was Mandy Moore, whom I still adore, and also Jessica Simpson, whom I do not adore anymore…  Than of course Destiny’s Child made it huge in 1999 as well, or closer to 2000 with “Say My Name”.   I mostly just kept listening to people like Britney Spears and that was it.  I found NSYNC to be boring and thougt Backstreet Boys were much better, and I still do.  Than of course the other side of the coin for me was Kid Rock and Eminem.  I was devout followers of them when they came out with their major label debuts in 1999.  Who can forget Blink 182’s “What’s My Name Again” or Ricky Martin’s “Livin’ La Vida Loca”?  1999 was also the year that Jennifer Lopez became really big, with her first album “On the 6″.  You see by 1999, I had a paper route and could actually afford CD’s, and I had quite a collection by the end of 1999.

       Anyway, that’s enough ranting about music for now, I’ll get to the more exciting stuff next time!!!

       God Bless ~Amy