My Pop Music History – FWIW
Age 1 – 10 (45s): I was born in Hunterdon County New Jersey (1965) which was a pretty f*cking awesome time and place to be born in from a musical perspective. It meant that I was raised within the AM signal of WABC in New York and was therefor weened on ‘Brandy’ by Looking Glass, ‘Dacining in the Moonlight’ by King Harvest and other very light and poppy melodies performed frequently by musical families. Those families being The Partridges(fictional), The Jacksons(black), The Carpenters(white), The DeFranco Family(other) and of course, The Osmonds(LDS). My young ear was tuned to the rock/pop harmonies, cow bell, and big hooks of the 70’s. They ain’t heavy, they are my brothers and even today when I hear an updated version of this style performed by the likes of The Spice Girls, I swoon.
Age 11- 15 (albums): Upon moving to Delaware, the radio held less sway and I found myself in a neighborhood wholly owned by “black music.” From the Jackson Five, it is a short hop to other musical families: The Brother’s Johnson, The Isely Brothers, Earth Wind and Fire (my first concert) The Commodores, Heat Wave and eventually Parliament & the Sugar Hill Gang, which changed everything. Michael Jackson’s “Off the Wall” was naturally huge, but “Thriller” wasn’t so thrilling for us as the sun was already setting on that phase.
Age 16 – Early College (MTv): The album based R&B/Funk of my pre-driving years served as a sound track to numerous basement parties, but after some of the gang turned 16 and started driving all of that basement slow dancing innocence faded quickly. As the gang broke up, I moved toward U2, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Alarm and other early MTV new wave phenoms like Wall of Voodoo, REM, INXS, and yes… Duran Duran. I arrived for my freshman year in college with blond highlights in my hair and an Elvis Costello album under my arm.
Late College (CDs) – New wave had a nice long run. In 1982 Squeeze released “Singles – 45’s and Under” by 1985 it was ubiquitous. Yaz, The Style Council, Bill Bragg, The House Martins, Simple Minds, Big Country you name it. Every genre has its genius and its dreck. I was undiscerning, and liked all of it. I was never big on for the darker moodier stuff, but what’s not to like about The Cure?
Post College (Pandora) – There comes a point where you either become one of those sad guys who tries to keep up with what the kids are listening to, or become one of those sad guys who wallows in nostalgia for the music of his college years. I became the later. Music created since 1990 doesn’t do much for me, unless it is pretty much an outright homage to the 70’s or 80’s.
In high school (76′-79′) I was into progressive rock, fueled by WIOQ-FM and Ed Sciaky (RIP). Even then prog rock was fading and the groups were breaking up, and WIOQ had to start varying its format, until they had a good mix of rock, new wave, prog, blues, and folk. People make fun of prog now but Ed had good taste and never played the worst of it. I still listen to a handful of albums. The end point of the Philly prog era was probably the free 1978 concert at Penns Landing by UK, a late-prog-era supergroup and basically the last of its kind (yes I was there).
I bought a Genesis double-album set at Woolworth’s at Prices Corner for 99 cents – on 8-track tape. Fortunately I had an 8-track player at home in one of those all-in-one stereos with the wood-grain cabinet and the smoked plastic cover on the turntable. I didn’t know it at the time but the albums were IMHO the best Genesis albums (“Nursery Cryme” and “Foxtrot.). The wobble and murky sound quality of the 8-track somehow enhanced the experience.
I was pretty insistent that “disco sucks.” If only someone had pointed out to me that disco was basically a way to meet a whole bunch of revved-up girls.
College: I went to college in NYC and literally as soon as my father dropped me off and waved goodbye, I got on the elevator up to my dorm room and in the elevator were four guys with skinny neckties and a large paper bag. They were a punk rock band, and they were going up to the roof to drink the many bottles of cheap wine (yes, including Ripple) that were in the bag. They invited me along with them, and there I was, in a whole new musical era. Somehow by traveling from Delaware to NYC, I had also traversed time from approximately 1972 to 1980.
Those were middle class college punks who thought punk was cool. But later I met real punks on the Lower East Side who were punks because they were poor, not because they thought it was stylish.
I saw a few shows at the old CBGBs before they shut down. I saw rap and hip-hop being born on the streets, and I told myself “This is something new, I really should be getting into it” but I never did.
But the WIOQ blues and folk shows had gotten me started on Delta blues, blues rock, folk, roots and Americana, which is still pretty much where I am today.
Years later with a wife and kids I do both the nostalgia, and the “tries to keep up.” Pathetically, I now learn of most new music from interview segments on NPR, or occasionally tuning to WXPN. I realize I am not getting quite the cutting edge there, but it is new to me. The NPR interviews are really good, bringing out hidden merit in artists I wouldn’t have listened to, like country or pop, for example.
For example, I was and still am seriously impressed by Ryan Adam’s albums “Gold” and “Heartbreaker” but not so much by his other work.
And nothing beats a well-crafted pop tune any day.
Shoulda mentioned that pre high school I listed to pop AM radio (WAMS) and had a small LP collection of top 40 stuff like Elton John, Steely Dan, Steve Miller, Aerosmith, etc. This was thanks to the Columbia Record Club which I signed up for, and which my mom had to contact personally to keep me out of juvy debtor prison. One of the LPs was a K-Tel collection of pop tunes. Check out the TV commercial.
I can still stay up for hours watching late-night infomercials for Time-Life music collections. Who knew there was video of all this stuff?
And Midnight Special was awesome, which I discovered right around the time SNL was invented and I started staying up late to watch it.
There’s Honey Voshell of Felton, DE, who had a one hit wonder in the 1960s, and still plays and gives lessons today.
http://www.youtube.com/user/SgtShamarThomasUSMC#p/a/f/0/WmEHcOc0Sys