I was just thinking about this the other day. I put on a funk compilation I made, and I remembered hearing a countdown of Detroit's greatest all time dance songs.

The top 3 were:

Prince- 1999
Gap Band- You Dropped a Bomb on Me
Stevie Wonder- My Eyes Don't Cry

All three of those songs rank as all-time favorites. I started to wonder if that was a product of my background/exposure to them or genuine interest? I'm leaning towards genuine interest and love, but I know that part of my interest stems from my roots. Those 3 songs really do represent my roots pretty well.

Much. You're not an alien, my friend. Neither with respect to this earth, where you grew up, nor with respect to your home town, where you grew up, nor with respect to your personal circumstance, where you you grew up.

If a tree grew up in zero gravity, would it not extend its leaves in all directions?

not much musically... i have always been isolated as a prince fan, and most of the people i like most notabley kevin gilbert and P-funk, were not brought on by anyone around me.

most of the people i grew up around were into pearl jam, metallica, 311, etc.

i like those groups, but not my style

Where we live isn't always a geographic thing.

teller said:

Certainly growing up in the US has given me great exposure to music. But it has also given me exposure to music I hate, that many of my friends and peers love. I'm just curious if in those "early days" I was convinced to like what I like or if I just had natural "funk."

teller said:

touche...

the one thing i can say is that when we were growing up, we were not allowed to listen to anything other than religious music and disney, thanks to my fathers very strict relgious beliefs (the man inked out all instances of the tile "lord" from my books because he felt the british were being sacreligious by calling someone lord boofoo. )... but his weakness was motown. he had motown records hidden away that i found, and loved, so i guess i could trace a lot of my musical tastes (prince, P-funk, stevie wonder, etc) to that...

Sure. Why not? I think your environment has a lot of influence on your musical choices. Also certain music is more popular in some areas than others. We relate to what is around, and what reminds us of those times.
Genuine interest of course, is a factor. I genuinely LOVE Freestyle! I also realize it's because it was being played a lot in the area I grew up in. But I think that goes with just about anything. We relate to what is familiar. And sometimes we don't. :GRIN:

Regardless, you cannot enjoy angry music if you're not an angry person. Substitute your favorite or least favorite emotion and the principle holds. Music resonantes with our "sense of life." Not just how we feel today, but with how we feel about life.

teller said:

This is definitely true, but how do you think location plays into it? There are certainly things that were big in Michigan that I DIDN'T like as well.

Moonbeam said:

Yeah...there was a lot of country music where I grew up, and I hated it. And yet--it resonates with my sense of life. I discovered it at the age of 30 and appreciate it now.

In other words...you are always you...

As far as my home town is concerned, Sheffield in the UK, I have a reason 2 be proud as far as the music scene is concerned. Sheffield is famous or infamous depending on Ur view 4 popular '80s bands-The Human League, ABC and Heaven 17 aswell as The Thompson Twins and rockers Def Leppard.More contemporary Sheffield can also boast as 2 producing Pulp, The Longpigs and Moloko. Yet lets also not 4get Joe 'Five Women' Cocker, Paul Carrack, and crooner Tony Christie. Dave Berry, famous 4 writing 'The Crying Game' lives in my village/town Dronfield. Gomez, another popular indie band (not so much now) went 2 Sheffield University.Speaking of Sheffield University, Eddie Izzard went there.
Other famous folk from Sheffield include of cause the actor Sean Bean (Lord of the Rings, Goldeneye, and TV's 'Sharp), Michael 'Monty Python' Palin and Diana Rigg who starred in the 60s series 'The Avengers'.
Oh and yes, Peter Stringfellow is from Sheffield.

I myself feel quite proud of Sheffield and its cultural heritage whether its good or bad. I feel it has in some ways influenced my interest in the arts greatly.

Cool thread. I missed this one. I'll get back to it, cuz I think there's a lot of truth to this idea.

Well, we have Rick Waller





thats it.

I'm from Essex and I love slutty teenage girls.

CAMILLE4U said:

those slutty girls with the real bad attitude problems?

Ardeo said:

Nothing a little white powder in their Bacardi Breezers won't solve.

CAMILLE4U said:

come on C, u know u can make them open up without that lil' white powder

Ardeo said:

I know, but it's so much easier.

NB: Just kidding. Druging girls 4 sex is not cool!

im sure i have a lot of KANSAS CITY in me...

i am all about the chiefs , i like BBQ ...love that KC jazz touch ...and i love me a cowboy ...so yeah...would i be this person if i wasnt here ?

This is a great thread. I think more than location absolutely dictating one's artistic likes and dislikes, it simply sets the paradigm. As we become exposed to more, our "universe" expands, and what we like and dislike of it is dependent upon personal sensibilities and circumstance...

My parents only listened to blues, country and gospel. I wasn't crazy about any of those genres early on, so I didn't even think I liked music -- aside from TV show themes -- until about age 5.


At school, my closest friends listened to r&b, then pop/rock, then hip hop. R&B was most accessible to me, because I was familiar with its rhythm and "soul" (or angst) from my parents' r&b and blues. When MTV came along, we were exposed to the pop/rock aesthetic, but I could get into it a lot moreso because I had grown up familiar with "white" country music. When hip hop surfaced, it was an amazing marriage of genres -- it was heir to the funk, soul and political voice of "black" blues and r&b, yet it sampled freely from "white" pop/rock instrumentation! I was like a kid in a candy store.

I got a job in a really Bohemian wrecka-sto at age 17. I knew blues, gospel, country, r&b, pop/rock and hip hop, and I thought I was da man! But the wierdos I worked with were into all kinds of "far-out" genres and sub-genres -- industrial, trance, punk, drone, rag, ska, reggae, meringue, salsa, jazz, bee-bop, classical, baroque, chants, ragas, liturgical, ancient cantatas, etc. It was heaven!

Now, years later, my tastes are definitely personal -- all my friends think I have the weirdest, most undefinable musical sensibilities in the world. But I credit a background that enabled me to look for certain dynamics in music my friends from the same neighborhood might miss.

Moonbeam said:

I remember playing this one night in Santa Cruz, and same with the Gap Band... good times, Ian!


[This message was edited Sat Oct 25 12:34:40 PDT 2003 by Natsume]

Moonbeam said:

i think its all a genuine interest ian or else you'd be distancing yourself from all that...



btw ian...Gap Band- You Dropped a Bomb on Me i seen that video recently... just thought you'd like to know that bad boy has a video

Christopher said:

I know at least part of it is genuine interest. I was exposed to country too and hated it. But when I hear those songs, I think of home and I feel at home. I wonder if that is why I love them so much instead of just enjoying them for what they are.

I've never seen the video!

I think it is more of what we like and what others around us like...cause all ya hear in good ol Indiana is that there music they call country. Thank god I do not have to hear that shit on every radio station anymore. Unless you are my parents, then they raise you on the good shit, such as the following.


-My mom

The Jackson 5
The Doors
Pink Floyd
Jimi Hendryx
Janis Joplin
The temptations
Rod Stewart there is a story behing this one
BeeGee's
CREED-hehe we rock out to this together

-My Dad
Blondie
Abba
Tina Turner
Bob Segar
The Jackson 5

NotoriousJ said:

Really? I LOVE Blondie. Do you own anything of theirs?

Moonbeam said:

I yanked my dad's cd of their greatest hits...but I think he yanked it back I would have to look in my cd case to find out for sure. Tina and Debbie are two of my daddy's favorite women.

NotoriousJ said:

I need to send you some stuff. I've got all of their albums and lots of remixes, singles, etc.

Blondie stuff I own:

CDs:

Blondie Blondie 1976
Blondie Blondie 1976 Remastered
Blondie Plastic Letters 1977
Blondie Plastic Letters 1977 Remastered
Blondie Parallel Lines 1978
Blondie Parallel Lines 1978 Remastered
Blondie Eat to the Beat 1979
Blondie Eat to the Beat 1979 Remastered
Blondie Autoamerican 1980
Blondie Autoamerican 1980 Remastered
Blondie The Hunter 1982
Blondie The Hunter 1982 Remastered
Blondie The Platinum Collection 1994
Blondie The Platinum Collection 1994
Blondie Remixed, Remade, Remodeled 1995
Blondie Atomic* 1995
Blondie Picture This Live 1997
Blondie Atomix 1998
Blondie No Exit 1999 3 bonus live tracks
Blondie No Exit 1999 Autographed
Blondie Nothing Is Real But the Girl^ 1999 Germany
Blondie Live 1999
Blondie Greatest Hits 2002
Debbie Harry Koo Koo 1981
Debbie Harry Once More Into the Bleach 1988
Debbie Harry Deaf, Dumb, and Blonde 1989
Debbie Harry Debravation 1993

Tapes:

Blondie Plastic Letters 1977
Blondie Parallel Lines 1978
Blondie Eat to the Beat 1979
Blondie Autoamerican 1980
Blondie The Best of Blondie 1981
Blondie Remixed, Remade, Remodeled 1995
Debbie Harry Koo Koo 1981

Records:

Blondie Blondie 1976
Blondie Plastic Letters 1977
Blondie Parallel Lines 1978
Blondie Heart of Glass* 1978
Blondie Eat to the Beat 1979
Blondie Atomic* 1980
Blondie Atomic^ 1980
Blondie Call Me^ 1980
Blondie Autoamerican 1980
Blondie The Tide Is High^ 1980
Blondie Rapture^ 1981
Blondie The Hunter 1982
Blondie Island of Lost Souls^ 1982
Blondie War Child* 1982
Blondie Rapture* 1994 Promo
Blondie Rapture* 1994 Promo
Debbie Harry Koo Koo 1981
Debbie Harry Backfired^ 1981
Debbie Harry The Jam Was Moving^ 1981