I first started listening to music during the disco era of the mid to late 1970s. I was in love with the whole "party" atmosphere of the whole era. The music was uptempo, fun, and for the dance floor. I remember reading about the whole "lifestyle" of the era such as blacks, whites, gays, hispanics, and every "freak" of society dancing along side of celebrities in Studio 54. Partying all night and permiscuous sex. I would have loved to have been older during this time so I could have fully enjoyed it.

As the disco era ended, I turned to the next best thing, the funk of the early 1980s. During the disco era, funk groups were also a big part of it so after the era died, the funk groups were still around and the music still had that tempo and "party" feel of the disco era. I totally converted to a "funkateer" and totally neglected the "pop" scene during these years.

As Prince once said "life is just a party and parties weren't meant to last", that is so true. In 1985, the party started to become much slower with R&B "adult contemporary" acts taking over the airwaves and funk acts dying out. During this time, I discovered house music, which was underground at the time. It had that same uptempo "party" feel as disco had earlier. When it came above ground for a little while in the early 1990s, it was almost like the disco reincarnated.

During the early 1990s, I listened mainly to house music and uptempo "Miami bass" type rap. Those were the only two forms of music that had that "party" feel that I had always been into since day one. I finally got tired of the uptempo "Miami bass" type rap because it finally gets boring once you hear songs like "Planet Rock", "Egypt, Egypt", and "Electric Kingdom" sampled in every way, shape, and form imaginable. The house music went back underground and became less funky, most of the vocals were stripped off, and most of it became actually "too fast to dance to". It turned into techno, acid, or whatever the hell they are calling it now. By that time, I knew I had better just pull my old music out and play it until something better comes along.

So actually, I got into music with disco and never really left it. I just followed the trends that it evolved into.

There is a slow side to me though. The slow jams I like are the sensual, late night type jams by groups like The Stylistics, Heatwave, Switch, Blue Magic, The Delfonics, etc. In other words, the type of slow jams that you play at three or four in the morning when you leave the club, bring someone home, and get lucky. Never the type that you just sit around and say "Oh what a beautiful song". I'm all about a party in every aspect.

Anyway, that's my story. What's yours?
.
.
[Edited 3/15/06 1:19am]

Evolution separates the ape from the man with the intro of an erect spine.

I first started listening to music during the disco era of the mid to late 1970s. I was in love with the whole "party" atmosphere of the whole era. The music was uptempo, fun, and for the dance floor. I remember reading about the whole "lifestyle" of the era such as blacks, whites, gays, hispanics, and every "freak" of society dancing along side of celebrities in Studio 54. Partying all night and permiscuous sex. I would have loved to have been older during this time so I could have fully enjoyed it.

As the disco era ended, I turned to the next best thing, the funk of the early 1980s. During the disco era, funk groups were also a big part of it so after the era died, the funk groups were still around and the music still had that tempo and "party" feel of the disco era. I totally converted to a "funkateer" and totally neglected the "pop" scene during these years.

As Prince once said "life is just a party and parties weren't meant to last", that is so true. In 1985, the party started to become much slower with R&B "adult contemporary" acts taking over the airwaves and funk acts dying out. During this time, I discovered house music, which was underground at the time. It had that same uptempo "party" feel as disco had earlier. When it came above ground for a little while in the early 1990s, it was almost like the disco reincarnated.

During the early 1990s, I listened mainly to house music and uptempo "Miami bass" type rap. Those were the only two forms of music that had that "party" feel that I had always been into since day one. I finally got tired of the uptempo "Miami bass" type rap because it finally gets boring once you hear songs like "Planet Rock", "Egypt, Egypt", and "Electric Kingdom" sampled in every way, shape, and form imaginable. The house music went back underground and became less funky, most of the vocals were stripped off, and most of it became actually "too fast to dance to". It turned into techno, acid, or whatever the hell they are calling it now. By that time, I knew I had better just pull my old music out and play it until something better comes along.

So actually, I got into music with disco and never really left it. I just followed the trends that it evolved into.

There is a slow side to me though. The slow jams I like are the sensual, late night type jams by groups like The Stylistics, Heatwave, Switch, Blue Magic, The Delfonics, etc. In other words, the type of slow jams that you play at three or four in the morning when you leave the club, bring someone home, and get lucky. Never the type that you just sit around and say "Oh what a beautiful song". I'm all about a party in every aspect.

Anyway, that's my story. What's yours?
.
.
[Edited 3/15/06 1:19am]

Now if any of you actually take the time to read my boring essay, I'll be quite impressed. Here goes:

I'm basically all over the place. I first listened to top 40 in the 70's, disco and such. Then evolved to a metalhead, and was heavily into MTV in the early 80s lapping up the new wave bands. Got really into college rock like Smiths, REM, the Cure... Walked away from music for a very long time, during which time I rediscovered Prince and listened to no one else (this lasted during the decade of the 90's), though I was taking a lot of dance classes where I danced to hip hop, Janet, MJ, and Salt 'n Pepa. Joined a punk band a couple of years ago and got into punk. Now I'm indulging in pop, dance and disco .

And I have played and studied classical music since I was 10 years old and have a healthy appreciate for avante-garde, dissonant, contemporary classical. Then again, my dad played in a country western band so I grew up hearing that. Man, I'm pretty schizophrenic...


But to speak about EVOLUTION, I would say when I was younger, image and sex appeal played a much higher role than it does now.

The alternative college rock I listened to is closest to my heart, I'd say, for nostalgic reasons and because it was the time when I shared my musical tastes with so many more people. It was a scene and I have fond memories of my friends and the songs bring me back to that period of my life.

Now, I practice listening much more carefully and thinking about song structure like a songwriter would, where as before I would just take it in and not think so much.

I would like to understand classical music more, however, and wish I had a better understanding of music theory, chords, keys, etc.

heartbeatocean said:

That wasn't boring at all! Interesting that you were around for the punk explosion in the 70s, but didn't get into punk rock until recently.