[Edil]

I remember growing up in an environment with counted economical resources. Not that we were poor, we live in a small but decent house, always has plenty of food on the table, and my sister and I receive good education. We were the typical low-middle class Puerto Rican family.

During my childhood my mother likes to listen to “música popular”, as it is called in spanish. Singers like Danny Rivera, Chucho Avellanet, Lucecita Benitez and Sandro were very famous locally. She also loves the songs from Sylvia Rexach. My father in the other hand love his “música de trio” and “boleros” mostly compose by Pedro Flores, Rafael Hernandez and interpreted by Los Panchos and Los Andinos among others. From other members of my family (mostly uncles and aunts younger than my parents) I learn to appreciate what is now called “Salsa Gruesa” (simply known as “Salsa” at that time) and Disco music, few of them listen to rock. Rock came much later trough friends at school. Thing is that I grew up in an environment completely absent or devoided of classical music. Not only it wasn’t present at my home, but also with the rest of my family and circle of friends as I described, not even at school. Classical music was completely unknown to me.

One day we went to the supermarket, I think I was 9 or 10 years old. My parents let me go to the magazine booths as usual, but this time something got my attention. In my way to the magazine racks, I heard music. I look up to the direction of the sound and there were a bunch of LP covers hanging from the ceiling with weird names. Then all my senses were directed to a small stereo with an integrated turntable. The most beautiful music that I ever heard was coming out from the speakers. I stayed there almost hypnotize to the music.

My father starts looking for me. I was supposed to be at the magazine booths and to stay there. Usually breaking a rule means getting a “cocotazo” but this time he saw me so absorb to that stereo that he told me “Hey you really like that music ah?” answering with my head with a yes he said “ok lets buy one then”. I remember feeling so happy. That day we came back to home with a LP that reads:

Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony No.6, Op.68 "Pastoral"

I heard it over and over again, sadly, I lost it. I had and have many others, LPs and CDs with that particular symphony, but not a single one of then will ever give me the same sensation that I felt when I hear it for the first time and from that particular disc. Later on, for some reason, I start "binding" it to emotions, things or events that happened in my life.

Ok to end up that narrative that didn’t go so well after all… the rest of the history is boring anyways.

My passion for classical music keeps growing and now I have a descent collection that covers almost all genres of classical music, from medieval to neo-classical.

Question is, (and apply it to any kind of music), Why we like music that we like? It has not happened to you that you are in your car and suddenly you hear music that gets your attention and even stops you from whatever you are doing?, even if you are talking to somebody. Look at my case, nobody tell me about or introduce me to classical music. I didn’t have a role model to follow. I could not relate that music to past experiences or strong emotions, I was just a kid! Something instinctive drove me to that music.

With time you can take lessons or classes that teach or train you to appreciate some kind of music, to analyze and understand it. Same thing goes when you start to listen to a particular genre because it is IN or your groups of friends are into it and over time you get accustom to it. I don’t know if it is only me but I can still differentiate between music that I “learn” to appreciate and music that get my attention in a primitive way. Not because I want to remember past events with emotions that gets between me and the music. Just because the joy of listening to its sounds, rhythms, harmonies or melodies. What you think?

 

[Edil]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edil Just because the joy of listening to its sounds, rhythms, harmonies or melodies. What you think?

“Joy” can sound contradictory (blame my english), lets change it for the "pleasure"

 

[catachresis]

I enjoyed your anecdote, Edil.

I grew up in an upper-middle-class home in Alabama. My Dad's a civil rights lawyer, and we're Catholic, but his father (who died before I was born) was a straight-on Alabama Baptist redneck racist feller who drank too much and whupped-up on his family when he'd had too many. My dad grew up angry and ashamed of his Southern heritage. He listened to Tony Bennet and Barbara Streisand when I was small and got interested in opera when I became a teenager. We didn't listen to country music.

I went to college in Montreal, and I started getting homesick. I believe there were the beginnings of a traditional country music resurgence in the mid-80s: people had gotten tired of Gram Parsons / Willy Nelson / Glen Campbell 'lounge country' and country rock and were getting even more nauseated by pop country of the Dolly Parton stripe. On the other hand, alternative types were experimenting with country forms the way British and American rockers did in the late 60s and early 70s. In 1986, I thought KD Lang was cool, and X and the Blasters were cool. I thought early REM was massively cool.

But I went to the record store in Halifax once and the guy said, "Oh, you want to try something that's country but new and cool -- well try this!" and he sold me Dwight Yoakum's first album and a Steve Earle album. That was my first willing taste of real country. Since then, I've gotten interested in stuff from the 30s Carter family and contemporaneous crazy archival stuff to the Madox Brothers and Rose and the Louvin Brothers on to all the Gram Parsons corpus and Townes Van Zandt and etc.

But I'll never forget that peculiar pleasure and recognition I felt the first time I heard Dwight Yoakum sing "Guitars, cadillacs and hillbilly music. . . " I guess part of the thrill was I played it for my dad, and he smiled and said, "Yeah, that's that Buck Owens sound." I'd never heard of Buck Owens before.

 

[mbhaub]

I've pondered this for years: why do I like symphonic music, especially that written from 1850 -1950, when no one else in my family does? I think it's because of the old Universal B/W monster movies. I loved watching Frankenstein, Mummy, Wolfman, Dracula all lumber across the screen to the sounds of a full orchestra playing "scary" music. So by an early age that sound was imprinted. Of course, I also like watching Errol Flynn play Robin Hood and Captain Blood, and that huge Korngold sound helped. So I credit the movies with teaching me the classics. Bugs Bunny, too.

 

[s m @]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edil “Joy” can sound contradictory (blame my english), lets change it for the "pleasure"

No, it doesn't. That was a fantastic story.

I can't really say anything about why I like what I do. I can tell you what I like about it relative to other types, but that's it.

 

[micaela]

I loved your story!! And its an interesting subject to wonder about. I grew up in a house full of music. Every member of my family was a musician except for my mother. But I am the only one who listens to a wide range of music. The rest are all stuck in their particular genres & won't budge to consider something new. I don't know why......but I'm glad I have the "joy" of discovering many different styles & artists.

 

[fante7]

Great story.

When I was really little, maybe 4-6, I listened to The Beatles a lot. Other music my parents exposed me to was some current pop like REM and U2 and The Cars, some Frank Zappa, and lots of other 60s-70s artists. Then my dad got me into the 70s progressive rock scene, especially ELP and Yes. We used to listen to our ELP vinyl over and over and do nothing but listen to the music. My dad would play various air instruments to it.. he's a drummer though. Eventually my mom got tired of the loud ELP being blasted all the time so I started listening to ELP CDs through a boom box and some random headphones. I would listen for hours. This was probably around the age of 8-12 or so. In 1995, I was probably the biggest 10 year old ELP fan around.

I still have the ELP tour shirt from when I saw them in 1996 and I still wear it (my dad convinced me to buy it really large then... great decision).

Also, when I was 3 years old, my grandpa started teaching me how to play the piano. I loved it, and I ended up taking lessons from the age of 5-16. I was really inspired by Keith Emerson's keyboard playing since I could identify with it. I think what instruments you play is a major part of why you would like certain types of music.

 

[Potatoe1313]

Until about 6 years ago, I was into heavy metal and rock (mainly because that's what all my freinds listened to, so that made it easy to find music). One fateful day, the crossover happened. I was at a Rammstein concert, and I couldn't keep my mind off of the guy standing at the funny-looking keyboard making all of the amazing electronic bleeps and bloops. This ignited a passion burried deep within me that caused me to walk into Borders and start sampling all of their music with headphones hooked up, which is where I found my one true love, Dieselboy. From that spawned years of sampling different electronica styles, until I came right back to Dieselboy and his lovely ability to handle darkstep.

To this day I have to be careful while listeneng to Dieselboy's "The 6ixth Session" since the rest of the world seems to just disappear.