Skip to main content

Has your taste in music changed over time?


When the phone rang in the living room, early in the evening, its sound was nearly overlooked in the clash of loud music. My younger brother had just discovered System of a Down, and with the help of his small CD player he took it with him wherever he went, except to violin practice; like the Pied Piper of Hamelin you could always hear him coming.

   This was in 2001. Randy was sixteen years old and while he wasn't really into rock music, he would always play the System CD on just to remind us that he had a different taste in music. The band's latest album includes a song called Chop Suey! and, while I was on the phone, the CD player was blaring loud metal riffs and rapid-fire percussion with angst-ridden vocals. The music I can usually live with. It's the lyrics I find annoying.

   If you're a rebellious teenager who likes to smoke crack and jack off to amateur porn, you could reasonably mistake SOAD's lyrics for deep. But once you turn 20 and start looking for a real job, of course, you'll go "what the hell have I been listening to?"

   The music from "when we were young" often has great significance to us, but our tastes in music change as we get older (and wiser) to match the changing social and psychological circumstances of our lives. When I was younger I also liked loud music – Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kula Shaker, and The Black Crowes were all part of my teenage years. Jazz became increasingly important to me in my late twenties – particularly Miles Davis. Now, thirty-five, I've spent the last couple of days listening to Passion Pit, Yann Tiersen, Vance Joy, MisterWives, Hiromi Uehara, Portugal. The Man, BOY, and Rudimental.

   Unfortunately, my favorite bands from my youth, the bands that got me through heartaches, anger, and confusion, do not stimulate my senses anymore.

   How has your taste in music changed over the years? Have you found yourself listening to tracks you never thought you would have listened to when you were younger? Here's a list of ten absolutely terrible tunes I used to listen to, and, at the time, really enjoyed doing so. 
  1. Metallica, Enter Sandman 
  2. Deep Blue Something, Breakfast At Tiffany's
  3. Limp Bizkit, Nookie
  4. Creed, With Arms Wide Open
  5. Eraserheads, Toyang
  6. Spin Doctors, Two Princes
  7. Nickelback, How You Remind Me
  8. 4 Non Blondes, What's Up?
  9. Crash Test Dummies, Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
  10. Rivermaya, 214

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Weirdly Charming

If you’re a fan of art that makes you do a double-take, you need to check out  Richard Brener . Based in the UK, Richard is an internationally collected artist who works primarily with ink, fineliners, and gouache. When you first see his pieces, they actually look pretty playful. Then you realize the entire canvas is packed with thousands of tiny, ghost-like shapes he calls "champs." They’re all squeezed together like commuters on a rush-hour train, and the level of detail is honestly mind-blowing. Richard spends hundreds of hours drawing these little guys over and over. It’s obsessive, very intentional, and a little bit wild. The cool part is that the longer you stare, the more the vibe shifts. Check out more photos below:

Want to repel mosquitoes? Use graphene-lined clothes

Health officials in the Philippines continue to seek better weapons against dengue fever as death toll from the mosquito-borne disease continues to rise in several regions in the country. Some people use insect repellents, while others use biological alternatives to kill the thirsty little bloodsuckers. Graphene also prevents mosquito bites. A team of researchers at Brown University discovered that graphene-lined clothing not only is an effective physical barrier to those pesky insects, it also blocks chemical signals in sweat that encourage them to bite. "With the graphene, the mosquitoes weren't even landing on the skin patch—they just didn't seem to care," according to Cintia Castillho, a PhD student at Brown and the study's lead author. Since its discovery in 2004, graphene has been dubbed as a wonder material. It is stronger than steel, lighter than paper, conducts heat and electricity, and highly flexible.

Julia Lohmann's Highly Imaginative Approach to Product Design

Chess pieces made from animal bones, cowhides reconstructed into benches, lamps created from preserved sheep stomachs, large-scale installations made of edible seaweed: the work of Julia Lohmann is truly unconventional. Born in Germany, Julia uses her materials in a way that transcends their original purpose, creating true art. I made a list of furniture I would buy if I had an unlimited budget, and the Cow Bench is one of them. People say these headless bovine seats look really nice, but wait until they find out they're draped in rawhide. Sitting on one, you feel artificial ribs. Julia studied graphic design at the Surrey Institute and then design products at the Royal College of Art in London. Her work is part of major public and private collections worldwide and has received awards, bursaries and support from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the British Council, Jerwood Contemporary Makers, D&AD, Stanley Picker Gallery, the Arts Foundation and the Wellcome Trust. ...