Once upon a high school; I had discovered the “mix tape”, many hours spent in front of my cassette player and every time I heard a song that I liked on the radio I would run like a bat out of hell & press record. It was the early-nineties and Grunge was the music of choice and I collected as much as I could. The thing is I wasn’t a rock chick who only liked this genre; I also had the ever so happy Ace of Base & 2Unlimited to keep me company. I also spent my Sundays listening to Solid Gold Sunday on 702 and became a fan of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Elvis and Diana Ross. It was hard to put me in a box and I didn’t know what I liked more of each genre of music but all I did know was that each genre brought a different feeling.
I had a group of friends that had a specific love of rock and grunge music and they introduced me to bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Guns ‘n Roses, Metallica, R.E.M., The Prodigy, Bon Jovi and my greatest love in life… U2. In the meantime Sheryl Crow, The Cranberries, Lenny Kravitz & Alanis Morrisette had come into my life all on my own. Smash Hits Magazine was my reference guide and I read it from cover to cover. I had hours of music all recorded onto precious cassette tapes that stretched and snapped from way too much over listening. It was a very “hard done by” situation.
Then it happened, my very over CD player from my mother for my 15th birthday! Out went my trusty cassette AM/FM player and in with this fabulous invention. I collected CD’s furiously, my first CD being R.E.M.’s “Automatic for The People” and the 2nd being Oasis “What’s The Story Morning Glory”. Wonderwall was the first song I had ever heard that firstly made me cry and secondly made me want to go to a concert. I had to see Oasis live and in fact it was my only obsession. Unfortunately South Africa
I thought I knew everything about music but unfortunately I did fit in a box, I didn’t know that there are millions of other songs and bands out there that I had never heard of, so onto the next step, but what was the unknowing step?
This step was TV series; I know that is strange place to start but it all started in 1997 when Buffy the Vampire Slayer started its run on South African TV. It brought something new to the world of television. This was a “band a week” format to advertise new artists to the world. I would listen very carefully to the songs being played and would often hear something that I liked. Back in those dark days of dial up internet I had no idea that you could use a search engine and the World Wide Web was hard to come by. I had no way of finding the music that I liked on this TV series. Yet another “hard done by” situation! Ever so slowly and with new job in hand, I figured out that if you typed the lyrics into YAHOO they would tell you what song it was. Still to this day do I use TV Series to find new music, it is a wonderful source and mixed with the wonders of Google I can find anything. Some of my greatest finds have been on shows such as One Tree Hill, The OC, Greys Anatomy, So You Think You Can Dance & Smallville. These amazing finds include:
Imogen Heap
Switchfoot
Ryan Adams
Wakey!Wakey!
Jeff Buckley
Lykke Li
Mirah
Eliza
The Subways
+ many many more
When I left high school in 1996, I needed a job and my mother saw an advert in a local news paper said that a record company was looking for a receptionist. This was the perfect job to me. I started there in September 1997 and my eyes were finally opened. It was an independent label that specialized in local Jazz and was just starting a dance music division. I didn’t like either genre but I was not being fair to them, I had never even heard any of this music. I quickly adapted my ears to dance music and soon grew a liking for it. Jazz was a little harder to adapt to. Although I grew out of dance music, I still to this day thank this genre for some of my best friends. I met almost every single one of my friends through the clubbing scene and every time I hear a dance song on my iPod, I remember where and when I met my best friends.
My job at the record label also introduced me to some fantastic international artists that I had never heard of namely Sarah McLachlan, Heather Nova, Buena Vista Social Club & Cesaria Evora. I also finally got South African music and met some fantastic people along the way.
I moved there in 2004. I left my job, friends, TV & radio behind and found something better to satisfy my addiction. It was unbelievable; I fell in love with HMV, BBC’s Radio 1, Q Magazine, variety of music on the radio & most of all the prices of their music. I couldn’t believe it? It felt like I had blinkers on my whole life and now they had been ripped off. I can’t even begin to describe the amount of music I now could get my hands on. I was introduced to new bands & artists every day and if I wanted that Special Edition U2 CD + DVD I didn’t have to pay an arm and a leg and I didn’t have to wait 6 weeks for delivery.
When I came home in 2006, I finally knew what I liked and what to look for. This being said, I still have a very diverse music collection, but I know what sounds I like. To be specific, I like lyrics and if I like the lyrics I like the rhythm of the song. Lyrics are key to my obsession. Concerts & festivals are also a way for me to fall in love all over again. I adore every aspect of it from the finding of the right walking shoes to the checking what the bands current set-list is (I told you I'm a tad obsessed)
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Coldplay at FNB Stadium, Johannesburg, South Africa |
I am currently working for a record company again after many years of looking for a job that can crave my creative needs and use my logical brain. I must admit that I have found that but still can't get enough of music in general.
I have patrolled the net and download music charts on a weekly basis and my personal favourite is Wikipedia to see what new music releases there are for the month all over the world. I use last.fm to check what artists sound like The Black Keys for instance.
As you can see my obsession is a problem but it’s a problem I don’t mind having. It’s an ongoing problem and it can frustrate me sometimes so the next logical step was writing everything down. Things get jumbled in my head so having a music diary seemed like a good thing to do.
So read away & please comment and give your opinion. As I said in my first post, I need the education as well and welcome any thoughts and suggestions.
I haven’t quite decided how to post and what to post but I do want to start with the 30 Day Song Challenge, which I am going to continue I swear. I am very inspired by Zane Lowe’s “Masterpieces” that he does once a year on Radio 1 and would like to do something like that. But let me know what you think as well…
Thank you for reading this long “MUSIC” biog!
Oh and thank you for listening
XOXO
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