My Journey Into Music

It may seem surprising, but I only got into pop music just over four years ago. (I'm 27) Before then I just listened to classical music that I got as gifts and soundtracks from movies I went to, most Disney.

It was Christmas 2004 and I was staying at my parents place. At the time I was living across the harbour from them, while I was doing my Masters'. One advantage of being at their place is that they get full analog cable (plus some digital stuff), while at the time I only got basic cable. This meant that I could watch music channels I normally didn't get, namely MuchMusic and MuchMoreMusic. My Dad also has a tendency to have MuchMusic on.

So I did a bunch of watching MuchMusic over the holidays and even saw their "Fromage" special celebrating the cheesiest music videos of the year. I saw some artists I seemed to like and decided to use some money I got from Christmas to buys a few albums.

I ended up buying five albums by five seperate artists: "Encore" by Eminem, "Chuck" by Sum 41, "Every Page You Turn" by Boy, "Still Not Getting Any..." by Simple Plan, and "The Chronicles of Life and Death" by Good Charlotte. I'm really into any of these groups at the moment, although Eminem's "Just Lose It" came up on iTunes's shuffle as I was writing this.

I found the website allmusic.com and used it to research music similar to those that I seemed to like. I also took suggestions from friends as they seemed happy to help me get into pop music. In this manner I sought out music by artists and groups such as Green Day, Billy Talent, Fall Out Boy, Gwen Stefani, Hot Hot Heat, Spoon, Maximo Park, The Hives, Franz Ferdinand, Bright Eyes, and many others. At this point I mainly stuck to Punk Pop and Indie Rock types of music, but also got more mainstream stuff like Josh Groban and Michael Buble.

After moving to Montreal (Fall 2005), I finally had the chance to see many of these acts live, and I did so (going to most concerts on my own, as most of my music tastes were not shared by my friends).

Since I found out about many bands through allmusic and other resources I didn't know what was super-popular and with whom. It was interesting to see that Fall-Out Boy, who had a stupid name and whose album I bought on a whim, had become quite popular. One of the first shows I went to was the All-American Rejects. I was quite surprised to find out that much of their fan base was rowdy teenage girls - I only found this upon going to their concert.

I found out about many cool artists from going to shows featuring other artists I liked. These included Ben Lee (who is awesome), Angelique Kidjo (who is also awesome), Anti-Flag, The (International) Noise Conspiracy, and Tokyo Police Club. When I first saw TPC they were the first of four bands, only had a 15 minute set, and seemed really unprofessional. Still, they were good, and I've seen them twice since and I love them.

My favourite live band is definitely Of Montreal, though they are closely followed by Scissors Sisters. The (International) Noise Conspiracy is also great live. Imogen Heap is a lovely person and has awesome shows - she chooses the best opening acts to tour with her.

Some bands aren't great live, such as The Bravery (the first band I saw live in fact). I also found out that in person the Kaiser Chiefs are a bunch of douche-bags.

In Montreal, I've also been able to go to see the Symphony (and other orchestras) frequently, and now appreciate classical music (including opera) more than ever.

While I focussed on pop music my first two years in Montreal, I spent my next year mainly enjoying live classical music. I'm taking a break from live shows this year for the most part, going only to the opera. Also, while I've collected a large CD collection, I'm now just enjoying what I have and getting only a few new works.

I no longer actively seek new music to listen to, but I can enjoy almost anything. Though recent pop music doesn't seem to appeal to me much.

See you later!