Today, I came across Leslie’s Where Bloggers Live. This month’s theme is favorite music.
I am a kid of the 1990s, so, though my parents had a record player, I mostly grew up with cassette tapes and CDs. I remember my father (who was a stay-at-home Dad until I was thirteen) would also often have the radio on in our living room. He generally listened to public radio stations, which didn’t play the latest music and generally were more talk-focused anyway.
As a child and preteen, I was clueless about pop music. I remember the odd ’80s or early ’90s Dutch song, but I had no idea what was “hot”. My parents, aside from public talk radio, listened to 1970s protest songs.
When I was eleven in 1997, my mother encouraged me to develop an interest in music in order to “fit in”. For this reason, I pretended to be into the Backstreet Boys, even though I’d never consciously listened to any of their songs. In reality, I continued to listen to children’s songs for years. In fact, when I went to summer camp in Russia with a group of other teens at age fourteen, I was made acutely aware that listening to children’s songs was definitely not appropriate for someone my age.
I got a stereo player for my twelfth birthday in 1998 and I did buy the odd CD to play on it. I was mostly into ABBA or its upbeat cover band the A-Teens (which I spelled “eighteens” for years). Once I got into mainstream high school in 1999, I occasionally bought CDs recommended by other students in the school newspaper. I still to this day love The Corrs.
I eventually started listening to commercial radio stations at around age fifteen, but I never quite developed a truly defined taste in music. I still like to listen to all kinds of music. Some days, I’m into Dutch songs, usually dialect rock (such as Normaal or Mooi Wark) or truck driving songs. Other times, I’m into Celtic folk, country (usually 1970s songs such as by Bobby Bare or Buck Owens) or southern rock. Still other times, I’m into contemporary Christian music. Sometimes, quite the opposite. I even have a “Punk etc.” playlist on Spotify with songs from the likes of Cock Sparrer. I don’t really listen to that anymore though. Occasionally, I’ll revisit an old favorite genre of mine: world music.
When my now husband and I first met, he asked me what kinds of music I liked. I replied that I liked world music. Once, several years later, I played a favorite CD of mine with Latin music on it, which I’d had in mind at the time. He was glad he hadn’t known back then that this was what I’d meant or he might not have decided to meet me again. He, by the way, was the one who introduced me to most of my current favorite genres and artists.
A Multitude of Musings 
I grew up in the 50s and 60s so I have a really long and diverse playlist!
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Oh, that’s great! I love some songs from back then too.
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I grew up the same time as you (80s baby here 🙋♀️) and I wasn’t as into music as my classmates but I did like Take That, Spice Girls, A1, Steps and 5ive.
I also like ABBA, Queen and some Rod Stewart.
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Thanks for sharing. I honestly hadn’t heard of some of those bands you were into growing up. Maybe they weren’t as popular here.
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I was a teenager in the 90’s and The Backstreet Boys were a group I never got into. I like a bit of everything depending on what mood I am in. I’ve just been in the kitchen listening to rock music and now I am back in the living room I have Christmas music on the TV. lol x
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Oh, another one for listening to Christmas music as early as mid-October, that’s so cool! I occasionally try to find Christmas songs on Spotify in the middle of summer, LOL. Thank you for sharing your taste in music.
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I love music and I loved reading this! Growing up, I got into 60’s music (I was born in 1976, so this was a very ‘retro’ choice 🙂 ). At first it was all kinds of 60’s music, much of it American. I also liked some contemporary Swedish music (I grew up in Sweden), such as Roxette, who you might have heard of. I also liked a Dutch-born troubadour (is that how you spell it?) called Cornelis Wreswijk, who my parents listened to a lot. Then when I was 12 I fell in love with The Beatles, and became quite obsessed with John Lennon in particular, for a few years. In my early teens, my Beatles/Lennon obsession was joined by a love for The Cure. That love is still strong today (actually I didn’t listen to them very much for about 20 years, then fell properly in love with them again in 2019). I’ve also listened to quite a bit of punk since a young age, as my older brother was into that, and I love some punk inspired rock bands, such as Nirvana and Hole, for example.
As you can see, this is a subject I’m passionate about, so I could go on… lol! 🙂
Got to mention Bowie as well, before I stop myself now. Oh and Bach. There’s always Bach x #MMBC
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Wow, you truly have a varied taste in music. I know about Kornelis Vreeswijk from a fellow blogger, but don’t know Roxette I think. Thank you for sharing about your passion!
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Thank you Astrid, I enjoy talking about music 😊x
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I love The Corrs too! As a teenager I used to tape the Top 40 every Sunday so I could listen to all the current hits during the week. Then I would tape over them the next Sunday! Lots of my friends bought CDs and tapes with their pocket money but I never did.
#MMBC
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That’s so interesting that you never bought CDs with your pocket money. Then again, your approach is a much more efficient way of listening to the latest hits.
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I had never really heard of the concept of world music – I love so many different types of music.
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Oh, that’s interesting. I’m not sure my idea of world music is correct, but it seems to be anything non-western, such as Latin American, African, eastern European, etc., particularly traditional. The “world music” I listened to were just Latin American (or Spanish, not even sure) pop songs though. That is, I did listen to more traditional music, but this particular CD was more mainstream.
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You have quite the varied taste in music. I like southern rock and Celtic music, too. Oh, and songs from many older Broadway musicals. I lived in Panama for 6 years and developed a familiarity with their music although much of what was popular in Panama came from South America or Mexico. Thank you for sharing and thank you for the mention!!
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Thanks for commenting. Oh, that’s so interesting that you lived in Panama and got a taste of what was popular there, even though most of it didn’t come from that country itself. I used to be into Mexican music for a bit too.
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