Musical Taste

This is today’s prompt on Jetpack and I thought that it was time I answered one of these!

One of the things I have always done is ignored genres in favour of music I like, but I have found a number of common threads in my music.

My formative years

I look at my musical heartland as the 10 years from 1975 to 1984 the ages of 9 to 19. Favourite acts ranged from ABBA to The Wombles, via The Carpenters, Queen and Helen Reddy! The interesting thing was that those groups never really stuck to one genre, so perhaps that’s the reason why I didn’t. In that time Glam was on its way out, although Slade and Mud still had the odd hit, rock n roll revival courtesy of first Showaddywaddy and then Shakin Stevens brought the 50s back to the upper reaches of the charts. Punk was too early for me in 1977 (although I was a big fan of The Undertones) but I enjoy it now.

However, New Wave came in when I was 14 and hit the sweet spot. The Police were my favourite group of the early 80s and the interplay between the three members on guitar, drums and bass was astounding at least for the first three albums. Other groups in a similar genre I enjoyed were The Jam and The Boomtown Rats

The next big movement was Synth Pop. Now if I have a musical style that appeals above all else, it’s that. OMD, Depeche Mode, The Eurythmics, Heaven 17, Ultravox, Bronski Beat, the list goes on and on! Even now, there are some newer synth artists that I really enjoy like Paul K and Lines of Flight who are able to give me that same sense of enjoyment.

Around that time I also discovered rock music in all its forms. Meatloaf absolutely mesmerised me at 15. I really liked the New Wave of British Heavy Metal with groups like Judas Priest, Rainbow and Iron Maiden. The 80s bands like Europe, Def Leppard and Bon Jovi were lumped together under the disparaging title of Hair Metal by the critics but they were often hogging my turntable.

Bringing things up to date I love the female artists of today like Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Zoe Wees, The Last Dinner Party and Wet Leg. They are lyrically brilliant, engaging, frequently very funny and they put their feelings on show with no hesitation. I think that last quality in particular so important for their fan base who have so many messages and distractions and sometimes find it so difficult to deal with the barrage. These young women are the role models of today and music fans of any age are lucky to have them.

So there you have it, there are so many different musical genres and influences running through my head and I can listen to any of them, and any that don’t appear in those genres. Just as one final indicator of what I love and have loved over the years here is the choice I made for my decade of 1975 to 1984.