I had a different relationship with music than most of my peers. Growing up, I didn't buy albums because I didn't have any money, so I listened to the radio. In college, I still didn't have money to spend on music, so it was the radio in the car and downloaded stuff in my room (anyone my age who doesn't fess up to illegally downloading music in college is LYING. We all did it). The few cds I had, I got as gifts or I won on the radio, so weren't necessarily my taste. I also joined the Columbia Music Club then never bought another cd. Because again, I had no money.
The first cd I ever got was Bob Carlyle's Butterfly Kisses. It...well, I know some people still have fond feelings about that song. I did at the time. But after listening to the only cd I had on loop for, I don't know, months, I developed a hatred for it. It's sentimental and saccharine and if my daughters want it at their weddings, I'll roll my eyes before and then blubber my way through it.
The cds I started buying for myself were mostly soundtracks, because movies are more my jam. I really liked the soundtracks to 10 Things I Hate About You and She's the Man, among others. I listened to classical music to get inspiration for piano pieces I wanted to listen to and also because it was nice to have soothing background music while reading.
When driving around with friends, though, we wanted something punky. So we listened to Offspring and...Sum 41? All American Rejects? I don't even know. Bowling for Soup was another band I dug, along with Weird Al.
Side note, it's super fun to drive around with the windows down and blasting something like the 1812 Overture.
I really liked Oldies (music from the 50-70s) in high school and college. Since the oldies apparently includes up to the early 90's, I still like it. I got a cd of Steve Miller Band in 2001 on a friend's recommendation and thought that was pretty good. I got Taylor Swift's first cd a month or so after it came out and really thought that kid was going places. LOVED Kelly Clarkson's Since You Been Gone album. It came out at the right time in my life.
Dad introduced me to Natalie Cole. He usually listened to classical, but he had her album Unforgettable, and our favorite track was the duet with her dad on the title song. It was almost our wedding dance song. We went with his favorite song, The Way You Look Tonight, sung by Tony Bennett.
Caleb, hearing that I really liked All American Rejects and bands like them, made me a mix cd that is probably one of my favorite cds to date. I think I still have it somewhere. It had a lot of the punky type music that I enjoy blasting, but you can hear the lyrics enough that you can learn them and sing along. It had bands like AAR, Good Charlotte, Bowling for Soup, and more. Again, I don't even know the names of the songs. Several years after he gave it to me, I took the time to google the song lyrics to get the names of the songs themselves and the bands.
Austin and I bonded over OAR while he was in Denmark. 52-50 is about a man who can't wait to get home to his girl. It felt fitting. We actually liked Nickleback and chose Far Away for our wedding dance song. Lyrics like "Who was I to make you wait" and "I've been far away for far too long" felt like a pretty good description of our relationship.
Johnny Cash was apparently always a favorite of mine. Apparently as a toddler, I'd dance to Johnny's tapes or on the radio. One of my favorite memories of my wedding is when my immediate family, the Original 7, were posing for photos on the lawn and Ring of Fire started playing and we all sang along. You can see it in some of the pictures. Waiting on the Far Side Banks of the River Jordan is so heartbreaking and his version of Hurt is amazing. And of course who doesn't love A Boy Named Sue or One Piece at a Time or Folsom Prison Blues?
One of the last pieces of music I learned as a kid taking piano lessons was the first movement of The Moonlight Sonata. That song is super hard. I have a tendency to want to speed up as I'm playing and that song is all about plodding along at the same speed. It was fun to use the damper pedal, though. In college, I "learned" it again to play for the semester recital. I'm a snob about keyboards vs pianos, so I rarely practiced the two semesters I took lessons in college, but I did manage to play MS perfectly from start to finish. Once. Luckily, my teacher was there, so I had a witness to that amazing feat.
These days, I listen to audio books more than music, but when I do listen to music, it's usually the Hamilton soundtrack (it's been in the cd player in my car for about a year and a half now) or the radio. Lin-Manuel Miranda is so incredibly talented. I don't sing along well because I don't think my mouth can move that fast, but I make an attempt.
I do have Amazon music on my phone and I'll occasionally play something from there, but if I'm listening to music, I want something I can sing along to, so Broadway soundtracks and music from high school and college are usually the order of the day.
Looking back, I probably could do the whole 10 albums in 10 days, but I'm lazy and I know I won't follow through. So here's my ten all at once.
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