Music Through the Ages

A friend of mine (Chris Slight. You should check him out, he does all kinds of fun awesome stuff here) put forward an interesting question via the magic Twitter tree. It was about music, and I like music, and I also like personal development, which this question also addressed. Hence why I liked the question.

He asked the world (how magical Twitter is) to suggest the very moment, as symbolised by a particular musical track, where, essentially, your musical mindset got blown right open.

Can you see why I liked it?

But I instantly found it difficult to answer. Not because I couldn't think of one, but because I could think of too many. My whole life has been a train of various musical explosions that have left me changed somehow. It's still happening.

But it left me inspired, so I thought I might pass on a collection of the biggest alterations. I don't think I could really be able to highlight any specific song, but here, instead, is a chronological list of musical incidents that changed everything.

1: Pink Floyd

Bit vague, but you'll see.

Pink Floyd were pretty much my earliest sonic experiences. My family will often dwell on the various occasions where, as a small, semi-conscious being, I would recite and demand highlights from pretty much the entire Floyd back catalog. Money may well have been my theme tune.
My first ever live gig was seeing them, aged 7 (or, at least, I'm pretty sure it is. It might have been Status Quo a year or so before). And, when I think about the music I listen to today, it all stems from what Pink Floyd were doing. Strong, complex melodies, evocative lyrics, experimental traits. Pink Floyd shaped what I liked and I've followed through with that to this day.

2. Manic Street Preachers - If You Tolerate This (Then Your Children Will Be Next)

Typically, despite my father's influences, I passed into a phase of just tagging along with the 90s pop music that littered my generation. Backstreet Boys, B*Witched, Oasis, etc. Fun tunes, but hardly nourishing. Then, I heard If You Tolerate This by the Manics. It was like a jump start. My brain still snaps whenever I here that acid-edged first chord. It was so far removed from the saccharine beats of the Top of the Pops fare and reconnected me to the idea of music being a conduit for deeper sensation and emotion. 

3. Nirvana - Nevermind

I really didn't want to say this, because I'm sure everyone who lived through the ages of 13-18 felt this, but Nirvana really did mean everything to me. Nevermind was an obvious progression on the idea of music being of the emotions and something so raw and powerful as this album was always going to be a teenage gospel. At the age of 25, angst is a bit of a laughable attitude for someone who hadn't ever lived under a bridge and had, in fact, just woken up from a nice nap, but there's something about wanting that feeling of anguish when your brain and body is physically mutating. But, of course, underneath that, is a massively strong pop mentality. Cobain always said he loved the Beatles, and Nirvana, themselves, were absolutely huge. It was telling us that, actually, 'Popular,' as a concept, is a hugely flaky one. Nirvana made it popular to be unpopular, to be outcast. They didn't set out to do that, but they filled a void that an age group needed, will always need. They were the support group.

4. Blur - Think Tank

It should be stated that I always loved Blur. They were always more interesting to me than Oasis and I always had more fun with stuff like Parklife and Country House than I ever did with Wonderwall. They were a happy fun-time band of joy. Then, Out of Time was released from the imminent Think Tank album and I felt my heart burst.
Perhaps, the departure of Graham Coxon led to an inevitable release for Damon Albarn to approach this album somewhat more selfishly, but the result was breathtaking. It was totally different to Blur as I knew them, but at the same time they seemed so much more solid, more engaging. A very heartfelt and diverse album, ranging from the madcap We've Got a File On You to the mournful and melancholy Battery in Your Leg interspersed throughout with an eclectic fusion of unfamiliar cultures that would become a very prominent part of another Damon Albarn group's finest works. I remember not really knowing what to feel about the album when I first got it, other than that I loved it. I see now how it helped me Blur up the dividing lines between what had always seemed to be wholly disparate notions of genre in music.

5. Radiohead - Kid A

I'm not sure this needs explaining, really. Everyone remembers when they first heard Kid A and then went, '...right...' before hearing it for the fourth or fifth time and uncovering the sheer marvel of what had been acheived. Even now, I can listen to it and find something new, discover a new level that suddenly changes my favourite song on the album. The depth to an album created with electronic instruments is unfathomable and, suddenly, it wasn't enough to me to just be a guitar and drums band. It was all about an entire aesthetic and a soniscape to the music you created. Half of the experience of listening to Kid A is getting lost in the feedback aura that underlies the melodies and vocals that; typical of all Radiohead work, do the work of snaring you once you get sucked in. It changed my approach to music so much and left me wondering where exactly we could go from there.

(This is maybe just me throwing in an honourable mention, but as a stark contrast to this, it was around this time I also first heard Manchild by the Eels, which always floors me because of how simple and sparse it is. But, I don't necessarily think it changed my perceptions of anything, it just impressed me as to how much it achieved with so little. It does, however, lead into this...)

6. Eels - Electro-Shock Blues

 I had to mention this album. As much as Kid A is a technical triumph, it will always, for me, lose out to the emotional masterpiece that is Electro-Shock Blues. It's a return to that idea of the raw, unharnessed emotional power of music, and this album packs absolutely everything in. It plays with you, bats you up, drags you down, scrapes you along the floor. And all with a very restrained ensemble.  Much of the album is limited to just a man and his guitar. It's the light moments of embellishment to a track that suddenly hit a feeling home. But, why is it so game-changing, you ask? It's that moment, after several listens; when you've gotten used to the ride, where you realise that it's a concept album. It's one long story, told as subtly as possible.
It wasn't that this was my first exposure to the idea of a concept album. I knew of 2112 and Sgt. Pepper, but these examples, and others like it, were showcases; big operatic pieces designed for staging. Electro-Shock Blues was like a private story; like reading a diary. It was so personal, so intimate, and yet so well crafted that it could send you on a ride with so sparse a sound. It made me fall in love with 'albums' as an art piece.

7. Tom Waits - Kommienezuspadt

It was kind of tempting to say Little Drop of Poison instead, just for the reason it was how I found Tom Waits, but that wouldn't really be what made me find him so game changing. Because, the first album I got was Alice, and its one of his slower works. And, to a certain degree, his more traditional. And, as it was, when I first took a listen to it, it seemed a fairly standard, soulful blues/jazz affair. It was good, but I could feel it slipping into the obscurity of my iPod. And then Kommienezuspadt came on.
If you haven't heard the song, I can sum it up fairly easily. It's mental. And it is pure Tom Waits. The unusual, squeaking gravel of his voice, the rag-tag sounding band throwing in a Polka feel into a walking jazz rhythm. Surreal lyrics in what I assume is German but may well just be made up. It was an unbridled horror show and it was fantastic. THIS song, got me into Tom Waits, and Tom Waits doesn't do music any other way but his. And that turns out to be pretty important to me.

And that probably sums me up. I keep thinking of ways to fit other examples in, but they would really just be albums or songs that I really like. These were definite instances where I felt my mind absolutely change. Not necessarily in a U-turn, or anything, just a tweak of the wheel along a different line, but a definite shift which gave me reason to change my habits.