Music: family rivalry & rebelry

Her name is Alex not Sam.

See, I have remembered this time!

It is strange though how siblings go their separate ways musically when they're young and end up crossing paths later on in life.

I was lucky though, as both of my siblings like music I consider "decent".  All three of us have gone in different paths though.  One was always into Jean-Michel Jarre, Oldfield, Floyd, Dire Straits and a few other bands and artists whilst the other was into Indie in the 1980s (Paul Weller, Ocean Colour Scene and that sort of thing) but has always liked blues, so he's still a blues and jazz fan.  He also likes Klezmer music like I do.  So all our tastes overlap and infact when the sibling who likes "generic" prog was over last, they heard me playing Guapo and liked what they heard.  They also like some King Crimson now too (actually, said sibling copied me In the Court... and therefore started my proper prog journey).  Whilst the other one has attended a few jazz and blues gigs with me.

Maybe one day we will all play a tune we like.

Thanks for the responses, everyone.  There's some wonderful insights here and I guess I am not alone, which is good to hear.

Chris, you are correct with what you say, re: owning albums and especially collections is where I get the thrill.  I also get a thrill out of owning albums few people have heard of or own.  I do not purchase them for the sake of it either, I enjoy the albums in their own right but if the album happens to be a rare one, I get even more of a thrill out of knowing I am one of the few privileged to hear it.

I also happen to have an Alamaailman Vasarat MP3 ringtone on my mobile 'phone and I often wonder if I am the only person in the world with this?  But of course, that's a question I will never be able to answer.  The likelihood is small but that does not mean there are others with the same ringtone as I have.

At the end of the day, I want to be an individual but not for the sake of it.  I do not want to own or play music I hate or dislike just because it is unpopular.  I listen to music I enjoy and some of it just happens to be hard to come by,

James wrote: M., you make some good points there, re: discovering music yourself.  I think that is indeed similar to what I am experiencing. The thing is though, sometimes I "discover" a band and then tell a lot of people on P.A. and sometimes I keep them to myself; it depends on the mood I am in and also what type of band it is.  Zeuhl bands for instance most people know already, because it's one of those genres that people keep tabs on a lot.  However, lesser known bands, like Nuit Caline a la Villa Mon Reve and Kandahar I tend to not wax lyrical about quite as much (although most people know I like them). I guess I not only like to be as unique and individualistic with my tastes as possible but I also tend to want to discover as much as possible by myself.  However, I am normally impressed by P.A. friends' recommendations, because I know their taste is similar to mine. At the same time, I am also a completionist.  If I buy an album by a band or artist I like who have a large discography, I then try and buy all of their discography, even the not so good stuff.  I must stop doing this!  That is why I have yet to officially buy any Magma, because it could take me some time to finish buying it all. Addendum: the funky keyboard riff in Superstitious is great, it's a shame Stevie went a bit weird in the 1980s onwards

James wrote: My parents always come home from work at the most inopportune moments whenever I have an album on.  The thing is, we have a stereo in the lounge with decent speakers and well, all I have is my PC, so I naturally want to play music on a proper stereo occasionally. I put a CD on and it's usually halfway through, or near the end and one of my parents comes in or something and just ruins the moment. And yes, the 'phone does seem to ring when I've got music on too and you have to remember, I rarely get 'phone calls.

It doesn't cost much at all to buy above average audio equipment, and for decent stuff it's even less.

I don't rebel against my family when it comes to music, unless I don't like what it is they're playing. For the most part my father was a huge influence in my music taste. Ever since I was a little boy he would throw on a Yes or Genesis album whenever there was nothing else to do. For the most part I didn't start listening to music (of my own will) until about 3 years ago, and when I did I remember going over to my parents album rack and grabbing a bunch of Phil Collins Genesis albums (I didn't know Peter Gabriel was in Genesis at the time and grabbed only ones with songs I knew), my dad then walked up and pulled out every album from Trespass to The lamb and handed them to me and walk off. Needless to say I listen to everything from Pink Floyd to Magma now.

My Brother had decent taste Tool, Megadeath, Metallica, Dream Theater. But after my dad converted me to the prog side i got at my brother, and now he has many King Crimson, Jethro Tull, Yes(I think that was my dad again though), ELP, Camel and others. My sisters music taste consists of pop and emo crap. NUFF SAID! My mom likes some of my dads stuff, my sisters stuff, and the stuff she listened to when she was young like Duran Duran and Def Lepard. So there is a (mostly)nice mix of Music in my house.

Bluesaga wrote: Are any of Hammill's 80s albums post-punk esque?  For some reason, I think that would be an interesting and yummy combo.  I have Moving Targets and one song gives me a post-punk vibe (Breakthrough I think?), and the rest is okay, even if My Experience is pretty cheesy. :P And does anybody else get mad when their family disrupts music?  It's usually annoying, sometimes awkward if what I'm listening to is weird - and most people think it's weird that I like jazz.

The phone. I hate the phone. If the phone goes off at a bad moment when I'm listening to something developed, I have been known to get angry.

I'm an only child and my parents music tastes had no bearing whatsoever on mine. As a child I dont remember my dad listening to music at all. I din't have a 'record player' until I was about 8. It was a mono Dansette (type) player which my father brought from a junk yard for 78p.

BTW, James I'm 12 years older than you..

He knew I was showing a interest in music, and he acquired from jumble sales, and charity shops a load of old LP's for me; everything from Mud to Neil Sedaka. He encouraged my interest in music, although by the time I was 13 and listening to heavy metal, he was getting pretty fed up with the sound of Lemmy and Bruce Dickenson screaming the house down. My mother listened to Foster & Allen, Barbara Streisand, and Daniel O'Donnell. For my parents, who were nearing 40 when I was born in 1969, the 60's were just a non event.

So there may have been an element of rebellion on my part. My musical inspiration came from one of our neighbours kids, who was about three years older than me. I remember leafing through his record collection in 1980. He was 13 and had albums by Zep, Sabbath and Genesis among others. I remember looking at 'The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway' four years before I bought it, and being intrigued by the sleeve artwork. It was he who suggested I listen to a late night rock show on Radio 1 every Friday night. Thats when I really took to metal and first heard progressive rock. The rest is history as they say, but my influences were nothing to do with my parents thats for sure.

No point whatsoever to this story. Just a jaunt down memory lane, I guess..

Bluesaga wrote: And does anybody else get mad when their family disrupts music?  It's usually annoying, sometimes awkward if what I'm listening to is weird - and most people think it's weird that I like jazz.

Hahaha, this is often happening to me!  I live with a 'serial interrupter' who also has rather different taste in music to mine.  But as I usually do the cooking, I can play whatever I want in the kitchen.  He knows that interruption of cooking may result in interruption of food (oh no!), so I get left in peace!

Donna,

Well I'm over halfway now with my Peter Hammill CD collection, which is excellent.  I'm not sure exactly how many of his solo albums I still have to get though.

As for Magma, well I need to get them on CD but I've got so much other excellent music to get, some will be replacements for MP3s, which is actually more important to me in many respects as I always prefer the real deal, rather than digital files and others will be new music to me.  Unfortunately, most of what I desire CD-wise I get from the U.S. via mailorder, so I do a bulk order every couple of months.  I also have a vast amount of unheard of CDs which I need to get through.

As for the '80s, well, most artists of repute suffered it seems, even Peter Hammill and Robert Wyatt but they suffered a lot less than the likes of Collins, Wonder and others.

James wrote: At the same time, I am also a completionist.  If I buy an album by a band or artist I like who have a large discography, I then try and buy all of their discography, even the not so good stuff.  I must stop doing this!  That is why I have yet to officially buy any Magma, because it could take me some time to finish buying it all.