a genesis of musical taste
my friend ariel was asking for mix-CD suggestions for someone "with no taste in music." she wanted to show her that music doesn't have to suck.

this got me thinking. after i fired off a bunch of Julia's Mix Staples, i realized that i didn't just magically start liking Radiohead. i couldn't have listened to Air or Cat Power 10 years ago and fully appreciated it. in fact, 12 year old julia might have used the word "hellish" to describe some of the stuff i listen to these days. the kinds of music i like today has been carefully and uncontrollably cultivated as i've grown up. i.e.:

the formative years: early childhood through adolescence
as a young girl, my music was inarguably inflicted upon me/shaped by daddy. his favorite bands (in this order) were: Fleetwood Mac, Queen, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin, Meatloaf, the Moody Blues, U2, and fucking Cher. i never really appreciated any of this, until later in life when i realized how good it all mostly was. although having a strong Cher foundation really comes in handy. everyone loves a girl who knows all the words to "If I Could Turn Back Time." of all my dad's music, possibly the most lasting and critical formative album for me was "Rumours" by Fleetwood Mac.

the early nineties: ninth and tenth grade
when i was 13 and 14, i rediscovered The Beatles, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin. i'd say "Abbey Road" was the first to change what i expected from an album, and what i expected from a band. i went through a long phase of hoarding beatles tapes and records. my friends and i made each other mix tapes and compilations of all beatles songs. sophomore year of high school, i was sitting in the back seat of a turquoise VW bug with 4 other girls, hollering the words to "We Can Work it Out," (rather, "WE! CAN! WOHK! IT! OUT!") when we got into a little bit of a head-on collision. oops.

enter R.E.M.. "Automatic for the People" was my first real exposure to the fabulously vague genre of "alternative" music. i gave a presentation in my 10th grade honors humanities class on "Nightswimming" as a poem. i just remember not really being able to find the lyrics anywhere (damn REM and their enigmas!), so i had a few blank spots. (what kind of naive 14 year old can hear the phrase "pah??-eh?? for the moon" and understand that michael stipe was actually saying "pining"?) i also got docked for continuously tucking my hair behind my ears. the teacher, mrs. kinkaid, told me it was distracting and made me look nervous.

i made the early-nineties natural progression to Pearl Jam's "Ten" from "Automatic for the People". and the not-so-natural progression to Depeche Mode's "Songs of Faith and Devotion." i used to make my mother play this tape in the car constantly on our rides to and from school. she'd always jump and check the rearview mirror at the screaching tire sound intro to one of the songs.

the mid-nineties: tenth grade through sophomore year of college
a.k.a.: Julia Discovers Female Singers.
my high school sweetheart bought me Jewel's "Pieces of You." on a CD! a new era. jewel was still pretty much a local girl at that time, and she totally inspired me. i've since forsaken her, but i can't deny the effect she had on what i expected from music. i then migrated to Fiona Apple, and gradually, freshman year of college, i somehow discovered Joni Mitchell's "Blue." if someone asks me what my all-time favorite albums are, or my most inspirational albums, this is the first one i'll list. i'd say this CD changed my life. for a year or so, i lapped up everything i could by joni and james taylor and carole king and joan baez and bob dylan -- i had regressed. although, sixties and seventies folk music sounds different after a few years of alternative and grunge.

one crisp fall day in 1996, somebody played a tape of "Closer to Fine" by the indigo girls. i was a changed woman. i bought a copy of "Indigo Girls," their (obviously) eponymous release and tried to figure everything out on guitar. my retrospective insight for all my indigo girls albums now: i absolutely love all the songs i used to skip (*cough* amy ray songs *cough*), and all the songs i used to repeat seem just sort of ho-hum to me. music appreciation is totally an evolution.

the late-nineties: the end of college
three words: dave, beth, and ben. dave matthews band, beth orton, and ben harper pretty much defined my last few years of college. i really don't have much to say about dave matthews and ben harper, except that i effectively trained myself to appreciate their musical complexity and beautiful instrumentals. i used to skip the instrumental songs to get straight to the pretty vocals. i'd say learning to deal with the jambandesque live intros to my favorite DMB songs totally led to liking bands like Air and Tortoise.

and then there's beth orton. my "Central Reservation" CD, were it a tape, would have been completely worn out by the end of 1999. i'd say this really started my "if nobody else knows about it yet, that makes it so much better" motif. see also: Kings of Convenience, Mojave 3, and David Gray (until about October 1999). some would call this "musical snobbery." i'm okay with that.

post college: erik's music
i never really liked radiohead much until i met erik. from what i'd heard on the radio, thom yorke was a whiny schmo. then i listened to "OK Computer" in all of it's entirety. holy shit. i was hooked on some elusive concept of chill-out music. of music that just makes you feel high without ever really knowing what high actually feels like. of music that makes you close your eyes for a second and feel it pulse through your veins. and then you realize you're driving. radiohead ultimately led to finally liking techno and DJ sampling, and stuff like Bjork and Sigur Ros.

so there you have it. the definitive history of which albums happened to cross my path at which times to eventually lead to my self-designated kick-ass taste in music.

so ariel, if you're reading this, you might want to start with the basics before expecting your friend to fully enjoy something like "Friends of P."

(a-whoo-hoo-hoo).