This weekend I dug out two old cassette tapes that were fundamental in the development of my musical tastes. One dates to 1984 and the other to 1990.
In the winter of 1984 I was in 5th grade. I was about to move from Colorado back to Connecticut. My best friend from childhood, JB, and I made this mix tape together, recording songs off the radio. The first song is warbled in places as we played around with settings on her (double tape deck!) stereo, unsure the effect it would have.
That tape includes: Relax, Flashdance, Wild Boys, Neutron Dance, Method of Modern Love, All Through the Night, Like a Virgin, Jungle Love, Loverboy, and Rhythm of the Night. We used to sneak out to the living room and watch Friday Night Videos, hoping to see the latest Wham or New Addition video.
You see, I grew up in a household listening exclusively to classical music, The Beatles, Peter Paul and Mary, Judy Collins, and Simon and Garfunkle. I completely missed all that was disco (I'm not saying that I regret that). JB was my link to the world of popular music. She introduced me to kuality bands that I had never heard of (like Culture Club and Chaka Khan), and never would have discovered on my own.
In high school I had the second major adjustment to my musical tastes. My friend YB, along with DM, introducted me to the world of "alternative" music. On my 16th birthday YB gave me a mix tape that contained the following songs: Boys Don't Cry, The Queen Is Dead, Birdhouse In Your Soul, In Your Eyes, Strange Kind of Love, Plainsong, Head On, Crash, and Magic Carpet Ride (okay, so Steppenwolf isn't alternative, it ain't folk either).
Thanks to her my teenage and early twenties were filled with the angsty lyrics of Morrissey, David Gahan, and Robert Smith. DM kept a constant stream of dubbed tapes heading my way. I wore out my copies Music For The Masses and Louder Than Bombs.
Listening to the first mix tape was a hoot. It was so funny to hear those songs again, especially in that order (what is it about the order of songs that gets engrained in our brains. It's something I miss with the shuffle setting of my iPod). But it was YB's tape that really rung true. Those bands are still the bands that I listen to over and over. Yes I've expanded my tastes and added more bands to my list of favorites. But those form the core that I always go back to.
