As a preteen in the 90's, I was primarily into top 40 - stuff like Ace Of Base's "The Sign" and Kris Kross' "Jump". I think my first real exposure to Alternative Rock was "Smells Like Teen Spirit" showing up on some video countdown show, and I hated it and decided the genre was probably all incoherent mumbling and screaming note . After that, there were a few alternative songs that crossed over to top 40 and were melodic enough to appeal to me, like "Losing My Religion", 'Under The Bridge', and "Hey Jealousy". But for whatever reason, Green Day's "Basket Case" was the first one that drove me to go out and get a full album - in part because my music collection was so small at the time, I listened to Dookie a heck of a lot after that. And I think if I never got into alternative rock, there are probably a lot of other guitar-based genres I never would have listened to: metal, punk, "classic rock", etc.
edited 12th May '14 10:19:19 AM by MikeK
From the title of this thread, I thought it was about Gateway Series music.
I thought House Music was shit. Then I heard the Happy Mondays songs on 24-Hour Party People and realized what makes House music appealing. Then I watched a couple of documentaries and started to search from there.
I used to not care too much for Trap beats.
But then something happened. Something big.
...yeah, sue me. I like "Harlem Shake", all right? I thought it was kinda catchy and didn't even realize it was Trap at first, or that it was even a genre.
While I still only like a few Trap tracks, that's more than I liked before.
Oh boy…
My mom's Bob Seger collection was the first thing I ever listened to deliberately that wasn't country. Before then, I would automatically reject any other genre, and I didn't even fully get out of THAT phase until my 20s. It even took me a long-ass time to acknowledge that my dad's Southern rock was good music, even though the first album I remember owning was by a Southern rock band.
A local group called Three Men and a Tenor was my first exposure to a cappella music. My choir teacher was a big fan of theirs, and she invited them to do at least two concerts at our high school. I saw them a couple more times, and they're nice guys, but their repertoire has gotten so limited — they only ever seem to sing about the same 15-20 cover songs, at least half of which are done jokingly, and are kinda wearing thin now. (For instance, they do the first verse of "Stairway to Heaven", then cut it short with "If you think / That we're going / To sing this whole song / Then my friend, you are sadly mistaken…" On the other hand, the interpolation of "Don't Worry, Be Happy" and "Wonderful Tonight" is still a winner.) They also shun the few original songs that they have, including the few where they break out a guitar and/or some percussion.
"The Adventure" by Angels & Airwaves was one of my first exposures to alternative rock when it was accidentally programmed into a country music station I was listening to online. After that, I crossed the path of a few other alternative-y songs. Todd in the Shadows called fun.'s "Some Nights" one of the best songs of 2012, and I was instantly hooked by its massive harmonies. Then he made a Gorillaz reference in a later video, which got me curious about their whole virtual band shtick so I checked out "Feel Good Inc." and enjoyed it too.
I've also used "Weird Al" Yankovic — who himself was mostly foreign to me until about a year or so ago — as a launching pad for other genres. "Lump" by Presidents of the United States of America, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana, and "Whip It" by Devo all get thumbs-ups from me.
That's right, I grew up in the 90s and still didn't hear "Smells Like Teen Spirit" until I was 26.
I try not to write off genres as a whole because even before I knew Sturgeon's Law had a name or whatever, I realized that in any given genre, it's difficult for literally every single band or artist in that genre to suck.
That being said, I wasn't that crazy about dubstep when it got big a few years back and I actually tend to be pretty open when it comes to electronic music. But then one of my favorite drum and bass groups (Black Sun Empire) started experimenting with dubstep and that got me into a couple other dubstep artists, although it's definitely a very small percentage of my music library.
Resident Bollywood Nerd
Trance was my step in. Didn't care for it much before, but after hearing Anjunabeach by Above And Beyond I really fell in love. Above & Beyond makes amazing stuff.
As to electro, it was Justice and Waters of Nazareth, which I thought was okay originally. Then I heard Erol Alkan's remix of it and I fell in love again.
noisivelet naht nuf erom era srorrim
A mere sample of Eye of the Lens by The Comsat Angels off a rockumentary CD introduced me the the sweet, sweet world of post-punk.
A song that makes you fell in love with a genre you once thought was filled with rubbish and idiots. Allow me to demonstrate:
Punk: Dead Kennedys-Police Truck
I've played Tony Hawk Pro Skater when I was a wee little lad and even when I was 16 that intro tune still got stuck to my head along with other songs, so I searched up THPS soundtrack and I found it and it was great.
Then I found out that it's actually about police brutality. That got me intrigued and research more about the band while also searching their other songs. Jello Biafra(the lead singer) were interesting because it dawned on me that punk rockers does not need to be like sid vicious(btw, fuck him). Jello is clean and smart, yet he choose punk for its rebellious and alternative ideals. I like it.
Do you guys have such song do something like that to you?
http://www.last.fm/user/sgtpendulum Yo, check out what I'm listening, it'll be heat, brah :^)