Reggae music has always been my favorite. It started when I was an early teen but remained even when I became a grown adult.
Growing up in south London the first "alternative" to the glam rock of the time I was exposed to was reggae music. For me personally decent music stopped years ago and a lot of what I listen to now is stuff from my own youth. The first big thing to shake up the music scene I became aware of as a young kid was Punk but being only 9 years old in 1977 I wasn't really able to be part of it, but I remember the impact it had on society at the time. Things such as tight trousers, coloured hair, and earrings became acceptable for men. I still have a cartilage piercing in the top of my left ear that I had done at that time because I thought it was more punk rock than a standard lobe piercing, Considered shocking at the time, my mum hated it. I also wanted green hair but that never happened. Still love bands like the Ruts, the Clash, the Sex Pistols, The Undertones, X-ray Specs, Buzzcocks, and Tubeway Army.
Fast forward a few years and I am starting secondary school that's when music that had the biggest impact on me took the UK by storm - the advent of the Ska/two tone genre. Bands like Bad Manners, the Specials, Madness, the Selector, the Beat, and the Body Snatchers. This led me to buy a pair of boots and some braces and shave my head. Mum was horrified. It also proved to be a catalyst and from this I embarked on a musical journey back in time discovering original Ska and Rocksteady artists like Prince Buster, Laurel Aitkin, Toots and the Maytals, Ken Booth, the Syramids, Dave and Ansel Collins, the Pioneers, and Dandy Livingstone.
The Skinhead scene in the UK became too right wing after a few years, and after a good mate was stabbed I drifted into the scooter Scene and discovered a lot of the old American soul and RnB music as well as a lot of 60s bands like the Who, the Small Faces, the Kinks and the early Rolling Stones. I was on a scooter rally "Up North" a couple of years later and was introduced to a genre of music I had never heard of before, it has stayed with me for life and I am still addicted to it -
NORTHERN SOUL. It was during the mid 80s that I became aware of a new genre of electronic music coming into the charts with bands like the Human League, Gary Numan, Fad Gadget, Kraftwerk, Japan and Depeche Mode. I loved this new electronic type music with its deep thumping base lines and synthesized sounds. However despite flirting with this in private I remained faithful to my Scooterboy Soul roots.
A few years later at the tail end of 1988 I became aware of a new underground sound unlike anything I had heard before. It encapsulated everything I loved about electronic music and soul music, it had a deep electronic baseline and soulful vocals. it was an instant hook and came through the British music scene like a tsunami.
House music had arrived, we grew our hair longer, dressed to dance, and swapped our beer and amphetamines for ecstasy and bottled water. This was something totally new we allowed ourselves to be swept along on this new exciting wave of hedonism. All the racial divides, all the tribal divides, all the class divides vanished overnight and we all became part of the
summer of love. House music and Ecstasy totally changed the landscape of British social culture forever. Events got bigger and bigger with over 10,000 people turning up for raves such as Sunrise, Energy, and back to the future.
But like all parties it had to end, and the hangover was just around the corner. The music mutated and became a lot faster and techno started to become prevalent in the early 90s and that just wasn't to my taste. I was now well into my mid 20s and responsibility started to take hold and from that point on I tended to look backwards and my musical tastes became more retro. Now days I tend to collect and listen to music from the entire musical spectrum that was my misspent "yoof"
love the Disturbed "sound of silence" - love love love it!
just the thing you need for a romantic night in.
