I’m 37, and my musical horizons have expanded more and more as I’ve gotten older. My CD collection sits at about 2000 titles and growing. One thing that’s slowed down a little is backfilling…by that I mean music that may not be new but is new to me. I grew up in a very small town which basically had a top 40 station. If the winds were blowing right I could tune in a classic rock station from about 80 miles away. But we lived to far outside the city limits to get cable, there was no internet, and having a sattelite meant spending 6 grand on this 6 foot wide thing that sat in your yard as a huge eyesore, so I didn’t even have MTV.
But now I have so many avenues to learn about new music, and I’ve spent 20 years collecting albums, buying everything an artist ever put out if I liked them. Two mentions of the White Stripes, I think they are one of the best things to happen to rock and roll, ever. I haven’t felt that way about music since Nirvana. I love lively, energetic new music.
My top 3 albums for 2007 were #3 “Icky Thump” by the White Stripes, #2 “The Black and White Album” by the Hives and #1 “Bitchin’” by the Donnas, and I was thrilled to get to see the Donnas and the Hives play together live in February at the legendary First Avenue night club, it ranks up there as one of the more memorable shows I’ve seen.
A couple of newer bands I really like a lot…Louis XIV and Gogol Bordello. Very adventurous, high spirited rock and roll. If I live to be 90 I’ll still be buying new music.