I’ve been all over the music spectrum since my youth. I started out in the 80’s with Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. Moving to Hair Bands. Some New Wave.
In the 90’s it was Butt Rock (lol). But I always got bored of the music so quickly.
Repetitive lyrics and worn out, over played nonsense. Don’t get me started on stupidly long guitar solos. I started bouncing from station to station on the radio to try to find something that really caught my attention. It got to the point of I’d rather listen to nothing at all because of the regurgitated short playlists and commercials.
While I’ve always liked some diversity in my music. Some Jazz, Big Band and the like. I still like some Harry Connick Jr. on occasion. I felt lost otherwise not finding my place.
Then in the late 2010’s, the internet saved me. I could find music that wasn’t commercially pushed on me by the lack luster selection of radio stations. Pop-Punk. Sure you might hear the occasional Blink-182 or Sum 41 in the mix from a radio station. Mostly though the majority of bands weren’t played on any stations I had available in the Hampton Roads area of where I lived when I found them. Certainly not in the norther lower Michigan area I live in now. So Spotify became my best friend.
So many bands I stated finding. New Found Glory, Story Untold, First and Forever just to name a few of the hundreds I had discovered.
Then I wanted to know where it all started. Punk. I had a punk friend, but he and I didn’t always see eye to eye. He’d treat me like I’d never understand punk music. Also turned out he was rather racist. I cut ties with him and sought out movies to find out more. CBGB and Dinner in America are the two I started with. While I’m sure they aren’t historically accurate, it was a close dive. YouTube too.
Can’t say I’ll add more sub-genres to my repertoire, but I’d like to find more songs that aren’t all super hyper punk. Similar to Watermelon from Dinner in America. I seem to be more inspired by Garage Punk, Art Punk and perhaps the White Stripes.