Throwback Thursday: Origins.

Hey everyone and welcome to Throwback Thursday, which in case you didn’t know, is my new weekly segment taking you through the evolution of my music tastes. I wrote an introductory blog on this a few weeks back so if you want to find out more about it and what it’s all about click HERE.

So while we’re kicking this off, I have a bit of a confession to make… As a child I used to listen to commercial pop bands like The Spice Girls and SClub 7. Let’s just admit we all did it and move on 🙂

But yes, whether it was The Backstreet Boys, ‘N sync, or even Lionel Richie, growing up I was always surrounded by some form of music. As a kid my musical intake was limited to the stereotypical commercial route. We didn’t have the internet or anything when I was growing up, so the only way to discover music was to listen the top 40 countdown on the radio – namely The Pepsi Chart on a Sunday afternoon – and of course, watching Top Of The Pops.

 

I was also influenced by my family’s taste in music. Since I can remember my parents have always listened to the radio in the car and in the house, more often than not, with my dad singing along. Primarily we listened to Heart, so I remember it usually being 80’s disco classics like The B52’s Loveshack, Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive, or Lionel Richie’s entire back catalogue. (I remember ALOT of Lionel Richie, I knew the lyrics to most of his songs before I was 13!)

 

I grew up with older siblings as well, so my love for bands like The Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync came from my sister, whereas I always remember my brother playing Gangsta’s Paradise by Coolio, I’ll Be Missing You by Puff Daddy (waaaaay back in the day before we knew him as P Diddy,) and Mark Morrison’s Return Of The Mack. I also remember my nan playing a lot of Phil Collins.

 

Personally I was more into the pop side of things, so as you’d expect I loved bands like The Spice Girls, Steps, B*Witched and Westlife. The upbeat nature of the music caught my attention and I used to love to sing-along and dance around like a loon, my friends and I always trying to learn the dance routines. Man, I was cool huh? haha. But it was always fun, and that’s what being a kid is about right? Fun, being care-free…and what 90’s kid didn’t know the routine to Tragedy (Steps), or Saturday Night, or at least the Macarena?!

 

Some other songs that always stick in my head from my childhood are, Because We Want To by Billie (Piper), and C’est La Vie by B*Witched. Whenever I think of those songs they never fail to put a smile on my face, they just take me back to being a kid and the times when I actually had the guts to do karaoke and it didn’t matter what anyone thought, the only thing that mattered was having fun.

 

I’ll never remember every single song or artist I loved as a kid, but that gives you some idea of the ones that evidently made a lasting impression. Even though now sometimes I look back on what I used to listen to and get that little embarrassed feeling in my stomach and think ‘did I really?!’, I always look back on those memories with fondness because, above everything else, it was fun, and I always associated music with being happy and having a good time. To this day I still love 80’s music… and The Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync. No care.

 

So that was my, very uncool, introduction to music haha. Next Thursday will be a look back to my early teen years, when I discovered rock – bands like Linkin Park, Blink 182, and Greenday – and music really came into its own for me.