Jonathan Richman
Click to viewSo this is a guy that my dad's second wife, Karen, used to listen to a lot when I was growing up. He sings a lot of cute songs and is generally a cute guy. Karen took me to go see him at this small venue in San Juan Capistrano and what I remember most is that he had a lot of female fans and all of them had huge smiles through his whole performance.
This is one of the songs that I remember pretty fondly. He also sings, "Little Dinosaur", "Ice Cream Man", and "Abdul loves Cleopatra".
Between my mom and Karen I got exposed to a lot f different types of music growing up. My mom is really into everything from 60's soul to 80's new wave. Karen is into everything from 70's punk to alternative music.
Karen of course is the one who got me into bands like They Might Be Giants, The Pixies, The Replacements, and stuff like that. She has sooooo many cds and had the best records. She hardly ever let us listen to her records. I remember she had this awesome record that had all this music from a radio station that she used to listen to in the70s and 80s. It had stuff from The Runaways, Rik L Rik, The Dead Boys, and X. I loved that record. She gave all her records to someone a while back. I think she still has most of her cds. She was always buying new music. I think she still does. She always seems to know more about new music than I do.
My mom is the one who got me into all the 80s stuff I love. When I was a kid she was way into the music that was popular at that time. We would listen to Berlin, Duran Duran, INXS, and Michael Jackson. We would go to a place in Chula Vista every weekend and we would get a 45. I think she still has a lot of them. She would always wake us up by blasting music. I remember she would always play soundtracks too. She got me into stuff like Otis Redding and Sam Cooke. She definitely is the one who influenced me as far as liking R&B stuff.
My step dad is really into music, but my real dad isn't into it as much. When I think of my dad's music I think of Sting and The Police. When I think of Mike, my step dad, I think of Kraftwerk, Judas Priest, and jazz music. He always tells us how many songs he has on his itunes, which is like up to 15000 or something. He likes a wide range of stuff too. One day he will be playing The Cure, and the next day he will be playing Mexican music.
Anyway, that is a little insight into my musical background via my family's interests. I have no idea why I like boy bands though. Must just be something about being a girl during the time of New Kids on the Block and New Edition. I like N'Sync and Justin Timberlake! Go figure. Not to mention now I am listening to Steve's music. I now have a Slayer station on my Pandora.