When there ain't nowhere you can go
When I was a teenager, before iPods, back when we still used yellow Sony Walkmans, music was my life, which is typical for most teens. My favourite bands were Green Day, Pulp, Oasis, Noise Therapy, Smashing Pumpkins, Silverchair, and Marilyn Manson, to name a few. I went to too many concerts to count, and listened to the radio all the time--morning, day, and night. My favourite radio station was 99.3 the Fox, and in fact, I was even in one of Larry and Willy's contests, which involved me collecting sperm from a UBC frat house while wearing a lab coat. Ah, good times, good times.
However, when I moved out of the house at age 20, I stopped listening to the radio. Part of the reason was that so much of the music being played on the radio at the time was crap (Nickelback and Limp Bizkit were some of the biggest bands at the time), and part of the reason was because I no longer needed music to drown out the noise and chaos surrounding me. Growing up was hell because my parents were so horrible, and there was never a moment's peace. Either my dad was yelling at us, or he was blasting the TV so loudly that you could hear it in nearly every room of our house, which was a reasonable sized house--two floors with four bedrooms, a small office, and a full bathroom on the top floor. Everyone suffered because of the yelling and his constant TV, but as far as noise was concerned, I suffered the most because of where my bedroom was situated, which was in between the upstairs bathroom and my dad's office, which he used as a bedroom for many years.
Early in the morning, around 6am, my dad would wake up and use the upstairs bathroom, and while going about his lengthy morning routine, he would listen to the radio. He kept an old tape deck/radio combo in the bathroom, and because the controls to turn on the radio and adjust the stations were at the back of the tape deck, he had the radio turned to face the wall (ie. the front of the radio, where the sound came out from, was against the wall)--the thin wall between my bedroom and the bathroom. So he would turn up the radio quite loudly, despite the fact that I was trying to sleep! Every damn morning he would do this, so I would turn on my radio to drown out his radio, and spend the next hour or so only half asleep, never fully falling back asleep. And at night he would listen to the fucking radio while he slept. For several years he slept in his office which was right beside my bedroom, and while he did not have the radio on as loudly as he did in the morning, I could still faintly hear it. So in order to get any sleep, I would have to wait until quite late, about midnight usually, until I was sure he was asleep, and sneak into his room to turn off the radio. I was chronically exhausted, as I could not sleep while he was awake, because he would have his TV or radio on, or be yelling. The point of this is, I had to turn on the radio or listen to my CDs to drown out the constant noise.
However, when I moved out of my parents' home nine years ago, I no longer had this problem of constant noise (that is, until the horrible people below us moved in), so I did not have to constantly listen to music to drown out the chaos surrounding me. Also, I was no longer restricted to my bedroom (as a teen, I stayed in my room most of the time and ate most of my meals in there in order to avoid my parents), and would do things in the living room, such as watch TV. So due to a lifestyle change and lack of good music on the radio, I only really listened to music on my Discman on my long commutes to school and work. (It was such a pain in the ass to lug around a Discman and all the CDs you wanted to have with you. How technology has changed!)
Because I stopped listening to the radio and had no friends, I was not exposed to new music much (most of the new bands that came out in the early 2000s sounded the same anyway), and did not develop new musical tastes. It was like I was stuck in time, musically, and only listened to the bands whose CDs I owned. Most of the bands that I liked such as Oasis and Smashing Pumpkins became crappy, and no matter how hard I tried, I just could not like their new CDs. However, Green Day remained awesome, and the majority of the CDs that I have bought in the past decade were Green Day CDs. I guess it's kind of pathetic that the only band I listen to is one that I've been listening to for the past 15 years, but honestly, it's the only band whose new music I enjoy.
Unfortunately I did not go to their concert when they were doing their Insomniac tour (I guess this would have been in 1995), but ever since then, I have been to every Green Day concert held in Vancouver, to my knowledge. (My memory is fuzzy due to old age, but I think it has been four times--Nimrod, Warning, and two American Idiot tours.) Even though I still love Green Day, because I don't listen to the radio and because music is not a big part of my life (the iPod that I bought in February is still in its box), I was completely unaware that Green Day has a new CD coming out next week, and that they were coming to town in July! I bought tickets as soon as I found out this morning, but because I wasn't on the ball, I have crappy nosebleed seats. My moshing and crowd surfing days are behind me, but I would still prefer to be on the floor, or at the very least be able to see the band on the stage. Oh well, I guess it's better than missing out. But I feel like such a loser that I had no idea whatsoever that my favourite band had a new CD coming out!
Speaking about concerts, my sister and I are also seeing AC/DC in August!
However, when I moved out of the house at age 20, I stopped listening to the radio. Part of the reason was that so much of the music being played on the radio at the time was crap (Nickelback and Limp Bizkit were some of the biggest bands at the time), and part of the reason was because I no longer needed music to drown out the noise and chaos surrounding me. Growing up was hell because my parents were so horrible, and there was never a moment's peace. Either my dad was yelling at us, or he was blasting the TV so loudly that you could hear it in nearly every room of our house, which was a reasonable sized house--two floors with four bedrooms, a small office, and a full bathroom on the top floor. Everyone suffered because of the yelling and his constant TV, but as far as noise was concerned, I suffered the most because of where my bedroom was situated, which was in between the upstairs bathroom and my dad's office, which he used as a bedroom for many years.
Early in the morning, around 6am, my dad would wake up and use the upstairs bathroom, and while going about his lengthy morning routine, he would listen to the radio. He kept an old tape deck/radio combo in the bathroom, and because the controls to turn on the radio and adjust the stations were at the back of the tape deck, he had the radio turned to face the wall (ie. the front of the radio, where the sound came out from, was against the wall)--the thin wall between my bedroom and the bathroom. So he would turn up the radio quite loudly, despite the fact that I was trying to sleep! Every damn morning he would do this, so I would turn on my radio to drown out his radio, and spend the next hour or so only half asleep, never fully falling back asleep. And at night he would listen to the fucking radio while he slept. For several years he slept in his office which was right beside my bedroom, and while he did not have the radio on as loudly as he did in the morning, I could still faintly hear it. So in order to get any sleep, I would have to wait until quite late, about midnight usually, until I was sure he was asleep, and sneak into his room to turn off the radio. I was chronically exhausted, as I could not sleep while he was awake, because he would have his TV or radio on, or be yelling. The point of this is, I had to turn on the radio or listen to my CDs to drown out the constant noise.
However, when I moved out of my parents' home nine years ago, I no longer had this problem of constant noise (that is, until the horrible people below us moved in), so I did not have to constantly listen to music to drown out the chaos surrounding me. Also, I was no longer restricted to my bedroom (as a teen, I stayed in my room most of the time and ate most of my meals in there in order to avoid my parents), and would do things in the living room, such as watch TV. So due to a lifestyle change and lack of good music on the radio, I only really listened to music on my Discman on my long commutes to school and work. (It was such a pain in the ass to lug around a Discman and all the CDs you wanted to have with you. How technology has changed!)
Because I stopped listening to the radio and had no friends, I was not exposed to new music much (most of the new bands that came out in the early 2000s sounded the same anyway), and did not develop new musical tastes. It was like I was stuck in time, musically, and only listened to the bands whose CDs I owned. Most of the bands that I liked such as Oasis and Smashing Pumpkins became crappy, and no matter how hard I tried, I just could not like their new CDs. However, Green Day remained awesome, and the majority of the CDs that I have bought in the past decade were Green Day CDs. I guess it's kind of pathetic that the only band I listen to is one that I've been listening to for the past 15 years, but honestly, it's the only band whose new music I enjoy.
Unfortunately I did not go to their concert when they were doing their Insomniac tour (I guess this would have been in 1995), but ever since then, I have been to every Green Day concert held in Vancouver, to my knowledge. (My memory is fuzzy due to old age, but I think it has been four times--Nimrod, Warning, and two American Idiot tours.) Even though I still love Green Day, because I don't listen to the radio and because music is not a big part of my life (the iPod that I bought in February is still in its box), I was completely unaware that Green Day has a new CD coming out next week, and that they were coming to town in July! I bought tickets as soon as I found out this morning, but because I wasn't on the ball, I have crappy nosebleed seats. My moshing and crowd surfing days are behind me, but I would still prefer to be on the floor, or at the very least be able to see the band on the stage. Oh well, I guess it's better than missing out. But I feel like such a loser that I had no idea whatsoever that my favourite band had a new CD coming out!
Speaking about concerts, my sister and I are also seeing AC/DC in August!