''None but ourselves can free our minds'' Bob Marley.
This post is a little more depth into my journey into discovering music. So let me take you back to the year 1996, the rocker fashion is in, denim jackets were a trademark of statements, Rayban glasses were a must have, hair was long on men and shorter on women and I was 8. I was introduced to Pakistani pop and some American pop music, obviously I did not have a choice being the little fire starter that i was.
Walk down about 3 years, I found a certain something in Acoustic and Hip Hop Music, I remember my elder brother would always play such music in his room. He had this (now vintage) towering stereo system and music just sounded sweet on it. The closer I sat positioning myself precisely between the speakers, the more vibrant and enchanting the music got. So, I had a nag.
To hear all the different sorts of music I could from my brother’s collection and place myself exactly in the middle of the speakers while I shuffled through songs. This went on for about two years. It went on long enough for me to get to a point where I was fiddling with the manual equalizer and experiencing all the effects variations in sounds.
I had recently switched schools, from a local school in Pakistan, to an international school in Saudi Arabia. The people around me changed, the communication changed, the choices of preferences of individuals changed, so did my dimensions of music, I was now finding out about new music, new artists, and new hits of that era in time. I needed to bring the music closer to me and I still needed it to be loud and vibrant, I needed it to be in my unconscious mind even when I was not awake.
So, I got my first Walkman. It was beautiful. There is something about riding your fresh-looking bicycle through the neighborhood, you have a Walkman clipped to your shorts with cables filled with energy run to your ears and everything around you become a part of that song, it’s like a music video in first person mode!!!
Going to sleep with an Rhythm and Blues album on repeat was my bed time preparation. I had to make sure I had a fresh pair of batteries every night. And the nights I didn’t, I would be lying in bed staring into the ceiling and playing back tunes in my mind while I air guitared or air drummed. Was not really therapeutic, I guess I would just tire myself out to sleep.
All the way through the teens it was usually Hip Hop, RnB and good Rock.
The good days of driving and taking the car out alone were finally here, I tried driving to a few different genres of music. Speaking of driving, I forgot to mention that through the teens when I would be in the car in the passenger seat with my father driving, he would always have his certain few cassettes of Indian Classical Music playing, boy do I miss those drives. I guess the little bit of embarrassing singing I do now is a result of years of humming along Indian Classical Music.
When I took the car out alone, Hip Hop was my partner in crime. I love driving to Hip Hop, good Hip Hop, Soulful Hip Hop. That is a trait, a habit and a choice TILL DATE. I remember making friends on MSN messenger just so I could get hold of more new music in the western world. Yep those good ol’ days.
In my quest to discover music I had somehow in my youth missed the music and music years of the great greats’. I make up for that now with the help of good sources who know their music. By having friends who are Musicologists and dating someone whose favorite song is ‘’Hey You’’ by Pink Floyd and has all their albums memorized down to lyrics and the stories behind every song.
I don’t think I will ever narrow down my preference for allowing music in. It is a must for me, to always have a musical flow about life itself. Even as I write this post there is music, in fact as a future reference, whenever you read one of my posts, just remember none of them were written without the presence of musical vibes.
In my next post I shall walk you through the time, place and experience of getting into music production at an early age. Stay tuned.
''Always Keep Listening''
What was I listening to today?