The Miseducation of Jana--Music
In reading my friend Heather's response to the list of songs I posted earlier I was inspired to represent the case for my lack of education on what she terms "the classics". It's all in good fun ya'll so have a giggle.
Now I was raised by parents who didn't give a rat's patootie about most of that kind of music. Though my mama grew up in a musical family and performed in a gospel group until shortly after she married they aren't particularly passionate about any kind of music . I wasn't exposed to a plethera of "classics." I grew up listening to Conway Twitty (blech), Kenny Rogers, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynnette, The Forrester Sisters, George Strait, Crystal Gale and yes, the all important Dolly Parton. I didn't even get to listen to Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson until college because my dad doesn't like them.
We were poor and didn't buy new music much so my early musical experiences were limited to the albums (yes...those black and shiny vinyle of yesteryear) that my folks had bought long before I was even a twinkle in my daddy's eye and whatever happened to be playing on Miss 98 (country music radio station) on Sunday afternoons. The only new music we did buy was limited to the occasional new Kenny Rogers or Daddy's favorite, Tanya Tucker (another blech). The main staple though on any given day were the albums my mama's gospel group had cut years before. But by no means whatsoever were we ever voluntarily exposed to pop or rock and roll, Elvis excluded, of course. To this day Elvis is my favorite Christmas album.
I didn't grow up with MTV, either. We lived waaaaay out in the boonies and couldn't get cable. Couldn't have afforded it even if we could have received it. We didn't get satelite until I was a senior in high school. The novelty of MTV by then was...well, mild. I discovered bands and artists I had never heard before. I can't remember any of their names because, well, they were a phase in my life. ( I think one of them may have been something along the lines of Tubthumper? but I'm thinking they were in my college years.) The only part of MTV that really stuck with me isn't even music related...The Real World. lol I think I started watching the Boston episodes and lasted through New Orleans before abandoning it for greener pastures.
Any classics I may have picked up on have been through VH1 behind the music or something similar. Either that or they're songs used frequently in movies, TV shows and commercials.
No, I grew up on country music, something my best friend tells me is a shame in itself. She grew up on MTV. Her parents were rock and roll junkies. She cut her teeth on Cheap Trick and Jimmy Hendrix and the like.
It wasn't until I was probably 9 or so that I discovered a world of music beyond what was born in Nashville and it was my oldest sister who introduced me to Debbie Gibson, Tiffany, and New Kids on the Block. It was her friends who introduced them to her. I eventually discovered Bon Jovi (Blaze of Glory), The Bangles, B542 (I think), Wilson Philips, Amy Grant when she went pop and a few others on my own. We were, of course into tapes by then (technologically speaking) and it was still a rarity that we got new music. We did, however, tape songs from the radio and if one of us or my cousin, M, got a new tape we would copy it so that all of us had our own copy whether we were particular fans or not. Just the novelty of owning a tape was too cool to pass up.
By the early 90's I was a preteen and a dual genre lover. I still listened to the pop chart toppers of the day but I had also returned to my first love--Country music. By then artists like Billy Ray Cyrus, Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Clint Black were making their marks in the world of country music. Ropers were cool, everyone was dancing the Achey Breaky and suddenly it wasn't shameful to listen to what before had always been described to me by my peers as "hokey square dance music" in elementary school. Barbara Mandrell isn't the only one who can say honestly that she was country when country wasn't cool. I never could quite find my niche in the world of pop, rock and r&b. Every now and then an artist will appear that grabs my attention like Sheryle Crowe who is one of my favorites but my heart rests with clang and twang and hillbilly thang. And while many of those songs are now considered classics, to me the classics will always be songs like "Coat of Many Colors" and "Ocean Front Property." And if you don't know who sang those songs...Shame on you! hehehehehe
Now I was raised by parents who didn't give a rat's patootie about most of that kind of music. Though my mama grew up in a musical family and performed in a gospel group until shortly after she married they aren't particularly passionate about any kind of music . I wasn't exposed to a plethera of "classics." I grew up listening to Conway Twitty (blech), Kenny Rogers, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynnette, The Forrester Sisters, George Strait, Crystal Gale and yes, the all important Dolly Parton. I didn't even get to listen to Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson until college because my dad doesn't like them.
We were poor and didn't buy new music much so my early musical experiences were limited to the albums (yes...those black and shiny vinyle of yesteryear) that my folks had bought long before I was even a twinkle in my daddy's eye and whatever happened to be playing on Miss 98 (country music radio station) on Sunday afternoons. The only new music we did buy was limited to the occasional new Kenny Rogers or Daddy's favorite, Tanya Tucker (another blech). The main staple though on any given day were the albums my mama's gospel group had cut years before. But by no means whatsoever were we ever voluntarily exposed to pop or rock and roll, Elvis excluded, of course. To this day Elvis is my favorite Christmas album.
I didn't grow up with MTV, either. We lived waaaaay out in the boonies and couldn't get cable. Couldn't have afforded it even if we could have received it. We didn't get satelite until I was a senior in high school. The novelty of MTV by then was...well, mild. I discovered bands and artists I had never heard before. I can't remember any of their names because, well, they were a phase in my life. ( I think one of them may have been something along the lines of Tubthumper? but I'm thinking they were in my college years.) The only part of MTV that really stuck with me isn't even music related...The Real World. lol I think I started watching the Boston episodes and lasted through New Orleans before abandoning it for greener pastures.
Any classics I may have picked up on have been through VH1 behind the music or something similar. Either that or they're songs used frequently in movies, TV shows and commercials.
No, I grew up on country music, something my best friend tells me is a shame in itself. She grew up on MTV. Her parents were rock and roll junkies. She cut her teeth on Cheap Trick and Jimmy Hendrix and the like.
It wasn't until I was probably 9 or so that I discovered a world of music beyond what was born in Nashville and it was my oldest sister who introduced me to Debbie Gibson, Tiffany, and New Kids on the Block. It was her friends who introduced them to her. I eventually discovered Bon Jovi (Blaze of Glory), The Bangles, B542 (I think), Wilson Philips, Amy Grant when she went pop and a few others on my own. We were, of course into tapes by then (technologically speaking) and it was still a rarity that we got new music. We did, however, tape songs from the radio and if one of us or my cousin, M, got a new tape we would copy it so that all of us had our own copy whether we were particular fans or not. Just the novelty of owning a tape was too cool to pass up.
By the early 90's I was a preteen and a dual genre lover. I still listened to the pop chart toppers of the day but I had also returned to my first love--Country music. By then artists like Billy Ray Cyrus, Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Clint Black were making their marks in the world of country music. Ropers were cool, everyone was dancing the Achey Breaky and suddenly it wasn't shameful to listen to what before had always been described to me by my peers as "hokey square dance music" in elementary school. Barbara Mandrell isn't the only one who can say honestly that she was country when country wasn't cool. I never could quite find my niche in the world of pop, rock and r&b. Every now and then an artist will appear that grabs my attention like Sheryle Crowe who is one of my favorites but my heart rests with clang and twang and hillbilly thang. And while many of those songs are now considered classics, to me the classics will always be songs like "Coat of Many Colors" and "Ocean Front Property." And if you don't know who sang those songs...Shame on you! hehehehehe
Comments
And you were convinced you had writers' block! Maybe I should harass you more often. Hehe...
And yes, I do know who those last two songs were by, and "Tubthumpers" was by some weird group named Wumba Chumba (it's the only song of theirs I know!), and I think you were refering to B52s? Another kind of weird group, though you gotta love Love Shack." LOL
Now, would it surprise you to know that one of my early music memories was a family John Denver sing-a-long during a severe thunderstorm-induced blackout? Or that I was once caught humming "Like a Rhinestone Cowboy" as I diligently went about my work in the first grade? And then there was "Afternoon Delight" - sung by a Canadian group Dave Letterman used to front. Can't stand him, don't ask me why my sister and I liked the song - we were MUCH too young to understand what the lyrics meant.
BTW, you really weren't missing much by NOT having MTV. My sisters watched a lot more of that than I ever did - though I do confess there was a time I could name almost any song on the radio by the first 10-15 seconds of music.
Hmmm...maybe I should consider writing about some of this on my own blog. Maybe.
;-)
~H.
And yeah, gotta love Love Shack. Too fun not to.