I've been in a rut for a long time now. For about 4 years, I haven't bought any new music at all, and in fact didn't really even listen to much music. After I recently got an iPod, I started listening much more, and now I'm filled with a desire to expand my collection.
It's not enough to expand it with further CD's from my favorite artists. That's good, but not really enough. I don't want to be a 30 year old who doesn't listen to any group that it less then 10 years old. That's too close to becoming a typical crotchety old person who hates all new music. Although I don't think it's possible to say "This new stuff isn't music, now Throbbing Gristle - that's music!".
So I've tried to branch out. Once thing I've discovered is that there is a whole new genre called synthpunk. Evidently, they consider my favorite artist, Foetus, to be a sort of "grandfather" of the genre. So this is a good sign. I got one fairly well-known example of the genre, Oakland's The Phantom Limbs. I have two albums so far, and it is a strange sound. Synthpunk is a good word to describe it, since it has a lot of synths, and the sound is very messy like good punk music. And I can't understand the words at all. But hopefully it's a good introduction for more genres to explore. I'd also like to get into other newer genres, but I hate to spend my money on CD's that I have no idea if I'll like or not. Right now I'm hoping more of the newer-genre music becomes available on iTunes so I can at least listen to excerpts.
On Dec 31st, I went to Rasputin Music on Powell St., and I was distressed to see that my favorite groups were lumped into the "Gothic" category. Argh! Foetus is NOT gothic. Or perhaps I'm just in denial that I'm really a Goth dude. Time to start wearing black and having a poofy haircut...
Posted by ahyatt at January 2, 2004 08:56 AM