The Gang's All Here

A while back, just before high school maybe, when I thought I'd established my musical taste, when I felt pretty comfortable with the genre I'd chosen and didn't expect to add too many more artists to my collection I realized I'd pigeon holed myself. I did not have one female musician in my entire collection of music. Let us disregard that, at the time, I had settled on "alternative rock" and was only willing to listen to ten bands (nine of which played on wbcn boston - highlights include nirvana and godsmack). Let us also disregard my lack of exposure (my experience, to that point, was wbcn and the disney sing-alongs my toddler siblings loved so much). The point is: no female artists.

Then my cousin gave me all her old cassettes. A whole basket full of them. After pawing through such old, and clearly out-of-date groups The Police, Genesis, AC/DC, Guns n Roses, and Aerosmith I found a few gems, like The Offspring, Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band, and, Alanis Morissette. Lo and behold, a female rock star. Adding a second gender to my collection was not the goal, I just wanted some good music, and "Jagged Little Pill" was it.

Young and stupid. That was me. I'd based my "taste" not on the quality of the music but on the parameters the music was defined by: was it grunge? was it new? was the band "cool?" I was wrong.

A little older, and probaby just as stupid. That's me now. Except for that small realization that opened the world of music to me (well, that one realization and a girlfriend I had in college, she helped a lot too). And now I'll give anything a try. Sure, I'm settling into a pattern, slowly drifting into "classic rock" (like queen, like the who, like that's right, AC/DC) but no longer to the exclusion of other genres or artists. Thank goodness for that.

Oh, the reason I bring it up is because, now, I still don't have many female artists in my collection. Alanis, Sarah Harmer, Ani DiFranco, and that might be it. Just something I was thinking about.

-Tom

recommended downloads:
Alanis Morissette, One Hand In My Pocket
and
Oasis, Hey Hey, My My (Neil Young cover)