Ellenecstasy's Journal

Main · Photos · Video · Journal · Profile · friends · Comments · Search

July 26, 2007

Elle's Music History [important]

"If for one minute you think you're better than a sixteen year old girl in a Green Day t-shirt, you are sorely mistaken. Remember the first time you went to a show and saw your favorite band. You wore their shirt, and sang every word. You didn't know anything about scene politics, haircuts, or what was cool. All you knew was that this music made you feel different from anyone you shared a locker with. Someone finally understood you. This is what music is about." - Gerard Way, My Chemical Romance.

__________________

Music is a very important part of my life, and over the years things have changed, and things have been added. I thought it was important to go through my music history, starting from what I was listening to when I was a toddler to where I am now...

ELLE'S MUSIC HISTORY

First off, my parents have a lot to do with what I listen to.
My mum listened/listens to a lot of different stuff. She was into the 80's a lot...but "good 80's" if you're picking up what I'm putting down. She was the rock/pop/modern stuff out of my Mum and Dad. She liked ALL the bands above…alot of INXS, Cyndi Lauper and just..ugh everything. It was so rad.

My dad on the other hand "nothing beats brit-pop". He was/is a huge Morrissey fan. He loved David Bowie. He saw David Bowie in concert he says. He loved the Clash and The Cure. He LOVED Jarvis and Pulp.

Every Saturday and Sunday we would watch Rage and other music clip shows together...and he'd tell me stuff about all the bands. We did that all the damn time. Haha I remember taping this Pulp video where they were all on roller-skates. Dad had a lot of music video tapes.

I was six years old when, for Christmas I received my first music that was my own. It was Britney Spears, Back Street Boys, Alley McBeal Soundtrack (wtf haha) and Ricky Martin; equip with a portable radio/tape player thingo. I loved it SO much.
They both did so much for me when I was little. I thank them so much for getting me into music that young.

The bands and musicians I was exposed by my parents and listened to for as long as I can remember were:
*The Smiths
*Sinead O'Connor
*The Clash
*The Cure
*Jarvis Cocker/Pulp
*The Pixies
*Billy Bragg
*Elvis Costello
* UK Squeeze
*Rolling Stones

Then I started figuring out what I liked.
As a lot of people when I started school I was into the typical 90's stuff.
Mainly: The Spice Girls, Britney Spears, Aqua and No Doubt.

I was a huge Britney fan for AGES through primary school. I still do adore her. I think she's awesome. I listened to her ALOT in primary school, at least for the first few years. I was still listening to mum and dad's music and ALOT of the charts. I hadn't found something that I wanted to invest myself in. I didn't really know how anyway. It was odd. I listened to the radio a lot. This was up to about I was 10 or whatever.

Then...came Hilary Duff. I was a HUGE Hilary Duff fan. I lost my concert virginity to her when I was 11. I thought she was so awesome. Seriously, I loved her so much.

Then. Thank god. Came The Killers .I discovered them...in...2004 I believe. I heard Somebody Told Me on the radio and was really into it. Then Mr. Brightside, and then Smile Like You mean it. Then I got their album. It actually took me a long time to listen to the entire album…which is crazy. I never do that. I always listen to the singles and then move on. That was my first BAND obsession. Dude, just...they're they fucking Killers. My god...they are amazing. I was heavily heavily into them. I still am. I think they are incredible. Everything about them just blows me away. They helped me through a lot times when I was going through some shit too... I Iove them even more for that.

Also from listening to The Killers, I discovered a lot of other stuff. I went through an indie/brit-pop/alternative stage for a long long time. But I still listened to a lot of new modern bands too.

Mainly: The Killers, Kaiser Chiefs, White Stripes, The Strokes, Morrissey, Franz Ferdinand, Death Cab For Cutie, Artic Monkeys. but it was mainly just KillersKillersKillers.

I was taping an MTV awards show one time, taping it as The Killers were nominated and were going to perform. They were nominated for Best Rock Video and right after Mr. Brightside came ..:NAMESPACE PREFIX = ST1 />'Helena' by My Chemical Romance. It was like, a 10 second snippet of the clip, but that song was just "wow" to me.

I thought My Chemical Romance it sounded amazing. At the time I thought they looked interesting too… very dark and intriguing and whatnot. So I went on and downloaded Helena…then I'm Not Okay...Thank you for The Venom, Ghost Of You and Honey.

My life changed after that. I had found MCR. I downloaded the first album and second album and instantly fell in love with it. It was something I related to on so many levels, it was like they were saying everything I had ever thought or felt in my life. I can't properly explain how much they helped me…especially in 2006. Hmm… well I had a lot of things going on. But wow. They changed me, helped me, and saved me so much no matter how cliché that sounds. I wont go into why or how at the moment, but finding them really did change me life so much. I was so happy I found them. Just…everything changed drastically.

This was sometime in 2005 when I found them. I brought 'Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge' in Goulburn, which was the first MCR album I had properly brought. I knew of absolutely no fans around my area, and things were still extremely bad (regardless of mcr, things had to happen) so I got into music more than I ever had. I had no real friends. And music was something I could rely on so I got into more stuff.

Still in 2005/2006 I was into a lot of music from early on…still not into really old school punk, and I wasn't into screamo or hardcore at all.

Around mid 2006 I discovered a tonne of music that was new to me. Much more old school stuff, I got into more punk/hardcore/screamo stuff…which was weird at first. My music taste hasn't really changed since then except I've gotten into more electronic rock now. My parents are really supportive of most of what I listen to now, they actually really love most of it too.

At the moment I'm exploring a lot of genres and loving them all. I don't think you should limit yourself with the music you listen to, and you don't necessarily have to categorize every band you DO listen to. Blocking yourself off from other genres so you don't get discriminated for liking something else is something I've never done and probably will never do. Frank Iero said something like "Its all rock and roll anyway, so why push people away"…and I think that applies not just to the music "scenes" but music in general. It's all music. That's all that matters. Variety is everything.

I still listen to Britney Spears a lot…actually I still listen to everything I listened to in the past...except for Hilary Duff I suppose. It doesn't matter what's 'cool'. Like fucking Fergie and Slipknot if you like them both, don't feel like you have to choose one 'musical taste'. Don't stop liking a band because they are having commercial success. I have liked The Killers for over 3 years now, and I still remember the days where no one had even heard of them, let alone listened to them. Same with My Chem. And I don't feel any pressure to stop liking them because they are becoming more popular. All these bands deserve to be huge. People who have been out there street-teaming, saying no one no's what bands they listen to, and then when they do, they ditch them and call them "sellouts" who are "have turned terribly mainstream" I don't understand.

It's not about how many other people like them, it's not about how many people don't like them, it's about what you get from them. What you get from music...your emotionally connection and response to every song a band sings. That's what's important. Music is exactly what you want it to be.

xoep.

[ this day 6 months was the best day ever :) ]

Tags: britney spears, ellenecstasy, frank iero, gerard way, history, mcr, music, the killers

Facebook MySpace Twitter

Posted on 07/26/2007 10:20 AM Comments (0)

July 18, 2007

Sarah Blasko Concert.

Um..I saw Sarah Blasko last week. Thought I'd put something on here =]

Me and mum drove to venue. I actually really like the opening act. Some of the songs were played with his band, The Devoted Few, and others were solos. It was very soft, synthy, dreamy performance, including both acoustic and electric songs. I really enjoyed it. The singer/guitarist, Ben, was really funny, he had a good stage prescence.

I have never seen legs as skinny has his before :O

Sarah Blasko came out. She looked stunning. I swear she can wear vintage so well and she has this whole natural look thing. She was very pretty.
She sang very very well. Like woah. She is definitely my favourite Australian female singer at the moment. Her voice is so unique and calming, yet you can listen to it and not get bored.
She has an incredible voice. I love it. The band was extremely good too.

She did stuff off her first album, her latest album AND Sarah even covered "Flame Trees" (originally done by Cold Chisel). I was so excited! She did an awesome job too. I believe you can find the studio version in the 'Little Fish' soundtrack She was very polite in between songs too. It was an extremely intimate show. She seemed kinda awkward on stage, like she didn't know where to put her hands or move. But I've heard thats how she performs always, its like her thing...so that was rad.

She uses alot of instruments in her shows too. She played guitar, but her band, they were very versitle and used a lot of instruments. There was a lot of simple percussion, which was aweome, still had the synth/keyboard. Some of the other percussion instruments seemed almost..childish..but ..maybe simple is a better way to explain it. It was very good though. (reminded me of the song Who Let You Go? - The Killers..how well simple pieces of music with child-like instruments can produce a fantastic song) would know Overall is was very very good and got the thumbs up.

Ahh Sarah. I love you so.