Jammin’ With Josh: A Brief Explainer

This is going to be something I post each week on Friday. I realize that I rarely write about my musical interests. I thought about doing a Music Month, where I would countdown my favorite bands of all time, but to be honest, I am really bad at having favorites of anything. So instead, I just want to post something about a band I enjoy and some of the songs I like. Sometimes it will be a long, in-depth post and other times it will just be a few videos and me saying something like “hey, I like this band.”

I went through various stages of music love. As a kid, I listened to mostly stuff my parents liked. My dad introduced me to classic rock, but also to some of the 80s rock. It is funny, there is a point where most people just stop trying to listen to new music. I think for my dad it must have been towards the end of the 80s, he liked Bon Jovi and Poison (and Billy Idol, which I always found odd). And then all of a sudden, he just stopped.

As a kid in the 90s I listened to alt-rock (and some late 90s rap), which is probably where the bulk of musical love lies. However, around the end of my teen years and early 20s, I really loved the heavier stuff. I became obsessed with Metallica, right around the time I was 16 or 17. I even liked Limp Bizkit for a time. Feel free to mock me all you want. But dammit, you know you jammed out to “I did it all of the nookie…” I am sure you could say that there was some teenage/early adult angst there or something. Whatever.

After awhile though I started to mellow out, I listened to more and more jam bands, like O.A.R. and Dispatch (I swear I was not a stoner, just a fan of the music). My one roommate in college introduced me to punk and that was a whole new fun. So I have my different musical tastes, just like most people. And like most people, it probably depends on my mood as to what I plan to listen to on any given day.

Hell, for awhile, because of my long drive and the not picking up any radio stations, I would just listen to the pop stations. That was probably the point when I realized that I was becoming my dad. I had stopped expanding my musical horizons and just kept listening to the stuff I was familiar with. I stopped caring about discovering new bands or any of that stuff that 20-something Josh would obsess over. But you know, I realized I was jamming out to Taylor Swift and figured it was time to make a change. I started listening to different Pandora stations, found out that in the alternative rock world, there are new groups out there. And guess what? I like their music!

So anyways, that was a quick history of how my musical tastes have shifted over the years. Stop back tomorrow for the first installment!