Musical influences

I’ve never been in touch with music very much when I was young. Sometimes, the radio would be on and I would hear “kleinkunst” music. To this day, certain songs linger in my mind every now and then. Even during puberty when it was “most uncool” to listen to Kleinkunst, I would still enjoy a song every now and then.

I don’t know any way to translate “kleinkunst” so maybe the best way for you to know what it is, is listen to it. Some noteable performers in the genre are Raymond van het Groenewoud (Bleke Lena, Bierfeesten, Brussels by Night, Maskes), Johan Verminnen (Met
7 aan tafel, Rue des Bouchers, Bar Tropical) amongst others. There are litterally tens of performers, both male and female, that I am not listing. What touches me most about these songs and performers is the honesty and sometimes the simple yet moving arrangements. If I had to, I’d compare it to Kenny Rogers’ “Coward of the County” which, in my mind, is a brilliant song. It tells a heart-tearing story, sang in a way that makes it sound trivial and terrible at the same time.

Later, when I hit puberty in the Eighties, I came upon all the different music styles available. My tape collection in the Eighties contained almost everything that was available and that was regarded “not so mainstream” music. Iron Maiden, Twisted Sister, Scorpions, Accept, Metallica, Judas Priest and Venom were seated between the Cure, Sisters of Mercy, D.A.F. (Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft), Echo and the Bunnymen, T.C. Matic and Anne Clark who, in turn, were seated amongst Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne and Neil Young who were accompanied by other names such as Bronski Beat, Nik Kershaw, Scandal (ft. Patty Smyth, the wife of John Mc Enroe). At the end of the Eighties, I got a guitar and got blown away by Tony Macalpine, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Jason Becker, Marty Friedman and a lot of other shredders.

Then came the nineties and with it came Pop-Punk such as Green Day and the Offspring, Grunge with Pearl Jam and Nirvana and I let metal go for a long while, with the possible exception of Helloween and Metallica. Death, Trash, Speed, Black and the other genres weren’t my cup of tea. I hung on to the alternative scene of the Nineties with Veruca Salt, Cake, Placebo, Eels, Melissa Etheridge while still keeping a spot for the softer music styles such as Roch Voisine and Patricia Kaas.

It wasn’t until well into the new century that my love for metal was rekindled. Bands such as Stratovarius and Within Temptation showed me that melodic metal was still well and truly alive. The music was also easier to come by, thanks to the Internet. You didn’t have to hang out in specialised stores or dank and dusty pubs to come by your daily dose of metal anymore.

These days, Stream of Passion’s “Embrace the Storm” and Nemesea’s “Mana” are among my favourites. But I never forget the old favourites. I have a large CD collection and most of it has found its way onto my hard drive one way or another.

I can’t believe I just typed all that, and you probably can’t believe you just read all of that.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 15th, 2006 at 18:17:00 and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.