my background is similar to john's in a lot of ways.. my parents raised me
on the pop music they listened to when they were young..i.e. almost
everything i listen to now..motown, the kinks, the beatles, etc. of course
i didnt appreciate it very much then, and moved on to find my own niche...
as early as 11 or 12 years old, i got really into metal..slayer, kreator,
iron maiden, et. al.. funny, i know. i laugh hard at this whole metal
revival thats been happening for the last couple of years (mainly due to
the popularity of grindcore and black metal), because i had that mentality
in 6th grade.
after metal, for whatever reason, came pop music...primarily REM and the
smiths..from there i found indie/britpop..everything from depeche mode to
the pixies to ride. i was happy, thinking i was "alternative" and hip in
jr. high and my early high school years...my high school was a tiny one
specialized for humanities students, so there was a small handful of us
listening to indie and sharing tapes.. about midway through high school, i
was introduced to punk and hardcore, as john was.. in NYC it was kind of
hard to be in high school and NOT be exposed to hardcore in some way..and
like many others, i was sucked in... cut my hair, went straight-edge, went
vegan, skated, .. the whole 9... til this day, i still have ties with the
hardcore scene, although its very very different now than it was then...
during the summer of 1998, i went to london, met and fell in love with a
woman who rekindled my love for british pop, and so on. she also took me to
60's nights there, and the rest is history... i quickly becamse obsessed
with northern soul, and record collecting and researched modernism until my
eyes were ready to fall out...became more style conscious, and in my last
year of school, took some modern art and architecture courses to complete
my fine arts degree. the woman came and went, but the seed she planted
flourished.
at the same time, ive held onto some of my punk ideals, volunteering at DIY
punk spaces, playing in punk bands, etc. youd be surprised at how many of
these hardcore kids are really interested in and knowledgable about
traditional mod culture.. --and, so here i am now.. conversing with, and
meeting mods around the world, spinning soul wherever theyll let me, and
basically coming full circle.. so, if i have to trace my subculture roots,
it would go something like this... 60's pop to metal to indie/britpop to
punk and hardcore to indie/britpop to 60's soul and pop.
hope i didnt bore too many of you. if anyone wants to email me privately,
feel free to.
billy
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