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I vividly remember the weekends I spent in my parents house growing up from a child during the 1960's all the way to my moving out to go to university in 1981. I can summarize them in one way with regards to music: essentially, not to my liking whatsoever.

What happened every weekend, and I mean EVERY weekend, in that household was that I was exposed to two types of music that I had absolutely no interest whatsoever in paying any attention to. But since I wasn't audibly challenged (with the exception of when my parents were talking/yelling at me to get me to do something) I had no choice but to listen to the music that was routinely and regularly piped throughout the house on my Dad's large stereo system.

That is, on Saturday's my Mother had her way with the records and record albums. And every single one of them was country and western music. Why? Because that was what my Mother listened to as she grew up on the reservation and throughout her younger adult years.

Now, I'm not talking the achy-breaky country western fluff that is played on most radio and satellite stations nowadays and trying to pass itself off as 'Country Music Favorites'. No. Uh-uh.

What I was subjected to over the thousand Saturdays in that household were old-time country and western tunes put out by the (mostly dead) artists of the early- to mid-twentieth century. Hank Williams Sr., Johnny Cash, Johnny Horton, Charlie Pride, Hank Snow - to name a few that came to mind.

Every Saturday. For years. Over and over. And I was only a KID.

I think you get the point.

Now, let's move on to the Sunday routine...

~~~~

That was Dad's day. And my Dad was born and raised in Germany, the country with a history dating back to the classical (music) era. So it's no wonder that classical music is all that he listened to virtually from birth. I assume in Germany during the mid-twentieth century there weren't a whole lot of other choices for music deep in the heart of Europe. So classical music was what flowed in my Dad's blood. And it showed.

Every Sunday. Classical music. Again, the great classical composers were blasted through the small house we lived in throughout my childhood. Every Sunday. To no end. Non-stop. Again, I think you get the point. And my take on it too. Non-stop...classical.

So, did I learn to love country and western music? No.

Did I learn to love classical music and seek it out wherever I went when I was old enough to do so? Not by a long shot.

Instead, I rebelled. In my own way. How?

By the time I was a teenager I sought out 'hard rock' and 'heavy metal' music. Genuine 'headbanger' music, as it sometimes is called - even today. And I avoided even thinking about liking any other type of music, especially country/western and classical.

And you know what? I actually enjoyed that music. I wore the AC/DC t-shirts. I went to the Van Halen concert when they were in town. I listened to the Ted Nugent cassettes and adored ZZTop. It was all pretty cool. Or so I thought.

Then I went to university and I was exposed to a whole new genre of music. Pop. Light rock. Easy listening. Christian. Punk. Disco. This time really opened my eyes and I found myself rapidly drifting away from the likings of my teenage years to some of these new sounds.

And, again, as I matured more into my twenties and towards hitting thirty, I began to listen to New Age music, acoustic music, light jazz, and light rock. The shift of that time was interesting as I found myself in disbelief and asking myself 'what I ever saw' in hard rock.

But now that I'm, er, more 'mature' in years I'm undergoing another shift in auditory tastes.

Prior to now, I pretty much only listened to light jazz and very light rock with vocals. No intensity needed here. Just-keep-me-calm-and-don't-yell-at-me-or-I'll-turn-you-off kind of music.

That was my taste for almost the past ten years. But, as I said, things recently started to change.

Now, I find that I'm seeking out music that is both relatively calming and isn't 'speaking' to me with vocals as I don't really care right now to be forced to hear the lyrics and words that someone else wrote. (Why? Because I'm finding that I focus on the words and lyrics instead of the beauty of the sound. I guess that might explain why Enya is such an immensely globally popular artist. In my opinion, Enya is today's version of a classical composer.)

So, what is all this resulting in? Well, as I stated at the beginning of this article - I'm actually starting to seek out...classical music. Yes. Weird. I know.

After twenty years of kind of doing whatever I can to avoid it, I'm now seeking it out.

And it's as if I'm discovering it for the first time. I listen to the songs on the radio and on the cable television's classical music channel and I find that I know about one-quarter of the songs being played because I heard them played so many times by my Dad. They're like a distant sweet memory from my childhood coming back to tease me.

In a way, it's very amusing to me. I know that my Dad will get a kick out of this when he reads my words here and knows that this isn't just a 'phase' his youngest son is going through.

Instead, like a fine wine, it's a maturation that has been ever so slowly and quietly occurring over a few decades now. But it's only now that the wine has begun to offer a taste that is ever so appealing to this, ah, 'enophile'.

Life is funny sometimes how it goes, isn't it?

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

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