Music in my life....

Last week, I went for a dinner and came back with a ear fatigue.... Sounds odd, but rest assured it is very true. I had dinner with my mum then and since she was rather reluctant to go home immediately, we decided to stroll into the That CD Shop on the same level as the restaurant.... By the time we walk out, I had ear fatigue...

As you know That CD Shops has this row of speakers where they play some music to promote their series of compilation, and they were playing one of them then, and it basically a 'boombox" as they were playing some music that has lots and lots of bass in it, just like house music - not sure if it was in that category. Anyway, since Josh Groban released a new album recently, I thot it's a good opportunity to test it out (and see if it's worth getting). Boy was I wrong!

Now in this particular shop, the players which were available for testing were place opposite the speakers, although not directly. Furthermore, the headphones they had was some AKG headphones with a cloth covering over the ear area. I am not certain if the headphone comes like that or they place the cloth over it, but at that particular time, they actually turn up the volume of the "boombox", thus making it impossible to hear anything in the headphones (as it does not cover your ears properly, thus unable to insulate the sound - due to that piece of cloth).

Most of the time, I would listen to music via headphone at a level of at most 2 knots from no sound, because of the noise, I had difficulty in hearing, thus I had to turn the volume up to half the max level. However, with this setting, my ears are being bombarded with very loud sound. So by the end of it, I simply felt pain in my ears, and unable to assess the possibility of buy the album.

Immediately walked out of the shop and got out of the way from all the noise... Sigh... I cannot simply comprehend how people can turn up the volume of their players (ipod and knots) so much that the music can flowout from their earphones and, I can hear it clearly by standing next to the person. Don't they know that they can go deaf?!?!?!

So... Did I get the album? Nope... Yes, it's Josh Groban and I did buy his 1st album... But lately I think I am becoming more discerning in what I am buying... Not just because it's this so-and-so and I did like their previous (ok, may be previous-previous) album, does not mean I will like it... I mean, if you look at what I used to listen to you would might just understand where I stand.

I think I am a person who listens to different kind of music depending on moods... Of course, I would not listen certain category of music at all (like most of the metal music and house music), but I think I can say I did listen to almost all of them.

I started listening to music when I was very young... Now if you remember the predecessor of cassette tapes, most probably you are around my age... In those days, the tapes were 3/4 of the dimension of the VHS video tapes. Huge and chunky but contain songs from the period, and my mum used to play them in the car (when she did have a car then). However, at home, she would have quite a collection of LPs. So I grew up with songs from The Platters, Skeeter Davis, and even Tracy Huang. I also remembered every Christmas, she would play this LP that has those nice Christmas songs sung by this deep calm male voice whose name has skipped my mind. I used to love those songs, but I think I ruined the LP with the tip of a paper clip - but that's another story altogether....

Then, when I was in Pri 5, I got my own transistor with the familiar cassette tape player, along with 5 ABBA cassette tapes. Of course at that time, ABBA was at their peak, and thus started my long journey with different categories of music. I also remembered listening to country music cum rock and roll, due to the influent of "Donny and Marie Osmond show". Remember the "A little bit of country and little bit of rock and roll" song??? Then it was on to The Carpenters - which my mum would dispute that as she would say she listens to them, that's how I know of them... But well, maybe... Anyway... From there, it was the 80s with the electronic wave, where I was listening to Howard Jones among other artists, which include Level 42, Air Supply, etc. But I have to say I don't really follow any of them, just their songs that I like.

During this time, being a bookworm as I was, I had spent most of Saturdays in library and they started a video section. It was this section that introduced me to musicals. I got to watch musical movies like Grease, Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins to name some... I believe it was around this time that Phantom of the Opera raises it's curtains in London. However, I was not introduced to it till very much later, but I had tapes like Chess - the musical by Bjorn and Benny of ABBA fame. The very 1st Andrew Lloyd Webber musical that I saw on video was most probably "Cats", curtsey of the video library.

Then, during my time in polytechnic, I was introduced to heavy rock and I would say heavy metal music - one of my coursemate introduced me to it and he played it over and over again during those in-between classes. I clearly recall Def Leppard (I still like some of their playable ballads), and even Metallica (think they were the one who did Sandman); however that fadeout very, very quickly. I was also introduced to artists like Enya, George Winston and Yanni. I still have a few of Enya's album in my collection...

Anne Murray was the one who brought me back into the country music arena, which was followed by Grath Brooks, The Judds and Reba McEntire. Then Shania Twain came with her "Come on Over" which I had heard during a trip to HMV. I had a very good laugh over the lyrics in that album, and promptly bought the album... But no, I am not a fan of hers. It was just an album so out of the norm that I just had to have it.

I believe it was Sarah Brightman that got me started in the vocals arena. However, if listening to her albums, I cannot figure out where she fits. She had one album which was very classically linked - which give us the famous "Time to say goodbye" with Andrea Bocelli. Then it was onto a drama thematic "Eden", followed by "Luna" which I have no idea what, and then most recently, a very Arabic/Indian influenced "Harem". Of course there others like Laura Fygi, Susan Wong, Emi Fujita, and even Diana Krall.

There was also a period of time somewhere where the radio channel in my car was set to 92.4FM. Yup, classical music... Of course, there were those chessy remix done by Louis Clark and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra where, most would remember, giving us a few albums where they re-arranged the music to combined and given a basic rock drum beats to combine the entire arrangement together. I remember we even had school events dance choreographed to those music. In this era, the one left the most impression (and the only CD) I have was Tchaikovsky's "1812" Overtune. I suppose it was those cannon sound mixed into the music that got me interested - I have to say the version by Erich Kunzel & Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra with their digital cannons sound was the best I have heard so far... By the way, if you do play those music, it will sound familiar to me... Just don't expect me to know all the names... I might get the composer correctly, but not the names... Unless it's "1812" Overtune!!!!

I am certain by now, whoever knows me and read this would go... Ah ha! No "teng nang" music mentioned... Well, yes I am not a fan of Jay Chou or any other band/singer/whatever you have... That does not mean I don't listen. Heck, I think most of you (younger ones) would not have remember Fei Yu Qing, Gao Lin Feng, Liu Weng Zheng, Tian Nu, Yu Tian, etc... The thing is - as with the other music, I don't follow the artist, ok, other than ABBA and Carpenters; I just listen to individual songs. I do listen to them, in fact I have a couple of Danny Chan's CD, Jeff Chang, Sarah Chen and even Wang Jie's. But, I have lost interest in the newer market as somehow it does not appeal to me. But if you play whatever is on the CD in your car or home, and I am there, I will listen...

So... Where does that leaves me? Good question... I have no idea but I guess if you sit in my car, just be prepared to be "bored" if you don't like what I listen to on that day... I would have no idea what it will be... Just whatever strikes me as appropriate... I already had colleagues listening to country on one day, and vocals on another... I think I had classical recently, but not sure if anyone sat in the car then....

I recall this one incident on Tehpeng & Miz Snooze's wedding day at her parent's place before they had the tea ceremony:-
Tehpeng: Which group sang the song "Final Countdown"??
Me: Erm.... Europe.
The rest (Jie meis): *stun look* How she know?!?!??!