Hello, and welcome to the first edition of 40B40. Today I bring you “Mixtape,” an exploration of the development of my music taste. I wish I could play snippets of the songs as you read about them, but the playlist must do. I hope you enjoy it! Don’t forget to subscribe!
My CD and vinyl “collection,” a dozen items altogether, is gathering dust in my closet. I put away the record player Diana gave me for my birthday because the kids played “DJ” on it. Plus, now I can yell “Play Trolls World Tour” into my phone, and music starts playing within seconds. I know I sound like an older man, and that’s because I am. But, if you didn’t sit by the radio on the weekends with a ninety-minute cassette, index, and middle finger on the record and play buttons, respectively, ready for the DJ to stop talking so you could record the songs you liked, have you lived?
My parents didn’t have a music collection, nor did they have a great home audio system. We loved listening to the radio, though. My dad would have music on while washing the car or grilling. I liked the music he listened to because if it was good for Dad, it was good for me. And so I developed a taste for genres like norteño, banda, and Tejano music, which was all the rage in Mexico’s late eighties and early nineties. I was a big fan of Emilio Navaira, Bobby Pulido, and Selena, so I started wearing boots, a cowboy hat, and a huge belt buckle with a “W” on it.
My mom liked rock and roll songs in Spanish and disco music. I would listen to translated versions of “Blue suede shoes,” “Johnny B. Goode,” and “Good Golly, Miss Molly.” I thought they were pretty good back then, but my jaw dropped when I heard the original Elvis, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard versions. I remember thinking, “That’s why the lyrics sound so goofy in Spanish.” I liked disco a lot; the beat, the bass line, the brass, and the horns; what’s not to like? One of the first songs I learned in English was Gloria Gaynor’s “I will survive.”
In my early teens, wanting to find my musical taste, I started watching a lot of MTV, you know, when MTV used to show music videos. My cousins and I were really into Vanilla Ice and Michael Jackson. Then, they started teasing me about the boots and cowboy hat, so much so that I switched to vans, Dickies, and t-shirts. We dressed like skaters even though none of us knew how to skate. Then, one of my older cousins got me into “Control Machete,” a Mexican hip-hop band from Monterrey which made me feel like a rebel due to the amount of cursing in the lyrics.
Then in high school, thanks to Napster and my peers, I was introduced to ska and punk bands like “The Skatalites,” “Reel Big Fish,” and “Less Than Jake.” Eventually, I found “Los Fabulosos Cadillacs,” an Argentinian band, and “Manu Chao,” a French-Spanish singer. Both had a mix of ska and reggae, which eventually led me to discover “Bob Marley and The Wailers.” Next, I took a deep dive into Reggae in Spanish, listening to bands like “Cultura Profetica,” “Los Cafres,” “Los Pericos,” and “Gondwana.”
Everyone goes through a discovery phase, trying to listen to anything and everything about a particular artist. I did this with “The Beatles,” “The Ramones,” and “The Rolling Stones.” I was obsessed with “Across the Universe” and “The Beatles: Love” by Cirque du Soleil. The only time Diana and I have been to Las Vegas, I dragged her to that show. Back in college, I got free tickets to The Rolling Stones when they went to Monterrey as part of their “A Bigger Bang” tour, one of the biggest shows I’ve been to.
Concert going became a hobby during my college years and beyond. Saving up for music festivals, DJ sets, and live acts was the norm. My friends and I followed bands like “Plastilina Mosh,” “Kinky,” “Café Tacvba,” and “Los Amigos Invisibles.” The last three have come to Phoenix, and I’ve taken Diana to those shows. There’s something about sharing music and bands that were in your life before you met the love of your life. Diana has taken me to see “Sufjan Stevens” and “Ray LaMontagne,” both excellent musicians. And once, we got to see Zooey—“the one that got away”— Deschanel when “She & Him” was in town.
The last time I tried to keep up with new bands was when I discovered indie rock. I followed bands like “Franz Ferdinand,” “The Kooks,” “Phoenix,” “Mystery Jets,” and “Kings of Convenience” until we started having kids. After that, I’ve always been worried about not remembering what the lyrics of certain songs say, and one of the kids parrot a bad word, hence why we started playing a lot of Bossa Nova—because nobody in the house speaks Portuguese—and, eventually, Lo-Fi—which doesn’t even have lyrics. There’s even Catholic Lo-Fi, thanks to Matt Frad, and let me tell you, it’s not bad.
I started looking for kids’ music that didn’t suck when my son was born. Oddly enough, I got into the bands I found more than the kids. I tried playing “The Okee Dokee Brothers,” “Sonia de Los Santos,” and “Dan Zanes” to them, but they seem to like the soundtracks of movies they love more. This is the main reason I wanted to go through this musical journey. Because, recently, I would find myself humming or singing to the soundtrack of the movie “Rio” and think, “I used to have good music taste.”
I recently discovered “Anderson .Paak,” which gave me hope that I could still be my own person. I say this tongue-in-cheek. I love being a dad, even when I don’t get to pick the music we play in the car. On the other hand, I can’t wait to refer my kids to this essay when they ask me, “Dad, what music were you into growing up?” Who knows? Maybe I’ll eventually put the record player back in the living room and have listening parties together. Until then, “Play Trolls World Tour.”
Before you go
I have some questions for you.
Did you ever make someone a mixtape? If so, what was track #1?
Who are your top three favorite bands from all time?
If you could only bring one album to a deserted island, which one would you bring?
Did you go through a Beatles phase?
What band do I need to listen to right now?
“But, if you didn’t sit by the radio on the weekends with a ninety-minute cassette, index, and middle finger on the record and play buttons, respectively, ready for the DJ to stop talking so you could record the songs you liked, have you lived?”
This was a HUGE part of my childhood. I was born in 91. My mom had a decent CD and record collection but the radio was still a big deal in the Atlanta area. I vividly remember my brother and I waiting for Outkast or Ludacris to come on the radio so could record their songs. Even though we were not supposed to be listening to them…
1) I definitely made friends mix-CDS. No mixtapes because I guess I’m too young for that, as weird as that is to say… But the songs would be curated to those friends requests or what I thought they’d like. But I do remember Slash’s band Velvet Revolver making many appearances.
2) I’ll go with favorite *artists instead of strictly bands. In no particular order
- John Mayer is up there for me. His blues music is superb and both his pop/ singer-songwriter and blues lyrics are phenomenal. While I don’t love every song, overall I’d say his music gets better with time.
- Guns N’ Roses is definitely one of my favorites of all time, which is kind of surprising even to me. But their music taught me to love and appreciate others’ music both before and after their time. And there is a bit of nostalgia there because that was my mom’s favorite band.
- The Lone Bellow has become a huge favorite of mine. I was hooked from the very first note of their debut album back in 2013. I highly encourage you to check them out if you have any interest in Americana music and excellent three-part harmonies.
3) I would bring the album Half Moon Light by The Lone Bellow. The Lone Bellow will also server as my band you should check out now.
4) I went through my Beatles phase in 2020. My mom didn’t care for them. So in our single-parent home, they just weren’t given the light of day. But every artists I’ve ever loved has named them as an inspiration so at some point I obviously had to check them out. Their music became the soundtrack for my next two years which brought a massive career change/ moving back to my hometown and other family challenges. The Beatles have really come to mean a lot to me.
I will usually love any article about music even if it may not have been objectively interesting lol. but I genuinely enjoyed this one. Thanks for sharing it. God bless you and your family, brother!