Of course there are some interests that I actively explore more than others at different times, but no matter what or when their are a few interests that are permanent fixtures. If I was pushed to narrow it down to 3 they would undoubtedly be music, football and design.
Design is everywhere and since I first analysed a piece of typographic design a few years ago I’ve never been able to look at a letterhead since without at least one passing thought about the layout or the typeface. Football is pretty much self explanatory, 11 people on a field somewhere who can have more influence on the mood of my weekend probably more than they’d like to account for (and this season they’ve accounted for quite a few sombre ones). But music is without doubt my biggest interest and the most integral to pretty much everything I do.
I think in many ways my interest in music is a direct result of being brought up around it from an early age, Sunday afternoons have been synonymous with my mum swaying to Lovers Rock from as far back as I can remember. I inherited my mums taste for music but as I grew older dance, rnb and hip hop became my favoured genres. I’m an 80’s baby so of course I’m part of what is sometimes referred to as the MTV generation which is a reference to the time at which music video’s became largely influential.
When I was younger MTV was one of my favourite channels and like a lot of other people I used to make my own video mixtapes, lol their are certain videos even now that I can provide second by second running commentary to I’ve watched them that many times. But even though I enjoyed watching music videos I have always had an interest in music genres that weren’t accessible via the mainstream media channels, so what music sounded like always took precedence over what music looked like. As time’s gone on video’s have become increasingly influential in determining how successful an artist is and how their music is perceived.
I sometimes think that the problem now is that music is an audio artform yet it has become almost entirely visual, whereas before it seemed that video’s were used as a means of adding to the music it seems that now it’s become a way of compensating for music of poor quality. I hear people say quite often that they didn’t like a track up until they saw the video. This is probably a result of the way we tend to
I think this is why for the most part I’m drawn to music genres or artists in their early days before they’re exposed to the mainstream, the music takes centre stage because theirs very little else to sway your opinion. With that in mind I feel like I’m running a bit low on fresh music to listen to so I’d appreciate it if you’d drop me a comment, email or twitter me with any suggestions, thanks for reading.