I’ve never known what I’d call the type of music I enjoy. Back when I was in high school it was whatever you’d call what that Snow guy was doing (also see the Jim Carrey Spoof). About the same time I enjoyed a very embarrassing singer named Gillum who happened to be the triumvirate of terrible nineties music all in one annoying package, a white Christian rapper. I’m including the video, but please only watch if you have a strong constitution or no longer value the will to live.

If you’re extra brave, skip back to the beginning and watch the intro…

I have to give my friend Ben Fuller credit for at the time pointing out that my favourite rapper wasn’t actually very good. If only I’d listened.

From there it was down hill for a few years. Until I reached my twenties. I’m not sure my taste was much better, but I happened to stumble on some music I loved. Still Christian stuff, but somewhat better. For a doubting Christian, there was nothing better than Chris Rice’s Smell the Color 9, and I LOVED Questions for Heaven.

I have to say though, my current taste in music is very different.

Somewhere in the last little while I’ve developed a taste for what I’m told is dance/electronica (well that’s what hey call it in iTunes). The problem is, that most music that pops up when I go looking under that category is repetitive synthy stuff that does nothing for me. The common link with a lot of the stuff I seek out is that old-timey sound from the 1920’s that’s associated with the Charleston. It’s full of muted trumpets and energetic beats. But really, anything energetic and slightly old timey really gets me.

Listen to bei mir bist du schön by Waldeck, Back and Forth by Doctor Steel, and Come on a My House by Nasty Tales and his Orchestra to get a feel for my absolute favourite sort of music.

That’s not to say I haven’t got wider taste than a subset of electronica. My iPhone Genius pulls up equal measures of Lisa Mitchell, Bertie Blackman, Gotye, Regina Spektor, Emiliana Torrini… I think I may have a thing for soft sounding women (sorry to lump you in there Wouter). I even (shamefully) purchased the Voodoo Child song with that woman from Neighbours ‘cause it sounded fun at the time.

I’m a fan of the themes of my favourite TV shows (yes I listen to them as music, but if it includes the terrific new Doctor Who theme by Murray Gold you can understand right?). But I think this stems from my upbringing on classical music that somehow got pushed to the side by awful whiteboy rap. It’s cliched but I love Pachelbel’s Canon in D,¹ and the Dance of the Knights from Romeo and Juliet by Prokofiev.

My mother shared the Mamas and Papas with us, and I picked up a love of silly songs somewhere along the way too.

All in all I think my musical taste is pretty varied. I think like most people it incorporates a lot of stuff that made me feel good when I needed it at one time or another, or has memories attached. If you hunt through my site or my Twitter and Blip accounts you’ll find a bunch of other stuff I really enjoy too.

I’ll leave you with a new song that I’m enjoying a bit at the moment. It’s not my absolute favourite, but it’s pretty high up there, and very fun. It’s by an Aussie artist called Unkle Ho. It’s called Big Bad Rag, and has more of that trumpety old timey goodness I was talking about.

And it’s listed as Hip-Hop in iTunes, so I don’t know, although it reminds me of something I tweeted

I like… What’s hip-hop called when people don’t ruin it by talking > over the top of the music?

Sorry Hip-Hop fans.

This post was inspired by discussion with Elle leading up to her posting “You are a radio star..