Exploring Launchcast

Snow on the car revisited, Wednesday 12:27 pm, coming out of the gym

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Marian introduced my to Launchcast on the weekend. Seems I must have tried it a while ago, because I had already rated a few artists, but so had she. I guess she must have used my Yahoo! login a few times before she figured it out for herself. So it took me a while to weed all the Korn and Limp Biskit out of my station.

My musical tastes are pretty eclectic, but my knowledge of music is not. I was raised on a steady selection of Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Brahms. Mom and Dad took me to concerts, too—the Windsor Symphony, the Windsor Light Opera, the Canadian National Ballet when it came to town—so I developed a deep appreciation of those genres. I did some exploring of my own and found other composers I liked: Sibelius, Vaughan Williams, Poulenc. The only popular albums I owned in 1982 were Diana Ross: Mahogany, and Judy Collins: Judith.

In grade 12 I had crush on my friend Don, who was an urban cowboy. He introduced me to country music, so for a couple years that was my rage. Then I left home for university and started to come out of my cultural shell. I went to dances. Nowadays if I hear a retro tune and know the name of the band and the lyrics of the song, it's a sure guess it was top 40s in 1983: Men Without Hats, Human League, Stevie Nicks, Sting, Toto, Duran Duran.

In August of 1983 I had a born again experience. Returning to second year university in September I joined an evangelical church that preached against Rock Music. In short order I threw out all my popular albums including, by extension, Kenny Rodgers and the Statler Brothers. Classical music escaped my pogrom. Soon my collection became augmented by the likes of Amy Grant and Keith Green. For the next 13 years, that was all I listened to. The only popular artist I tuned into during that period was Buffy Sainte-Marie, after hearing her perform in a community centre gymnasium at a powwow in Port Elgin, Ontario.

Jump to January 1996 and a married man coming out of the closet, hitting the dance floor at last. But I didn't have the time or resources to build a new CD collection, so while my tastes have expanded, I rarely know what I'm listening to. I picked up on Enya and Loreena McKennitt in a big way. I also love World music.

So this week I've been picking through the offerings on Launchcast and discovering a few bands that caught my fancy over the years, but I never got to know, like kd lang and Rufus Wainwright. My station needs a lot more refinement, but an eclectic mix is emerging.

So this is it. Warning: contains pop divas.