Nicola’s Music Taste

You may or may not notice a pattern emerging when going through my blog that Sarah Brightman makes many appearences.  Why?  Well, first of all, I have over 50 albums of hers or album she is involved in to write reviews about.  I have barely even started.  Her discography is also difficult to follow, so I have some guides as well as reviews.  There will be a lot more to come.  I start with Brightman, simply because she shaped my music taste that I have today.  This is a long page (I break one of the most strict rules of blog writing, and that’s keep posts short – I find that very difficult), so if you want to pick out your interests I write of the following genres (in this order):-

• Sarah Brightman
• Classical
• Classical Crossover
• Choral
• Musicals
• Film Scores
• New Age
• J-Pop
• Symphonic Metal
• Dark Wave/Industiral
• Alternative Rock
• Classic Rock
• Singer-Songwriter
• Pop

SARAH BRIGHTMAN
I first came across Sarah Brightman when I was fifteen or sixteen.  At the time, I was in love with Final Fantasy (well, to be honest, I still am) and during the hard, dial-up times, in the year 2000 I downloaded some fan made music videos of the Final Fantasy series.  One of these videos used Brightman’s ‘Deliver Me’ from her Eden album.  I fell in love with the song, and then started my real music education outside of mainstream pop music (I loved Backstreet Boys, Boyzone and NSYNC at the time).

I started with Brightman’s Fly which still remains one of my favourites today.  There was this … opera wobbling on two of the tracks, so I skipped them (‘A Question of Honour’ and ‘Time To Say Goodbye’ – hardly operatic at all, but it seemed so then).  I then grabbed hold of The Best of 1990-2000.  Some great songs on there, but still, some opera here and there.  I skipped them.  I then ordered in ignorance Classics, which, obviously was practically all classical.  I cooled off a little while, but within the next few months I would play ‘Time To Say Goodbye’ from my favourite album, Fly, and in my curiousity, would read along with the italian lyrics in the booklet lyric.  Then I would learn the whole thing by heart.  Then I’d listen to ‘A Question of Honour’ and would find it awesome. Brightman was slowly, but ever so surely, introducing me very lightly to classical music.

With a broadening taste, I ventured out into other light classical artists, such as Charlotte Church, Russell Watson and a then very unknown singer called Hayley Westenra.  A friend sent her two albums of hers before she had even released Pure.  All the while, my obsession with Brightman grew, as I was determined to get every single album she had released.  Back in a time when she was less known, and internet shopping less pronounced, it was next to impossible to find As I Came of Age, The Songs That Got Away, Trees They Grow So High, and Sarah Brightman Sings the Songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber.  There was also this difficult business of Fly II, which was only sold on the La Luna tour, a tour I had narrowly missed.  Despite these difficulties, I got all of these albums in a variety of ways.  As I Came of Age was sent to me by a generous Canadian member on the SB2K forums, whilst Fly II, by the strike of luck whilst I was looking, was briefly put up on the Official Store on Brightman’s website.

In 2003 I was endure the excitement for the first time in anticipating a brand new studio album from Brightman.  Harem was not a disappointment, and the tour that followed the next year was astounding.  Brightman was still very much unknown in her UK homeland, so to see all her posters and banners up on the outside of Wembley Arena was an emotional thing to behold.

After the tour, years went by in silence.  Andrew Lloyd Webber released some more albums with Brightman singing his songs, and a few compilations came out in 2006.  In all, there was not much to get excited about.  I filled up the time by buying odd bits and pieces from her discography, such as singles, albums she had featured on, or records from her Hot Gossip era – I already had all of her albums.  During the four year gap, I continued to explore many music genres with an open mind, which I could only thank Brightman for.  I could not tell you what was in the charts since 2003.  I never had music channels on anymore.  The only music I listened to was the obscure music I bought from amazon.  She eventually came back with a vengence in 2008 with two new studio albums.  She has also done heavy promotion in the UK two year earlier for the release of her latest Best Of, so she is more well known here now then ever, and her albums are even charting well.

CLASSICAL
I ventured out into more heavy classical for starters.  I am still not a purist, but over the past year I have truly submerged myself into the great composers, particularly Tchaikovsky, J.S. Bach, Beethoven and Mozart.  I love opera and ballet suites, and I tend to favour the Romantic and Classical periods.  I’m not too fond of concertos.

CLASSICAL CROSSOVER
My classical crossover tastes have toned down, as there was an overkill of new albums by new artists cashing in on the fad.  Most were just the same albums with the same tracklist over and over again. I bought albums by Cortes, Katherine Jenkins, Keedie, Emma Shapplin, Becky Jane Taylor, Natasha Marsh, Izzy, Amy Nuttall, OperaBabes, Anne Buckley, Andrea Ross, Lauren Waterworth, Caroline Lavelle, Andrea Bocelli, Vittorio Grigolo, Josh Groban, Mario Frangelouis, Aled Jones, All Angels, The Choirboys, Triniti, G4, Il Divo, Amici Forever, Vanessa-Mae, Myleene Klass, Lucia Micaraelli, Mary Fahl…. it just went on and on and on.  I hold some of these artists in high esteem, but mostly?  Just marketing puppets.  I highly respect Josh Groban, Emma Shapplin, Keedie and Vanessa-Mae.  I have all of Katherine Jenkins album, but I am still not quite sure why I get them.  I used to be an avid fan of Hayley Westenra, I have seen her live more than any other artist, and I have met her and her family.  But she no longer holds my interest.  I actually like Charlotte Church better in her pop career, but she seems to have abandoned it.  Russell Watson is doing the whole big band nonsense these days.  Josh Groban, who is very loosely termed as classical crossover is still going strong and he is still fantastic.  Keedie was dropped from EMI after her debut in 2004 and is still trying to get her career back on track.  Emma Shapplin has not released anything since 2002 and there has been no news of her since.  Vanessa-Mae has also been quiet since 2004.  No.  My time with classical crossover has well and truly cooled.

CHORAL
I became interested in choral works due to Brightman’s involvement with Gregorian.  I now listen to many like them such as Era, Enigma, Lesiem, Adiemus, Cantamus and Scala & Kolacny Brothers.  I couldn’t pick a favourite between Era and Gregorian, but I can easily say that I adore Cantamus and are by far my favourite girls choir.  They actually made one of my most favourite albums of all time, called Aurora.

MUSICALS
I also got into musical theatre (thanks for Brightman and her involvement in it, and her many Andrew Lloyd Webber collaboration albums) and started to frequent the West End.  Naturally, I am more interested in ALW musicals, but I have gone to see others such as Blood Brothers and Les Miserables.

FILM SCORES
I have also become a film score nut.  Patrick Doyle and Dario Marianelli are among my favourite film composers.   Initially, I was taken in by Hans Zimmer due to his Gladiator and The Lion King scores, but thanks to A Little Princess, directed by Alfonso Cuáron and scored by Partick Doyle, I became determined to obtain all his his scores.  The score to Pride and Prejudice, directed by Joe Wright, put Marianelli into my collection, and Atonement confirmed his right to be there.

NEW AGE
New age and electronica have also come under my radar.  I hinted at Enigma before but other groups like Deep Forest and Scripture are there.  I was very loosely place Enya there, though I have not thoroughly enjoyed her latest offerings.

J-POP
J-Pop, thanks to the Final Fantasy fandom also makes an appearence in my CD collection, Utada and Ayumi Hamasaki are in there.  As is Faye Wong, though she is Chinese.  But this little group introduced me to Sweetbox who are American/European, but only have success in Asia.  The former pop duo of GEO and Jade Valerie (who have since left the project) created catchy pop hooks based on classical pieces.

SYMPHONIC METAL
My fondness for classical music has carried over to the epic type propertions that is symphonic metal.  Mostly female-fronted.  This started as an Evanescence and Linkin Park thing, neither of which belong to the metal genre.  Evanescence are known as alternative, whilst Linkin Park nu-metal.  But like Brightman was a stepping stone to classical, so there were my stepping stone to metal.  Not that a metal purist would ever say that my taste does favour metal, as they would call the bands I like bubble gum pop.  Of course, they are not bubble gum at all, but elitists seem to believe that if a band even hints at a radio friendly song, they lose all credibility.  This is an attitude I have come across mostly on the fantastic site called Last.fm.  Unfortunately, the site is not responsible for all of its users.  But back to the genre at hand, I have Nightwish, Within Temptation, Leaves’ Eyes, Lacuna Coil, Creed and Dream Theater in my collection.  So few artists, but many albums – it takes up a whole shelf in my collection.  Within Temptation are probably my favourite, but if we want to speak about individual songs, Nightwish takes the prize.  I would barely include Tarja in this genre, but I know not where else to put her, but I am glad that she is no longer in Nightwish, as her My Winter Storm ranks among my top albums.

DARK-WAVE/INDUSTRIAL
Going along the same kind of route of… erm… gothicness, I was recommended my next big artist in early 2007.  Emilie Autumn.  I have known of her only a short time, but I have already been to three of her gigs.  Autumn is hard to categorise, but she is mostly put with the dark wave/industrial crowd that also includes The Birthday Massacre and L’Ame Immortelle.  Both of who also feature in my collection now.  Emilie Autumn is a huge contender for Brightman’s crown as my favourite artist, and you’ll also find many posts about her on my blog.

ALTERNATIVE ROCK
Also, thanks to Final Fantasy, alternative rock, or, American mild rock bands caught my attention.  Vertical Horizon was also played on a Final Fantasy music video.  This led to the purchase of their excellent album Everything You Want.  It was one of my favourite albums for a very long time, but another band took their crown some years down the line.  Matchbox Twenty are by far my favourite band.  Whilst Vertical Horizon could only boast of one good album, as all of their others fell flat, Matchbox Twenty are consistent.  Rob Thomas, the bands frontman has also come out with an excellent solo album.  Other bands in my collection include The Calling, Three Doors Down and Five For Fighting.

CLASSIC ROCK
I am very mildly into classic rock.  But perhaps it would be easier to describe it as 80′s power ballads.  Bon Jovi is my favourite of this genre but I am also fond of Foreigner, Depeche Mode, Genesis and The Police.

SINGER-SONGWRITER
The term ‘singer-songwriter’ is very problematic.  In the most modern sense of the word that includes artists like James Morrison or Damien Rice, I actually detest the genre, if that’s what you can call it.  In the Alanis Morissette and Sarah McLachlan sense of the word, I fucking love it.  I do not like the bland, folk type of singer-songwriting, with just one person playing one guitar and singing about depression and lost love.  Or even the more quirky type that write about getting up in the morning or what a friend said to another friend about some guy or girl.  In short, what Katy Brand says:

But I digress, I like Morissette and McLachlan, and I also like Vanessa Carlton, Michelle Branch and Amy Studt.  Sarah McLachlan reigns supreme though.

POP
I like some good old pop.  It is such a huge genre.  In some senses it simply means ‘popular music’ so whatever is popular.  But I hope you understand that I mean that poppy sound.  The catchy hooks, the shallow but pleasing ballads and what not.  I have always been fond of Christina Aguilera since she started and still am, though she can be hit and miss.  Only her second album is truly great.  I like Delta Goodrem I think she is very talented. t.A.T.u. are fun, especially their second album.  P!nk may just be my favourite pop artist.  I am super fond of Leona Lewis but I am still waiting for her to bring out some decent material.  I like NSYNC and Backstreet Boys for nostalgia purposes.  Then there are some other top 40 artists throughout the later twentieth century.  I love Cyndi Lauper, Fleetwood Mac, Phil Collins and Kate Bush.  Especially Kate Bush.

I think that just about covers my extensive music taste.  There are other artists here and there that haven’t had a mention because they don’t fit into any genres or was not appropriate to mention them, but I have over 600 physical CDs, 7,350 mp3s on my hard drive with over 490 hours of listening time.