When people say such and such an album, song, gig whatever....

[Barking Spiders]

changed their lives, what do they mean?

 

I'm not judging anyone. It's just that, sure, I have fave bands, albums and songs that remind me of the good times when I was younger but beyond that I can't say music has had any great impact on my life. This also leads me to ask what people mean when they say 'music/football/whatever else is my life', unless literally it is this what pays the bills etc

[Jus Lukin]

-

Edited March 15, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[Lozz196]

I dunno, without The Sex Pistols I’m not sure my life would have been the same. I probably would still have become a musician but not sure I would have had the passion that I have for music had those unlovable spiky tops not swore their way to notoriety. 

[SumOne]

There are certainly albums/gigs that have led me to go to more gigs and listen to more music like that and DJ/play music like that and spend a lot of my life being involved with that music- possibly that wouldn't have happened without that first spark of interest and I could have gone a slightly different route and got interested in something different. And who knows, butterfly effect might mean that my life would be completely different .....then again, butterfly effect could also mean that eating a sandwich completely changed my life.

 

Edited September 15, 2021 by SumOne
typo

[BigRedX]

I think it very much depends on how important music (whatever else it is that "changed your life") is to you.

 

Music has very much been the driving force in my life and many of the things that I got involved with in other parts of my life have come directly from my musical activities. I would have been unlikely to end up the job that I do now if it hadn't been for the fact that I learnt to design and print in order to produce posters, t-shirts, packaging for records/cassettes in order to further my musical activities.

 

I really do have an "album that changed my life". It's not very well known or even particularly well played or recorded, but the fact that it exists and that I owned a copy completely influenced everything I did in the 80s and since then. 

[Skybone]

If something has "changed your life", then I see that as something that has inspired that person to do something. Whatever that something may be. 

 

"Inspiration"

[Munurmunuh]

1 hour ago, Barking Spiders said:

what do they mean?

 

[REDACTED] sorry, but General Discussion is a publicly visible subforum

[ezbass]

I’ve had albums change my musical life. Made In Japan introduced me to hard rock, I disposed of all my pop albums and went down the rabbit hole of heavier music. Before that, CSNY’s 4 Way Street and Neil Diamond’s Hot August Night made me want to learn guitar.  Later, hearing Pino made me want to jump ship from skinny strings to bass. As I then pursued different musical avenues after these events, my life changed in that respect.

[uk_lefty]

Seeing Hot Chocolate when I was 13 and hearing the bass solo in No Doubt About It (well, it was just a bit where the bass came to the front, not a solo as such) and the whole theatre shook and everyone was dancing... That was the moment I was certain I had to get a bass guitar. Now 25 years later I waste a lot of time on BC, so it's made a change there. Imagine if I used this time for good...? 

 

Ten by Pearl Jam made me believe I could tie together my interest in 80s fretless bass and Jaco with the rock music I played by getting a fretless for my 18th. I still play that bass nearly 20 years later. For a long time it was my only bass and part of what "my" sound is/ was/ still is as a bassist. That inspired me and changed something in my approach that I am very appreciative of. 

[Dood]

Changed my life, maybe not, had a profound lasting effect that I still remember to this day when I first heard it, yes.

 

Actually, now that I think about it, a particular album helped to change my career path, so yes, maybe it did change my life. A long story, but if it weren't for that album I may not have been involved with many of the projects and album releases I've been on. Hmmm... Think I need to spin that one again soon!

[SteveXFR]

There are definitely albums that have changed what music means to me. 

The Real Thing by Faith No More was the first record that made me think about what I was listening to. Before then, I played GNR and Def Leopard records at home but mostly because I liked the loud, aggressive noise. The Real Thing was different, it was loud and aggressive but there was much more to it and it was the first record I really listened to and started to appreciate and try to understand. Still one of my favourite records now.

[Woodinblack]

I heard the Fields of the Nephilim briefly on telly one night, I liked them, went to buy the album, whcih changed my musical style a bit. i didn't know anyone else who liked that, so one of my friends said that they new someone who liked that and introduced me. Became friends with them, they split up with their girlfriend, I ended up with her, changed my life dramatically from there.

 

So yes, the album The Nephilim by Fields of the Nephilim it changed my life.

 

[Bassassin]

Music has changed (although I think 'profoundly influenced the direction of' would be more accurate) my life in different ways a number of times. It's strongly possible I would never have picked up a musical instrument at all if it hadn't been for The Stranglers - basically I heard JJ Burnel & went: I want to play that instrument & make that noise. I'd previously been a big fan of other bands with exceptional bassists (notably The Who & Alice Cooper) but never been motivated to learn an instrument, although Entwistle & Dunaway subsequenly became strong influences.

 

In my late teens I got hugely into Rush - I was in Kent & met a Scottish girl who was also a massive fan, we started a long-distance relationship which eventually ended up with me moving to Scotland, marrying her and having two daughters! The relationship didn't last (we split over 25 years ago) but I'm still happily living in Scotland. Cheers Rush.

 

Playing, composing, performing & recording music has been a massive part of my life since I was 16 - and I couldn't begin to count the number of times that's been shaped and changed by different artists, albums, songs, gigs - the cumulative effect on what I play, how I play, how I think as a musician and what music is to me has unquestionably been life-changing.

[Downunderwonder]

10 hours ago, Jus Lukin said:

I believe it may just be hyperbole.

Understatement.

[Bolo]

I literally would not look like I look, know who I know or do what I do if I hadn't heard the few albums that influenced my life choices as a teen.

 

[FinnDave]

26 minutes ago, Bolo said:

I literally would not look like I look, know who I know or do what I do if I hadn't heard the few albums that influenced my life choices as a teen.

 

same here.

[uk_lefty]

9 hours ago, Dood said:

Changed my life, maybe not, had a profound lasting effect that I still remember to this day when I first heard it, yes.

 

Actually, now that I think about it, a particular album helped to change my career path, so yes, maybe it did change my life. A long story, but if it weren't for that album I may not have been involved with many of the projects and album releases I've been on. Hmmm... Think I need to spin that one again soon!

Don't keep us in suspense...! 

[kendall]

The Sisters of Mercy - Floodland.  Changed the way I thought about and wrote music.  Prior to this, all I did was listen to heavy metal.  To this day, it's still my favourite ever album and still sounds as immense and majestic as it did when I first heard it in 1987.

[WinterMute]

I picked up a bass for the first time in 1980, I'd done a bit of singing in school bands but my mate Steve Wilson (no, on that Steve Wilson) said he could teach me to play bass and we could start a band, then he played me Permanent Waves, and I wanted to be Geddy Lee... His playing changed the way I thought about music and bass, so that was a big influence on my life generally.

 

Playing in bands led to engineering and producing, which led to lecturing about engineering and producing which led to designing and building studios for people to engineer and produce, and that's where I am today, whilst I imagine I'd have got there without Rush, the way I play and the attitude to music as a driving force for a professional life definitely comes from that hour is Steve's house listening to Spirit of Radio and Freewill...

 

There are others too, Zeppelin's grandeur, Pink Floyd's lyrical and thematic pretensions, Tony Levin's invention, Leonard Cohen's humour, but Rush has been an enduring presence in my life and for the better.

[ezbass]

1 hour ago, uk_lefty said:

Don't keep us in suspense...! 

That was my thought, but I reread @Dood’s post in case I’d missed something and I think the recording in question is Yes.

[NancyJohnson]

I read comments on various feeds and regularly read about how albums helped people through during difficult times, but honestly putting on Aerosmith Rocks wasn't ever going to get me over the loss of my parents.  Can't honestly say that any album/gig has changed my life, but as @ezbassand@Bassassin infer, certain experiences have mixed up things musically for me.

 

Could list you a dozen albums that I realised were important (well, to me at least) - those first albums by Motley Crue, Van Halen, Japan, Living Colour, Jane's Addiction, Sugar and hell, I'll even throw in Ghosts Of Princes In Towers by Rich Kids here (yes folks, I'm that old) - but none of these made me want to go and live on a kibbutz, take vast quantities of drugs or become become a missionary.

[Cat Burrito]

Music has undoubtedly shaped my life but I don't think I could fine tune it down to one record. My memory has three records of my Mum's developing my interest in music as a small boy and later on, one video on the Chart Show actually making me want to be in a band, as opposed to just a fan BUT I do wonder if that is the rose tinted glasses romanticising things. 

 

Bands I have actually been in have quite literally changed my life far more. If it wasn't for music I would certainly be higher up the career ladder, financially better off and perhaps even my first marriage might have gone a bit differently. All my strongest friendships and a lot of my best memories are through music. Genuinely no regrets.

[SteveK]

Surely, how much music impacts your life depends on how much you're into it.

If you don't play in bands, don't go to gigs, don't have musician friends... then, you can likely say that music has no impact on your life.

However, if you play in a band, rehearsing and gigging fairly regularly, have lots of musician friends, go to watch other bands... then, I think it's possible to say that music will have had a significant impact on your life. The longer you stick at it, the more the impact.

For me there wasn't really one song/album/gig that did it. It was more a combination of 6 or 7 significant events.

Since about the age of 11, music has totally enriched and changed my life.

I have no idea what my life would be without music.

 

[Doddy]

I think everyone has moments in their life that make a huge impact and changes their course. Why can't it be music?

 

I'd only been playing bass for a few months, when I was taken to see Marcus Miller in concert. The next day I went to the local record store and ordered all of Marcus' solo albums, I started to learn to slap, and I got my Jazz Bass later that year.  That concert blew me away, and made me realise that that was what I wanted to do, and I got my act together and really studying and playing the bass seriously after that.

 

[Barking Spiders]

Cheers peeps. Some interesting stories here and I certainly get how music has profoundly impacted on your lives.  I spent a lot of my early 20s trying to make it in music but it never amounted to much other then earning extra dosh depping and doing function gigs. If anything it distracted me at a time when I should've been focusing on other things like the falling apart of my first marriage. So maybe it did have an impact on my life in a way.