My favorite music at 8, 13, and now.

When I was around 8 years old I had a profound liking for classic rock. I'd been a fan since conception, apparently, and during my younger years I listened aptly to AC/DC, Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, and whatever else you could hear on KFOX. I didn't actively listen to the music, it came to me more passively, mostly through the radio or whenever my parents would listen to it. I shared essentially the same tastes as my parents and I really liked their music – it just sounded good, and I was cool with that.

When I was around 13, however, I had started to develop some of my own tastes separate from my parents. It was around this time that I was starting to get tired of classic music, and it was also when my mother bought me my first stereo with seven or eight CDs. I started listening to pop, grunge, and alternative, especially Nickelback, Nirvana, and Alice in Chains, but still occasionally listened to some of the harder classic rock like Metallica. I started following the trends on MTV and VH1, started seeing what my friends listened to, and moved into more alternative bands like Linkin Park and P.O.D. I went to my first concert (Linkin Park) and started to really get into music. My tastes were really diversifying, I spent vast amounts of money on CDs, and I became very attached to music, carrying my CD player around everywhere until it wore down to nothing. It was a product of my tastes for hard rock mixing with what I'd seen in the mainstream through radio and TV.

And lastly, we have my present tastes. Between 2002 and 2003 the second generation of peer-to-peer filesharing networks had opened up. I had missed Napster, but my aptitude for computers that I had acquired in my youth led me to music on the Internet. From there I stopped listening to radio and TV, and just started getting what sounded good. This led me to indie and electronic music, some hip-hop, and then into my distinct taste for the ever more obscure genres such as post-rock, noisecore, mathcore, post-metal, dream pop, and all other weird sorts of music. Music has become as much a reflection of lifestyle, personality, and aesthetics, and my music has come to reflect who I represent as a person. My favorite artists include Mogwai, Clint Mansell, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Modest Mouse, Metallica, Andrew Bird, Venetian Snares, the pillows, and a wide variety of other bands and musicians. My tastes rarely change but I often find myself expanding to new music to reflect how I feel and who I am, and my collection has become incredibly expansive and eclectic. The Internet really let me develop my own sense of style and taste, and my music helps me feel the way I want to feel - & I think that's how it's going to stay.