I don't know if I've mentioned lately how much I love my Sirius Radio.
I can't imagine life without it now. I know people will say things like 'how could you _pay_ for radio? radio is free!' Well, I don't know how else to explain it other than to tell you that if you consider yourself a person who loves music you absolutely owe it to yourself to check out Sirius radio.
Now, before you worry about it - I'm just a customer, and a happy one at that, not a hired shill to convince you to buy something you don't want! It is entirely possible that you, somewhat like my parents, don't necessarily eat, sleep, and breathe music.
I've loved listening to the radio since I was allowed to by my mother - 12 years old. When I was 12 I thought top 40 was amazing. It wasn't till a couple of years later that I sort of realized that top 40 and I were destined to part ways. Sometime in middle school I learned all about music that had come before... music from the 50's 60's and 70's that I'd managed to only know little about.
Growing up in a home where my mom would put on 'Tommy' by The Who, or one of their many Beatles albums to listen to had taught me quite a bit about music at a young age, but I didn't know about other types of music. So, simply by spinning the radio dial I could hear all sorts of music that I'd never heard before.
I got to listen to 'classic rock' (probably before it was 'classic!'), then the beginnings of rap coming out of WBLS, and 'new wave' from WLIR, and 'hardcore' from WNYU. Through high school I managed to listen to music that wasn't _quite_ on the radar for everyone else in school, but was still quite popular. Perhaps it was just the timing of it - I'm pretty sure most people know who 'The Cure' are now, but back then it seemed like a smaller club.
Anyways heading off to college in the middle of the country made it a little bit harder to keep up with what was cooking in NY, but I still managed to listen to stuff that was a tad off of mainstream. Can't remember the name of the station but it was X-96... they were OK - but my friends helped me move into industrial. I had _never_ heard anything quite that interesting before. 'Front 242', 'Nitzer-Ebb', 'Ministry' were all doing things that were similar to my hardcore punk leanings, but with some kind of tech-y edge. I didn't realize at the time that they weren't all using guitars, drums and basses! I thought that's what ALL bands used! Kind of funny to look back on that now. I remember wondering and asking people 'how do KMFDM get that huge crashing boom out of a kick drum?'
I've learned a little more about how they did that now - and have played around with some of those sounds myself. Imitation being the most sincere form of flattery, and perhaps the best way to learn about music - I would sit around and try to pick up bass lines, and then drum patterns from songs I loved.
Like I said - I live, breathe, and sleep music. Listened to it to get homework done (much to my mom's despair), I listen now to get work done (even when I AM editing music tracks!), to fall asleep to, to wake up to, to drive to, to chill to.
The best part of my Sirius radio is that I can flip to almost any mood I feel like. I can relive my early 80's days, live a little of the fun punk scene on 'faction', and keep up with the indies on 'left of center'. I do have to say - they don't quite have _everything_ though. I'd kill for some proper drum and bass, or breakbeat. They say they have it on 'boombox' but they never play the stuff I'd like to hear. Stuff like you could find on www.breakbeat.co.uk or http://www.bassdrive.com/ or http://www.mw-dnb.com/
That's what I want to hear sometimes. But that's also why I've still got my iPod. And why I'm still addicted to buying CDs
Speaking of which - I picked up the latest Chemical Brothers. I think the best song, hands down is 'Surface to Air' if I get around to it, I'll post a link to the iTunes store - but just go buy the album. They haven't made a bad one yet :)