As you grow you go through many many phases. I, as well as a lot of others, was heavily influenced by music. Music was my life and music still is my life. Live performances and going to shows and concerts are my favorite and it does alter my life. But as I grew up, the power of music and the icons that created it, all took for for a run. And what a ride it was....
In my childhood there were 3 major music periods that really influenced me. 1st being Madonna and Michael. I didn't really care if I was 3 or 4 cause I had my fake wedding dress on and was rolling around the living room performing "Like a Virgin" like there was no tomorrow. My mother told me that my Dad would practically die everytime I did this. But it's all good because I would switch off to "Material Girl" as well. She was soooo cool and I wanted to be her!
Michael.....well where do I begin? I mean who doesn't remember Michael all throughout their childhood. He was embedding in my head and I was soo intrigued by his dancing. Even though I knew by know I wanted to be a dancer, I will say that I do think Michael had an influence. I even remember the day his double disc, "Michael Jackson - HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book", came out with "Scream" on it. And man did I worship that CD. I was older than too. Probably like 12/13?? All I can say is that I feel very happy to have grown up when I did(even though I wish it was the late 60's but whatever) because I had REALLY FREAKING AMAZING musical artists to watch and learn from. And yes of course I was OBSESSED with NKOTB, along with every other girl. That was phase/period 1.
The 2nd musical period that greatly influenced me and made me grow as a person was the Alternative Rock/Grunge phase in the early-mid 90's. This is still the music I listen to now. I don't know what it was about it or if it was just how just insanely talented these musicians were, the lyrics, the whole package. It even changed fashion at the time. I never shopped anywhere but the Goodwill for a good 3-4 years. The time I am speaking of is a time that I'm sure all of you remember greatly as well. The time Kurt Cobain ended his life, Billy Corgan told us the 'world is a vampire', Bush had us screaming 'breathe in, breathe out, Weezer entertained us with the unforgettable video to 'Buddy Holly', NIN had us come 'closer'(that video was banned and only played after midnight on MTV. Do you remember that?), Hole with Courtney Love(still the queen of rock) having us grieve over Kurt to the album 'Live Through This', and all the while we were jumping up and down, banging our heads, in these things called Mosh Pits.
I do believe that after this music died in a way. Can you really think of anything that can even try to compare now? It's sad in a way. I wish I would live it all, all over again. BTW, my favorite song ever, up until this day and probably until I die, is Nirvana's 'Dumb'.
Then there was a pause and nothing really great was happening. We got into rap with Biggie, 2Pac, Puff Daddy, Snoop and Dr. Dre. They were the kings now and had a HUGE influence not only on us kids but on the whole nation.
Gangs began again in a big way, Biggie got shot, 2Pac got attacked by Suge Knight and his fellow Crips(no one will accept the fact that he is dead so I'll just say 'he went away for a long time'), Puff daddy changed his name 45 times, and Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg made an album that would forever change the rap world, "The Cronic". This had really not to much of any impact on me, but I mean who didn't listen to Biggie, 2Pac, and Puffy? You'd be lying if you hadn't. Now what period I want to get to is the late 90's.
All the sudden pop music came back. And it came back in a huge way. Boy bands came back. We had N'Sync, Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson(well she tried), and the pop princess herself....Ms. Britney Spears. You either liked N'sync or the Backstreet Boys. Couldn't like Both. It was either Nick from BSB or Justin from N'sync. Had to be loyal to your pop imaginary bf. I think 98 degrees was up for grabs but there were some chicks who really dug Nick. I found this group of 5 guys called N'Sync singing and dancing away on the Disney channel one evening. It was love at 1st sight. Not only with their music but also with Justin. I claimed him. Hahahahaha omgoodness this sounds sooo silly but in high school this was important stuff.
I threw in a videotape and taped the rest of the show. It believe it was right afterwards a girl came on my age with the same type of Disney Special. It was Britney Spears at 17. After that I spent my days and nights learning all of the choreography of N'Sync as well as Britney's. They MAJORLY changed the direction I wanted to go in the dance world. Up until then I had been studying about 25+ hours a week to become a ballerina, now I was seeing a whole new thing and it was a blast and sooooo much different than the world of ballet. And although I strived on the pain ballet gave me and the control it gave me and the competitiveness to always be the best, I made this 'pop dancing' thing something fun on the side to do while not in the studio. Well and then I fell in love with it and decided I wanted to switch my main technique over to this kind of dancing. I began looking for how to get into this and discovered within a day or two basically all the auditions came out of LA a small portion out of NYC.
Well that wasn't an option at 17 so I just kept practicing and learning each new piece of choreography until it was perfect, just like I thought Britney was. So there we all were, these teenage girls going to every pop concert we could and longing to meet our favorite boy band bf. It was actually a really fun time. A really fun time. But it REALLY changed my views on careers and dance. I still don't know if that is a bad or good thing. I think about the choices I made during that period all the time. Also in this time, a role model to me and possibly the best rap artist in history, Eminem came out. That's what the boys were into at the time. They loved him.
P&L
S
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