Rant & Roll by Cory Blackwood

Recently someone told me that they had an extensive CD collection. Not doubting this person in any way (why would I?), I asked what his favorite jazz album was. He didn't have one.

OK, no jazz, what about rap? The only rap album he had was "License to Ill," a classic Beastie Boys album, but not one of rap's finer albums. His classic rock collection did not extend past one Beatles album, and he had no Jimi Hendrix CDs. Pink Floyd was too weird for his taste, and no, he had not heard of Cornershop.

So what did he have? A whole lot of rock and hard-rock. Not much else, but to him it was extensive. As stunned as I am every time I hear something like this, it is pretty common. I was once much like this, and I luckily learned that there was a lot more music to enjoy than just what I listened to.

For a while, industrial music was all I liked, save a few exceptions. I had CDs ranging from more popular bands like Ministry, KMFDM, Nine Inch Nails and Skinny Puppy to some of the more obscure artists like Pig, Foetus, Coil, Frontline Assembly and Laibach. After a lot of time spent on frantic shopping sprees, I learned that only so much music from one genre is good and a lot of the rest is junk.

From my slightly twisted starting point, I slowly expanded to other areas of interest. I invested in artists I had always held some interest in like Bjork, Tori Amos, Lords of Acid and Moby. Needless to say, I wasn't expanding my horizons by leaps and bounds. After 1994's Lollapalooza show, I discovered that rap had some music worth checking out, especially what was to become one of my favorites, A Tribe Called Quest. Once that seal was broken, I started buying rap albums at an alarming rate.

By this point, hard-rock and techno were regulars in my collection (probably since they are closely related to industrial) and I began to slowly warm up to other musical species. Soon enough, everything exploded. It may have been an interview with Trent Reznor that I read, but I don't remember. The article said that while Reznor played one type of music, he usually listened to genres other than his own.

Every time I bought a CD, I saw what its influences were (or what it influenced) and had to get that disc, too.

The only thing I could never get into was country (and maybe polka, although I must admit I have never given it a fair shot). I could easily spend hours in a place like Vintage Vinyl, with their insane number of categories, and come out with CDs from every corner of the store. As an example, the other day I came out with albums by Skinny Puppy, James Brown, David Bowie, Charlie Parker and the Sex Pistols.

Each time I listen to an album of one style, I can only respect differing types more for their individual strengths. It's easy to see that there is just so much good music out there. While my collection may be the first sign of obsession, I think it is a perfect demonstration of how wonderful it is to have a healthy range of musical tastes.