RABBIT HOLES

New rock music as an odd musical niche

- TOM FINE

My tastes coalesced around rock music, particularly the harder and faster kind, by the time I was in middle school. Earlier, they were oriented toward pop: The Beatles are my first and forever musical love.

My two older brothers were into music. One of them skewed pop/top40. The other skewed Doors, psychedelic, and prog. Both were influences. My best friend at the time had an older sister who was well-versed in rock music and the ’70s rocker-girl lifestyle; she turned me on to the Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, Cream, and in other ways. Also, it was the heyday of rock-FM in the vibrant metro–New York City market. I started making mixtapes early.

Later, that friend with the cool sister went away to prep school, got kicked out, and returned a fan of Chicago electric blues. Another friend introduced me to Pink Floyd, and together we discovered David Bowie. I grew up in the 'burbs, which meant more hard rock and metal than punk and new wave, but some of that music was on the radio and caught my ears. One of my brothers brought back a pile of punk albums and singles from a semester in the UK. Another influence.

Throughout all this, my parents¹ worked hard to instill a love of classical music-which made rock'n'roll all the more alluring-but eventually it "took." There was jazz in the house-I played some in my high school band but it took me some time to love it.