I'm a slayer, ask me how.

I think I might make my other 100 Challenge a "random things about me" theme so I can just post whatever! I feel like sometimes I get so caught up in blogging about fandom, I forget to talk about myself as a person!

Anyway, while scrolling through available Rock Band songs the other night with maybedeadcat, I noticed there was a Reba McIntire track pack and I was reminded that, some random period of my childhood...must have been in late elementary school...I had a Reba obsession.

I can't remember why it started. I'm wondering if my 6th grade friend listened to her (Tara Kurtz, where are you now?). But, wow I think I spent an entire summer checking out all the Reba CDs from the library, making a cassette mix, and sitting in the backyard, singing along. I probably haven't listened to any Reba in a long time (probably not since I worked at WINX, the country radio station), but as soon as Rock Band played the 5 second preview of "Fancy", I realized all those lyrics were stored somewhere in my brain.

I'm kind of tempted to check out the CDs from the library again. At least the early stuff.

Other musical phases I went through (so you can tell how cool I was):

The all Andrew Lloyd Webber summer -- my friends took me to see Phantom of the Opera and I literally lost 6 months of my music life just listening to everything he had ever written. From the greatest hits, like Cats and Joseph, to the almost barf-worth "Love Changes Everything" to the well-it-was-an-interesting-concept of "Sunset Boulevard". (Yes, I listened to the musical BEFORE I ever saw the movie...if it was possible to have a crush on a voice, I had a crush on the male lead from that musical).

Disney Showtunes - I find this happens about once a year, where i just want to sing along to Disney songs ALL THE TIME! And it's been happening about once a year since Litter Mermaid came out and I wore that cassette OUT! (and, if my Disney Sing-A-Long party proved anything...I'm not the only one who does this!!!!)

Beatles - my most well-known musical fandom, you can click the tags to find the origin story. Needless to say, my obsession with this group in the mid-90s gave me an excellent background in classic rock, but made me miss out on most of the music that the average person from my generation knows! This is also why I have far too many Paul McCartney CDs than anyone should. I mean, he wrote some good stuff post-Beatles, but as far as entire albums that are awesome...yeah, not so much.

Pearl Jam & Dave Matthew Band - I know, feels weird to lump those two together, but they would be the two bands that brought me out of my "I'm only listening to Beatles forever now" world and gave me faith in modern singer/songwriters. I'm big on lyrics and performance and both of these groups know how to create both. Seeing them in concert during my first year of college (which was 1999/2000 so both of these bands had technically already "peaked") encouraged me to explore smaller artists too (after I listened to their entire catalog of music), which lead to my little stint in radio. It also opened me up to the world of "tape trading" before high speed internet took off. It was a fun subculture, I wish I had been a part of it sooner, but I'm glad I got to experience it!