Musical journey (part one)

We enjoy music for a variety of different reasons. For instance, I enjoy music from my youth (1970's) because it's very associative with the events of growing up. It's a way of reminiscing. I enjoy other (current) types of music for different reasons. I like Ambient because it lets you use the music as a backdrop or soundtrack for your day without the distraction of lyrics. I like Electronica because I like the other-worldy sounds that synthesizers can produce. I like music if it's unique, smart, emotional and experimental. In some cases I like certain bands for a number of reasons because of what phases of my life they touched. For example - Pink Floyd. The first (and only) song I had ever heard was Money. I was probably 12 or 13 years old and had a crush on a friend's older sister. She owned the 45 record (remember those?) of the song and played it a lot. So for the next few years - the song kept me anchored to that memory. The fact is, I was a late bloomer where music is concerned, dependant on radio as my music provider - not really exploring what the whole musical spectrum had to offer until after I left home and joined the military. Luckily, I discovered that I could play what little music I owned for other people as a DJ part-time, which earned money I could use in turn to buy more music. My musical journey began in earnest and I tried my best to buy up and listen to all the music my contemporaries had listened to from high school onward - playing catch up if you will. At the same time, I was constantly on the search for the next big thing. I'm convinced that I was at least partly responsible for bringing artists like OMD, Thomas Dolby, Split Enz and the Eurythmics into the local consciousness (at least of my DJ audience), because in the early 80's, although I was playing the aforementioned artists at my gigs, they certainly weren't being played on local radio. Read part two now.