What's one album/book/movie that made you into the person you are today?
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  What's one album/book/movie that made you into the person you are today?
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Author Topic: What's one album/book/movie that made you into the person you are today?  (Read 592 times)
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20RP12
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« on: April 07, 2021, 03:54:55 PM »

Could be for any reason.

I have two favorite albums of all time, so I'm already breaking my own rule, but they laid the foundation for my worldview in similar ways.

The Devil Wears Prada's With Roots Above and Branches Below and Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly each deeply influenced my outlook on life. With Roots Above is a Christian metalcore record with themes of anti-idolatry, anti-cynicism, and anti-greed. While I'm not a Christian and have not considered myself religious at any point in my adult life, a lot of my favorite bands are Christian and their messaging always seems to resonate with me beyond just mere religious themes. I do draw a lot of inspiration from certain bible passages and I think it's interesting to analyze the Bible as a work of social guidance rather than a set in stone way to live your life...being an English major, I'm deeply drawn to interpretations of texts that stray from the established narrative. This record helped me understand that it's possible to be a "social Christian" so to speak--one who has a Christ-like worldview without being Christian or even religious.

To Pimp A Butterfly gave me a reckoning on race, I think. It's also a huge part of the way that I look at the world and an important social guide for me. I grew up in a really diverse area in Montgomery County, PA so I was fortunate enough to get to know people of all races and ethnicities and religions, but I still think I was a close-minded and bigoted person as a teenager. I couldn't really grapple with issues of race because I was blinded by my privilege as a white middle class male. This record really helped me break down that barrier and see race in a different way. There are a lot of great critiques of capitalism, white supremacy (and not just KKK white supremacy but the idea that being white is "normal" or "acting white" is "normal"), and America itself on this record. I think it really helped me understand what it's like to be a person of color in America. Or at least it helped me gain perspective on what it's like. And there's a lot here in the way of depression and identity crisis that I could relate to as well.

I know not everyone has such a deep connection to music the way I do, so I'm interested in hearing about books or movies (or anything really) that helped shape who you are as a person and why.
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« Reply #1 on: April 07, 2021, 04:01:19 PM »

There are several

Album: Grimes - Halfaxa (most)
Book: If the universe is teeming with aliens ... where is everybody?: fifty solutions to the fermi paradox and the problem of extraterrestrial life by stephen webb
Movie: The Tale of Princess Kaguya (a Japanese fairytale adoption in a Studio Ghibli anime, but so freaking good, and i could say that it changed some views in my life, particulary around the themes of birth and death. For me watching this movie was like experiencing intense emotion around this movie, but also experiencing a certain eureka-moment)

But Grimes - Halfaxa is the most important out of them all. I quote my review again.

Grimes - Halfaxa (2010)



Country: Canada
Genre: Ethereal Wave
Subgenre: Synthpop, Art Pop, Witch House, Ambient Pop
Descriptors: ethereal, surreal, atmospheric, female vocals, fantasy, dark, lonely, nocturnal, spiritual, abstract, hypnotic, lush, mysterious, cryptic, avant-garde, medieval, rhythmic, quirky, ominous, psychedelic, lo-fi, repetitive, longing, love, sad
Favorite song: Dream Fortress

10/10

I know this album isn't as well perceived as Visions and Art Angels, but to me, it's still her best. Halfaxa sounds like a trip to a different world. It catches you, and it never let go of you. I've heard a lot of good, even exceptional good music albums in my life, and i still have a lot to discover, but i've never heard something that's similar or comes close to this experience (unfortunately). It's something really unique, that hasn't been done before and not been redone yet. I think the combination ethereal wave + electronic is even unprecenteded.

I feel like everytime i listen it again, i'm sung into high spirits. This album could approximate closest to what heaven may actually sound like, or that's how it feels to me personally. And even though while the whole album might sound ethereal (which is what you might associate with 'heaven'), it secretly might be Grimes' darkest album so far. Compare it with Art Angels, where she sounds a lot more happier while in World ♡ Princess, she sings about the passing of a good friend of her's as an example. The ethereal sound of the album, compared to the dark undertone might be a contradiction, but Grimes can give balance and shape to this album, and it's also contradictive in that Grimes uses samples of medieval phenomens, and combines it with electronic music. Grimes has called Halfaxa her medieval album, and in some way, it's electronic choral music, which explains the weird electronic + ethereal wave combination, but it gives rise to one of the most unique, underrated and unknown masterpieces of the 21st century. Not Art Angels, but Halfaxa is Grimes' creative peak. Art Angels however is the album where Grimes evolves towards a more mainstream and poppy sound while the atmosphere changes from a depressive and isolated nature to a more happy and quirkly nature.

And of course, just like basically any other album of Grimes so far, every song is very qualitative. It's hard for me to pick a favourite out of this selection. Dream Fortress is very iconic, and has created some kind of cult following on the internet. But i really like My Sister Says The Saddest Things as well. Weregild is also very good and I also think World ♡ Princess is exceptionally good, while songs like River, Favriel, Devon and Swan Song are very good as well. This is an album i've started listening four ago, and i'm still regularly listening it. It never gets old for me. Every time i listen it again, it feels like it's the first time again while i quickly get tired of other stuff. That's the main secret of this album, and i'm not sure how it's been done, but it might be because of the hypnotic and dreamy vibe. I often listen to this album when i'm stressed or feel terrified, and this album will reduce my anxiety.

Overall, this is an exceptional music album from an exceptional music artist from who her working style differs quite a lot to similar artists. She creates her own artwork, does her own production and even calls herself more a producer than an actual singer. It's hard to catagorize her or label her a music. She kinda does her own thing. IMO one of the best artists of the 2010's decade.
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If my soul was made of stone
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« Reply #2 on: April 07, 2021, 04:16:12 PM »

I know I've said it here before, but Hayao Miyazaki's Mononoke-hime (or in English, Princess Mononoke) is probably what sparked my youthful interest in nature-based spirituality and feminine presentation (title character was and still is an anprim style icon).
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20RP12
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« Reply #3 on: April 07, 2021, 06:27:58 PM »


Yeah, that book also taught me about what kind of person not to be.
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« Reply #4 on: April 07, 2021, 06:48:12 PM »

Dreadnought gave me a fictional role model in its titular character, one that's stuck far more than others.
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Torrain
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« Reply #5 on: April 07, 2021, 07:56:28 PM »

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas had a big impact on 10 year old Torrain. The book ends by implying that the protagonists (a young Jewish boy, and the son of a Nazi officer) are both killed in the gas chambers of Autschwitz.

That ending ruined me for days - just trying to wrap my head around the horrors that even made such an outcome possible. It gently strangled a lot of my childhood naivety/innocence.

*

On a lighter note, Star Trek: Enterprise (don’t blame me, I was a 00s kid). It’s a show that’s obsessed with biology. Although it’s quality varied wildly, it played with a lot of fun concepts. 

Genetically-modified alien assassins, 3D printed organic matter, alien nests that force humans to defend them against predators, sci-fi metaphors for Alzheimer’s, retro-viral pathogens and interstellar pandemics, to name just a few. It all just felt so exciting.

I genuinely think it pushed me towards the sciences, and is part of the postgrad researcher I’ve become.
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John Dule
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« Reply #6 on: April 07, 2021, 09:34:38 PM »

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Starry Eyed Jagaloon
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« Reply #7 on: April 07, 2021, 10:07:35 PM »

Rawls' A Theory of Justice.
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Crane
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« Reply #8 on: April 07, 2021, 10:11:47 PM »
« Edited: April 07, 2021, 10:21:25 PM by CraneHusband »

These are my two all time favorite albums.



A lot of songs that address growing older, cultural alienation, relationships, etc that have really spoken to me.




This is an album that has gotten me through a lot. From uplifting songs that take me to the most joyous parts of life (Don't Carry it All) to songs that tell me I'm going to get through the bad parts (Rise to Me, Dear Avery). Every single song is fantastic.
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« Reply #9 on: April 07, 2021, 10:22:06 PM »

The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir really shaped my view of feminism. It showed me how feminism is not necessarily about the notion that women are oppressed and men are privileged, but how being treated as a human being is what is important, and womens' traditional role distorts that. It is the notion that women should be treated as people first and not reduced to reproductive or sexual functions. And really, all liberatory movements from #BLM to womens' rights are about the notion that "I am human" at the very bottom of it. It's frustrating to the people in them because it's self-evident to themselves, as one knows nothing if not the notion that oneself is human, but it's very controversial in the context of society's outside conventions.
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DINGO Joe
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« Reply #10 on: April 07, 2021, 11:18:16 PM »

These are my two all time favorite albums.



This is an album that has gotten me through a lot. From uplifting songs that take me to the most joyous parts of life (Don't Carry it All) to songs that tell me I'm going to get through the bad parts (Rise to Me, Dear Avery). Every single song is fantastic.

It's my favorite Decemberists album and given how guest heavy it is (Peter Buck, Gillian and Rawlings) was actually viewed a little askew by "purists"--but I'm not one so it's great. 


As to OP, I'm in my 50s now and wouldn't attempt to boil things down to one this or that, in fact if any thing, I've always be hooked on discovery--the unheard, unread.  Could be music or film or literature  or a book that made previously dull geology suddenly interesting and relevant.  One thing about making your way in the world is that the vast majority of careers rely on specialization, and there are those that achieve great discovery via a narrow path.  It also provides the best chance of being remunerated well for your efforts, but it also seems more than a bit dulling.
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« Reply #11 on: April 08, 2021, 01:34:42 AM »

I don't know if it 'made me into the person I am', but this album has probably had the biggest impact on my musical interests as of recent:



Like most shoegaze fans, MBV got me hooked. What's sad is that shoegaze is such a niche genre (even more so than the now-mostly-dead emo pop and gothic rock) that it hit its prime in the late 80's/early 90's and then pretty much died off. MBV broke up but have since reunited, albeit with limited new releases. But pretty much every shoegaze band can trace its influence to this band, and this album in particular.
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Dr. MB
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« Reply #12 on: April 08, 2021, 01:47:43 AM »

Dr. Dre's 2001. No contest.

I started getting into rap the summer before 7th grade. Mostly 90s - Dr. Dre, Tupac, Biggie, NWA, Snoop Dogg. But 2001 was the one album I found myself listening to over and over and over again. See, as a kid I was a little bit stuck up. A 100% rules follower. Middle school changes you obviously so I started branching out into things past my comfort zone and pretty soon dropped my old attitude/personality and morphed into someone new.

I don't listen to rap as my #1 genre anymore but it's still a really good album.
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Mike Thick
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« Reply #13 on: April 08, 2021, 03:40:43 AM »

Hard to pick just one so here goes:
 - How to Win Friends and Influence People really turned me around, from being a shy and awkward kid into now pretty extroverted. Was reading through it again a while ago — surprised by how thoroughly I’ve incorporated lots of the content into my life without even thinking about the book for like years.
 - Melodrama by Lorde motivated me to make some poor choices in my personal life. Whoops.
 - Dumb and Dumber taught me that stupid scatological humor is this base thing that anyone can find funny on some level if you’re smart about it. Embracing dumb jokes has made me a lot of friends.
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LAKISYLVANIA
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« Reply #14 on: April 08, 2021, 04:08:51 AM »

I don't know if it 'made me into the person I am', but this album has probably had the biggest impact on my musical interests as of recent:



Like most shoegaze fans, MBV got me hooked. What's sad is that shoegaze is such a niche genre (even more so than the now-mostly-dead emo pop and gothic rock) that it hit its prime in the late 80's/early 90's and then pretty much died off. MBV broke up but have since reunited, albeit with limited new releases. But pretty much every shoegaze band can trace its influence to this band, and this album in particular.

They recently got back on Spotify, but i'm glad you mention this, since after Halfaxa this is literally my favourite album, but I wouldn't say this made me into the person i am today, so if Halfaxa didn't exist, i would probably have gone for a different album.

Shoegaze - Souvlaki, Ride - Nowhere and MBV - Loveless are the three essentials, but if you want some recommendations, i'll gladly give you them, depending on what you want. It's a niche genre, but it certainly has a lot to offer, and there is still some good shoegaze today, sometimes experimenting with different genres. There is also a flowchart of essential shoegaze albums depending on what you look.



This is a good one, but there are other ones, there's even one for Japanese shoegaze (and for a lot of music genres or bands you can name, as well as essential charts).

I'm certainly a big shoegaze / dream pop / noise pop fan, certainly.

The fun part is: on that flowchart, i seem to like albums from every corner so it's definitely one of my favourite genres.
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GeorgiaModerate
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« Reply #15 on: April 08, 2021, 08:46:37 AM »

There have been many influential books, but if I had to pick a single one it would probably be Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins.
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Battista Minola 1616
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« Reply #16 on: April 08, 2021, 09:05:07 AM »

I have already mentioned this more or less, but the book which has influenced me the most is likely Alessandro Manzoni's The Betrothed. Many of my inner musings and perspectives about love, relationships, life purpose, community, charity, forgiveness, and arguably the divine, relate to what is found there.
I could say that Shakespeare's works have contributed even more to "who I am today", however that's not the plays per se but the fact that they were the basis of my high school drama class, which has been an incredibly formative experience for me across the three years I took it.

I don't think there is anything comparable with albums or movies, my attempts to draw a spiritual connection to Metallica notwithstanding.
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Crane
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« Reply #17 on: April 08, 2021, 09:12:57 AM »

As for books... weirdly the books that influenced me the most as a kid were "the Phantom Tollbooth" by Norton Juster and "Alan Mendelsohn, Boy from Mars" by Daniel Pinkwater, and "The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame.

It's more difficult to pinpoint a similar book as an adult since I don't tend to read books now more than once. I will edit this later when I think of something that fits in terms of being highly influential.
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« Reply #18 on: April 08, 2021, 09:13:33 AM »

I'm going to be the third person in this thread to mention a Ghibli movie and say that Omoide Poroporo/Only Yesterday has greatly informed the way I think about my childhood and navigate the adult world as I move through my late twenties.
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Santander
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« Reply #19 on: April 08, 2021, 03:32:51 PM »

The Bible. (normal person answer)

And if you were raised in the West, it's the book that's arguably shaped you the most, too, even if you aren't a Christian.
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Alben Barkley
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« Reply #20 on: April 08, 2021, 04:24:22 PM »

The Bible. (normal person answer)

And if you were raised in the West, it's the book that's arguably shaped you the most, too, even if you aren't a Christian.

Yeah but it’s also a book hardly anyone has actually read.
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Santander
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« Reply #21 on: April 08, 2021, 05:29:49 PM »

The Bible. (normal person answer)

And if you were raised in the West, it's the book that's arguably shaped you the most, too, even if you aren't a Christian.

Yeah but it’s also a book hardly anyone has actually read.

I prefer name dropping it over actually reading it. (R)
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« Reply #22 on: April 08, 2021, 07:25:18 PM »




This record is only 8 tracks and about 22 minutes long, but as soon as I heard it in high school I was hooked. It solidified my musical taste into what it is today still.
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Badger
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« Reply #23 on: April 10, 2021, 02:42:04 AM »

 Book-- basic Dungeons & Dragons rule book.

Album - - Led Zeppelin II

Movie - - a little known Robin Williams slick retelling Peter Pan called hook had an extraordinary effect on me.
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Samof94
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« Reply #24 on: April 10, 2021, 05:34:21 AM »

I think Tegan and Sara’s so jealous easily ranks as the most important album in my life. It is part of the reason I support LGBTQ rights the way I do and taught me to appreciate women in music.
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