music that shaped my formative years

(thanks to I-Tunes)

tori amos
def leppard
bryan adams
boys II men
amy grant
wilson phillips
meat loaf
gin blossoms
hootie and the blowfish

and... yes...

michael w smith

I'm not proud that one of the first music CDs I listened to over and over was a Christian "rock" musician, but in my own defense I did not know at the time. I don't even think my parents knew, but I like to think that they, too, would have been mortified. Instead, my dad was listening to Sade and my mom was listening to musical theater. It wasn't until years later that I discovered the hidden messages of Mr. Smith, and took great delight in torturing others with them. ("Hey Sarah--don't stay out too late, or I'm going to play the 'don't have sex until you're married' song again.")

At the time, I was listening to his album The Big Picture (rented from the library) and reading my favorite books at the time: Tamora Pierce's The Song of the Lioness quartet.

For fun, I looked up the Amazon reviews of these books (it's been years since I looked at one) and discovered many variations on this review:

"These books are created for children and in them they contain explicit sex scenes, and inuendo that I know is not appreciated in children's or even young adults books...What kind of role model for young girls sleeps around, she finishes with one man just to move on to the next, and it seems to be excuseable because she is a knight. "

funny... I don't remember explicit sex scenes...

So allegedly, at this time, I was reading books telling me to sleep around, and music that was telling me not too. In any case, I don't remember feeling any conflict about the issue, so perhaps they cancelled each other out. (Or maybe because I was, like, 8??)