Music is a big part of most adolescents. It kind of defined your image and we all know that image is very important to a teenager. In my time, a lot of teenage girls liked the New Kids on the Block. I liked some of their songs but I only admitted it to a friend of mine because to us, it was lame liking a boys band. Cool for some but not cool for others and to us, it was definitely not cool. Music that was too popular was not very well appreciated with my surrounding. The more obscure groups were preferable but that was just an image because in reality, the things I listened to were quite popular also, just not quite the New Kids on the Block popularity. I must say that there was one pop singer that I was crazy about and was not shy about it; Rick Astley. You can't go more pop than that but he was it for me. You can't avoid being superficial as a teenager and I was no exception. Of course I liked his songs but it was his cuteness that made me a huge fan. If he was ugly, I don't think I would have been such a big fan. Mind you he was not a hottie, just very cute and that's how I liked them then. At least this guy could sing and had a beautiful voice, he was not just a product.
Aside of the pop sensation Rick Astley, I spent most of my teenage years listening to four synth pop groups; Depeche Mode, Erasure, New Order and the Pet Shop Boys. I also listened to Information Society (the only non-British) and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark but not as much as the first four. Those were the music I listened to as a teen. I liked electronic music and I also liked the fact that the bands were less known although Depeche Mode was quite popular at the time and everybody knew the Pet Shop Boys.
To this day, I still like alternative music which synthpop derived from, but I'm not as much into the electronic sound anymore. Among the groups I used to listen to, only New Order still keeps my interest because it is a group with much more history and diversity. Their music was electronic but they also used the guitar, bass and drums. Because of their diversity, I now am discovering songs from their old albums and singles that I gave little time to when younger but that I now find very good. In fact, New Order is the reason I'm still interested in popular music and like to discuss about it in this forum.
So what was the music you listened to when you were a teenager? What was considered cool and not cool and did you cared at all? What was popular then and where? Do you still like the same music now or have your taste changed? To those that are still in your teen years, what do you like now and what do you think of the other music genre that you don't listen to? What do you consider as not cool or not in? It's easy to say that you don't care but I know that it's not quite true, please be honest.