This is a post dedicated to the people who broke away from the chains of murky Christian bluegrass music and started on the road to modern Family music. (Not that the Christian Bluegrass is bad or anything…it’s great to listen to for old times sake)

While listening to Tory’s (or Chuck’s) playlist of older family music (older as in 1997 on), I realized just how long ago it was since the last time I listened to the stuff, and how way back then…it was the coolest stuff ever.

Whenever a new FTT came out, everybody would hover around the tape player (how outdated is that?) and listen to EVERY song. There was no such thing as skipping that song that sounded funny. If you were the one to mention such a dreadful thing, whoa be to you.

Dance nights consisted of that technoy song replayed at least 5 times. And when Rhythm and Grooves came out the dancers rejoiced, now we could just flip the tape over and over.

For every FTT I have an associated memory with it. Like when March on Strong came out we just started a series of road trips up and down the coast of North Carolina to Florida. The tape player in our van was broken (those old Astros…gotta miss them) and there were 4 of us OC/Jett’s each with a Walkman and 1 tape. So we would have fights over who could get the tape for the first hour, then the next…and the next…and the next. Thank God that Ipod’s and Mp3 players have now come around.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand. As I listened to each song on her playlist, I started to think, “Hey without this song coming out we wouldn’t of had this one…and this one…and hey, yeah that one to.” So here’s my list of songs and musicians that I think kicked started our modern era of Family Music.

1. Whoever wrote “Be a Survivor”, started the “rap” movement. However, most people would probably give Hot and Cold  that title, but I think Philly’s “Hallelujah” really did it, because after that we got the likes of “Do or Die” and Modis Operandi”, and those last two are the ones that gave us Jaydee (or well inspired him of sorts).
2. I think Emanuel’s earlier stuff started the Techno trend, then NTL took over…and now we have Trance instead of Techno which is all over the place and definitely getting better as time goes on.

3. Vas and his rougher voice started the “rock” movement with “Emanuel”. Because of his willingness to break out of the softer mold (or maybe it’s just his willingness to sing) we get the likes of SOE and POA and others…like Red Sky! now.
4. Godfrey was the first to start modern punk (aka the 3 chord wonder) with “I Don’t Care” and a few other songs on “I’m Still Here”. It’s swell that he did, because now STEM is around to continue it on.

5. In the Women’s harder singing department, I think Hopie was the first to try and succeed with her songs on Flying Colors. Haven is doing great at it too.

6. Slower songs that women sing…umm…well that’s sorta been around since the first FTT ever came out, but I think Joni has a great voice in the folk genre, and Niki does great with the Irish/Bluesy stuff, and Julie just has a great voice.

Of course, I’m not a musician or a singer. I’m just an appreciator of the grooves and the notes, basically I’m just talking out of my fingers. Anyone is welcome to correct my ignorance or add on to the list.