Did a couple of musicky posts, now I'm thinking about songs I randomly heard which made an impact.
Morcheeba - Rome Wasn't Built in a Day
I was working in a DIY store at the time and this song came on over the in-store music thingy. This was back before there were apps and whatnot to identify songs, so it was a good few years before I discovered the song and artist name. Even tried calling the company who did the music feeds..
#CoSoMusic
https://youtu.be/FLGJXbl6g8o
Second one that stands out to me is Muse - Plug In Baby. First time I heard this, they are playing a festival that was being shown live on TV. Can't remember what one, but it made enough of an impact that I got up the old 56k modem later that night (it was a while back!) and looked them up..
And then ended up buying a bunch of their albums.
https://youtu.be/dbB-mICjkQM
The 'least cool' band I got into story has to be the Simon & Garfunkel one, though. I was a teenager at the time, on holiday in Newquay, UK, and I was sitting in some restaurant. They stayed playing a bunch of what I later found out were Simon & Garfunkel songs. I asked my dad if he knew who it was, he told me, but damn, I was getting condescension vibes there.
Anyway, bought their greatest hits album shortly after.
https://youtu.be/DdIC4ZXVq9k
In his defence, my dad was mostly a dick, but he did have good taste in music for the most part. It was through him that I got into Dire Straits and Pink Floyd. And I know he appreciated my taste in music 'cos the bugger stole a load of my CDs 😋
Reason I say it's a little different is it feels like I came across it less 'organically', being introduced via a TV show. Granted, the Morcheeba and Simon & Garfunkel one were marketing exercises also, but in a different way - they were used to create a particular atmosphere/ambience, whereas the Jidenna/Luke Cage thing felt more like a product placement. Out of all those stories, that's the one where I only really ended up liking the one track rather than getting into the artist generally.
Last one, which is more recent and a little different. I was watching Luke Cage and there was a nightclub scene with (as I remember) an act doing a warmup, or audition or something. Loved the song and, thankfully this was recent so it was easy to look up online, turned out to be Jidenna - Long Live the Chief
https://youtu.be/H_AQFnqMY3E