Where do your musical tastes come from?

MsK · May 26, 2008

Where do your musical tastes come from?
For example, I know my first taste of music started from a very young age and it was the country music played by my “Okie” grandparents who were raising me at that the time.
Around the time I was 6 or 7, my mother married a wonderful man who happened to be a musician and his music was, mainly, jazz and R & B. He was lead guitar/vocals in one of those 70’s 10 piece touring bands that had the Sly and the Family Stone, Tower of Power, Doobie Bros. influence. A bunch of long haired and afro wearing guys that wore jumpsuits and platform shoes… Can you imagine the shock for a little girl raised on a farm thus far? Vastly different to the Ernest Tubbs and Hank Snow I had been listening to.
As much as I loved the country, I loved the R&B just the same. And, over the years, while I knew of and liked most of the rock n roll that my friends were listening to, I always found my way back to country and R&B.
Nowadays, I’ve added a lot of light rock/alternative to my collection and , if you were to put my Ipod on shuffle, you’d be surprised to hear Teena Marie (A great R&B diva), followed by Kenny Chesney, Coldplay, Gerald Albright and then a great old tune by Styx.
The only thing you won’t find is electronica. That stuff hurts my ears.
What types of music do you like? And why?

Kalyke · May 26, 2008

I like Jazz, Blues and stuff that has that sound. I am also a great fan of classical. I knew nothing about those music types until I started listening to them. On the Blues: My father picked up an old RCA Victrola somewhere and there were these very old thick records of Billie Holiday. I was maybe 12 or 13. Man, I got very excited by her singing and really began to look for the older stuff. I loved the chords they use. While the other kids were listening to the Partridge Family, I was listening to Thelonious Monk. I've never been normal.

I like the Fusion stuff that happened in the 60's. The Acid-Jazz. I will always take Jazz over any other type of music, if given a choice.

The classical happened when I got this job with a man and worked there about 7 years. Classical was the only music allowed, and I really found myself enjoying (most) of it. I can also now tell what period a Mozart piece comes from, who the Composer if certain works is, and I can win those little contests where they give you a second of a classical song. Good skill, but you usually get only a record album or something.

My CD collection is quite Eclectic. I have Chinese folk music, Irish, American Indian Pop, Russian, Spanish, and good old Rock and Roll.

robeiae · May 26, 2008

I had a radio in my room when I was growing up. At night, I'd fall asleep listening to music. Generally, I could only get two stations clearly. One was pop, one was album rock. And the DJs on the pop station were annoying, so I listened to the rock. Hello, seventies FM rock.

Then, there was my father's membership in the Columbia House Record Club. He got 8-tracks, but he would order them based on a song, then almost never listen to them. So I listened. Hello, songs you never heard on the radio.

As I grew older, I listened to music constantly in the evenings. We had one TV and my father tended to monopolize it. I'd buy albums at garage sales and at Wollworths, often buying them because of the band's name, only. I had all the Beatles albums by the time I was fourteen. Then my Uncle sent me his albums that he never listened to, anymore. That was a big moment. ELO (the early stuff), Boston, Dylan, Neil Young, CSN, and I found my world.

But I also developed a taste for opera in college, via Nietzsche: Wagner. Soon, I had listened to all of Wagner and learned to appreciate it, fully. From there, I went into classical. Hello, Bach, Ravel, and Strauss. Never did like Mozart much--peasant music.

Having said all that, the car radio ruled the day. My parents always listened to oldies stations, so fifties rock and Motown are etched in my brain. That's a good thing.

SPMiller · May 26, 2008

My parents were lovers of 60s-80s rock. My mother tended more toward hard rock and early heavy metal, while my father tended toward Southern rock, country, and blues. They overlapped on prog material. So I got a heaping dose of pretty much every band that ever recorded anything with electric or steel guitars during those decades. I heard much more than I ever wanted to hear, and I got a lot of it through vinyls.

Over time, I moved deeper and deeper into heavy metal. And here I am today. Metal lover, through and through. I'm into weird stuff, mostly melodeath, prog, and tech metal. Can't tell you exactly why, but the music (not the lyrics) connects with me in a way most music doesn't.

Blues lyrics connect with me, but the music doesn't express the emotions I feel.

rugcat · May 26, 2008

I think the music you grew up with, esp during the time when it suddenly became important, usually high school and early college, is the music that remains with you your entire life, the music that speaks to you the loudest, even though you may learn to appreciate many other forms.

I'm a musician with a broad eclectic taste -- but it's the music I listened to at that time in life that still resonates with me the strongest.

mscelina · May 26, 2008

the 18th century.

and punk. What can I say? I had the distinction of being one of the first true punks in Tennessee after spending a summer with my family in France. I came back with ice-white spiked hair and a rattail to my rear that was all that remained of my long, red hair. I listened to Dead Kennedys and Sex Pistols and the Clash, and walked around proudly in my black, ripped up clothes while all the other kids in my class were fighting over Izod polo shirts or the latest in cowboy hats.

*grin*

My musical tastes came from my overwhelming compulsion to dare to be different.

A. Hamilton · May 26, 2008

mine are somewhat diverse. my dad almost always had a classical station running and I played violin for ten years, so I do have a strong classical tilt. but my brothers were teens in the late 60's early 70's, thus there's a strong early rock and folk rock influence. Peter, Paul and Mary, anyone? Zeppelin, Stones, etc, then on to heavy metal when my little bro came on the scene on the 80's. my mom, however was a country fan..
I do wish I'd had more jazz experience, something I'm just starting to explore.

robeiae · May 26, 2008

mscelina said:
My musical tastes came from my overwhelming compulsion to dare to be different.

So, does that mean you still like Menudo?

C.bronco · May 26, 2008

My parents always played music. My Dad used too (still does most probably) blast Ray Charles. They have an enormous lp collection. I used to listen to their Bridge Over Troubled Water album a lot.

My older brother (KENFUSION) has great taste in music, and always brought something home that I'd like immediately. We used to stay up listening to Meatloaf, then, in our teenage years, Ozzy, Pink Floyd's The Wall, Sabbath, Queen, Patti Smith, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, B.O.C. etc. etc.

There's something to be said for sitting with a stereo and reading an album from front to back while listening to music.

Mandy-Jane · May 26, 2008

The music you hear when you're growing up or music you hear when you're at a happy time of your life, is always the music that stays with you, even if you don't particularly like it. When I was little, my sisters used to play a lot of Neil Young. Now I can't stand Neil Young. It's just not my thing. But, whenever I hear it (which is not too often) it makes me feel warm and happy and safe, just like when I was a kid. Same with stuff like Abba, early Rod Stewart, and all that 70s stuff.

III · May 27, 2008

My parents were both musical but they never liked Rock - mostly Pat Boone type stuff, although to their credit they always encouraged us to listen to and play anything we wanted. (I was told I could listen to the radio at a reasonable volume.)

I think, like Rugcat said, my musical preferences were largely shaped by my teenage years and the gang I ran with. Music really defined our cliques, both in high school and college. We'd search out music together (which in those days entailed driving all around town to the record shops) and go to concerts together, wear the same concert tees and leather jackets.

Now that I'm older, I have a much broader range of music I listen to - music my younger self would have killed himself if he knew it would end up in my collection. But it was really those teenage years when music was so hugely important that shaped, not just my tastes, but my identity.

Shadow_Ferret · May 27, 2008

I've always listened to music. My parents thought it was important and gave me piano lessons starting at an early age. I had a phonograph and they had bought me a set of records that featured everything from that doe-see-doe stuff to classical to John Philip Sousa to Rogers and Hammerstein. My favorite albums were Peter and the Wolf and then this album of old sea chanties.

However, it wasn't until I heard my first Black Sabbath album that I said, "This music speaks to me!"

rugcat said:
I think the music you grew up with, esp during the time when it suddenly became important, usually high school and early college, is the music that remains with you your entire life, the music that speaks to you the loudest, even though you may learn to appreciate many other forms.

Agreed. That's why the rock music of the 70s is the best ever.

cletus · May 27, 2008

I'm the youngest of five, so a lot of what I listen to came from my four older brothers. Three of them graduated high school by the time I was 7, so a lot of the 70s rock sunk in.

The next youngest is 6 years older than me, so he influenced a lot of what I listened to in the late 70s and early 80s before I started seeking out my own stuff in the mid-80s. My own stuff, of course, was the guys who were influenced by the guys my brothers had listened to.

Fraulein · May 27, 2008

KrystalR said:
Where do your musical tastes come from?

Friends. If I didn't have friends, I would only listen to Fiona Apple.

KrystalR said:
The only thing you won’t find is electronica. That stuff hurts my ears.
What types of music do you like? And why?

Electronica needs base. Otherwise, the choppiness will hurt your hears the same way that a police siren can give you a headache. My favorite electronica musician is Surkin, Ghetto Obsession and Kiss and Fly. A friend introduced me to him.

maestrowork · May 27, 2008

My family, mostly. Curiously my friends didn't share music with each other. My parents listened to many things (from the Readers' Digest catalogue as well as my uncle's extensive collection -- my uncle owned a record store) from Classical to Opera to Jazz to Rock, so I was exposed to a really wide range. Also from movies -- I loved movies and I also loved movie soundtracks, from the John Williams stuff to Queen. Then I went to college and it opened up a new world of music for me, especially American music. My girlfriend at the time introduced me to a lot of stuff as well. Then there were my New Age and Fusion phases, as well as Techno... I guess my taste in music is forever changing. Still, I don't think I have the depth of musical knowledge as some of you, but I think I have some breadth.

Mr Flibble · May 29, 2008

My brothers started me off on rock and punk in the late seventies ( I managed to freak out a teacher by telling her my fave record was Alice Cooper's Dead Babies, when I was eight) After that, I kind of learned a lot on my own. And as I spent / spend a lot of time at bike rallies, it's rock and metal, with added rock and metal. Did I mention rock and metal?

Although I can blame a particular boyfriend for really getting me into the blues too.

Danger Jane · May 29, 2008

It's my parents and my violinist grandma who gave me my taste. My parents were big on seventies folk, rock, and pop, and I absorbed my love of the eighties through the radio. But for the first three years of my life, my grandma used to babysit me and practice violin while I was in the playpen or whatever, and I knew since I was around four that I wanted to be a violinist, too.

I've matured into my major love of psychedelia, from Jefferson Airplane to Mercury Rev, but I guess I'm folksy-twee at my core. Dream pop, noise pop, and prog rock are also big for me, and I'm delving into the world of seventies soul/disco.

Weirdly, after eight years of violin, Mozart doesn't do anything for me. Way too prim and proper. It's blasphemy! As far as classical goes, I'm big on romanticism and modernism. Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, and Shostakovich are my big three, no doubt, and I'm finding I also love opera (see sig :tongue

).

cletus · May 30, 2008

IdiotsRUs said:
My brothers started me off on rock and punk in the late seventies ( I managed to freak out a teacher by telling her my fave record was Alice Cooper's Dead Babies, when I was eight) After that, I kind of learned a lot on my own. And as I spent / spend a lot of time at bike rallies, it's rock and metal, with added rock and metal. Did I mention rock and metal?

I remember getting told off when I was 7 for wearing a KISS "Destroyer" T-shirt for P.E.

Who would of thunk a Catholic school would find something like that inappropriate?

KTC · May 30, 2008

When I was about 7 (which would have been about 1973ish) we moved into a house that was right next door to a record store. I was already in love with music at the time. I started to hang around in that store and they quickly got to know me. Within a month I was working there after school. I was too young to be on the clock, but they paid me with the record of my choice each day I worked. Sometimes, especially Saturdays when I would spend my whole day there, I'd get a couple records. When it came time to shop around for that record, MAN! I was a kid in a candy store! I scooped up Kiss, Bob Marley, Zep., Zappa, Beatles, Stones, Chicago, Paul Simon, Who, Guess Who... everybody. I had the biggest most eclectic record collection around. I met the Guess Who... they played in the parking lot. Ken Tobias too. My musical tastes came from that record store and the hippies who ran it. My ability to appreciate good music, in whatever genre it appears, came from that record store. That was a great time.

RumpleTumbler · May 30, 2008

Mine seems to have evolved around the pain in my life.

I identified with the lyrics of Sarah Mclachlan and listened to her long before anyone much knew who she was.

Same goes for Aimee Mann........

Indigo Girls, Melissa Etheridge.........

I currently have a Nichole Nordeman fixation......good lyrics.

Pain...Struggle....Perseverance.........My life....my music....

Priene · May 31, 2008

I have to admit my musical tastes formed out of a hatred of every single record my sister and brother liked circa 1979.

Mjollnir13 · May 31, 2008

cletus said:
I remember getting told off when I was 7 for wearing a KISS "Destroyer" T-shirt for P.E.

Who would of thunk a Catholic school would find something like that inappropriate?

I grew up listening to KISS. My brother is 8 years older and always listened to them. The earliest memory I have is in '78 when I was in Kindergarten, our teacher asked if anybody had any favorite groups. Most kids didn't have one, and I replied KISS. She was shocked.

KISS put me on the track to loving Metal. But through the years my taste has broadened.

williemeikle · May 31, 2008

My dad is a country fan, my mum a musical and show tunes fan. But most of my influences came from the radio when I was growing up, in particular I remember listening to, and loving, the Stones and The Animals in the early sixties, and the Yardbirds a bit later. That led me to Cream and Led Zeppelin.

Soon after that I discovered The Blues, Howling Wolf first, then Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. After that I sucked up as much Blues as I could get, and still do, all the way up to The White Stripes.

On a parallel front, I've always had a liking for morose singer songwriters, and have followed Dylan, Neil Young, Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen and Nick Cave for many years.

darrtwish · Jun 7, 2008

My dad. I was born and raised on Rush, so naturally I grew up with bands like Led Zepplin, AC/DC, Triumph, Van Halen, Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd, Ozzy Osborne, Kansas, Black Sabbath, Styx, Boston, and the sorts.

But the rest of my musical taste I've developed on my own. For instance, I'm really big on 20's - 50's music, but nobody else I knew (until very recently) liked that type of music. But whatever they play on the local classic rock station (that plays "modern" rock as well) has influenced me, as well.

Where do your musical tastes come from?

Touch and go

Prodigiously Hanged

Lost in the Fog

Teh doommobile, drivin' rite by you

here for a minute...catch me?

Touch and go

I have plans...

venturing ever further into the unknown

rockin the suburbs

Court Jester

I'm a king bee

Spooks? Where are you?...

Fear the Death Ray

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

I'm a king bee

Stand in the Place Where You Live

Loves Joni Mitchell

Out to lunch

I am the Meatlump King!

The force is strong in this one.