# At what age did you really start listening to popular music on your own? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 30, 2013, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-did-you-really-start-listening-to-popular-music-on-your-own/675160 "2013-11-30T21:27:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Jamicat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c67d28/32.png) [@Jamicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamicat)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-did-you-really-start-listening-to-popular-music-on-your-own/675160/41 "2013-12-01T19:51:34Z")
I was 2 when I preferred: Puff the Magic Dragon-PPM and Brown Sugar-RS over anything else on the radio at the time. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-did-you-really-start-listening-to-popular-music-on-your-own/675160/42 "2013-12-01T20:02:36Z")
When I was 13, I received a transistor radio as one of my Christmas presents. Until that time, my parents controlled the huge cabinet radio/record player in the living room. I could take my little radio out to the backyard and twiddle the tuning knob to my hearts’ content, and I discovered rock’n’roll. I carried that little radio, and the ones that followed it, with me almost constantly. This would have been in 1970. Previously, I’d been exposed to classical, big band and middle of the road music (I started playing the viola when I was 10), but my parents didn’t listen to rock. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-did-you-really-start-listening-to-popular-music-on-your-own/675160/43 "2013-12-01T20:22:30Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > You can ask. 🙂 There are enough clues in my posts for you to guess close enough. 1929? I had a little transistor radio that I listened to popular music on, too - I recall falling asleep every night with it on beside my pillow. I said under 7 in the poll; my sisters and I always listened to my parents’ albums because they didn’t like them - somehow they ended up with a bunch of Beatles, Monkees, Dave Clark Five and Mamas and Papas albums, and they listened to country, so us kids just played around with their albums. They weren’t just background noise for me - I liked all of the pop albums, and picked out and played the songs I liked at a very young age. I’ve always had music on whenever possible, and still do. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-did-you-really-start-listening-to-popular-music-on-your-own/675160/44 "2013-12-01T20:55:51Z")
I had a “Realistic” transistor radio around age 5 (1975). It was red and silver. I listened to whatever popular music stations I could tune in on it. My parents were lame and didn’t really have a nice stereo or anything to listen to music on (which is still true), so my exposure to new music was just what I could find on that little radio. I got a red cassette player the following year (1976), and a record player the year after that (1977). My first cassettes were Billy Joel’s Turnstiles and a Beatles “best of” compilation. My first records were Queen’s News of the World and Sean Cassidy’s Born Late. It was always a battle in the house between my music and my parents’ TV. As I got older, my boom boxes got bigger, I slept with my Walkman all through high school. All my cars from my first one in 1987 got whatever upgraded sound system I could afford, and I got a huge floor-standing home theater when I got my first apartment in 1993, which I still use. ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-did-you-really-start-listening-to-popular-music-on-your-own/675160/45 "2013-12-01T22:56:17Z")
I suppose it was when I went off to college. Even then, I didn’t start listening to pop music until I started commuting (by car) to college two-and-a-half years later. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-did-you-really-start-listening-to-popular-music-on-your-own/675160/46 "2013-12-01T23:32:59Z")
I was born in 1961, and had SOME exposure to pop music from my earliest years… but 1973 was the first year in which I found myself listening to a lot of top 40 radio and buying .45 singles with my own money. The first single I ever bought was Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die.” ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-did-you-really-start-listening-to-popular-music-on-your-own/675160/47 "2013-12-02T01:02:02Z")
I don’t think I really began caring until I was about 16 or even 17. I paid some attention to The Beatles and The Stones, and maybe a little to The Who and the latest pop hits before that (this was the 60s) but I remember a friend playing me records by The Doors and John Mayall that he had asked for and got for Christmas. They made a big impression. I think I was 17 then - maybe 16. In the summer after high school finished, I went with another friend to the [1970 Isle of Wight Festival](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Wight_Festival_1970), so I must have been pretty into it by then. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-did-you-really-start-listening-to-popular-music-on-your-own/675160/48 "2013-12-02T01:43:40Z")
1960-61, age eleven or so. Elvis, Surf music, Ricky Nelson, Chubby Checker… ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-did-you-really-start-listening-to-popular-music-on-your-own/675160/49 "2013-12-02T01:55:24Z")
I answered age 8, because I think that was the year (1978) that my sister and I received a radio/record player for Christmas. We could listen to whatever we wanted! No longer tied to our parents’ musical choices. So we listened to a lot of KOMA AM out of Oklahoma City. We relied on our parents’ records for a long time, because our allowance didn’t go very far, but our radio listening was full independent. ---
**Author:** ![PapSett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@PapSett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PapSett)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-did-you-really-start-listening-to-popular-music-on-your-own/675160/50 "2013-12-02T02:29:03Z")
I was about 9, in 1969. I would turn my radio on very softly and go to sleep to the music at night. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-did-you-really-start-listening-to-popular-music-on-your-own/675160/51 "2013-12-02T02:37:52Z")
Age 9 in 1979. I remember them playing both Blondie’s _Herat of Glass_ and Gary Neuman’s _Cars_ on the radio and me telling everyone they were my favorite songs. I know my parents weren’t into that music and my older sisters were into Billy Joel and Elton John. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-did-you-really-start-listening-to-popular-music-on-your-own/675160/52 "2013-12-02T03:28:14Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > You can ask. 🙂 There are enough clues in my posts for you to guess close enough. Really? I’m not sure why you are afraid to share your year of birth on an anonymous message board. Big deal. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-did-you-really-start-listening-to-popular-music-on-your-own/675160/53 "2013-12-02T03:49:06Z")
I’m guessing about 9… I got a clock-radio when I was a kid somewhere around 1979-1980 and listened to the radio on it, but I really didn’t get into listening to the radio until I got a radio-only “walkman” for Xmas of 1981. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-did-you-really-start-listening-to-popular-music-on-your-own/675160/54 "2013-12-02T05:30:14Z")
I was 16, because until then, from the age of 9, I had only listened to classical music on my own and some jazz. The first time I put on _Abbey Road_ in early 1976 when I was 16 it blew my mind. It was coincidentally sometime around then I I first smoked pot. But on my first hearing of _Abbey Road_ I was not on pot at the time; it blew my mind on pure music alone, and my ears were never again the same, and before the year was out I’d taught myself to play rock ‘n’ roll guitar. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-did-you-really-start-listening-to-popular-music-on-your-own/675160/55 "2013-12-02T05:52:25Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > I don’t think I really began caring until I was about 16 or even 17. I paid some attention to The Beatles and The Stones, and maybe a little to The Who and the latest pop hits before that (this was the 60s) but I remember a friend playing me records by The Doors and John Mayall that he had asked for and got for Christmas. They made a big impression. I think I was 17 then - maybe 16. In the summer after high school finished, I went with another friend to the [1970 Isle of Wight Festival](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Wight_Festival_1970), so I must have been pretty into it by then. You know, thinking about it some more it must have been earlier, because I can now remember being quite excited about The Who’s “I Can See for Miles” climbing up the charts, and rooting for it against what I considered most of the other crap there. When I look that up, I find it was a hit in late 1967, and I would have been 15. Clearly I cared by then. I voted 17 in the poll, but I should have gone for 15 at most. I was sort of interested in The Beatles even before that, and got my Mum to take me to see both _A Hard Day’s Night_ and _Help!_ when they came out, but I don’t think that was quite the same sort of thing. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-did-you-really-start-listening-to-popular-music-on-your-own/675160/56 "2013-12-02T06:20:50Z")
I was 12. It was 1981. I started listening to what I wanted with the advent of MTV. I think around the same time, my parents got me a clock radio so I could get myself up for school. Up until then it was mostly stuff my parents listened to, which was not bad at all since they listened to folk and rock and blue grass and gospel. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-did-you-really-start-listening-to-popular-music-on-your-own/675160/57 "2013-12-02T10:40:01Z")
1966 - my brother, sister and I had been each given a small transistor radio for Christmas, and a record player for the play room, and a few records. We generally saved up our allowance and bought 45 RPM singles rather than whole albums. I know the first one we all liked that came with the record player was Beatles [my cousin Pam was a fan and she gave us the record player and a dozen singles, all Beatles.] Though you won’t like this, I happened to like classical music and it was what I tended to listen to - the first actual album of classical I bought was Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. The first popular 33.3 RPM album I bought myself was [Snoopy and His Friends](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_98zZGlDC3HY/TQPI6N8TpvI/AAAAAAAACHg/OkuN2LC-8qE/s1600/SnoopyVersusRedBaronLPFront.JPG). ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-did-you-really-start-listening-to-popular-music-on-your-own/675160/58 "2013-12-02T11:38:49Z")
I said 18, only because the OP ruled out classical music (why?). ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-did-you-really-start-listening-to-popular-music-on-your-own/675160/59 "2013-12-02T12:48:30Z")
I answered “7 or Under” and i would put the year at 1946 or 1947. I turned 7 in 1948. My mother played piano and aunts and uncles either also played or sang. The radio would have been my “outside” source and the stations in those days were “pop” in one style or another, including country and things that would make the Hit Parade. Big bands, vocal groups, crooners and other solo acts. My earliest identifiable artists were Sinatra, George Shearing, Les Paul & Mary Ford, Bob Wills, Jo Stafford, Glenn Miller and maybe another 10 or so. Jazz (once I knew its name) was my favorite then and still is. Blues, R&B, RnR and other styles would come along later, teen years. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-did-you-really-start-listening-to-popular-music-on-your-own/675160/60 "2013-12-02T14:10:51Z")
The UK tv programme _Top of the Pops_ began when I was nearly 7 back in 1964 and I know I watched it faithfully almost every week (who else remembers ‘Samantha the record girl’ who used to put the records on for the groups to mime to!?) I probably had favourites back then but I don’t really remember. I got my own transistor radio in about 1967/8 I think and from aged around 10 onwards listened as much as I could to the pirate stations and the new Radio One with growing descernment and started following the charts more closely… And then I was old enough to buy albums and lend and borrow others at school, just when prog and heavy rock were getting going… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-did-you-really-start-listening-to-popular-music-on-your-own/675160.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-did-you-really-start-listening-to-popular-music-on-your-own/675160.md?page=4)