I said age 12, but I had to do it clandestinely, as “popular” music was not allowed in my house (= Devil music), and rock and roll was the worst of the worst. I had to use headphones (“What are you listening to?” “Oh, just some Mozart.”) or listen when I was alone, or at friends’ homes.
Obviously I couldn’t buy 45’s and play them openly. I kept them hidden in a toy chest. Imagine what would have ensued if Mom had found them. Some of them were actually performed by Negros, and they weren’t gospel, either. :eek:
Rush’s Moving Pictures album was the best thing I had ever heard. I know it came out in early '81, but it inspired me so much that I asked my parents to trade my violin for a bass for my 10th birthday in December.
At age 10, I started rocking out to Herman’s Hermits and The Dave Clark Five, in my neighbors’ paneled rec room, on one of those portable phonographs you see sometimes in old episodes of Perry Mason.
I had my own radio as young as 7, but scrolling through the Billboard charts by year it’s clear to me that 1972, when I turned 9, was really the first year I listened compulsively to KLIF in Dallas. And a banner year it was!:
I was 12–almost 13–and it was early 1978. I started with a transistor radio and moved on to a portable AM/FM tape player shortly after I turned 13. I used to make my own mix tapes of songs I taped off the radio.
The very first album I remember loving was Sgt. Pepper’s. But that was several years after it was released. Early '70s, so I was probably around 9 or 10. First album I bought for myself (I had bought singles) was a Night at the Opera (Queen) in '75.
I bought a transistor radio at the commissary when I was 11. (1968) Elapsed time between opening the package, and my father saying, “You call that music?” was about 2 minutes.
I was about eight***** – I was laid up with with a fever for about a week, and mom brought a radio into my room to keep me company.
I discovered Imus In The Morning (which was hilarious to ten-year-old standards) and pop music. This was in '76, and WNBC played…well, I went to look at Wikipedia to confirm what I thought they were playing at the time, and they have a pretty good list so I’ll just steal theirs:
“They featured hits from 1964 to then-current product. By this time, artists such as the Eagles, Billy Joel, Steve Miller, Fleetwood Mac, Bee Gees, Donna Summer, and disco acts, among others, were mixed in.”
So, I was a total pop music junkie from '75 until March 19, 1982. That was the day Randy Rhodes died – radio stations played tribute to him, I discovered Ozzy, and my life was forever changed…
*****I said “10” in the poll answer, but it turns out I was incorrect. I had always thought that bout of illness was in '78, but WNBC had changed format by then, so it had to have been '76.
I think it was around the age of 10, in 1985. I snuck peaks of MTV prior to that, but didn’t really “get it.” I do remember about the fifth grade, listening to the local radio stations and taping favorite songs off the radio. Also think I got my first Walkman around then.
I would’ve been about 9, in the early '70s. Elton John was the first rock star I was really aware of–I was familiar with his cover versions of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and “Pinpall Wizard” before I ever heard the originals or was more than peripherally aware of who the Beatles or the Who were.
There are enough clues in my posts for you to guess close enough.