Do you 'discover' music or am I just weird.

In My Humble Opinion
1

I grew up not understanding the obsession with music. I didn’t like a single song. Then almost suddenly (in that I can name probably the first thing I ever really liked - ‘Cry Little Sister’ - the theme for ‘Lost Boys’) I fell in love with it.

Is ‘discovering’ music similar to ‘discovering’ or ‘noticing’ the opposite sex (or the same sex if you are that way inclined), or do most of us always like music, taste improving with age?
If your answer is yes to the former - post what the first song you ever liked or remember liking, and why?
probably irrelevant but worth mentioning - music has that amazing and wonderfull memory triggering effect on our brains. I got Harry Potter 1,2, and 3 in one go, as a gift. I had not read a fiction book for many many years, and reading those three books was a very memorable experience. I loved the stories. Most of the time I read while listening to music (on headphones) and most of the time the music was enya. Now whenever I hear the same music the feeling I had when reading those books is triggered.

2

Yes and yes.

:slight_smile:

3

Okay, real answer.

As some of you may know, I come from a family professional musicians. So, from a very young age I was exposed to and fell in love with music of many different kinds, from 60s Rock to Classical to what is now called World Music. Oh yeah, throw in some pretty well done gospel type stuff and you have my musical upbringing.

None of which prepared my for Country and Blue Grass. I found that all by me lonsies at about age 9 or so.

But, I don’t subscribe to being labeled as one “type.” There is something good in almost any genre that I’ve heard.

4

Good thread, Lobsang;

According to my parents, I came out of the womb with taste in music. My father used to sing me to sleep with Bob Dylan, and every time Pour Some Sugar On Me by Def Leppard comes on the radio, my mother tells me how I would sing the whole song emulating a rock star when I was two years old.

The first songs I can consiously remember liking are by the Beatles, specifically Rocky Racoon at the age of four or five, or Devil Went Down To Georgia, by Charlie Daniels Band.

But for a while my opinions about music were ambivalent, maybe even surpressed, because I didn’t get to hear anything I really liked, as my friends all listened to awful pop music. Someone asked me what my favorite band was and I honestly didn’t have one.

Then I listened to Sgt. Pepper’s in maybe seventh or eighth grade. It was my father’s copy, and I remember looking at the cover and thinking, how good could it possibly be, that everyone makes suck a huge deal about it? I guess I thought music couldn’t be much better than what my friends were listening to, it didn’t get deeper or more inovative.

So I put it on. And I’m not exaggerating when I say it was like a musical orgasm, culminating at Lovely Rita. From that moment on, I was interested in music, I had opinions, it was important. I got heavily into the Beatles and Pink Floyd, a lot of 60’s, 70’s rock. Since then I’ve broadened my horizons further…like NCB said, I can usually find some good aspect of any musical type, though some more than others. I started taking bass lessons, too, becaue I wanted to be able to feel the music to every extent I could (not that I’m very good yet).

So yeah, to some extent I agree. Getting into music is something like noticing the opposite sex. You’re aware that it’s there, have experiences with it, and some vague, malformed ideas, and then all of a sudden, it all clicks. Musical puberty.

And I agree 100% about what you said on music being a strong memory trigger. I’ll hear a song that I haven’t heard in years and remember in detail what I was doing the last time it was on the radio. It it works the other way too. Every time I smell cucumber melon perfume, I think of Magical Mystery Tour. I got both for Christmas one year, and I put the CD in just after having put on the perfume. To this day, if I pass someone on the street with that scent on, my mind conjures up bits and pieces of the album. It’s the strangest thing.

5

I am exactly like that last sentence. I am suspicious of people who do stick to a particular type because, surely, if something sounds good you will/should like it.

6

My last post refers to No Clue Boy’s last post. (Orange Skinner’s slipped in while I was typing it)

7

Music was just meaningless background noise to me until I hit my teens. I definately “discovered” it. Now I consider myself a music freak. You mentioned reading with music playing. I am utterly incapable of doing that. I cannot sleep in the presence of music, or watch television or focus on anything other than the music. Even if I don’t like it. The only way to explain it is that I listen “hard”. Very intensely. I’m shocked by my friends who fall asleep to the sound of their walkmans. Anyone else that way?

8

Not as severely as you, CaptBushido. I can fall asleep to music only if I’m in a certain, mood, and only if the music is really, really soothing. There’s a French band called Air that I could fall asleep to. I’ve fallen asleep to Mozart, and Pink Floyd’s Echoes and Shine on You Crazy Diamond.

I can listen very intently if I want, but if I hate the song, I, thank God, can tune it out. I usually write and have it on, but wind up tuning it out. I can’t do anything else…homework, read, etc., though. If it’s just on at a bar or in a store, I am always aware of what is playing. (It really annoys me when a real relaxed coffee shop plays hard rock, or a guitar store has Kenny G on…you’d think they’d try to have the music compliment the atmosphere, you know?)

9

CaptBushido Being a person who suffers from difficulty sleeping (not quite insomnia) I once attempted to use music (from the radio) to help me sleep. I found that instead listening to it kept me awake.

The best sound that has ever helped me sleep was gentle running water. My grandparents used to own a house right next to a largeish stream. With the sliding doors open I would often fall asleep to the sound of the water.

10

Sound, yes!
Sound helps me sleep; noise… but not music. I drift into sleep to the sound of a low thrumming central heating/AC unit, or water heater, or ESPECIALLY rain. Never slept near running water, but if it works anywhere near as good as rain I’d be out like a light.

And don’t think that I’m not listening to the right kind of music, either. I’ve lied in bed at night listening to Pink Floyd and Mozart exactly like you, Orange, but I always hang on every note right up to the end of the CD.

11

I discovered music early on (3-4 years old). I was endlessly fascinated by the records themselves as much as the music on them. I had a thread about record labels some time ago(that went nowhere, unfortunately).

I could listen to the same records over and over again. I will still do this on occasion. I’ve been known to listen to one song 15-20 times in a row. I can’t explain why.

12

Yes, CaptBushido, I’m exactly that way and very few people understand that. I can do almost anything while watching tv; read, (used to do) homework, talk, fall asleep, whatever. But put on music and that’s it. I’m listening to the music. (And singing, usually.) Except cleaning. I can clean my entire house if the right music is on.

13

Music, and more specifically, rhythm, has been with me since I can remember. I’ve always been able to pick up on intricate rhythms and have good pitch. I still smile every time I hear Paul Simon’s lyrics about “…couldn’t have been no more than one or two, yeah…”

I understand that my father was very musical and played self-taught piano by ear. My kids have all inherited the same affinity and talent.

14

I honestly can’t remember a time in my lie when I *wasn’t * a huge music fanatic. I don’t remember “discovering” it, but I can imagine people who didn’t grow up in a music-immersed environment having an epiphany when they were finally exposed. There was always music in the house when we were growing up, and Mom always took us to concerts and scraped up the cash for music and dance classes. As kids we were exposed to a lot of folk, classical, and classic rock, but as I got older my tastes expanded. (I sang in choir all though high school and college, and with a local university choir between college and grad school, so I got into some pretty hardcore comllex choral stuff.) I’ve also been expanding my global repertoire, mostly into the rootsier and more vocal-heavy styles.

One of my favorite things to do is go to Borders’ music section and check out whatever they’re featuring on the headphones in the International or Latin sections that week; you can hear some cool new stuff that way!

(Oddly enough, I have another old HS friend who is a musical genius - he could easily have been a professional classical pianist if he hadn’t gotten pissed off at his pushy mom and quit - but his musical background was restricted to classical music for the longest time. He has tried to make up for lost time, but for quite a while all he would listen to was bubblegum pop and cheesy New Age. Tiffany was his form of rebellion. It still blows my mind when I’m hanigng out with him, and there’s some basic folk or blues or classic rock song that apparently everyone in America knows but him. He likes it, but just had no exposure to it.)

15

I liked songs from A Tisket A Tasket My Green And Yellow Basket.

Anything with memorable words is sure to find me repeating it.
(Although I do avoid the “Done me wrong” songs since my SO done me wrong.)

16

herb helps.
my friend turned me on to “mushroom jazz” by mark farina.
Cool stuff.

17

I did not care much for music until I was 16. Peer pressure at highschool ‘forced’ me to listen to the radio. And I loved what I heard (this was 1973). I became obsessed with music, started making my own weekly top 10 and things like that. That kept on until the end of the eighties, when I discovered classical music, in which I totally immerged. A few years ago, I branched out into jazz.
Music is still the most important passtime for me. I even made a website dedictaed to my favourite songs (www.lu-art.com/Music).