# How your father's taste in music affects what you listen to **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 24, 2011, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-your-fathers-taste-in-music-affects-what-you-listen-to/586721 "2011-06-24T16:26:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-your-fathers-taste-in-music-affects-what-you-listen-to/586721/1 "2011-06-24T16:26:22Z")
[A new infographic explains it all.](http://bit.ly/kGoNg0) Pretty funny. ---
**Author:** ![Jumpbass](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jumpbass/32/147_2.png) [@Jumpbass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jumpbass)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-your-fathers-taste-in-music-affects-what-you-listen-to/586721/2 "2011-06-24T16:36:32Z")
Good one. I feel bad for my kids- I listen to Beethoven, Miles Davis AND Iron Maiden. No Grateful Dead, tho. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-your-fathers-taste-in-music-affects-what-you-listen-to/586721/3 "2011-06-24T18:59:13Z")
Doesn’t apply to me; my father listened to Broadway showtunes (which I like myself). ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-your-fathers-taste-in-music-affects-what-you-listen-to/586721/4 "2011-06-24T19:12:15Z")
> [@Jumpbass](#): > > Good one. > > I feel bad for my kids- I listen to Beethoven, Miles Davis AND Iron Maiden. No Grateful Dead, tho. Tell me about it - I love Jack (JD is the official booze of rock and roll as far as I am concerned), but am not a big fan of Hair Metal… This is a big deal, people! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-your-fathers-taste-in-music-affects-what-you-listen-to/586721/5 "2011-06-24T19:16:33Z")
Pretty funny. My dad’s a Grateful Dead kind of guy (Eagles really), but I’ve never heard of Ben Harper. I like both Jack Johnson and Dave Matthews, though, and I wound up stealing his Don Henley CD for myself when I was in my early teens. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-your-fathers-taste-in-music-affects-what-you-listen-to/586721/6 "2011-06-24T19:20:27Z")
Alas, I am so uncool that I’ve never even heard of “my” band. (Vampire Weekend? Who?) I selected “Miles Davis Dad” and personally, I loathe all jazz with the burning fire of a thousand suns, but my hatred for bebop and lazer tone is has the fire of a billion exploding supernovas. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-your-fathers-taste-in-music-affects-what-you-listen-to/586721/7 "2011-06-24T19:26:43Z")
There was no “Your father listened to Boots Randolph” option that I saw. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-your-fathers-taste-in-music-affects-what-you-listen-to/586721/8 "2011-06-24T19:53:33Z")
My father’s favorite music was: 1. Opera, which I never really learned to like (though I listen to a lot of classical music) 2. Old-school country and Western music (Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, et al), which I have only a nostalgic fondness for 3. Late-Fifties - Early Sixties folk music. Pete Seeger, Peter Paul & Mary, the Seekers, the Kingston Trio, stuff like that. I like a handful of songs from those groups and that era. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-your-fathers-taste-in-music-affects-what-you-listen-to/586721/9 "2011-06-24T21:46:22Z")
I had to go by styles. Dad liked 70s non-metal, so I went with Greatful Dead. I followed the chart, and I got Ben Harper, which seems to be mostly decent singing on top of acoustic guitar, which I must admit I really enjoy. I also must admit that, like my father, I still don’t care for metal, and, while I think Jazz and Classical are interesting, I don’t usually tend to listen to them in my spare time. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-your-fathers-taste-in-music-affects-what-you-listen-to/586721/10 "2011-06-24T22:00:48Z")
My dad was into folk music pretty big-time. Which is odd, in retrospect, since so much of the folk scene was linked up to the anti-war movement, and my dad was a Dixiecrat Green Beret Vietnam Vet who thought hippies were the scum of the earth. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-your-fathers-taste-in-music-affects-what-you-listen-to/586721/11 "2011-06-24T22:06:15Z")
> [@Kizarvexius](#): > > My dad was into folk music pretty big-time. Which is odd, in retrospect, since so much of the folk scene was linked up to the anti-war movement, and my dad was a Dixiecrat Green Beret Vietnam Vet who thought hippies were the scum of the earth. My Dad hated hippies and commies, too- but he still loved Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie and all the usual pinkos of the folk movement. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-your-fathers-taste-in-music-affects-what-you-listen-to/586721/12 "2011-06-24T22:12:59Z")
I’m pretty sure that everything my dad knows about music, he learned from me; so I think I have to read that chart backward or something. ---
**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:** [June 24, 2011, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-your-fathers-taste-in-music-affects-what-you-listen-to/586721/13 "2011-06-24T23:59:02Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Doesn’t apply to me; my father listened to Broadway showtunes (which I like myself). Me too. And my father also listened to Beethoven, which means I also listen to Vampire Weekend. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-your-fathers-taste-in-music-affects-what-you-listen-to/586721/14 "2011-06-24T23:59:58Z")
My dad listens to country from the 40s to the 80s. I like some Cash, Kristofferson, Willie, Yoakam, Earle, and other artists, but the bulk of my music library is composed of female singer songwriters, and is filled out by random indie bands, electropop, synthpop, dark cabaret, goth metal, and folk. He’s had a minimal influence on my tastes. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-your-fathers-taste-in-music-affects-what-you-listen-to/586721/15 "2011-06-25T00:06:07Z")
If my dad listened to Maiden (a mean feat without a time machine), I would hope he disowns me for listening to poodle-metal crap. According to this, I like Ben Harper, although I barely know who he is.