Illustrate your progression of musical touchstones

Cafe Society
1

Mine:

The Archies > The Beatles > Kiss > Jethro Tull > Bob Dylan > Paul Simon > Elvis Costello > Lou Reed > Neil Young

Structure how your musical tastes have evolved, using my example as a guide. Each of the artists above dominated different periods of my listening life.

Don’t try to include every artist you have loved, just the periods of your life where one artist dominated.

As an example, I’ve been listening to Neil Young for, I dunno, five decades. But he is last on my progression because I have recently become more aware of how much his music means to me and I have been playing a bit of catch-up with his catalog.

It will be interesting to see how closely others align.

mmm

2

Jim Croce > Madonna > Iron Maiden > Pink Floyd > Blue Oyster Cult > The Alan Parsons Project

I think there were some periods of my life where I just wasn’t listening to much of anything.
And lately I’m finding Joe Walsh very interesting.

3

Is the idea something like: what was the most important group in your life at various life stages? If so, something like:

New Kids on the Block → REM → Pearl Jam → U2 → Radiohead → The Beatles

4

Hmm, he might fit (early) in my timeline as well.

Exactly.

mmm

5

My musical evolution does have some similarities to the OP.

Very early years; age 5-8ish:
Archies, Osmonds, Jackson 5, Beatles. When I was 5 or 6 I got the ‘Sugar, sugar’ single by the Archies off the back of a cereal box. I played that on my parents’ record player until the needle wore through the cardboard. Must’ve driven my parents crazy. A Saturday morning cartoon I loved had the Osmonds and Jackson 5 solving mysteries, Scooby-Doo style, in between songs. And I enjoyed the kid-friendly Beatles songs like “I Wanna Hold your Hand”.

Still a kid; 8ish-12ish:
I listened to my parents’ “music for boomers who were squares” collection-- Neil Diamond, Blood Sweat & Tears, Chicago. Good music, but stuff I would be embarrassed to admit to my friends I liked as a teenager.

Early teens:12ish-14ish:
I bought my first stereo and did the Columbia House ‘12 albums for a penny’ thing. I listened to bands like ELO, Journey, Styx, Kansas, Boston-- flashy, prog-rocky, synth-heavy, heavily produced music with elaborate album cover art.

Later teens:
I got into the classic blues-based bands of the 60s-70s: Stones, Who, Zeppelin. Also classic singer-songwriter stuff: Dylan, Young. “Rust Never Sleeps” and “After the Gold Rush” were particular favorites as a 15-16 yo. I now scorned the music of my early teens I used to like, calling it 'corporate rock".

Young adult to today (old adult):
Still like everything from the ‘later teen’ period. Have come around to again appreciate the 'corporate rock" stuff I scorned in my late teens, though nostalgia might be coloring that. I like to think my musical tastes evolved to become wide and eclectic- I’ve very much enjoyed ambitious, experimental stuff like Paul Simon’s “Graceland” and “Rhythm of the Saints” (underrated album in the shadow of Graceland, IMHO); or even albums considered indulgent messes at the time like Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Tusk’. Pink Floyd was a big favorite. On the other hand, I always like a stripped-down sound, where it’s all about the music, man: guitar, base, drums, vocals. The Grunge movement was a nice change from 80s excess. I like the forced creativity of minimalism that comes from two-piece bands: White Stripes, Black Keys, Royal Blood.

6

Elvis Presley > The Beatles > Michael Jackson > Duran Duran > Pink Floyd > The Ramones > Lou Reed > Public Enemy > U2 > Leonard Cohen

That covers me from being a kid and listening to my dad’s old LPs and 45s, though mid-high school and discovering punk, then through my university years. Then there’s a a long gap I can’t really qualify, not that I stop listening to music. If anything, I consumed a ton more during that period, but I had various fandoms and tastes all over the map and there wasn’t one artist in which I immersed myself. Maybe jump forward twenty years and I pick up my obsessiveness with:

David Bowie > Frank Zappa > Prince

7

The Children’s Record Guild —>Tommy James & the Shondells —>Ferde Grofe—>Pyotr Tchaikovsky—>Three Dog Night—>Pink Floyd—>Knut Nystedt

or something like that

8

Michael Jackson → Tom Petty → Eminem → Kesha

9

Adler and Ross → Wasserman/Lee → Bonzo Dog Band → Frank Zappa → the Who → Allman Brothers → Pink Floyd → Martin Mull → Grateful Dead → Beatles → Cole Porter → Spirit → Squeeze → Rossini → Kinks → Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band. → White Stripes

I tend to jump around music genres. I grew up on Broadway show times and started getting into rock and blues in my teens. I also liked humor and good lyrics.

10

Beach Boys > Beatles > The Who > Blondie > X > The Pixies > Camper van Beethoven

My tastes have been too eclectic since the 1990s to boil down to single bands.

11

Shoutout to the last three there. I was a huge CVB fan, while nobody at my high school had ever heard of them. Saw them on the Key Lime Pie tour in 1989, though I thought opening act Syd Straw impressed me much more. Anyone who wasn’t a music fan of the right age in 1989 might not comprehend just how seismic The Pixies’ Doolittle album was at the time. And X were always amazing…they’re a top 5 group for me, but I didn’t include them in my own look back because they’ve always been there, without a real moment of deep dive for me.

12

X was the first band I repeatedly saw live. It was their stage performances that I loved more than the records. Same for the Cramps and the Blasters. The Pixies and CvB were the opposite; they made great records and in comparison were (are) rather uninteresting as live acts.

13

I’ve seen X six times (twice were as the Knitters), and they’ve always been just incendiary. I wouldn’t say I disliked the Pixies (though I saw them after Kim left) or CvB in concert, but you’re right, they didn’t really transcend. Sad I never got to see The Cramps. Never caught The Blasters either, but I did see Dave Alvin solo on my birthday one year (Blackjack David tour), and though it wasn’t a big rave-up, he was still stellar.

14

Little kid: The Beatles
Pre-Teen: Michael Jackson
Teen: Van Halen
Late Teen: Pink Floyd
College/Post College: Exploded into alternative/grunge/punk, but Love & Rockets were very high
Old Fart: “Fusiony” stuff I missed growing up…Luscious Jackson, Zombies, Leo Kottke, King Crimson

15

I came into this world in 1952 and liked rock & roll music very early. I was 5 years old when I asked my Mom to buy me “Wake Up Little Susie” by the Everly Brothers.

I liked the Four Seasons in the early 1960s. They really stood out in what was a rather bland period for Pop music.

I was 12 when The Beatles arrived and changed everything, and not long after, I was really into the Byrds. (“Eight Miles High” was a major musical pivot, as was the Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows” on “Revolver.”) I also liked Jimi Hendrix and Simon & Garfunkel.

In the 70s, I tended toward groups like Pink Floyd and the Electric Light Orchestra. I also liked folky-type artists like Gordon Lightfoot and Danny O’Keefe.

In the 80s I was focused on bands like the Police and Talking Heads. And still Pink Floyd, of course.

In the 90s and beyond I was no longer working on the radio full time, and I began to lose touch with contemporary rock music, so I can’t point to anyone or any band in particular, but I enjoyed the music of many people here and there, as I do today. It’s a major joy for me when I hear something new that really excites me.

16

The Beatles → The Who → AC/DC → Alanis Morissette → Enya → Traveling Wilburys → 2NE1 → Taylor Swift.

These days I mostly listen to songs randomly pulled from a long playlist of songs I like. It’s like 48 hours to play straight through, which I never do. Listening to a song will remind me of an album, and then I’ll play that album.

17

J.S. Bach > Led Zeppelin > The Doors > Pink Floyd > Butthole Surfers > Sonic Youth > Melvins > Boredoms > Dan Deacon > Lightning Bolt > OCS/The Ohsees/The Oh Sees/Thee Oh Sees/Oh Sees/Osees (yes, those are all basically the same band)

I probably spent wayyyy too long fixating on Led Zeppelin. Still pretty fixated on the last five, since they’re all still active and evolving.

18

Disney > movie soundtracks > Monkees > Beatles/Stones > Who/Led Zeppelin > Pink Floyd/ELP > BOC > REM > Fountains Of Wayne…

19

I still enjoy Pink Floyd, but it surely fits in my late teen years.

Now I am wondering if I ought to look around at various people’s progressions that have PF somewhere in the middle and start checking out the music they list to the right :grinning:

20

I don’t think I can reduce it to a linear progression.

As I heard more my tastes expanded, but hearing new stuff didn’t mean the previous good works were any lessened.

Once I started playing and songwriting myself, I started to analyse things and realized that a lot of songs are rather derivative and use very common patterns of chords and lyrical themes.
So I am impressed when someone comes up with an interesting chord change or lyrical twist.

Though sometimes there are songs which just use simple well known chords which somehow… touch a nerve. That’s a gift that comes from who knows where… no amount of technical skill can produce them. The lightning has to strike…