# Pre-poll data collection: first exposure to music **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 26, 2014, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-collection-first-exposure-to-music/691693 "2014-06-26T14:20:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-collection-first-exposure-to-music/691693/1 "2014-06-26T14:20:57Z")
I’m considering putting up a poll on the _very first_ music you were aware of. Help me build a list of options. Parent’s singing Other family member singing Somebody in the family playing: – piano – guitar – harmonica – other instrument(s) Radio TV Juke box Church Family record player (LP, tape, CD, computer) Street performer What am I leaving out that would apply in your case? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-collection-first-exposure-to-music/691693/2 "2014-06-26T14:27:00Z")
[typical precocious Doper] I was writing my own songs before I was two.[tpD] 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-collection-first-exposure-to-music/691693/3 "2014-06-26T14:41:26Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > [typical precocious Doper] I was writing my own songs before I was two.[tpD] 😃 Righteous! Top of the list. Item #2: angels. ---
**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 26, 2014, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-collection-first-exposure-to-music/691693/4 "2014-06-26T15:01:00Z")
Ice cream truck TV theme songs (as opposed to music on a TV show) Church bells Toys (toy piano, xylophone, jack-in-the-box, etc.) Music box Cartoons (especially classical) Elevator music (elevators, stores, malls, etc.) Cell phone ring tones Kids’ games, taunting, etc. (e.g. skipping rope) Nursery rhymes ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-collection-first-exposure-to-music/691693/5 "2014-06-26T15:07:09Z")
Excellent, **panache45**! ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-collection-first-exposure-to-music/691693/6 "2014-06-26T15:08:49Z")
Parents singing Records Radio TV ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-collection-first-exposure-to-music/691693/7 "2014-06-26T19:31:55Z")
Other than nursery rhyme type music (This Old Man, The Framer in the Dell, etc) my first childhood exposure to music was classical and/or opera as my mother has been a long-time opera nut. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-collection-first-exposure-to-music/691693/8 "2014-06-27T01:15:54Z")
Mom loved to sing. When she was in high school, she was in a group with 2 other girls doing Andrews Sisters songs. They were even on the local radio once or twice. So I never really noticed music, it was always there. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-collection-first-exposure-to-music/691693/9 "2014-06-27T01:34:16Z")
“In early memory, mission music was ringing round my nursery door” --Paul Simon ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-collection-first-exposure-to-music/691693/10 "2014-06-27T02:05:21Z")
Music is pretty ubiquitous in most people’s lives these days, so, given the almost universal prevalence of [childhood amnesia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood_amnesia), I doubt whether anyone truly remembers their “first exposure”, not if you are counting things like TV themes and the radio. I do remember some old 78rpm records my parents had, that I used to dance about and sing to. I am not quite sure how old I was, maybe 3 or 4 or so. For some reason I would often hold an orange in each hand as I danced. One of them was called ["Cigareets [sic] and Whusky and Wild, Wild Women](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqk3osxS4wQ)" . 🙂 (I am not sure if the version at that Youtube link is the same performer, but it could be.) Another one was some sort of Hawaiian ukelele instrumental, called K??? Hotel. There was a piano in our house, but nobody in my immediate family could play it. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-collection-first-exposure-to-music/691693/11 "2014-06-27T02:22:59Z")
Dad played guitar and sang; I was in my late 20’s before I realized that “Me and Bobby McGee” was not written by my dad about my mom, whose maiden name that was. 😛 Mom sang around the house. Friends of my folks came with guitars and played together, banjos too. We had a record player. I remember Peter, Paul and Mary. My favorite toy was a kid’s record player. It had pre-formed, pastel-colored plastic disks and made the same kind of plinking music that little music boxes do. Claire d’Lune for the win 🙂 And of course Sesame Street. OOOOOH…Jukebox! I kid you not. My mom would go to coffee with a friend, and the coffee shop had a jukebox. I always thought it so very wrong that ‘Please, Mr. Please \’ was not, in fact, selection B-17. 😑 ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-collection-first-exposure-to-music/691693/12 "2014-06-27T02:41:44Z")
First song I remember is hearing _You Got a Friend_ in 1971 in an apartment in Atlanta. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-collection-first-exposure-to-music/691693/13 "2014-06-27T05:32:23Z")
I think the first music I was aware of was the Mull’s Singing Convention on Granma’s TV. I learned to sing gospel songs out the ass. 1955. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-collection-first-exposure-to-music/691693/14 "2014-06-27T05:44:27Z")
Are we talking about “first being conscious there was music” or “first becoming interested in music”? The first one falls in the realm of “can’t remember”, an option the OP did not include. Music has been part of my life since forever, between church, TV, radio, movies, local festivals… ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-collection-first-exposure-to-music/691693/15 "2014-06-27T05:48:01Z")
My mother singing lullabys. She also played the guitar. But what really made the biggest impression was my grandmother’s record player. An old tube model, which took time to warm up. You could look through the grille and see the warm glowing orange light of the tubes. And it had a wonderful warm electronic smell. The song I remember as my “first” song? Nat King Cole’s “Nature Boy.” ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-collection-first-exposure-to-music/691693/16 "2014-06-27T05:54:36Z")
Birdsong? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-collection-first-exposure-to-music/691693/17 "2014-06-27T05:55:27Z")
Deep in the most microscopic structures of the Universe, beyond atoms and protons and electrons, beyond photons and quarks and gravitons, beyond the vague abstract complex probability wave functions of which all larger structures are just superpositions, is the ultimate fundamental Music of the Universe, the sweet vibes of Ilúvatar and the Ainur. But the Universe contains Pain and Suffering and Evil as well! A bit of discordant Music thrown in by a Maia or two gave us that. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-collection-first-exposure-to-music/691693/18 "2014-06-27T06:05:03Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Are we talking about “first being conscious there was music” or “first becoming interested in music”? The first one falls in the realm of “can’t remember”, an option the OP did not include. Music has been part of my life since forever, between church, TV, radio, movies, local festivals… The OP said > [@](#): > > the very first music you were aware of and I will make no further effort to clarify that. ---
**Author:** ![JpnDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-collection-first-exposure-to-music/691693/19 "2014-06-27T06:34:44Z")
- Parents playing old records and father singing while drunk. - Long family car trips listening to the radio. - Catechism class. - My first radio at age 8. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![misling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ab097/32.png) [@misling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misling)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-collection-first-exposure-to-music/691693/20 "2014-06-27T13:49:06Z")
These would be pre-kindergarten: Mom singing nonsense songs to me: “It was an itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini”… “Hennery the Eighth I Am”… stuff like that. Yeah, I know it’s “Henry”, but Mom always sang “Hennery”. Records playing and both parents singing along with them. Radio, quarters in the jukebox at the pizza parlour. We didn’t have a TV til I was in grade school, so no TV themes. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-collection-first-exposure-to-music/691693.md?page=2)