Like most people, when I was a kid I listened to what my parent’s listened to: Jazz (bebop and mellow, primarily), Country, Western Swing, Show Tunes, early Rock n’ Roll. When I had money, what I would buy would be completely random. The first record I bought with my own money was B.J. Thomas’ “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head”. The first LP was Styx’s Paradise Theater, which was too heavy for my fifth grade music class. :rolleyes:
At about 12, I started raiding my sister’s record collection. She regularly pulled the “under 18” scam on the record and tape clubs, so she had a lot of stuff. But it was mostly the Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, and Iron Maiden that she had that interested me. I’m pretty sure I made her not like Zeppelin any more by over-playing it. Around this time, I also inherited the guitar she no longer played, and bought a box of someone’s dubbed cassettes at a church garage sale. It included a lot of 60’s-70’s rock that my sister had no interest in (e.g. Jeff Beck w/the Yardbirds), along with classical recordings, and some 60’s pop. My friends and I started raiding their parent’s collections as well, and that’s where I heard calypso and instrumental surf for the first time.
Somewhere in there, Rock n’ Roll High School was on cable. From that, I established that The Ramones were obviously the coolest band to ever walk the planet. Around that time, MTV was just getting started, and they played some crazy stuff in the middle of the day. That’s where I first saw Blue Cheer and Black Sabbath in their prime.
After that, I got a bass guitar, and went even more metal. I was into Yngwie Malmsteen, learned how to play Toccata Y Fugue in D minor on the bass, and am generally embarrassed about my musical development from about 12 to 14. The only thing that I keep with me from that time is a love of Jaco Pastorius’ work, who I was introduced to by a bass teacher. Everything else from my tastes at that time is pretty un-listenable.
Around 15, I started trying to form bands with friends. Most of my metal friends at the time actually sucked pretty bad on guitar, and weren’t willing to play within their abilities. Lots of Metallica, Dio, Iron Maiden, Dokken :rolleyes:. A Guitar Player subscription that I got sometime around then started drawing me away from metal. I began listening to blues and instrumental rock again.
After that, I got to know some punk rock kids, and they were more than happy to play within their abilities. They were also more than happy to do Ramones covers, and come to find out, the rest of the bands they wanted to cover were pretty cool, too. 120 Minutes was on MTV around the same time, and I was introduced to the late night shows on KNON. Wow, I really didn’t know that “Do what thou wilt” was the whole of musical law. The Butthole Surfers, Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth (second coolest band to ever walk the planet), They Might Be Giants, Bauhaus, Sioxusie and the Banshees, The Pixies, Flipper, The Accused, The Meat Puppets, Dead Kennedys, Bad Religion, Black Flag, Pussy Galore, I could go on all night. They all sounded different, and are all working from a different idea. It was amazing.
The end of High School/College years were more of the same. I played in a band, and when you play in a band in the same town as a music college, you hear everything. On top of that, I had friends who had extensive Psychedelic/Acid rock and Blues collections, who played them for me and made me love them. Through listening to Psychedelic rock, and the things it morphed into in the 70’s, I found out about Bowie and early Roxy Music. Through Eno, I gained an appreciation for synth music that I hadn’t had before, and new reasons to like some of my old favorites. Around this time, I also found out about the 3rd and 4th coolest bands to ever walk the planet, The Velvet Underground and Parliament/Funkadelic. I found out about VU through a girlfriend’s record collection, and Parliament/Funkadelic through a friend who owned a record store. I doubt I’ll ever match the thrill and confusion of listening to either of them for the first time.
Since then, the only real expansion of my tastes has been to accept that: I actually dearly love the country and western swing that my parent’s played, I really like Metal (but not the overly technical silly stuff) in a non-ironic way, and I like the song Funkytown to a completely unnatural level.
My only complaints about new music would be that It’s difficult to find the good stuff. But I’m relatively old, and it’s always been difficult to find the good stuff.
(sigh).
