The evolution of your musical taste

This may not apply to everyone, but it seems for me that throughout different periods of my life, my taste in music has shifted, changed, and grown at points. I would go through phases where a different genre, style or artist would be my favorite.
I think below would be a rough mapping of my tastes throughout my life. But even as I get into new music, I would always continue to listen to my favorites of the past.

Elementary School and below: Whatever happened to be around. Which in my house ended up being the Eagles, Simon & Garfunkel, Gypsy Kings, Bee Gees, ABBA.

Middle School: Heavy metal, (Metallica, Pantera, Megadeth, Dream Theater, Korn, Deftones, Iced Earth, Blind Guardian, Stratovarius) and some grunge (Nirvana, Pearl Jam)

High School (Pretty vast expansion of taste here): Trip hop (Massive Attack, Portishead, DJ Shadow, UNKLE, Bjork?); Hip hop/rap (Fugee, Jurassic 5, Pharcyde, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg); electronica (Aphex Twin, Orbital, Squarepusher)

College: Largely thanks to my roommate mainstream hip hop i.e. party music (T.I., Ciara, Lil Jon, Lil Wayne, Eminem,whatever’s popular pretty much); techno/house (Benny Benassi, DJ Tiesto, BT, Oakenfold, Pendulum, Cosmic Gate)

Post college (I’m 28 BTW): No growth. Just listening to the stuff that I’ve accumulated until now more or less. I guess I’ve gotten back into trip hop mostly, or a sort of easy listening hip hop might be a more accurate description, e.g. DJ Shadow, RJD2, Handsome Boy Modelling School, Little People. And dubstep too, some small degree.

I encourage everyone to post something similar because I would be interested to see if there are patterns or similarities in people’s changing tastes. Or even just people’s tastes in general.

I grew up in a house with “light classics.” In high school, I discovered Bach, and fell in love with the Baroque era. I’ve never looked back!

In college, I discovered Renaissance and Medieval music. Marvellous!

Later, I took on a lifelong search for “weird” music. Albums such as “The Grotesqueries of Alkan” or the Peter Ustinov treatment of Hary Janos. The oddball, the quirky. Still within the broadest classical envelope, but off the path. P.D.Q. Bach. “Country Fiddle Band.” 19th century Political Campaign songs. Zamfir. The Chieftains and Steeleye Span.

Then there was the year I went on a Prokofiev jag, and got pretty much everything of his I could find. A very good year, and I still adore Prokofiev. (Does he count as “weird?”)

Im 33, and I can say that my musical tastes have fossilised in my mid twenties. Before that they expanded rather than changed.

High school (13- 14) Mainstream hard rock and metalGuns N Roses, Iron Maiden
High school (15 - 17) Death/thrash metal - Obituary, Death, Slayer, Deicide
University (17 -20) More black metal metal added to mix - Emperor, Mayhem, Burzum
Twenties (21 -26) I started to listen to other metal genres- doom metal, (My Dying Bride, Saint Vitus) power metal, (Blind Guardian, Iced Earth)and somewhat connected genres such as dark ambient (Raison d’etre, Lustmord) and neofolk (Sol Invictus, Death in June) At no time did I stop listening what I listened to previously -my tastes simply expanded in my youth and have now solidified.

I think the first thing I ever listened to was AC/DC and Ozzy Osbourne, back when I was about 11-12 years old. Throughout high school and my early to mid 20’s, I was into only heavy metal and hard rock bands: Kiss, Metallica, Twisted Sister, Iron Maiden, etc.
But by time I was in my late 20’s I was sick of listening to the same stuff all the time. I craved something new. I’d also realized by then that I was “anti-mainstream” and tended to drift in the opposite direction of whatever was popular. Funny thing about being anti-mainstream though, is that you’re still being part of the herd and your choices are still affected by what everyone else likes. You and your heavy metal friends are all “being different” in the exact same way. Go to a heavy metal concert and most everyone there has the long hair, the leather/jean jackets, etc. I wanted to break out of that mold.

I got internet access, and a cousin got me into some “indie rock” bands (I think Tristeza was one of the first, along with the Black Heart Procession). This was new and different. It wasn’t heavy, but it was still pretty cool. I found a few web sites (Pitchfork and Insound) and would pore through them and then go on Napster and download anything that seemed interesting. If I liked it, I’d go on Insound and buy the cd. Pinetop Seven, Belle and Sebastian, Ida, Nick Cave, I found all kinds of new stuff that I liked. I started to realize there was a whole world of music out there that I’d never even dreamed of. I broke down a lot of internal barriers and just started listening to anything that sounded good to me, a lot of stuff I’d never have listened to when I was in my teens.

I did find some new heavy metal/hard rock bands too. Blind Guardian, Rhapsody (I know they have more cheese than Wisconsin, I still love them!), Within Temptation, and especially Ayreon. I’d describe Rhapsody to people (“okay, imagine Iron Maiden’s tour bus crashed into the Pittsburgh Symphony’s tour bus…”), and a lot of people would tell me “check out Trans-Siberian Orchestra”. So I did, and will have gone to see them for the 4th year in a row next month. That opened up a lot of symphonic/classical music to me.

I’m currently listening to Tarja Turunen, who just came out with a new cd, Christopher Lee, and Nick Cave. My musical tastes continue to grow and expand, and I think my 18 year old self (and even my 28 year old self) would be absolutely shocked at some of the things I listen to today, and I’m always looking for new stuff to listen to. The two things I still can’t stand are country (other than a song here and there), and rap/hip hop (ditto).

I grew up listening to Broadway show tunes (this was in the 50s and 60s).

In my late teens, I started listening to rock, starting with the Beatles and the Bonzo Dog Band, and moving on to Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart. By the time I was in my 20s, I was also listening to the blues.

I was very big on punk and New Wave music in the late 70s, when I was in my late 20s.

Now, I’ve moved back to classical, as well as all of the above.

Early teen: “Soft” rock type stuff like Elton John, Chicago, 3 Dog Night, Moody Blues, Fleetwood Mac, some Beatles. For the most part I did not like anything which rocked hard, or so I told myself…

Off to college at age 18 and its very eclectic radio station, and it immediately opened my musical horizons in a very big way, and all of a sudden I was into both progressive rock/Krautrock/space music (Can, Yes, King Crimson, Floyd, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze) and post-punk/New Wave (U2 most notably, but also Talking Heads, Echo and the Bunnymen, Killing Joke, Bad Brains, Ultravox, Siouxsie, Comsat Angels, The Cure, Joy Division*), plus weird and unclassifiable stuff like Captain Beefheart. Some of that stayed with me, tho a lot of it was simply from experimenting and didn’t stick with me long. Surprised myself when I found out that I could easily handle harder stuff…

*[Dangerous stuff to listen to when you are a suicidal young man…]

As I moved into adulthood my entire musical direction was irrevocably codified at age 22 (1984) when I got Seance, the 3rd studio album by the Australian band The Church, and became utterly captivated by their swirling guitars and evocative lyrics. They and their American counterpart REM ended up sticking with me up until the present moment.

As the 90’s came along I picked up shoegaze bands like Ride, VAST, and The Verve, as well as unique stuff like Dead Can Dance and Celtic artists like Loreena McKennitt and Enya. Another college station turned me onto Porcupine Tree, quickly becoming my 2nd favorite band (The Church has been a steady #1 for 30 years now). A friend turned me onto the Ozric Tentacles, who made for good driving music if nothing else…

In the 00’s I started getting into melodic metal like Nightwish and The Gathering.

Where I’m at now is that I am still into everything mentioned in the last 3 paragraphs, still like some postpunk stuff mentioned above like The Cure-but have also gone back to my roots and readded Elton, The Moodies, and The Mac. Also still dabble in space music like Redshift.

I grew up listening to 70’s hard rock and thought it was da Best! :wink: (sigh).

I had a number of mind-opening experiences that, fortunately, expanded my horizons:

  • A high school teacher who turned me on to 60’s Brit blues
  • Listening to glam, punk, new wave, etc. at university in SoCal
  • A roommate who loved funk and early rap
  • Seeking out jazz and realizing I loved it

And of course playing guitar didn’t hurt - I could start by appreciating a respected player’s technique and come to enjoy the music, too - folks like Chet Atkins, T-Bone Walker, etc.

Bottom line: I was young and immature and thought I knew music. The more I listened the more I realized I needed to listen with a much more open mind - that started in my early 20’s and has expanded from there, thank Og.

People bemoan the state of music today - me being one of them. Tech innovations make music easy to make and broadcast - so everyone is doing that and it is hard to pick out the stuff worth seeking out. Music is no longer the generation-gap-creating force it was from the 60’s to perhaps the late 80’s.

Having said that, it is easier now to realize that there is a huge variety of music out there. My kids are starting out with a much, much broader sense of what is out there, and with more open minds to hearing it. That’s a good thing.

I’m 37. I’ve always mostly gotten my musical tastes from listening to the radio rather than buying random CDs or going to live performances.

Elementary and middle school: mostly top 40

High school: that’s when alternative rock became popular, so I started listening to that. I’d also listen to a few rap artists like Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg that I’d see on MTV. This was also when Beavis and Butt-head were on, so I started to like some of the songs that they thought were cool. I also started listening to classic rock in high school.

From then on, not a whole lot has changed. I’ve become sick of some classic rock acts (especially the Cars and Bob Segar), but still enjoy it otherwise. Eminem became my favorite rapper when he became famous. Music finally attained perfection in late 2009 when Ke$ha songs became available.

Youth (1970s): Whatever mom and dad were playing. Mainly a lot of “light rock” stuff from the era (Carly Simon, James Taylor, Crosby Stills & Nash, etc)

Elementary (late 70’s - early/mid 80s): Whatever was playing on Top 40 radio. All the usual “80’s rock” stuff you’d find on the Billboard Top 100. Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, Police, Men at Work, yadda yadda.

Middle School (mid 80’s): Took an odd turn into the oldies. Back then, that was 50s & 60s so The Beatles, Stones, early Elton John, Beach Boys and the like with Elvis, The Everly Brothers, various Motown artists, etc.

High School (late 80s-early 90s): Classic Rock. Pink Floyd, Who, Led Zepplin, Eagles, Kansas, Kinks, etc.

College (early-mid 90s): Grunge & alternative. Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Liz Phair, Mazzy Star, 10,000 Maniacs, all the stuff from MTV’s “120 Minutes”

Post College (late 90s-Today): With mp3s and the like, it’s been much easier to blend all my previous tastes than it was back in the day of radio or switching out tapes/CDs. I can plug a 16GB USB stick into my car stereo loaded with every genre I’ve ever enjoyed. Most of my “newer” (so much as anyone from 1998-2013 is newer) finds have been in the general alt-rock category. Exceptions as well but no one cares about every artist I listen to. These days I try to make a conscious effort to find new-to-me music via Pandora, Google Play’s free mp3 of the day and local radio station WXRT has a link to a free mp3 of the day list as well. A lot of them I pass on but I’ve found some new favorites that way as well.

I’m 38. Growing up, I was exposed to a lot of Elvis, bluegrass, big-band era jazz, and 60/70s Polish pop. As I started taking piano lessons in 2nd or 3rd grade, I discovered my grandfather’s collection of Bach and Chopin records, and really got into that. By 8th and 9th grade, I was big into what were “Oldies” at the time–late 50s and early 60s rock and roll. By 10th and 11th grade, my tastes started shifting forward to more dirty, blues influenced rock–late 60s and 70s “classic rock” music. By senior year high school, my tastes were still fairly mainstream, but I finally started listening more to current rock, like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, U2. College is when I really started to discover bands like the Pixies, Sonic Youth, The Smiths, XTC, etc. And muc of my post-collegiate 20s was devoted to going back to the late 70s and early 80s punk and post-punk and discovering as much as I could of what I missed. And in my late 20s I tried to catch up on the 90s and early 00s.

And I always listened to a bit of Top 40 radio throughout this entire time. I used to listen to Casey’s Top 40 all the time from 7th through about 9th grades. Plus there are little slivers of 80s metal in there, a jam band phase, a modal/cool jazz phase, and a big “riot grrl” phase. and some world music.

Now, it’s pretty much anything goes. I naturally settle in to 80s post-punk/New Wave, and early 90s college rock.

Didn’t really have much interest in music until about middle school.

The first music I really liked (and the first music I ever owned) was Appetite for Destruction. From there there was some hair metal (Poison, Faster Pussycat, Slaughter, etc.,), then more serious metal (Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Pantera, etc.).

At some point during high school, 10th grade probably, I got into punk and hardcore. Saw most of the very first Clutch shows, went to a lot of tiny “clubs” in crazy scary-ass DC neighborhoods to see bands like Integrity, Earth Crisis, Darkside, Next Step Up, Worlds Collide, 4 Walls Falling, etc.

Sometime during 11th or 12th grade I started listening to hip-hop for no particular reason, a lot of Public Enemy, Boot Camp Clik (Black Moon, Smif-n-Wessun, Heltah Skeltah, OGC), Mobb Deep, Brand Nubian, De La Soul… what was then considered “new school” but what I now refer to as “middle school” hip-hop.

Following graduation, I discovered one of my close friends hated Sheryl Crow (“All I Wanna Do” had just come out), so on a lark I bought it and played it really loud whenever we drove around together (he didn’t have a car), and upon listening to it so much I found I actually liked it (and eventually made him like it :D). So I started listening to a lot of mid-90s pop music.

During my 20s I got into Stevie Ray Vaughan, then started listening to a lot of classic blues (Howlin’ Wolf, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, etc.).

And in the 15 or so years since then, I’ve learned to appreciate just about any type of music, although about 6 years ago (around age 30), I stopped keeping up with new music and what I already owned at the time is pretty much still all the music I own and listen to.

Early childhood: I listened to the kind of music my parents kept around. That included:

Irish folk music (Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem)
Broadway show tunes (***Fiddler on the Roof ***soundtrack with Zero Mostel)
Classical (Bach, especially)
Greenwich Village folkie stuff (Peter, Paul & Mary, et al)
Simon & Garfunkel (whom I learned about from my folk-singing 2nd grade nun teacher)
6th-8th grade: Standard Seventies Top 40 Stuff.

Elton John
John Denver
Jim Croce
Paul McCartney & Wings (“Live and Let Die” was one of first singles I ever bought)
Billy Preston
Chicago

Freshman Year High School:

Just starting to listen to FM rock radio

Boston
Peter Frampton
Kiss
Aerosmith

Later High School/College Years

Mixture of heavy metal and Prog Rock

AC/DC
Black Sabbath
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Foghat
Led Zeppelin
Pink Floyd
Yes

Not much growth for me.

Childhood: folk music – Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Peter, Paul & Mary, Tom Paxton, Dave Van Ronk (thanks, mom!) …and the Beatles

Teenage: folk/acoustic music – Incredible String Band, Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, Tim Buckley, Cat Stevens, Livingston and James Taylor, Fairport Convention, Steeleye-span, Pentangle, …and the Beatles

Adult: folk/acoustic music – Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Peter, Paul & Mary, Incredible String Band, Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, Tim Buckley, Cat Stevens, Livingston and James Taylor, Fairport Convention, Steeleye-span, Pentangle, Patty Griffin, Espers, The Civil Wars, Roseanne Cash, …and still the Beatles

I’m not a music person, so this may not be useful for anyone, but here goes:

Elementary school (1978-1984): Top 40 radio- either what I had on the old clock-radio, or what my parents listened to in the car. Dad listened to a lot of country, but I never have liked that. I think at some point I got a walkman-sized FM radio.

Middle school (1984-1987): Still Top 40 radio, although I did get a boom-box at some point and a few tapes, but for the most part, I spent my money on video games and sports stuff instead of music.

High school (1987-1991): I gradually became a sort of metalhead, alternative music and rap fan over the course of that period, because my friends were into Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, BDP, Public Enemy, In Living Colour, Fishbone, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane’s Addiction, Faith No More, etc… I personally liked Queensryche, but that was teenage stupidity, I think.

College: Still a metalhead, although with Metallica’s change in style, less of that, and I picked up more alternative type stuff from my college buddies and roommates- a lot of REM, Pixies, Concrete Blonde, Replacements, Siouxsie and the Banshees, etc…

Post college: Back to radio, although more classic rock oriented and less pop. Also got a shitload of MP3s of stuff from prior years that I like, and listen to that. Nowadays, it’s a mix of classic rock, 80’s/90’s oldies, and top 40 stuff- depending on what’s on the radio. I like some modern stuff, but don’t really like the current music that sounds like folk rock with a military style drumbeat and a whiny singer.

My tastes really haven’t changed. I’ve discovered some new bands and maybe widened my tastes a bit, but when I hear new music I like, I generally have the feeling that it’s what I’ve been looking for my whole life.

My very earliest experience with music I liked was Michael Jackson. I played my first Thriller cassette until I wore it out had to buy a second one. But MJ really didn’t have anywhere to go but down from there, and he made it a race to the bottom.

Then I discovered Def Leppard and the other 80’s hair bands. GnR, etc. Unfortunately, I discovered them as their popularity among my peers in school was already waning, but I have never stopped liking them. The old 80’s era heavy metal was always of marginal interest to me, but I always hate the sort of tinny vocals (maybe that’s not the right term, but you know what I mean). I’m one of those heathens who didn’t like Metallica until the Black album and who thought Load and Reload were excellent.

I stayed stuck on 80’s pop metal through the 90’s. There are a few other metal/hard rock groups that I liked, but nothing that got me terribly excited. Live is about the only group I was buying current music from.

Then I was up studying late one night in college (probably '96) and the radio station played the entire Images and Words album by Dream Theater. That was a revelation.

During college, I also got some appreciation for what had come before. Boston, for example.

More stagnation for another decade. Around 2005, I was listening to internet radio (Progged Metal) because they rotated a lot of Dream Theater. And Then There Was Silence (by Blind Guardian) was another revelation. Damnit, this is what I’d been looking for my whole life! So I’ve also added Falconer, Edguy and a few others to my collection.

Oh, and I have to add to Apocalypso’s description:

… during a D&D tournament."

Hmmm…well, I was born in 1968…

Elementary School: Aside from a few Disney soundtracks and the like, probably the biggest influences were my mother’s more popular tastes. My father listened exclusively to classical which I didn’t start appreciating until my thirties, really. But my mother liked less raucous 1960’s/1970’s stuff like Fleetwood Mac ( Buckingham-Nicks era ) and Simon and Garfunkel in addition to the long-hair stuff and I grew to appreciate that as well. Though she probably turned me off from Joan Baez forever - if I had to hear Guantanamera one more damn time…

Middle School: My two biggest influences were my new California-based step-brothers and my Michigan peers. My step-brothers are lily-white, but lived at the time in a very black part of town and 90% of their friends were black. So I picked up a lot of funk/soul/old school R&B tastes from them, extending well into High School.

Before I started living permanently with them, I was mostly in Michigan where stuff like Foreigner, ELO and Bob Seger were de rigeur and disco was regarded with a particularly intense cultural loathing ( I like some of it now, though :wink: ).

High School: I started developing slightly independent tastes for the first time, ironically by moving back in time to classic rock starting with Santana and then plowing through everything 1960 and 1970’s. This was the early 1980’s, mind you. Eventually late in High School an adult friend of the family who became a neighbor got me and one of my step-brothers into blues, jazz and Zappa. Went through a fairly intense jazz-fusion phase as well ( Larry Coryell, John McLaughlin, Al di Meola, etc. ). But I never did develop a liking for the metal/hair bands popular at the time.

Twenties: One friend in particular got me into punk, new wave and post-punk ( in the post-punk era of the late 1980’s ). Again I started out running several years behind, but eventually I equalized with and started following contemporary music during the indie rock boom. Also began branching out to world music, reggae and the like, developing strong fixations on groups like 3Mustaphas3 and old Toots and the Maytals recordings. Very briefly I became ever so slightly hip to what was going on contemporaneously, waiting eagerly for the latest Sonic Youth or Pixies release.

Thirties: Started falling behind again as my tastes began to calcify a bit. Partially inspired by Zappa’s Stravinsky crush, I developed a late appreciation for classical music and began listening to a slightly wider variety of old timey stuff. But as pop music ( never a fan of most of it ) began crowding out rock in the popular consciousness I began paying less attention to new bands. The White Stripes were probably the last band I was aware of before they became a big thing ( i.e. when they were still playing little clubs ).

Forties: My tastes continue to be very broad, but a bit dated at this point. Not really progressing much. Mostly when I discover new music these days, it is old new music.

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.

Buncha young punks…

My parents had no musical taste whatsoever, so my first exposure to anything outside of pre-Fever WKRP music was when my sister took me to see an Elvis Presley movie (Girls, Girls, Girls, I believe.) Then the next year the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show and were roundly condemned as being long-haired freaks. But the disease had spread, and I started listening to rock & roll. Stones, Airplane, Byrds…all the mix. The first LP I bought with my own money was The Doors. I reveled in the music of the 60s, seeing shows at the Avalon Ballroom and Winterland when in the Bay Area. I fought in the punk wars against the forces of disco throughout my late teens/early twenties. College exposed me to country music and the purity of Emmy Lou Harris. After I moved to Alaska, I fell in with a group of degenerates who turned me on to prog rock, and later, jazz and folk. Working in a record store expanded my tastes even more. Then my tastes fossilized and I remain unrepentant, declaring to the world that Real Music stopped in the mid-80s. My wife constantly bemoans the fact that I have no knowledge of pop culture, nor do I care to learn. Just crank up the Springsteen and leave me alone!

Elementary School and below: Rock, mostly 50s and 60s. I had a distaste for disco and developed a lifelong aversion to most country. (I made exceptions for Johnny Cash and certain novelty songs, and those still stand.)

Middle School: Still mostly rock; I wasn’t very particular, in part because of limited options–there was only one rock station I could get. Developed a taste for classical music, but had little access.

High School: Still rock, still only one station. Still listening to classical when I got a chance. Liked a small subset of rap, particularly the more self-aware and humorous stuff, but my interest was short-lived; rap evolved away from the parts I liked, I think, and I didn’t move with it. Fascinated with Weird Al for a while, and still like him.

College: Relatively static, although I had more options available. My rock selections were eclectic; I listened to classic rock, alt-rock, metal. Never developed a taste for grunge, though. A rule among among my cohort–Pink Floyd for before exams, Eagles for after. I binged on stuff I couldn’t get much of at home, especially classical music. Other college freshmen put on weight–I put on headphones. Listening to virtuoso violin work led me, by twists and turns, to an appreciation for good fiddle music.

Post college: Not long out of college, I visited a Ren Faire and got my introduction to Renaissance, Celtic traditional, and Medieval music; I was hooked. (Fiddles were my gateway drug, apparently.)

Later, listening to local performers around town, I developed a mild taste for the blues and a strong one for torch singers.

I picked up techno while doing martial arts.

Anime soundtracks got me back into jazz (guess which one) and into a bit of J-Pop, though my tolerance for the latter is limited.

I stumbled across the Trans-Siberian Orchestra a few years ago. I’m not sure what genre to put that in. Is “Awesome” a musical genre? :smiley:

Recently, I’ve gone for big-band era stuff, an interest kindled by video games, of all things. Also from video games: acoustic frontier trip hop, which sadly seems to exist only on one soundtrack that I’ve found.

YouTube offers a treasure trove of musical experiences (and disasters) to explore, and I’m still finding new things to love, from PMVs to tuned Tesla coils to heavy metal cellos.

The adventure continues.

Fun thread :slight_smile:

Grade School: Pop-rock; like Hall & Oats and Michael Jackson. Retroactive embarrassments; The Sesame Street Cast Sings!

Junior High: Heavy metal; Van Halen, Def Leppard, Scorpions…all the usual suspects. Retroactive embarrassments; Aldo Nova

High School: Prog rock; Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, ELP, any song with a 7+ minute length. Retroactive embarrassments; Rick Wakeman solo albums

College: Alternative and college radio; Pixies, Siouxie, Love & Rockets and anything with jangly guitars. Retroactive embarrassments; too deep into the goth like Fields of Nephilim

Now: Same as college (with newer bands that hearken to that era’s sound), plus dirty blues, Lightnin Hopkins, early Fleetwood Mac, and niche genre artists that don’t categorize well Leo Kottke. Future embarrassments; sugary J-pop and K-pop.