When and how did you discover 'Your' Music?

In My Humble Opinion
1

When we’re kids, most of us just listen to the stuff our parents like, or a little bit later to whatever plays on popular radio. But there’s always some point when we somehow discover or are introduced to something new, something we like a lot, and that we make our own.

When i was 12 (1989), my older brother came home from college for the summer. My brother and i were pretty close, so i was psyched to see him. On the first weekend, he took me to a comic book store, and on the way, he threw in a They Might Be Giants tape. I was instantly in love. I wouldn’t listen to anything but TMBG that entire summer. Thus began a sudden and immediate departure from the top 40 (mostly rap-influenced, at that time) that i’d been listening to. I never looked back.

2

Uh, that should say “When and how did you discover ‘Your’ music?” Dunno what happened there.

3

I suspect what happened was that you included the quotation marks around the word your in the title and then hit ‘preview’. It’s a bug feature here that if you use quotation marks in the title, and then hit preview, the entire quotation part will disappear (kinda a neat feature, right?). anyhow, e-mail a mod, they may fix it for you if they’re not too busy cleaning up after bad posters.

4

For me it was in the summer of 1976 and I heard “Telephone Line” by The Electric Light Orchestra on the radio. I’ve been hooked ever since.

5

Interesting thread. I anticipate a lot of good stories … here’s mine.

1975 - I’m 10 year’s old. My family had recently moved to Maine. I was playing tag or something at my house with a few kids I met at school. One of my new friends was singing “I wanna rock and roll all night …” “What’s that you’re singing,” inquired. They proceded to tell me all about this cool group that their big brother’s listened to. “They wear make-up, and spit fire, and drool blood, they’re really cool and their called KISS.”
“Neato.” A few days later there we were sneaking into my friend’s big brother’s bedroom to raid his record collection. That’s where I discovered a number of bands that I love to this day, including Blue Oyster Cult, Ian Hunter, Boston, Foghat, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Aerosmith, Jethro Tull, Edgar Winter, Pink Floyd … I could go on forever. Up to that time, my parents were placating me with Jackson 5 records.

Ah, I can remember that day like it was yesterday.

6

The heady rememberences of yesteryear have obviously rattled me. Please excuse the horrible grammar, form and typos in my previous post.

7

Probably around 1972, when my sister turned me on to School’s Out by Alice Cooper. I was 10 at the time. My memory’s a little foggy - however, I remember the paper panties on the record, and the cover that opened like an old-time school desk.

8

There’s two, my love for “classic rock” and the other for Sondheim.

  1. When I was, I think 11 or 12 my best friend’s father (very much like a father to me as well) gave me 4 albums that introduced me to classic rock. The Eagles, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, and The Grateful Dead. I quickly branched out to other groups and have never looked back :slight_smile:

This man also introduced me to Blues and Swing/Big Band.

  1. I was 14 or so and my cousin brought over a tape of Sunday in the Park with George. I watched, enthralled, tears streaming down my face through most of it. It started a love affair (one sided though it may be) with not only Sondheim, but Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters as well. My cousin has since passed away, but everyday I thank him for this gift.

These are not the only two genres of music that I enjoy, but certainly the two that spring to mind in relation to the OP.

9

When I was 14 in 1976, I tuned in to the LA hard rock KMET station in a effort to escape the encroaching tide of disco, discovering Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull and The Grateful Dead all in the same weekend. This was followed up by receiving a copy of Queen’s “Night At the Opera” album shortly afterwards, guaranteeing my conversion with “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “I’m in Love With My Car”. I’d mix in some Carmina Burana, which went surprisingly well with the mix.

Later conversions introduced me to a very wide variety of music, but that was the first biggie.

10

Columbus Day, 1990, driving home from the beach with my family. Heard “Like a Rolling Stone” on the radio for the first time ever – Mom must have been too distracted to turn it off.

I was fourteen and lonely and vaguely discontented with suburban life, and it just hit me like a case of chills and fever. I’ve always looked back on that as the moment I grew up.

11

I lived in California for a while as a kid. The only radio station that reached us out in the sticks (at least, the only one I was interested in) was an AM station that was pretty intermittant. I did most of my listening at night.

Anyway, it was around 1979-1981, and they played a mix of top-40, disco, new wave, all sorts of stuff. However, when I heard “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” and “A Country Boy Can Survive” for the first time, something just took over inside of me.

We moved to Memphis soon thereafter. The first thing I did was tune in the country stations. I bought every Hank Jr. tape out there. I knew every country song ever sung by heart ;). I would have won “Name That (Country) Tune” every time, in 2 notes.

That started my 8th grade year, and I was like that for about 10 years. Now I listen mostly to doo-wop oldies and classic rock; but nothing spoke to my heart like country music during my teens.

12

What did it for me was Creem magazine, which in the late70s/early 80s covered mostly “underground” bands. I’d always been a music geek, but mostly I’d been listening to top 40 radio. I bought Rolling Stone (which sucked even then, but what choice did you have being a teenager in the suburbs?) until one day at the 7-11 magazine rack I picked up Creem. Not only was it well-written (Lester Bangs, Richard Meltzer) but it was funny as hell. It didn’t take itself or rock music too seriously (unlike the reverent and fawning RS) and introduced me to a whole new aesthetic. I began buying albums based on the interviews and reviews in the magazine ('cause you sure as hell weren’t going to hear that stuff on the radio in the 'burbs), and was immediately confronted with some of the most passionate, funny, fun music I’d ever heard. I still remember the day I brought home my first Husker Du tape and put it on and immediately started grinning, thinking, “this is the music I’ve been hearing in my head my whole life!” A great magazine. R.I.P.

13

I discovered the Replacements at an academic camp during high school. I was in the room across the hall and someone put in “Pleased To Meet Me.” I dubbed that album along with “Tim” and I was on my way.

Husker Du and Superchunk came in college. I was introduced to Husker Du by a friend of mine, a really intense born-again Christian. He had lost interest in most of his pre-born-again bands, but nonetheless mentioned to me that, if I liked the Replacements, there was this other band I would probably like called Husker Du.

This musician friend of mine really loved Superchunk. I heard him talk about the band a lot, but didn’t choose to explore. Later, I was at a summer biology internship at Ohio State University when I noticed that Superchunk was coming to town. I figured they were worth a look. I bought one of their CDs at the local hip record store the next day.

14

I had older brother and sisters who brought hippie music into the house when I was young. Dylan, Dead, Airplane, Incredible String Band, Flying Burrito Brothers, Doors, Zep, Hendrix. The Beatles were huge from the jump. Stones a little scary, but Big Hits was great. And my sister broke the zipper on the Sticky Fingers album trying to get a peek at Micks undies.

After my fourth or fifth massive arena show (Frampton, Foghat, Dead, Starship, Springsteen,(I missed Kiss and Nugent but the buzz was there in the high school smoking lounge), I decided that I needed something different. I began listening to a local college underground station (WGTB) and the local cool radio (WHFS: any hfsers out there?). I made a fake ID and saw George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers at a bar in Georgetown. Small venues. Blues, punk, reggae, new wave, folk, cajun, bluegrass. Rarely attended arena shows after that. The Clash made time magazine’s artist of the year, I bought Give’em Enough Rope. Very dense on first listening, I had to wade through a lot of metal and over-production to get the reggae sensibility I knew was there.

Went to college, Ramones played the halloween dance supporting Rocket to Russia. I couldn’t ever put up with crass commercial top-40 after that. Delbert McClinton, David Bromberg, Black Uhuru, Talking Heads, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Doors, Stones, Clash, Ultravox, Eno. The Harder They Come, Bob Marley. Dead Kennedys, BowWowWow, Black Flag. Peter Tosh, Van Morrison, Marianne Faithful, Gang of Four, Fripp. Hunters and Collectors, Jason and the Scorchers, Los Lobos, Fishbone. Anything on island records 1979-1989. Ian Dury, Jonothan Richman, the Velvet Underground. Millions of Dead Cops, Human Sexual Response, Orthotonics, White Cross, the English Beat, Pretenders, Circle Jerks, Flipper, 10000Maniacs, REM. Grace Jones. B-52s, Specials, Selecter, Bad Brains, Tex Rubinowitz and the Bad Boys, Link Wray, the Nighthawks, Muddy Waters, the Balfa Brothers, Beausoliel. Pogues. Elvis Costello. Prince. Joe Jackson, Hot Tuna, Toots Hibbert and the Maytals. Voice Farm, the Residents, the Replacements, Lou Reed, Culture Club, Laurie Anderson, OMD, Cramps, Root Boy Slim. Tiny Desk Unit. Stranglers. Fear. Iggy Pop. King Sunny Ade and the African Beats. Joe Ely. Willie Nelson. Taj Mahal, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Patty Smith, Slits, Go-Gos, Souxie and the Banshees, Shriekback, Sinead O’Conner, U2. The Slickee Boys. Blondie, DEVO, Nona Hendryx, Nina Hagen, UB-40, De La Soul, Stevie Wonder. The Cure. Bowie. I think I’ve left many of my favorites out. Aging non boomer/non Xer mind slowly dissolving.

I like all kinds of music. I hate much music. I discovered ‘my music’ through a combination of great radio station and fun music scene (DC/RichmondVA in the eighties). And anyone who has ever seen John Jackson at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival has got to have a soft spot for rural Virginia Blues. Opera gives me hives but I don’t pass up free tickets every now and then.

15

In grade school, we hung out in Tom Steiner’s basement playing pool, smoking tiparillos, and listening to Alice Cooper, Jethro Tull, the Kinks.

In high school, we went to the Brawlroom, the Uptown, and others nearly very week to see BTO, BOC, Thin Lizzy, Piper, the Runaways … basically anyone coming through. The big faves were Queen, Rush, and Black Sabbath.

Going away to college, a guy on my floor was really into “new wave.” Have never had the time to spend on music that I did then. Fell hard for Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, Squeeze, the Clash, Nick Lowe, Cheap Trick… Wrote to Chrissie Hynde asking if we could found a religion based on her. Had Debbie Harry’s poster on the ceiling over my bed. Over the next 8 years, played in a band, and spent most nights out at clubs. Had thousands of albums and a killer stereo.

Getting into the 80s, dance music was getting bigger, and tho I loved to dance to it, it didn’t have the same immediacy for me.

Since college I have gravitated towards blues, rockabbilly, and swing, but nothing strikes a chord with me like the tunes from say 78-83. Nowadays, music is basically background. Then, it was SO foregroud!

16

Ahhh… I remember hearing the MiSFiTs for the first time, but it wasn’t any revelation as we were already listening to punk… My buddy Adam used to give me a ride to school in a fucking land-boat. I think it was a Big ass red on red Ford Pheonix. We never really ‘started’ listening to Punk Rock, we just kinda always did. I was thirteen when Green Day and Nirvana were just starting out (1988 or so), that’s what got me back into playing guitar (I stopped when I was 11.) “Bleach” was such a bad-ass album…

punk snot dead,
broccoli!

17

• Classical music—wonderful high school course, which included regular trips to hear the Philadelphia Orchestra. My parents liked classical, but I’d never really heard the great Baroque stuff I love.

• Weird early 20th-century pop—Keith. Baltimore. Mid-1970s. We went to college together; he lived in an old, run-down mansion decorated in family antiques and thrift-shop finds. He had a Victor Talking Machine, and we would dance under his potted palm on the balcony to Glenn Miller, 1910s two-steps, 1920s hotel bands . . . Sometimes I feel like I lived the whole first half of the 20th century in Keith’s apartment.

18

I said when I was just five years old
There was nothin’ happenin’ at all
Every time I put on the radio
There was nothin’ goin’ down at all
Then one fine mornin’ I put on a New York station
I couldn’t believe what I heard at all
I started dancin’ to that fine fine music
You know my life was saved by rock ‘n’ roll

Despite all the amputations you could just
Dance to a rock ‘n’ roll station

And it was alright

19

[ul][li]Bluegrass music- My Dad used to take me to fiddle competitions at the county fair. Seriously. I was hooked ever after on bluegrass.[/li][li]Alternative/College Radio- I owe it all to R.E.M. I was in college. A friend put R.E.M.'s Chronic Town on the turntable. A whole new world opened up, and I never looked back.[/li]Old-time honky tonk- Grew up hearing it on the radio. (My Dad again.) Hated it at the time, got weirdly nostalgic for it as an adult.[/ul]

20

Sorry…just having a Velvet Underground moment there.

(I can’t believe I was the first one to post those lyrics…they banged right into my head as I was reading the OP.)

I was a little kid during the 60s, and I always liked the pre-1966 Beatles. The post-Revolver music was a little creepy-sounding to me at that age, so I developed an attachment to classical music in protest (these were the days of vinyl LPs…you could pick up a decent copy of Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances or Beethoven’s Third Symphony or Chopin’s Piano Concertos for under five bucks. Often WELL under five bucks).

As a teenager I started reading Kerouac and Ginsberg and Corso and Burroughs and the other Beats. I noticed they were always talking about persons called “Dizzy” and “Bird” and “Monk.” Obviously this required investigation. So by the age of 14-15 I was hanging around used jazz shops digging up bebop releases from the '40s and '50s.

At a repertory cinema (Note to Young People: before the VCR was introduced, if you wanted to see an old movie, you had the choice of waiting until it was broadcast on teevee, or going to a special theater that existed in those days back in the larger cities, which showed only art films and classic movies…those theaters were effectively killed off by the ascent of Betamax), seeing CASABLANCA or something, I saw a trailer for Ken Russell’s film biography of Mahler. Like many 1970s releases, it was geared towards stoners. I went to see it the following week, and was completely sold on the Late Romantic composers.

By 1978, I was in college, and I got turned onto a whole BUNCHA other shit.