That rocks! I was going to reply the same way!
My musical tastes started to develop from my brothers record collection. The first time I heard number of the beast by iron maiden, I knew I liked the hard stuff.
My first “punk” album was probably Liveage by descendents right around 1989. I’ve been hooked on punk ever since.
In my old years (the ripe old age of 27), my tastes have expanded but punk will always be my first love…ahhhh
Ike, you beat me to it. I was thinking of Rock & Roll when I read the OP.
I remember that my musical horizons were expanded the summer before my eighth grade. Up to that point, I didn’t even own any records. I just listened to the radio like all my friends. It was a steady diet of top 40 dreck. I remember at that time I actually looked forward to Casey Kasem’s show every Sunday so I could hear all that great top 40 music:eek:
Then one day I tagged along with my older brother and one of his friends when they went to a record store downtown. They were blaring The Clash on the store’s stereo and it was like a light went on. After that day I don’t think I ever listened to top 40 again. The Clash led me to The Ramones, The Replacements, Husker Du, and a whole crop of great punk and post-punk bands. Those in turn led me to REM, the Pogues, The Primitives, They Might Be Giants, etc. Somewhere along the line I also went back to the great classic rock stuff like The Stones, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Dead, Neil Young, the Velvet Underground, Bob Marley, etc.
Yes, after that momentous day I never again thought Rick Springfield was great rock music.
Junior year of high school, trying to find something relaxing.
Oldies 100. Nothing less for the entire year (except the occasional sports radio program).
Oldies, how I love thee.
Went over to a friends house one day for a Boy Scout Merit Badge class I was working on – He was playing Castle Wolfenstien (sp?) on his Apple and listening to Ozzy – I heard Over the Mountains and the intro to S.A.T.O and was hooked – it was like “this is what music is supposed to sound like!” I’ve been a metal head ever since. I can appreciate other forms of music for their various qualities but I can’t stand to listen to hardly anything but metal.
NP: King Diamond - Abigail
Well, if I stretch real hard, I can say it was all the fault of this little music box I had back in middle school that played “My Funny Valentine”. I just loved it but never knew what the genre was.
I’ve always had a thing for jazz standards and when I heard Diana Krall a few years ago, I started buying up jazz vocal albums like crazy (well, crazy for me). I love to sing (note: I said I love to sing; I didn’t say I could sing!) and jazz seems to always be in my “key”. So, I can caterwaul at least in the same octave.
I’ve very much gotten into Diane Reeves and Diana Krall. I’ve started buying up some Ella (great interpretor, but that’s a given) and just ordered a Nina Simone CD after hearing “Sinnerman”, which I downloaded from Napster. What a voice.
Well, when I was fourteen, October 1996, I was home sick and happened to flip the channel to MTV. ALTV was on. I had heard “Weird Al” before, but never really knew who he was. But from that moment on I was hooked.
Another type of music I like is 80’s music. I had always had some bias towards 80s music throughout my life because I had grown up listening to the oldies station my parents listened to. I had always called 80s music as, “That bubble gum crap,” probably because of songs like “Mickey.” Then in May 1999, during our station’s Memorial Day weekend, they played 80s music non-stop and I got hooked. I realized that there were many songs from the 80s that I did like. And I eventually grew to like the song “Mickey.” At least for a few weeks.
From,
Anake
Anake, you’re making me feel old here! 
I’ve always enjoyed different types of music but only recently (like within a year or so) have I really gotten into Rock music… lots of classical stuff and some newer too and I don’t listen to anything else on the radio (well unless I’m with my Grandparents) I enjoy it lots… one thing I’ve noticed though this one group that I really love no one else seems to have heard of it. It’s Savatage and I was wondering if anyone else has heard of it here?
Why do all the cool threads start when I’m in the middle of interviewing a job candidate for an hour and a half?
1980, in the small record section of Consumers’ Supermarket on College Avenue in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Picked up The Clash’s London Calling. About the same time, I caught Joe “King” Carrasco and the Crowns on a late night rebroadcast of “Austin City Limits”. They only had the last twenty minutes (Doug Sahm and a reconstituted Sir Douglas Quintet had the first forty), but I was hooked.
Pretty soon, I was reading Trouser Press religiously, haunting the aisles of the one decent new/used record store in Fayetteville (Record Exchange on Dickson Street), and scorning the Loverboy/Skynyrd/Styx-loving masses. I still remember the thrill when I finally found a copy (even if it was on eight-track) of the original Modern Lovers album). I was lucky that such a small town had one commercial radio station with a no-disco, nearly-anything-else-goes format, where you’d occasionally (late at night particularly) hear something interesting (e.g., “Washington Bullets” from the Clash’s Sandinista!).
Before that, I was listening to all the usual late 70s stuff, with a healthy dose of Beatles, Stones, Who, etc. thrown in courtesy of some of my friends’ older siblings’ collections. The one thing I listened to then that I still haven’t grown tired of is The Band.
You can almost cut and paste the third paragraph of dustMagnate’s post here (except the part about the Ramones playing a dance at his college) – there’re a few artists on his list I never got into, and a few that don’t show up on his that I did (the Undertones, the Buzzcocks, the whole Nick Lowe/Graham Parker/Brinsley Schwarz/Ian Gomm/Ducks Deluxe/Motors nexus, The Rezillos, Big Star), but we seem to have had quite similar tastes. For a long while, I had huge gaps in my knowledge, since (living in Arkansas) I had to rely on cut-out bins and mail order for many of the things I wanted to buy.
Picked up the “Radio Free Europe” single right about the time I started college on the basis of the review in Trouser Press, and Murmur and Chronic Town became staples of my weekly college radio show (“The Only Show that Matters”, Friday night 11:30 until whenever I decided to shut down the transmitter, September 1982-March 1986), along with Translator, Swimming Pool Qs, Love Tractor, Squeeze, Dream Syndicate, Three O’Clock, Rain Parade, und so weiter.
Even as I spun out those threads, I began to pick up others that had dropped. Living in small Arkansas towns, I heard lots of late 60s and early 70s country as a child, then grew contemptuous of it in my teen years. I got back into older country music through Bob Wills and Hank Williams while in college (I used to love my musically defensible segues from Bob Wills to Bob Marley on my show). I had a lot of fun with things like that: juxtaposing disparate musical styles with some element in common (accents on the 2 and 4, in the case of western swing and reggae and norteño).
I regret that I never took the few opportunities to be exposed to jazz and classical music in any significant way until I was older. They’re almost like languages learned as an adult for me: I can appreciate them, but I’ll probably never feel at home in them. I’m more comfortable with blues, since one of my closest high school/college friends was blues devotee and we spent a lot of time together listening to his collection; I think Hound Dog Taylor was about the only artist I really discovered on my own in that genre.
Well, I don’t know ahout myself, but a friend of mine told me an interesting story. She claims that she had an epiphany while high on over the counter drugs at a nine inch nails concert. When she watched the song “hurt” she said that Trent Reznor put more emotion into that one song than she felt about anything in her whole life. She has been a fan ever since.
My brother and sister are almost 20 years older than me, and they grew up with 50’s/early 60’s music. I was exposed to it at a very early age, and still enjoy it.
By the time I hit the 7th grade or so, I met some friends who liked the Dead. That’s all it took for me. From the Grateful Dead, I branched out to similar stuff like the Allman Bros, and other classic rock. This led to an interest in jazz - guitar jazz and stuff, not the old smoky jazz tunes. At this point, I’m still listening mainly to the various jam bands - Widespread Panic, Phish, etc.
Back in the early to mid 90s, I listened to the regular Top 40 stuff on B96 in Chicago. Some of the dance music was OK, but then I started listening to DJ Markski and his “Euro” Dance music parties on Friday/Saturday nights. I was hooked right there. Just something about the vocals, instrumentals, etc. that just appeals to me. There are a lot of sub-genres it seems now, and it seems I like the mainstream Euro the best.
Only sucky thing about this is that you can’t pick up this music in the stores. However, I have found a really sweet site that plays 7-8 minute sound bites from new albums. This is how I pick out which albums I want to buy. However, most of this music is imported, so price tags per album usually start out around $20, and occasionally get up to around $25-30. But I love the music, and would never complain.
Well my tastes are pretty broad but here are a few key points:
Linda, “the cool one” in my group of young teen friends (circa 83-84) asked me if I had ever heard of the Psychedelic Furs.
“Nope.” I replied.
“You should listen to them, they are soooo cool.”
And I did. And they were.
Was the first time I ever felt “cool”, if only by association.
When I was about 16, I went looking for something “shocking”. I picked up The Clash’s Combat Rock. Punk was supposed to be vulgar and tasteless, right? Well, I didn’t find what I was looking for, but I did discover what would become my favorite band.
Disatisfied with most mid-eighties cheese rock, I went to this dinky bookstore at the local mall and flipped through Rolling Stone’s book of the most important Rock and Roll albums. Picked up a whole bunch of em. Best thing I ever did, rock n roll wise.
DJ’d at my college radio station for two years. Opened my eyes a LOT. I was still mostly into classic rock/some new wave. Really turned me on to the late 80’s Mod Rock scene.
Hung over and passed out on my friends floor, I was partially awoken to Public Enemy’s Nation Of Millions playing on my friend’s stereo. Unable to move, I just layed there and listened, about 4 times through. I hated it at first, but with each repetition I began to like it more and more. It’s become one of my favorites.
Well, hmmm, I only really had one “moment” that was sort of an epiphany. It was during the post-disco, not much fun on the radio era. I was 15 years old in a hotel room in South Dakota. Bored, I turned on the tv and flipped through the channels. There on the screen was this guy wearing a woman’s blouse whose hair was swooped up from the sides and then down in front of his eyes. The camera was going around and around him. (Flock of Seagulls on MTV in case you haven’t guessed yet.) It wasn’t long after that when my neighborhood got MTV on their cable. We didn’t have cable at home, but I watched it every chance I got at friends’ houses.
This isn’t the whole story though, because I already liked Cheap Trick before MTV, they just kept on being good on MTV. Also, I would read about the music that I liked and that would usually lead me to someone I hadn’t heard of either by comparison or from a quote from an artist. So, I would dig up the music of those people. My brother was always in rock bands so he had lots of friends who were into music with very eclectic tastes. He could dig up almost any artist’s music if he didn’t have it himself. Then there was always someone who would say, “You like so-and-so? You should give a listen to this.” at parties and other such gatherings.
I don’t even know what to call “my kind of music”. I like hard rock, punk, new wave, blues…and pop music that leans that way.
hmm…where to start…where to start. Well, back when me and my family were still residing in the good old USSR(about 9 years ago), me and my sis religiously listened to the Beatles, sure we didn’t know what they’re were singing about, but damn it was catchy. Yet, at the same time we developed a taste for the odd side of music, with native bands such as Krematoriy, tsoy, and DDT. They had bizzare subject matter, and where extremly radical in a pretty conservative society. But, when we moved, we had to abandon all of your tapes and vinyl(but thanx to napster i have recently rediscovered Tsoy), so we had to change our musical ways. The first couple of years, we relied on the local radio stations to prove us with the tunes and strangely enough our favorite was the station that played a two hour block of 80’s and new wave music and their starts my love for 80’s alternative music. Well, around the time i was in 7th grade i was channel surfin and came upon a VH1 presentation of the Wall, my interest was peaked and i had to have the cd and so i did. I fell inlove with it, the dark subject matter, the theatrical appeal and the instrumentations(especially the samples).Ahh, and so the summer of 94 began and the hot new single Closer was all over the airwaves. I instantly fell inlove with this song, i don’t know why but i just couldn’t get enough of it, so my sis got me the Closer single for my b-day. This is where my love for NIN began and it spawned the large majority of my present musical tastes. Thanks to NIN, i dove head 1st into the world of industrial, then EBM, then dark ambient, then new wave, then etheral , then synth-pop…and so on and so on.
Well, in 1995 The Beatles Anthology was released. I, of course, didn’t care. At the time, I was listening to country music (due to my grandparent’s influence) and I liked it, a lot. I had no desire to change. I also listened to 70’s/80’s rock. (That was my dad’s influence). So, I had probably heard the Beatles before, like “Let It Be”, but I just didn’t care.
Well, that all changed when I heard The Beatles Anthology 2, Tape 1. I fell in love, and became dedicated to owning all of the Beatles music. I began listening to the Oldies station (60’s and 50’s) in order to record Beatles songs off of the radio(I was poor, I didn’t even own a CD player) and I realized something else… I loved Oldies! So, when I was 14, my musical horizons expanded to encompass 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s music, as well as country. I am still rather disgusted by the “modern” music. As a matter of fact, I have never liked 90’s music. At all. For any reason. Except REM and THe Goo Goo Dolls.
Grew up on pop rock throughout elementary school. Toward the end I found some “harder” rock like Def Leppard and such more appealing. In middle school I was introduced to Metallica, much to my initial dismay. That was “And Justice For All” and it shattered my perception about what music could be. To hear well-organized distortion, non-pop song structure, and meaningful lyrics started to change me. A year later I found the Misfits, Black Flagg, and Minor Threat due to my skater step-brother and This largely replaced pop-rock. Up to metal and punk, now.
In high school I found emo purely on accident, and now I’ve got to say that emo is by far my current favorite (even now, I’m 25 so a bit out of high school[sub]but just a bit[/sub]). The best aspects of punk and poetry, two personal faves.
However, I have not abandoned some late-80’s metal, and through my mom I have always liked Black Sabbath, Yes, King Crimson, Led Zepplin, etc etc. As an interesting side-note, the sharing with my mother is mutual. She likes many of the musics I’ve introduced her to. My mom rules. How many 45+ers like NIN and Sleater-Kinney?
Rap, country…you’re kidding right? IMO… Never found a trace of music there, but I know thats a contestable point, so I’m not going to argue against other people liking them. GD this ain’t.
I listen to classic rock/oldies, and a cappella.
I remember hearing an a cappella rendition of a classical piece on public radio when I was in the car with my dad, at about age 11. I was so impressed, because it sounded fully instrumental, but was completely voices. Then, when I was 15, my choir director had a laser disc version of Spike Lee’s PBS documentary “Do It A Cappella”. I was HOOKED, especially by Rockapella. We finally got to see them live our senior year in high school, and I continue to be amazed by this musical style. (The story of seeing them for the first time is pretty cool, but I’ll spare you for now. 
Oldies: That’s something from my folks that I eventually made my own. However, the very first Beatles song (and I’m a Beatles FREAK now) that I recall hearing was Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. The surreal imagery in the song just sucked me in, and I immediately went out to buy the CD (that was the first CD I owned, too!). I was in junior high at the time.
It’s incredible to me the impact that music makes in our lives. People who are normally calm and reserved will fight to the death to defend their favorite music.
I play filk music, the soundtrack to Cats(London version, of course!), and Monkees all day at work. If I wasn’t the boss, I’d have been fired years ago!
1995 - My dad introduced me to Vertical Horizon (yes, there was Vertical Horizon back then…no, the latest CD isn’t their debut) My parents were in the middle of a divorce, and my dad really found himself musically. I have always had a close relationship with my dad, and as a kid of only 11, I followed his footsteps. VH has been my favorite band since.
As for finding my own musical style, I have learned in the past few months that I definantly prefer the styles of Tori Amos, Chantal Kreviazuk (cool points for anyone who’s heard of her), David Wilcox, and Ellis Paul. (Cool points for anyone who has heard of the last two as well.) I have found my way out of the mainstream and into the intriguing musical talents of mellow acoustics and folk.
This is not to say that I don’t enjoy punk rock and alternative anymore…but I would define myself musically with the above mentioned artists