Good thread.
<10 ABBA, Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow (my mother’s favorites)
11-12 KISS, AC-DC’s “Back in Black”
13-15 Mainstream top 100. Lots of Australian rock/pop, especially Cold Chisel, Midnight Oil, Australian Crawl, Icehouse, Mental as Anything, Split Enz (NZ) etc., etc. Also 80s New Wave stuff that was constantly on the radio; heaps of typical 80s one-hit wonders.
16-20 Above music, plus Dire Straits, U2.
21-25 Mainstream rock; celtic and folk music (traditional and otherwise). Also: Beautiful South, Pogues, Spirit of the West, Barenaked Ladies, Loreena McKennitt, REM. Began to take an interest in jazz, blues, and hip-hop.
26-30 Continued above trends, and also got into 90s alternative/mainstream rock, including Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Powderfinger, etc. More blues and jazz, including Bill Evans, Charlie Parker, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Stan Getz, Django Reinhardt, early Tom Waits.
30-36 Continued above trends, adding more jazz and blues as well as more pop and rock. Decline in purchases of Celtic and folk music (although still listen to the ones i have). Latin jazz and afro-cuban stuff. A bit more hip-hop, although i’m still no expert. Introduction to punk. Artists added to rotation include: Tori Amos, Orishas, X, Ani Di Franco, Tracy Chapman, Elliot Smith, Buzzcocks, Sierra Maestra, Conjunto Cespedes.
Also, since my early 20s i’ve consistently added bands from my youth and from before i was born that i never really listened to first time around. These include the Beatles, ELO, Supertramp, Alan Parsons Project, Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young (early stuff), and latin rock artists like Santana, Sapo, etc. that were big in the early 70s. I’d heard all these artists before, of course, but having their albums is different to hearing the occasional song on the radio.