How & When were you're musical tastes formed??

The mid-late fifties (high school days) formed a large impression on my musical taste. 'Rock & Roll' was sorta getting started and we were moving away in "popular music" from the influence of the great Jazz/swing bands of the pre-post WWII era. "Rock" was still a decade or so away and it was a time of "mix" in the music we were exposed to. There were a lot of "covers" of roots music up here and it was unfortunate that we didn't hear the "real thing" but that would have been "unacceptable" for reasons that don't make too much sense now. Still it gave many "local" groups (that fit the right profile) a chance they probably never would have received and, some of them were good enough to have earned it.

The second big musical impressionistic period for me was that late sixties/early seventies when I got back on this side of the world and wanted to "make up for lost time". Now, started the 'Rock' era that were all familiar with today.

What time periods made the biggest impressions on you in a musical sense? Do you find yourself remembering words to long forgotten songs as soon as you hear them? Its amazing how we can do that.

 

The day I got my first little turntable and a lot of little 45's....that did it....haven't gotten over it, never will....

ED

 

Mine are still very much a work in process - although my rock roots were hammered in to my by repeated exposure to my elder brothers records when I was knee high. For example - on Sunday I went to a drum clinic of the Best of British drumming and saw an absolutely amazing set by Johnny Kalsi of the Dhol Foundation (he was also in the Afro Celt Sound System) - Jamiroquai were there with the exception of Jay and they had grooves to die for - because they could relax in front of a small crowd they were just having fun. I just find myself learning and appreciating more musical styles over time. There's a whole universe of music out there just waiting for me to discover - I feel very lucky

All the best - Andrew

 

From my Mom...the late 50's a mere lad of 4...then my world turned upside down in 1964...Haven't been musically the same since... Wonderful!!!

 

Teenage music snob

I'm one of the few people I know whose musical tastes were formed by reading, specifically THE ROLLING STONE RECORD GUIDE.

I picked this up and just started buying the five-star albums, which were conveniently pictured in the first (red) edition, and reading (and re-reading) the reviews of artists with lots of highly rated albums: Dylan, Buddy Holly, The Rolling Stones, etc.

I think I had the book memorized by the time I graduated high school, and might have had a hundred or so of the five-star albums by the time the second (blue) edition came out. I can remember the record store clerk looking at me funny when I'd bring up STREET HASSLE, THERE'S A RIOT GOIN ON, or MY FEET ARE SMILING to the counter along with the latest Cheap Trick or R.E.O. Speedwagon.

I don't know how I would have encountered so much amazing music without this book. My parents were older boomers who came of age between Elvis and The Beatles, and were not especially avid music listeners. Along with the companion ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF ROCK, the guide was my only source for discussion of rock's past. Everything else I encountered -- magazines, radio, friends, etc. -- was only concerned with the immediate present.

 

My tastes were formed from birth. I was born in 1962, so I soaked up almost anything that was around except for country. My main inlfuence came from three places, my father and older sister listened to 60s soul. My mother listened to soul, jazz, and classical. My other sister and I heard all of that including the pop music on the radio and television. My tastes for the next decade were pretty much solidified by the age of six in 1969. I added metal in 1981, and some country in the early 90s, although I had heard and liked much of it in the 70s.

Among the very first artists I was exposed to in the 60s were The Teptations, The Supremes, Sam & Dave, Barbra Lewis, Little Anthony & The Imperials, The Capitols, Carla Thomas, The Supremes, Deon Jackson, Marvin Gaye, and and the Impressions. A bit later on the radio, I got all manner of the British invasion, then bubblegum. There was always Nancy Wilson, Lou Rawls, and Dinah Washington on the stereo through this time, as was a lot of the classical greats.

Revised:
The first metal band I admit to liking is Van Halen. I liked the 70s rock of before, but largely ignored it throughout most of the 70s. Yeah, I loved Alice Cooper, Boston, Yes, and the other usual suspects, though.

The first rap record I ever heard was "Rapper's Delight" in 1979, and I was hooked. Then I heard Kurtis Blow's "The Breaks". I never liked Blondie's "Rapture" or "Double Dutch Bus" by Frankie Smith.

Revised:
Growing up, country music was despised by almost everyone I knew. Country music, and it's fans were ridiculed. Like many people, my objection to country music was more cultural than anything. My peers and I liked stuff by Ray Stevens, the Eagles, Olivia Newton-John, and some of the southern rockers, but we didn't know the difference between a Roy Clark and a Waylon Jennings. I just knew one was on Hee Haw, and the other conjured up images of confederate flage and pickups with shotguns in the back. But now that i've expanded my musical knowledge, I know there is some fine songwriting in country music. What helped changed my mind about country is that I realized that R&B and country of the 60s have a lot in common, to the point of being one in the same in many ways. It had to relate to something I was familiar with.

 

My mother, my uncle, a music teacher who was a good friend of mine but is now deceased, and others influenced my tastes greatly and they have been expanding ever since.

 

I remember when I was about 8 years old standing in front of my dad's reel to reel deck listening to Perry Como(I now owned everyone of his original Lp) initiated my love for pop music. In junior high(1976), I start to listen to some "serious" pop following my older sister: David Cassidy, Donny and Marie, Bay City Rollers.....you know the drill.
It is not until high school that I started developing a craze for Rock. I began to listen to 70's rock groups like Eagles, Blue Oyster Cult, Bad Company, Kansas,... etc.
Today, I enjoy just about all types of music except for rap and metal, but unfortunately(or fortunately???), I became a slave for music software by pilling my listening room with LPs, reel tapes and CDs , who knew!

 

My mom loved playing music around the house as long as I can remember. She was really into disco and then after that died out, she really got turned on to country. I didn't like either so when it came time to ride in the car, a simple 15 minute trip to the grocery store seemed like driving cross country.

As I got older I basically listened to anything that I knew would get on her nerves as sort of a payback for the hell I was put through. Sometimes it worked (The Clash, The Cure), other times it didn't (The Police, solo Sting, some Peter Gabriel stuff). While most kids my age were out playing ball, I enjoyed spinning records because my mom loved music and her love was passed onto me (even if it wasn't the same kind of music).

We didn't have cable in Cleveland until the late 80s so the only outlet for any music videos was this program aired on one of the local independent channels. That's how I got turned on to the Cure, Echo And The Bunnymen, The Smiths, etc. When we moved to the suburbs and got cable (mid '87), MTV was starting its decline and then I pretty much listened to either the college stations or for the other extreme, classic rock.

Then the whole alternative thing happened and what used to be somewhat exclusive to the college waves was now on the commercial stations and it was rather strange. A lot of kids in my high school didn't know Morrissey was in band until Cleveland got an alternative station and "How Soon Is Now" was played every 20 minutes.

Then I took a high school music class and needless to say when we got to the section on the Beatles, my life changed forever.

A lot of music today turns me off, most of it seems homogenized and rather unmemorable. I do have some current faves like Coldplay or Manic Street Preachers, but for the most part, there isn't a lot out there that grabs my attention. I've noticed that I tend to be interested in what's popular in England moreso than what's popular here. It also disappoints me when an artist of merit does put something worthwhile (like the last Peter Gabriel LP which I loved but I know a lot of the public reaction was mixed)out and it gets either pushed aside or ignored because it's not the flavour of the month.

My best friend has pretty ecelectic taste in music and I sometimes prefer his turning me on to an older artist I'm not familiar with as opposed to listening to something new. I've been checking out some punk and some Motown as of late. I'm always looking for something new to broaden my horizons, so feel to leave any suggestions.

Craig

 

I'll spare the 10 page version. ;-)

When I was three (in 1967), I learned how to work the old Admiral hi-fi in the basement, and played a lot of the folks' old mono albums: mainly TJB and other A&Ms, Mancini, Perez Prado, some old Bossa Nova albums, etc. Picked up piano when I was five...the teacher was reluctant, but once he found out I was cursed with perfect pitch, there was no looking back. I was pretty much in that mode until I was 14 or 15, and our jr. high school put together a stage band. Then the disco thing happened, and I was finally starting to listen to current music. My favorite stations at that point were WLBS and WJZZ (the jazz station). In high school, we started playing better jazz charts, including some performed by Maynard Ferguson, so I started in on the big band music. And symphonic band had a great teacher who picked uncommon pieces, so i broadened my classical horizons that way as well. (Not to a *huge* extent, but still...) WJZZ introduced me to a LOT of good jazz and/or fusion I like to this day: Jean-Luc Ponty, Stanley Clarke, Miles, Brubeck, Yellowjackets, etc. Mom also listened to some jazz and latin, and liked Cal Tjader a lot. Not to mention Brazilian, which is a lifetime passion for me.

Disco sort of led me to the later R&B/soul bands and artists with staying power, like Earth Wind & Fire, Prince, Gap Band, etc. I also remember my friend bringing over his then-new Styx album, Pieces Of Eight, which I taped and later bought. He also brought a couple others over...so that was sort of my first taste of rock and roll. Throughout the 80's, I read a lot of magazines and would buy some of the top-rated recordings each month. One was Donald Fagen's The Nightfly, which led me to Steely Dan, and one of many obsessions. The earliest days of CD may not have sounded the greatest, but I was musically adventurous and actually bought a ton of used vinyl, to audition candidates to purchase on CD. Branched out into more rock, including Led Zep. I took a chance on a Phil Collins CD (same day I bought the Donald Fagen, in fact), and that started a collection of Collins, Genesis and Peter Gabriel. That's how a lot of my obsessions started, in fact--buy one, like it, play it to death, want more.

When the 90's came, I sort of got into the country thing for a bit (like Garth Brooks, before his head got bigger than his hat, and a lot of the earliest albums of today's country household names), and discovered I liked some of the alternative rock and grunge out there. I find I buy mostly reissues today, since there's little new music today that can hold my interest. Once in awhile I'll find a new artist that catches my attention (like my BR5-49 "infection" that I can't shake ), so there's still hope for me yet!

So, my musical tastes are still being formed all these years later!

 

This is a fun, worthwhile thread, so upsidaisy!

 

Yup! Indeedy...

 

How and When

This is something I have given a lot of thought to over the years and discussed in many a tavern over many blaring jukeboxes. I will give you two watered down versions of my opinion.

First I believe that popular music and particularily rock has gone through and continues to go through many peaks and valleys. A perfect example is the peak of the mid fifties when you had Buddy Holley, Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis and countless others virtually inventing the genre. Then Holley died, Presley went into the army and you were left with a bunch of guys named Bobby who were all style and little substance. This is of course a generalization but you get the picture.

Anyway I was born in '55 and when I was about ten and noticing girls in a new way it was during another one of those peaks. The music of the mid sixties was as good as it's ever been. Motown, The British Invasion, The Atlantic Sound...it just does not get any better IMO. To this day the kind of music I love the most is a catchy short song with good hooks; just the kind of thing I was weaned on. So I guess that coming of age during a golden age was the one thing.

The second thing was discovering FM radio when I was about fourteen. This was in 1969 and I discovered that there was something very different happening on the other side of the dial. I vividly recall hearing The Dead, Dylan, The Allman Brothers, Quicksilver, Velvet Underground and The Steve Miller Band for the first time and thinking "whoa...what's this?!" That started me on buying albums...something I have been doing ever since. I still have those first LP's and cherish then dearly.

Good Thread!
Thanks a lot
Peace
Norm

 

Up you go!

 

My interest in music really started the day our old B & W Westinghouse TV died. My parents couldn't afford another set right away so they got me a little red and black record player (which I found in their basement last year! Guess where it is now? After purchasing a few el-cheapo 45's I was hooked. A little AM transistor radio followed and I became a CHUM/AM rabid fan.

To help pay the mortgage my parents rented out rooms in our house. A couple of the tenants were country music fans. I ended up hearing lots of Hank Williams, early Conway Twitty, Tammy Wynette and other "traditional" country. It was only a few years ago that I realized being exposed to that old C&W explains my love of alt country & folk (not keen on "new" country though).

The other major influence was CHUM starting a progessive FM rock station when I was a young teenager. That opened up a whole new world of album rock.

This site has also been a great influence in further extending my tastes to jazz and also reawakened my love of AM 45's. Never realized how great they could sound until I got some of Steve's comps. Thanks Steve!

 

Rock music was a good way to rebel against your parents and authority back in the 60's, and the more obscure and 'deep' the band the better. Even better if the lyrics were dirty or loaded with 'secret meaning'. For a while that meant rebelling against even the Beatles, Stones, and Beach Boys by following the Dead, Cream, Mothers, Doors, et. al. Of course all that stuff got coopted and absorbed by the culture at large and now it's called 'Classic Rock'. On the positive side I got over my rebellion against the Beatles, Beach Boys, Stones, and other 'popular' bands. But I was drawn deeper into jazz and improvised music and eventually contemporary classical and electronic. At some point in there I saw the light and embraced R&B, Funk, etc. I think my avant-garde jazz musician friends were responsible for that. I'm still in awe of the vast amount of great music that's been made that I've never heard, so I feel like I'm still only seeing the tip of the iceberg.
But I'd say my love of music was initially a means of escaping the regimentation and authoritarian structure of adolescent life and expanding my consciousness. Many of my interests have waxed and waned, but I'm glad that whenever I get tired of one thing I can always find something to help me through the night.

 

My father is a very good natural (untrained) amateur musician. He plays piano and accordion and although I've been playing piano as well as guitar on and off for almost 40 years I'm still not as good as he is on piano!
He played a lot of classical music on the stereo-actually romantic, with some favourites being Tchaikovsky and Grieg.
In elementary school I was also exposed to classical music, again mostly romantic and post-romantic stuff like Debussy. We had Music Appreciation in grades 6 & 8 from the same teacher and I picked up on a lot of famous classical stuff.
But then of course the Beatles came along and it was mostly all rock'n'roll for the next 20 or so years. (My dad liked some of their music if not the actual recording-he played a very good version of I Wanna Hold Your Hand on the piano just from hearing it on the radio.)
I always loved the British Invasion stuff and got into the usual stuff such as Hendrix and Cream and Motown. At some point I discovered Bob Dylan also and was typically blown away.
I also did a lot of reading about rock'n'roll and so started to delve into its roots from the blues and eventually to gospel. this also helped me to disover bands I normally might not have heard of such as some of my all-time faves like the Velvet Underground and The Kinks who were getting almost no airplay in the late 60's and 70's.
When a couple of my buddies came back from a holiday in England they brought back some Sex Pistols' singles and this seemed as exciting as The Beatles in 1964. The Clash remain another of my favourites.
Then I kept hearing about this guy called Bruce Springsteen. When I listened to The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle and Born To Run at first I wasn't that knocked out. However then Darkness On The Edge of Town came out and I played it incessantly (in my own mono mix I may add) as one of my speakers was being repaired and I had to set my amp to mono to get the information in both channels! It was the first album I think I ever heard that spoke to me as a 25 year old adult about regular things and ideas going on in my life and mind.
I've subsequently seen him live about 20 times and am going to see him again in a couple of weeks as his shows are quintessential rock'n'roll as community. (That's my one sentence summation of Broooce's shows!)
Anyway back to other music- When CD's came out and I finally got around to getting a player, I rediscovered classical music again. The advantage of CD's low noise levels really helped with this kind of music with its wide dynamic range. I attended a number of symphonic music concerts and operas for a few years. A couple of my favourite composers are Beethoven (particularly the symphonies and piano music) and Prokofiev whose music I find has a great sense of humour. I particularly like his First Symphony and The ballet Romeo and Juliet as well as the children's classic Peter and The Wolf although I think the wolf gets a very raw deal!
Anyway now I mostly listen to rock'n'roll again, mostly older stuff which is maybe unfortunate but maybe I'm taking Dylan's notes in the Biograph set to heart where he says the writers from the earlier part of the century as well as the musicians such as Robert Johnson and Hank Williams are better than anything now!
I also have a bit of jazz in my collection but not nearly as comprehensive as my pop (for lack of a better term) and classical recordings , both which number in the hundreds. (If I include the vinyl it becomes thousands). Kind of Blue is probably a desert island disc for me however and I've just finished listening to Louis Armstrong and the Hot Fives. Hoo-wee! Great stuff.
Anyway here I am getting closer and closer to 50 and reflecting a bit upon my life's accomplishments so far. Well I do have a great record collection I think but more importantly because of that a little more insight into our culture and into myself.
As Eric Burdon once sang "You're looking for the truth in life?/Don't let music pass you by".
Sorry for the length but it felt good writing this.

John

 

By the time I was maybe 3 or 4 (1964-65) I was listening to records on my own record player. My parents were smart because they bought me the latest 45's by artists that they liked (Bobby Vinton, Viscounts, Bobby Vee etc...) so I learned to appreciate "pop" music. My aunt was just 10 years older than me so she had ALL of the biggies (Beatles, DC5, and later everything from Tom Jones, Motown, Carpenters, 5th Dimention etc) and to this day music like that is still near and dear to me. I always credit her with giving me the education of early 60's and 70's music. When she started driving she would pick me up weekly and take me to Sears or Korvettes to get a new 45 or two so she was responsible for me having a nice collection of stuff (if I only had those records now). That was truly the best time in my life.

 

Re: Teenage music snob

 

I was born in 1964 and had sisters in high school at the time. They loved the Beatles so buy the time I was 5 if not younger I had a pretty good taste of Beatles and was quite a fan. I also knew the Stones (my sister saw them in the mid 60's) so the rock scene of the 60's was important.

My parents liked country people like Chet Atkins, Johnnie Cash and Stuart Hamblen, who was a country gospel singer and a distant relative.

My grandmother worked at A&M records from its inception and knew Herb Alpert very well, also Jerry Moss and Dave Alpert as well as Karen Carpenter was quite friendly with her I met Herb a couple times as a kid and got to watch the Carpenters rehearse once. We all loved many of the A&M artists. Once, when I was visiting my grandmother she came home from work with a stack of Chuck Mangonie records and said she happened to mention to him her grand-kids were visiting and he gave her the albums to give to us. Needless to say there was always a lot of A&M music playing at our house.

the movie American Graffiti turned me on to the whole 50's music when that movie came out.

Having the name Floyd got me curious about Pink Floyd I can remember sneaking into see some of Live at Pompeii at the local multiplex when that movie came out that must have been '73. I must admit to a 9 year old with a name like Floyd someone attaching the color Pink to it is not the best thing, I was not happy, I already had pretty boy to contend with now there was Pink. Then came Dark Side of the Moon I actually didn't discover the album for a few years but knew the song Money although I didn't know who it was by. Once I got that album there was no turning back.

I would also have to say there was also the music that could be listened to by all the family played a heavy role. I was not so into country and my father wouldn't tolerate much rock, when we would vacation and be in a cabin together there was a lot of Jim Croce and Eric Clapton my father also liked classical and especially classical guitar which I like as well.

The last few years I would have to say Steve Hoffman has turned me onto a lot of new stuff particular in the jazz area through his DCC mastering.

What is so cool is that there is this golden thread that runs though all my musical interests and the more I get into something the more I see how it relates to other interests it is all connected.

Wow I went off on this post.
Great thread it was nice for me to review my roots.
thanks

 

What a coincidence! I used to tame music from out Philco b&w tv when I was a kid in the early 70!

 

Re: Re: Teenage music snob

Maybe we should start an essential rock reads thread! I can even kvetch about the differences between the editions of THE ROLLING STONE RECORD GUIDE and ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF ROCK. (First edition preferred for GUIDE; second for HISTORY)

Man, have you ever seen Nick Cohn's ROCK DREAMS? I finally got a copy last year and it's amazing! Terrific paintings of rock icons in imagined situations that illuminate them in way an ordinary photograph can't. My favorite is Ray Davies pushing a stroller down a middle class neighborhood street with his middle class wife. There's also a great one of Frank Zappa in a motorcycle gang.

 

My music tastes were formed back in the early 70's when I was three years old and would play all my father's 45s from the 50's. I must have played Elvis' Wear My Ring Around Your Neck thousands of times. My first record purchase (or should I say the first I specifically requested my parents buy me) was Rock Around The Clock by Bill Haley when I was four. However, the record that was played the most was Elvis' Loving You album (side one only - side two was too slow to sit through for a three or four year old). I couldn't work the stereo where albums could be played, so my mother would have to play side one over and over and over for me. To this day I have a huge soft spot for 50's rock and doo wop.

I later discovered the British Invasion bands in pre-teens/early-teens and then moved on to punk/new wave (music, not the fashion) in high school.