How have your music taste evolved?

Question

I used to love Backstreet Boys. Then I got into Eminem, then Mozart, then Tom Petty, then Radiohead, then Nine Inch Nails, then Disturbed, then The Shins, then Pink Floyd, then Porcupine Tree and now to what I listen to today.

I've had the same stereo since I was 8, the thing has seen it all.

How have your music taste evolved?

Was "evolve" the wrong word? Change seemed so... bland.

Dan C: Pink Floyd? Whoa.

How Soon Is Now?: At least we grew out of that stuff right?

80L: My older sister had friends that listened to alternative rock so she got into them and so I started to listen to it. But she kinda took a step back, she listens to alot of pop now! (along with the good stuff).

80L: My older sister had friends that listened to alternative rock so she got into them and so I started to listen to it. But she kinda took a step back, she listens to alot of pop now! (along with the good stuff).

^ ops, double posted

Lady Madonna: I would have never taken you for a Nickelback type of person :0)

Dan C: Did you ever like the Syd Barrett led Floyd stuff? The songs are shorter, I promise :0)

Dan C: Not only do I like ridiculously long songs, I also like ridiculously long answers :0)

Spooky: Tom Petty... whoooo!!!! Yes, I still love him madly

Spooky: I wanted that shirt ... they didn't have my size :0(

laura: Nsync was my first cd too!

Prof. Anger: Shins was my intro to indie, I'm not sure how I came across them but after that, I just fell in love with indie

buffster54: Great to hear other peoples expierences

Jakex: Hey, you were never as bad as me (except for MCR, even I never liked FOB... hehe), at least you never fell for the pop boybands right?

Wait... conie... you had the Beatles BEFORE you had the pop... now that's a bit strange....

Answer 1

Sarah,

I'll soon be 54 so I think I can speak of evolution in my musical tastes. I grew up in a home that had classical music (my first recollection was "seeing" the lightning in Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite) and LOTS of Rogers and Hammerstein show tunes. I could sing most of their show tunes at the time when I was 3 to 5 years old. Mom gave piano lessons in the home as well. There was no FM radio to speak of, only vinyl, and in all the flavors - 33; 45; and 78 rpm. I had my own record player and kiddie records, but the only artist that I can remember from that time is Burl Ives. Television was only in black and white and you were lucky if you could receive all three channels, but Dick Clark's American Bandstand was a staple every afternoon, but I digress.

My first radio was a little transistor that only received AM broadcasts, and I listened to it in the morning in my room before going to school. Keep in mind that stereo's then were usually console monsters that parents owned, period. If there was anybody that had a component system, it was a doctor or someone of equal means. The songs played on the AM broadcasts were mostly novelty songs to keep things light for the flavor of the radio show. Occasionally, you might hear something fairly contemporary, but that was mostly for American Bandstand, and Elvis ruled the day. Then the British Invasion hit, and everything changed. The need for my own record player became apparent, as my need for going down to the local Walgreen's to buy 45's so I could listen to the newest groups. I was living in Miami, Florida at the time, and they had an AM station that finally catered to young people and the music that we wanted to hear. My 45's gave way to albums and I could start seeing more of a "personal" side to the artists I sought out. Back then, I was listening to The Cyrcle; Bob Dylan; Beatles; Paul Revere and the Raiders; The Animals; and any "hot" group of the day that might warrant a listen. Every afternoon after school, I would tune in "Where The Action Is" on the tube to check out Dick Clark's latest incarnation of the world of rock for America's youth. If there was just a song I liked, it was nice to be able to just get the 45, but it was through that practice that I discovered the world of The B Side, what was pressed on the other side of the hit song. I think more than any other nuance, the B side started my journey of musical diversity. Because I was in south Florida at the time and in a very diverse accumulation of culture, Motown was a force to be reckoned with, as well. I added it to my resume.

I grew up through all of the Sixties, and was old enough to get hooked by the counter culture when the Summer of Love came to town, so to speak. Rock was really exploring itself and pushing any envelope it could find, and it WAS like being a kid in a candy store; you could have just about any taste you wanted in music. White (Tommy James and the Shondells); Radical White (MC5); Black (Motown, etc.); Radical Black (believe it or not, Sly and the Family Stone, among others); Crossover (Johnny Cash, Fifth Dimension); British (Stones, Donovan); and just about anything else you might conjure. You could really get esoteric if you wanted, you could go mainstream.

As I went through High School in northwestern Ohio, '68 to '72, the world was erupting in every way. Music was no exception. Attending Woodstock opened my eyes wide, and there was no time for looking back. The draft was still going as was the "war" in VietNam. My senior year of High School, the question was, "You going to be drafted, enlist, or go to Canada?" There was the soundtrack, too. My best recollection was Rides Again by James Gang, Sssh. by Ten Years After, the debut album by Black Sabbath, and of course, the soundtrack to the movie version of Woodstock. And then MTV made it's debut, and at the time, it WAS a music station all the time.

If there has been any evolution in my musical tastes, it has been the ability to discriminate from among the plethora of music out there to what makes sense to me now. If it was good enough then, it is good enough now; I still listen to all that I've grown up through. I don't listen to radio that much anymore because the brash commercialism and the constant barrage of advertisements seem to be more present than the music. Most FM stations are on satellite feed anyway, so you hear a playlist that's only 12 to 15 songs long repeating continuously. I play guitar (have been for 42 years) and mostly play the blues. The genre seems the closest to what I grew up on, seeing as most of the British Invasion was inspired by American Blues at one point or another. Late 60's and early 70's rock is in my arsenal as well, and I enjoy playing that just as much. My mind stays open as possible, I enjoy some Saliva, 311, Kid Rock, and anything else that has a nice bounce and some melody to it, but I just might be a dinosaur, too. My generational differences show when my 18-year-old son plays his screamo stuff, but I don't condemn it just because I don't understand it. Yep. I've been through a bit. I'm still a fiend for music. I hope to continue to evolve at least a fraction of what popular music continues to do. Thanks for the opportunity, Sarah.

Answer 2

BobDylan/James Taylor (my parents music) --> Grateful Dead --> Pink Floyd/Led Zeppelin/Lynyrd Skynyrd --> Sublime --> Bad Religion/ NOFX/Pennywise --> Black Flag/Circle Jerks/Rancid --> Sex Pistols/Clash/Descendents --> Ramones/Stooges/New York Dolls/Minor Threat/Germs/Johnny Thunders --> Buzzcocks/Damned/Velvet Ubderground --> Today= 70's punk, the good hardcore, garage rock, psychedelic rock, post-punk, early 70's glam, alternative rock influenced by punk I like (Violent Femmes, Meat Puppets, Gun Club, White Stripes, Strokes, Hives, Libertines etc.), and anything else unique that I find interesting.

Although since I really started liking music I start to like anything that sparks my interest, bands that have something unique about them and a certain sincerity. I like just about anything where you can tell the musicians really mean it.

Edit: I think it's a good idea to clarify that my taste kind of did evolve even if the connection was tenuous. The early came from my parents, then I started listening to all the bands all the kids had shirts of (Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Green Day etc.) and the critics love that my brother was also in to. Then my brother suggested some newer stuff (Sublime, Bad Religion and NOFX). Which made me look into other music in a similar vein which led me to Pennywise and Operation Ivy, and in a Pennywise interview I read about Black Flag and in an Operation Ivy article I found out about the Clash, when I found out that Black Flag and the Clash had albums in the Best 500 Albums Ever by RS Magazine, where I also found Never Mind The Bollocks. And so I looked up the Sex Pistols, which got me into 70's punk. So I joined a 70's punk forum that ended being much broader and getting me into garage and psychedelic and anything good and here I am today.

And yes, that's right, I used to love Led Zeppelin and pretend to love Pink Floyd because I thought I was supposed to. But at this point I was still poor and only a casual music fan so my collection didn't go far past a dozen or two downloaded songs. Some of which I still love (no matter how hard I try I can't stop loving the song "Brain Damage") but most just isn't for me, although Pink Floyd's less dragging droning stuff almost intrigues me enough to re-look into them. Almost.

This answer is getting a little ridiculously long lol. But I think Syd's stuff was the Floyd stuff I did like. And I remember liking some of his solo material, "Apples And Oranges" being the only one I can think of right now.

Answer 3

0-5 - Whatever was playing on the radio, so mostly Russian music and classical music. 6-10 - Classic rock and some odd rock stuff my dad listened to 10-14 - Rap, pop, hip-hop etc. Stuff like Eminem, 50 Cent, Destiny's Child, pretty much everything on the radio now that I can't really stand that much 13-14 - Fall Out Boy and Panic at the Disco 14-16 [now] - Hardcore, alternative, indie, some punk, etc. Stuff like The Devil Wears Prada, From First to Last, Senses Fail, Alesana, The Used, Bright Eyes, Anti-Flag Also, getting back into classic rock. Always have been a big fan of the Doors and Pink Floyd

Answer 4

That's a fun question. Sorry I'm a little late to the boat.
I was lucky to have older siblings (I have 2 sisters and a brother who are all close in age and I'm the youngest by 5 years) so I had a lot to influence me. My parents really made all the difference for me as a kid (luckily they have pretty good taste). I'll try to just stick to the favorites so this doesn't get too long.

little kid: Mostly Zevon (he was probably my favorite), early Beatles, Costello, Springsteen, Ricky Lee Jones,

A little less little: Madonna, Michael Jackson, Hall & Oats, Springsteen (I lived Born in the USA for a couple years), Duran Duran, Bowie, Paul McCartney (this was actually the period where I first started having records...really I just took them from my parents and I guess they didn't mind)

About 9-11: I first hear Depeche Mode, the Cure, Minor Threat, the Specials and the Selector (this type of stuff didn't really grab me at that point, but I knew I liked what I heard. Learned that my siblings had some pretty cool stuff to show me). Also discovered the classic rock station and My dad got the Led Zeppelin box set. Start really digging Zeppelin and the Doors in particular.

12-13: Still primarily classic rock, but I got exposed to Metallica, Megadeath, Pearl Jam (I think the summer when I was 13 a friend of mine was the first guy to get Ten and show it to all of us, big revelation). I certainly got swept up in the Seattle sound and that was just beginning. I also started getting heavily into the Pogues and for some reason I'm drawing a blank on the rest, but I can tell you I had some REALLY random mix tapes during this period. I was all over the place, oh yeah and Faith No More was either here or in High School, but the first cd I ever bought was the Real Thing.

High School: For the first two - two and a half years I was still all over the place. Classic rock, Grunge (Alice in Chains was my favorite at the time), the Specials, A LOT of the Smiths and some Depeche Mode, REM. The first Elastica album and Mellow Gold also held a lot of impact for me when they came out. Which leads me to probably the two biggest happenings for me musically the first one being Natural One hitting the radio. This single was the first step to becoming curious about expanding my scope into the indie rock realm. Then going to Lollapalooza 5. Oddly enough I was the most excited about seeing Beck and Elastica, but to gear up for it I started to explore Sonic Youth and Pavement. Funny note: my fist exposure to Sonic Youth was seeing the buzz clip video for 100% and I saw these old dudes and people skating and silly lyrics and I thought they were a new band. It left me thinking "who are these old dudes trying to be sooo hip, and Sonic Youth...Really?" From there I became a big fan of stuiff like Pavement, Sonic Youth, Sebadoh, Folk Implosion, Pixies, Breeders, Frank Black, Tom Waits, etc.

Post High School: I haven't had a major shift in tastes since then. Obviously I've heard about more of the bands in that area Elliott Smith, Grandaddy, Belle and Sebastian and Blur (which was actually part of the high school lot) were really notable discoveries. Somewhere along the line I heard the Dr. Octagon record and found a interest in hip hop, a friend of mine had Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus and I realized that I liked some jazz. When I was 20 or 21 I heard Abbey Road and renewed my interest in the Beatles. Not long after a friend of mine told me to give Simon and Garfunkel a fresh set of ears which was pretty big too. A friend of mine made me a mix tape that showed me (some of the bands didn't click when I had heard them in earlier years, but needed a fresh listen) the Shins, Built to Spill, Guided By Voices, Yo La Tengo, and some others which was very notable. If nothing else it was my first exposure to The Shins who are now one of my favorites. Anyways, too much info already, but I've held onto every period to an extent and still have an apreciation for all of it.

Answer 5

Because of my parents tastes, I grew-up on a mix of Classic Rock ~ mostly Hendrix ; Beatles ; Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac ; post '75 Fleetwood Mac ; Dire Straits ; Mike Oldfield ; Pink Floyd ~ and Rock n' Roll & 50's music ~ Sam Cooke ; The Drifters ; Buddy Holly ; The Shadows.
Along with all that, there was whatever 80's music was on the radio at the time.

My tastes first started to broaden when I was 13 {my dad moved out taking his CDs with him, so I had to get my own copies of some of them}. I will admit to going through a {thankfully short-lived!} Take That phase! {blushes with embarasment}. When I was 15 / 16 I discovered Guns N' Roses, Enigma, Clannad, and Robert Palmer.

My real musical evolution has probably been over the last 9 years, when my tastes began to include MORE Classic Rock {Led Zeppelin!} and Prog Rock, and :~
Celtic ; World ; Classical ; Jazz / Swing ; Blues ; etc....

Answer 6

From Disturbed to the Shins...haha, nice.


Hm, lets see...I liked Nsync and the spice girls [as did any little girl born the 80's-90's], then when i got a bit older, maybe like 12ish I started listening to whatever my sister was listening to, which was like Harvey Danger, The Used, and Eve 6. I still like them, haha. Oh yeah, and I was completely obsessed with Linkin Park when I was 13ish. Around 14 I grew some sense and started listening to good music like The Honorary Title [Probably my favorite band], Idiot Pilot, Eighteen Visions, Death Cab For Cutie, etc. Pretty much everything I liked at 14 I still like now at 16, my favorite bands right now include Mindless Self Indulgence, Brand New, Taking Back Sunday, Regina Spektor.

I think my music taste evolves as I find new ways the internet can be of use to me, haha

Answer 7

Great Question Sarah
As You probably know I started listening to Rock when I was in My teens in the early 1980's and like You is started out with the poppy stuff of the day..Journey Asia Def Leppard Hall & Oates Joan Jett etc etc
Then I got this tape that had Judas Priest and Rainbow on it (KTel job...lol) that really opened My eyes to Metal so I went through a big 80's Metal Phase listening to Dokken Ratt Cinderella more Leppard Van Halen Motley Crue Poison etc
Until I heard two other bands on the radio Led Zeppelin and Blue Oyster Cult, The hair metal fixation faded pretty quick after that. that made Me want to explore new music. So after that i got into The Stones The Eagles Boston Triumph and Styx. Then I discovered Rush, and listened to them and nothing but them for about a solid year. Through Rush I got into one of the best phases of My musical evolution. The Prog phase where I disovered Yes and Pink Floyd and Hawkwind. Hawkwind made Me discover Motorhead and got Me into a lot of classic Metal which brought Me BACK after all those years to Judas Priest. Now I have about 1,500 songs in my media player from just about every genre going.

Answer 8

I too used to listen to the Backstreet Boys...along with Britney Spears (yikes) and some other "teeny bopper" artists. Then all of a sudden it was uncool to listen to Britney Spears and all that...so I started to listen to Avril Lavigne, who apparently was much cooler, and Kelly Clarkson and stuff like that. Then I grew out of that and jumped to listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and I think even Audioslave for a little while. Then somehow I became a real Beatles fan. So I started to listen to more of my parents' music...the Grateful Dead, Ramones...then I started listening to Nirvana. And then I got into a lot of subgenres of punk and underground music. And guess what! I've had the same stereo since I was 8. The first CD to ever go in it was one by NSYNC.

Answer 9

I used to love Britney Spears and P!nk (I still sorta do, haha), and then for a while I was really into baroque, classical, romantic and impressionistic music, like JS Bach, Schumann, Chopin, Debussy, etc. Then I got into the popular indie stuff, like Death Cab and Elliott Smith, a lot of which I still love.

After that I started listening to electronica, techno, synthpop, etc., and I liked The Birthday Massacre, Daft Punk, The Postal Service, all sorts of stuff. 2 years ago I started taking tap lessons, so I got into musicals, and at around the same time I developed a Bruce Springsteen obsession. I still love him, but now I like indie rock/pop, basically everything from Meg & Dia to Architecture In Helsinki. I've also become a huge Ani DiFranco fan.

I guess my taste in music never really "evolves," it just, adds on, if that makes sense.

Answer 10

I went through the cutsey pop phase when it was appropriate. I had an older brother so he was always giving me CDs and telling me how I need to branch out and listen to real music. He gave me Sparta, Saves the Day, The Get Up Kids, At the Drive-in, and so much more instead of Avril Lavigne and Mandy Moore. The bands that meant the most to me while branching out, I still listen to them because they made such a difference. Thank goodness for older siblings to lead us in the right direction. Now we're both exchanging good bands to each other.

Answer 11

I used to like all this weird pop Top 40 hits stuff, then I got into pop punk and the kind of alternative rock that is terrible.

Then I began to listen to better music. I still listen to alternative rock, and certain 70's/80's pop punk bands (like the Ramones), but it's much better, along with many other rock subgenres. In fact, pretty much the only rock genres I really hate are hair metal and nu metal (and maybe one or two more I can't remember). I don't like death metal, but I respect it. I like everything else except for the Top 40 stuff and most current mainstream rock.

Funk is probably my second favorite genre to rock, if we're talking in a broad sense. I love those bassists.

Although now that I think of it, it's not really an evolution. My music tastes just changed, abruptly almost.