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What determined your musical tastes?


Mike

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Well, this is really not a question as much as it's a topic for discussion and debate.

I had many influences, friends, brothers, sister and parents that helped mold my early "taste" for music. It was their albums that were available for me to listen to.

From early and mid-sixties, then early mid-seventies, back to late-sixties and then late-seventies, it wasn't until the late seventies that radio dominated my musical taste; it was radio that dominated my taste for the next decade.

So...

What determined your musical tastes, and how have they changed over the years?

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A single radio station helped shape my passion for rock and roll. KZOK, a classic rock station based in Seattle. I didn't really have any sort of musical tastes before 7th grade, except for the stuff I played on my fiddle. Most of my friends were into rock, but modern rock, and when they tried to get me into it, I didn't like most of it. I still thought there had to be some rock I would like, so I surfed through the radio stations, and stumbled across 102.5 KZOK. They were playing "Black Dog". From then on, I was hooked. I had KZOK pumping from my stereo day and night, learning different songs, deciding what I liked and didn't like, and learning useless trivia from the DJ's. I then set out to buy album after album to expand my musical knowledge. I still love the station, and luckily can get it through the internet. It streams on www.kzok.com

Most of the modern bands I like I found through my friend Pat. He likes a lot of indie stuff, most of which I don't like, but occasionally he'll introduce me to something good.

I've liked country and celtic all my life. Apparently when I was a baby I was taken to a Charlie Daniels concert, and an Altan concert. I was being influenced before I could even talk.

I've just started getting into old school rap. Not sure how it happened.

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well i don't really know at all where my music taste came from. i guess i just like what i like...i guess quite alot of the music i like, i would have first heard when i was very young because my dad likes it. i have been listening to bob dylan ever since i was born and i have always loved it. i had the silly stage when i was about ten when i liked the spice girls etc,....but im waaaaay past that now. i like quite a bit of music that my dad doesnt like/listen to though, so i really don't know where i would have first heard it. like my dad doesnt even have any zeppelin albums....and i absolutely love led zeppelin. there are lots of others too. i wouldnt have first heard them on a radio station because i started listening to classic rock stations after i discovered bands like led zeppelin and pink floyd and the rolling stones etc. so its really a bit of a mystery where i got my music taste from haha :)

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My dad's had a huge stack of CDs for as long as I could remember. I rarely dipped into them really, 'cause for years I didn't have much interest in music. I remember plugging in the Steve Miller Band's Greatest Hits album so many times my brothers were about to kill me. :P But he would stick in stuff like the Beach Boys at home or in the car and whatnot, or turn on the oldies station. He's also gotten me into a lot of bands (namely one of my favorite bands, DC Talk, and I just sorta took it from there when I picked up the CD again).

When you're homeschooled, you don't get out a lot. No one was ever suggesting bands to me and I was never picking up CDs, so I would say my dad was probably the biggest influence.

Although some of the miscellaneous things I'm into have changed it a lot. Two of my favorite artists are Japanese, and this forum's helped me realize that makes it so that I have some really really obscure tastes... :P

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I don't think there was much parental interference in determining my musical taste. My dad listens to smooth jazz all the time, which I hate. My dad listens to celtic music all the time, which I love. My dad listens to U2 all the time, which I'm indifferent about.

I'd say my tastes have been most affected by the internet. My taste used to be soley determined by the internet, but now that I like more kinds of music, I'm able to take suggestions from friends. Also, Portland's alternative rock station has really shaped my taste recently.

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My parents were classic music lovers, but they heard lots of jazz too. When I was 3 or 4 I used to play the records that the postman brought home for my dad (he was a journalist so he had all promostuff sent at home) and I discovered my hero... :bow: :bow: Trini Lopez!!! :bow: :bow: :laughing: So my dad made sure I became a Beatles fan as soon as possible so I would forget about Trini Lopez, and he brought me their records, took me to the premières of their movies and got me promo pictures and so on. Same with all the groups I loved... He also brought me every rock album he could find and took me to the movies to see Woodstock, Monterey pop, Gimme Shelter, etc. and gave me lots of tickets so I would go with all my friends... by then we were smoking pot and tripping and so (me and my friends, not my dad...) and we were into Spooky Tooth, Soft Machine, King Crimson, etc. but I was always sticking to my beloved Stones, Airplane...

I was into the music scene when I was 18 so I met lots of musicians and was influenced by the things they did. I discovered Reed, Bowie, Cohen, ramones and others in the seventies. I didn´t like very much the 80s... I still love the music I loved when I was young.

Even Trini :grin:

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My dad has quite a big CD collection that he never listens to, so basically its stacked in my room.

I don't quite remember how or why, but when I was around ten, I started to make my own Beatles tapes with those CDs, and played them till they broke. I don't know how I then made the leap from Beatles to other 60s music, but anyway I got carried away with the (early) Stones through the Let It Bleed film, then watched Woodstock, fell for the Who, and realised that so much more good music came from that decade.

The radio helped too, at least certain stations, but basically my dad's record collection determined my tastes.

He does have lots of 70s albums, but apart from the Who, Humble Pie, some solo Beatles records and the odd song or album by other bands I don't listen much too music of the 70s, I'm more for the sixties.

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My mom used to play The Beatles for me when I was little, and I grew to hate them. She constantly told me that one day I would love them, and that day came when I was 19 and bought the White Album on a lark. So, as usual, my mom was right.

I also used to get freaked out by "In The Hall Of The Mountain King" from Grieg's Peer Gynt suite, when I was about 4 or 5. I would put it on the record player, and then run away crying from it because it scared me so much. Same thing, but to a lesser degree, with "Peter And The Wolf".

My dad was the rocker, and I used to listen to his Zeppelin, Hendrix and Who records. The cover of Led Zeppelin II fascinated me to no end. I used to think all of those biker dudes were in the band, and Robert Plant's voice made no sense to me - so screamy and high.

My mom told me that, when I was around 3, I would point out instruments in songs to her - trumpets and whatnot - and that freaked her out a little. I also got my penchant for singing harmony from her, as she did that constantly, even when there was no pre-recorded harmony.

And my grandmother was an operatic singer and choir director. So I must've been greatly influenced by her; she was always around the piano.

So I guess that my rock, pop and classical tastes all came from different people. That's pretty cool to me.

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I guess I'm with shadows in that I can't really pinpoint where my taste came from (no, not hell, although you might think from some albuns in my collection!!) My parents came from Colombia, so I listened to a lot of Colombian music as a child, but they also bought us music that was popular at the time (we were born in '68, '70 and '72). Probably most of the music we heard off the the TV...variety shows like Donny and Marie, Sonny and Cher, Flip Wilson, The Muppet Show.

After that, it was the radio, friends, and now, it's internet radio and recommendations from you fine folk.

I remember in high school, I listened to the oldies station a lot one summer and made a mix tape off the radio, when I played it for my mother, she told me that that was the music she listened to on the radio when she came to the states, but not knowing English and not having much money, she couldn't buy the albums.

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I consider myself lucky to have grown up during a period when many styles were being played and intermingled; rock, blues, jazz, soul, funk, folk, reggae, country, and even classical. Scan through your Zeppelin albums, for example, and you will find elements of all those in there.

The rigid classification/boxing-in of genres seemed less prevalent then imo.

The net result for me were ears that were open to anything from arabian/indian/afican/celtic to the electronic experimentation of Brian Eno etc.

Never let some journalist knocking out 'hype handles' for music limit your options, listen to all and decide what resonates for you.

I tended to avoid 'chart shows' as they only illustrated what was currently being plugged or payola'd while the really good music was being played on more obscure stations.

Older guys down the pub were a great reference library too.

Edited by Guest
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Never let some journalist knocking out 'hype handles' for music limit your options, listen to all and decide what resonates for you.

:bow: :bow: :bow:

My parents had an initial influence on me. Mum was constanly singing and dancing with me when I was a little girl, and I've always loved music. I listened to what my parents liked early on, ABBA, The Bee Gees, Simon & Garfunkel, Elton John, The Beatles, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Queen, Roy Orbison and John Denver.

My uncle has, unknowingly, had the biggest influence on me musically. When I was about 18, I got increasingly pissed off at the lack of music which did something for me, or stuff that I could really get into. Around this time, he downloaded all his albums off his hard drive onto ours, and from there I found Bowie, Hendrix, more Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, The Stones, Neil Young, Jefferson Airplane, Cream, Fleetwood Mac, etc. Then I kind of got into Kiss, Alice Cooper, The Ramones, ELO, Todd Rundgren and many others by discovery or pure coincidence, by listening to our classic rock radio station and with the help of people here on Songfacts :bow: :D

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My parents weren't that cool, but there were one or two records lying round the house that I would play repeatedly as a toddler. I can't help thinking that blasting out "I AM THE GOD OF HELL-FIRE!" must have had some long-term effect on my infant mind.

I suspect that most of the decent singles from the 60s that were in the house may have been bought by my elder brother rather than mam and dad. "Last Night In Soho" by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Titch was another I was fascinated by.

Top Of The Pops must count as a significant influence, as it's where I saw Slade, Gary Glitter, The Sweet, etc, then later on Madness, The Specials, Dexy's Midnight Runners, Adam And The Ants, The Angelic Upstarts, Skids, etc.

The John Peel Radio Show was then massively influential in introducing me to Killing Joke, Dead Kennedys, Joy Division, as well as all sorts of more diverse stuff.

Doncaster Music Library also played its part: without it I might never have heard "Entertainment!" by Gang Of Four, which remains my favourite album of all time.

Smash Hits magazine (when it was good) and Sounds music paper were my preferred reads: their interviews and reviews must have influenced me, I would imagine.

In the late 80s / 90s, being in bands exposed me to plenty of other bands and people with shared enthusiasm for alternative music. Also I read a heck of a lot of fanzines. Can't remember who or what turned me onto Big Black, Butthole Surfers and Sonic Youth, but whoever it was, I'm eternally grateful.

On the whole, I guess a combination of tribalism, peer influence and subliminal indoctrination by the corporate-sponsored music media dictated my tastes. I had very little control over the process at all.

Nowadays I never listen to any radio at all, and don't watch any music TV. I discover "new" music by reading magazine reviews and discussing and exchanging music with people who share my passion, regardless of whether they appear to share my tastes. This is helping to broaden my outlook considerably. I'm unearthing all sorts of gems.

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SONGFACTS helped me determine my musical taste for anything rock n roll. For Jazz, folk etc, my dad, friends, Halifax Jazz Fest, and my guitar. I never woyuld have heard of artists such as Kaki King or Michael Hedges if I hadnt started playing guitar.

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My older sister (4 years) played quite a number of 45 singles and wept "The Day The Music Died." (Who was "The Big Bopper"? "Richie Valens"?) The folks tried to introduce Classical music, and other acceptable music, which added to the mental catalog. (Both were elementary school teachers, and dad ended up a teaching Principal of a small country school in the late 1960's.) At one point, I got tired of Doo-Wop and Rock love songs such that I tuned into Jazz radio. (Walter Wanderly, Cal Tjader, John Coltrane, etc.) That led to Folk, which was fine with my attending-university sister. (Joan Baez, Tom Paxton, The Kingston Trio, Pete Seeger, The Limelighters, PP&M.) Finally, The Beatles invaded the U.S., along with The Rolling Stones, etc. (The Beatles never did play Hawai'i, though they did sneak in for a vacation, only to find rabid fans making their visit Hell.) At college, Vietnam colored music Paisley and Mellow Yellow. In the mid-1970's Hawaiian music and things Hawaiian hit the radio and numerous local pubs and Andrews Ampitheater at U.H. Manoa. So, I'm at home with Chuck Berry, Count Basie, Charles Dutiot, John Fogerty, The Rippingtons, The Who, Keali'i Reichel, Ivan Lins, Great Big Sea, Rafael Kubelik, Jim Croce, and Tangerine Dream. (Sometimes all in one iTunes playlist!) :afro:

Edited by Guest
Oops! Confused "Gerard Schwatrz" with "Charles Dutoit."
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