Musical Journeys

So - Toho came up with a good idea. Tell us of your musical journeys. I'll start...


Grew up in a strict Christian home with parents I hated. First thing I remember was around 1980. Celebrate by Kool n the Gang on American Top 40. Next - I heard The Clash and that affected me more than anything. '82? From there, hit high school and chicks. Moved out and lived on the streets at 14. Punk music became my foundation. Found Saxon in a gravel pit [have told that story many times] in '84. It made me love metal, along with the punk I already loved [Black Flag, Minor Threat, Circle Jerks - Mostly US punk, as the Replacements, Husker Du, and Soul Asylum were in my neighborhood]. But Punk did not get me laid like metal did. So, I got my Metallica vest and all of the anti-social patches that would get me kicked out of high school [but got me laid!], and proceeded to find a couple of bands named SOD, Nuclear Assault, Cryptic Slaughter, and DRI. I would live in THAT universe for a few years [although, the mixture of punk and metal is STILL where I live]. Someone turned me on to Murphy's Law, which made me open to reggae. I found a promo of "Time has Come - The Best of Ziggy Marley and the Wailers" around 88-89. MAN - That changed EVERYTHING! I still hung in the punk and metal circles, but would go see all of the ska/reggae I could find. I did not care about getting laid during those shows. I would close my eyes and ABSORB the music! Anyways - the 90's came, and I was very open-minded to bands like Sugar, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Midnight Oil, Kate Bush, etc. Oh, by the way - Saw Price's Purple Rain in 1984, and have been a major fanboy ever since. Along with all of the Minneapolis Sound. I could go on and on. But, it is your turn now.

I too grew up in a strict Christian family; I didn't even have a stereo until I was 14 because rock was "the devil's music". Thankfully I didn't hate my parents but their views about rock sure stunted my musical growth.

So I had to make up for lost time. First album I ever bought was Jethro Tull's "Songs From The Wood". That was followed my MeatLoaf's "Bat Out Of Hell", Scorpions "Taken By Force" and Rush "2112". Thus began my musical journey.

For a long time I went through "phases" (which is what prompted me to suggest this thread). I started with the "FM Radio" phase where I bought a lot of stuff I heard on AOR radio. Bands like Styx, Foreigner, Boston, Kansas...the so-called "classic rock" bands now. But then I found an AM radio DJ named Bob Ross who had a 3 hour show every Sunday night where he played a lot of punk and power pop bands. Groups like UK Subs, The Stranglers, The Boys, Stiff LIttle Fingers, 999 and on and on. And of course, the Dead Kennedys. So my musical horizons expanded.

To make a long story short, I went from there to alternative music (like Counting Crows) to ska (Mustard Plug, Reel Big Fish, Slapstick, Goldfinger) to industrial (KMFDM, Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, Skrew) to power metal (Nightwish, Blind Guardian, Falconer) to my current genre of glam/sleaze.

To quote a band I can't stand, "What a long, strange trip it's been".

Growing up in the early 1980s I was crazy about the Monkees whose TV show ran reruns. My parents bought me Monkee records in thrift stores and used record shops, but also Dave Clark Five, Paul Revere and the Raiders and, to a lesser extent, The Beatles. Those were my introductions to music groups.

I was really intrigued by KISS, but my parents wouldn't let me have any of their albums. Finally, my mom relented and in 1984 (I think) I had my first KISS albums from a used book/record store (Gene's solo album and Dressed To Kill). They weren't as heavy as I thought they'd be, but I liked them. I remember watching Quiet Riot on Solid Gold and thinking they were really heavy. I was drawn to that type of music. My neighbor across the street gave me his vinyl copy of AC/DC Highway To Hell and I loved it.

Later, a friend introduced me to a lot of music through cassette dubs that I would end up copying, so I'm sure the quality was pretty bad, but I didn't care. He introduced me to Cirith Ungol (One Foot In Hell), Megadeth, Suicidal Tendencies, Kreator (Pleasure to Kill), and even N.W.A because his family was from Compton.

1987-ish, I saw "Wasted Years" on MTV and that started my obsession with Iron Maiden. Somewhere In Time was the first new cassette I bought. I watched MTV's Headbanger's Ball religiously. I read where Jethro Tull was a big influence on Iron Maiden, so I started collecting their back catalogue. There was a time in my high school years when all I listened to was Tull. Also during this time (or before) I started getting into early Genesis, as I had been a fan of Phil Collins and 1980s Genesis since I was a kid.

When the 1990s came around, I was in high school. I liked Nirvana and Pearl Jam all right, but I was really into Swervedriver and Catherine Wheel. I watched MTV's 120 Minutes for my music and liked Bettie Serveert, Veruca Salt, Belly, Matthew Sweet, etc. Also Sugar and Bob Mould. When I got to college, I started diving into Mould's solo albums and Husker Du.

Later in college and after college, I stopped paying attention to "new" music and focused on finding 1980s music that was new to me. That is when I became a Gary Numan fanatic and bought all the albums and singles I could find.

During my working life, I got into some of the emo music like Three Days Grace because I heard them on the radio and liked their sound. Seether and Disturbed, too. Now, with YouTube and Spotify, I'm back to exploring the 1980s, mainly metal. I have an mp3 player full of '80s music I never knew existed back in the 1980s. The Internet has opened up a whole world of music.

Music has been a huge part of my life from when I was pretty young.I remember our Music teacher from elementary school had a huge poster of Kiss' Destroyer album cover hanging on the wall in the music room. I remember thinking it was so cool.So I had to check out this stuff. Having an older sister who listened to stuff like AC/DC and Van Halen helped pave my way to rock music.I would listen to her tapes and whatever I could record off of the radio.

In Middle School I was a huge Crue fan. And a lot of the other metal bands of the time.By the time high school rolled around I started getting into Thrash a lot. I was always searching for good bands not necessarily mainstream stuff. I hung out with the metal heads in school so we were always looking for underground stuff. I started getting into more punk, crossover, and hardcore. As I've gotten older I've learned to appreciate a broad array of styles anywhere from bluegrass to jazz to blues. I just like good music and really respect most musicians.I guess playing music helped me appreciate the different forms. I started playing drums in middle school and was in a couple of bands with friends for a while.

I was raised in a Christian home similar to Toho and Uncle Sax but I don't feel like it held me back musically. Sure they weren't into the metal stuff but they understood my love for music. They had their big vinyl collection of Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings etc.I guess I took back after them.

I was Beatles fan as a kid.
Someone told me to watch Hard days Night - on TV - one afternoon.
My oldest brother was into Zep. - BOC - Alice Cooper.
My next older brother was into Sabbath - Nugent - Aerosmith -
middle sister liked AC DC
Neighbor was into KISS alive l - Ramones -
Then I heard Van Halen - blew the f'n doors off everything.

Mom and Dad had a big record collection when I was a kid so there was always music playin' around the house - Dad was into Elvis, 50s rock & roll/doo-wop, plus lots of schmaltzy 60s stuff like Dean Martin, Perry Como, the Ray Conniff Singers, etc. Mom was a Beatles/Jim Croce/John Denver fan. I was a young'in who didn't know any better so for a long time I listened to whatever they listened to, and liked what they liked.

During grade-school in the mid 70s I became dimly aware of KISS' existence due to some classmates bringing their elder siblings' records in for "music time." I found them terrifying but fascinating at the same time. Naturally Mom & Dad refused to buy any of their records for 7-year-old me, because KISS were "tasteless" and "gross." (They had similar reactions to Alice Cooper's appearance on "The Muppet Show.") This of course only made them more interesting.  

My entrance into Junior High (1981) coincided with the launch of MTV. I vividly remember sitting down to watch this new-fangled "radio with pictures" channel on my TV for the first time and seeing Judas Priest's "Heading Out to the Highway" and the Ramones' "Do You Remember Rock N Roll Radio?" videos. The seed of a lifelong obsession with obnoxious music was planted. My brother and I used to sit in front of the TV with our cheap sh*t K-Mart tape recorder in hand and when a song we liked came on, we'd put the recorder in front of the TV speaker and press "record."

AC/DC was big with my 6th grade classmates that year (Back in Black was still fairly new) so in a desperate attempt to seem "hip" I asked for an AC/DC tape that Christmas. My bro hooked me up with Let There Be Rock (apparently because it was a few bucks cheaper than Back In Black) and it went on to rule my life for quite some time afterwards. (in the years since, I have worn out two cassette copies and one vinyl LP of Let There Be Rock, and I want the CD buried with me when I die. )

Other tapes by MTV "rock" favorites like Asia (!), Van Halen, Loverboy, Judas Priest, and Def Leppard followed. I didn't really identify as a "metal" fan till I heard the "Metal Health will drive ya mad!" chorus in Quiet Riot's "Bang Your Head" in '83 and said "OK, so if this is 'metal,' then I guess I'm a metalhead."

Metallica came along for me in late '83/early '84 (just a hair too late for me to claim that I was "there" at the very beginning, but still early enough that they were a cool non-mainstream "secret" that only us really hep kids knew about) and needless to say, suddenly a lot of the stuff I'd been listening to up till that point (Crue, Quiet Riot, etc.) didn't cut it anymore. Through them I discovered the underground and it was all Raven, Anthrax, Mercyful Fate, Helloween, etc., etc. for the next decade or so. Metal became my drug and the "import" section of the record store was my gateway!

My first concert was Judas Priest/Dokken in 1986 and I got hooked on the live music bug. Seeing every band I possibly could became my life's work. My first mosh pit experience was at a Ramones gig in 1988. College was a whirlwind of concerts, record stores, beer and several failed attempts at becoming a real 'music journalist.'

In the 1990s I got back in touch with my KISS fandom in a big way, and also discovered bands like Iced Earth, HammerFall and the Euro power metal scene, which brought me back into the underground again. In the 2000s the Internet came along and exposed me to so many new bands/artists that it became impossible to keep up, my head damn near exploded!! After a while I pretty much stopped trying. I don't keep my ear to ground like I used to but I still make the occasional new "discovery."

Now it's almost 2016 and my CD collection is creeping up on 1000 discs (my goal is to finally reach that thousand mark by the end of next year). I never did land that elusive music-journalist dream gig, so like ten million other middle-aged fan boys, I write a blog that hardly anyone reads.

...and I still refuse to "go digital." You can have my CDs when you pry 'em from my cold dead fingers!!

I grew up in a pretty moderate Catholic family and my earliest musical loves were ABBA, Irish folk music and Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette and Johnny Cash (thanks mum! ) I also loved the Monkees TV show and a lot of hippy music.

Then my cousin got into metal, brought round the K-Tel Axe Attack comp and I was hooked. My first loves were AC/DC, Saxon, Rainbow, Priest, Motorhead and Girlschool. It actually took me another couple of years to get heavily into Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden and then Venom and Raven. Alongside metal there was always a love of electronic music influenced by my sister (Gary Numan, Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Human League) and my dad (Jean Michelle Jarre)

Then it was thrash, brought on by another couple of comps Hell on Earth & Hell Comes to Your House which was my introduction to Metallica & Anthrax and it was full steam on that path (with minor diversions into other 'extreme metal such as Celtic Frost & Bathory) until about '87 but I don't know what girls Sax knew but the thrash scene in the U.K was a total sausage fest! So I started hanging out with and dating a lot of art school girls who were mostly goths and punks so in came The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Stooges, Dead Kennedys, The Sisters of Mercy, The Chameleons, Marc & the Mambas, Syd era Floyd, Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Pixies and top of the pile the mighty Joy Division. I was also into harder punk stuff that I'd gotten into through the thrash crossover thing like G.B.H, Black Flag, Minor Threat, Flipper and Bad Brains.

I was mildly influenced by the rave scene that hit in '88. I don't think that it ever had the same impact in the U.S as it did in Europe but over here it was huge but I was still listening to a lot of guitar music and was getting into the shoegaze bands like Ride, Catherine Wheel, Swervedriver and Curve, and American stuff like Throwing Muses, The Breeders, Belly, Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana. I also liked  Carter USM, The Wonderstuff, Ned's Atomic Dustbin and others.

Then I went to Uni and really dived headlong into club culture and drugs, everything that had not quite made sense about dance music suddenly made perfect sense with copious amounts of MDMA, the whole vibe, the girls, it was all tailor made for me. I was also getting into Drum & Bass but that was a different vibe and different drugs, much darker and more menacing. This was the template for my musical taste and my whole lifestyle through the rest of my 20's (If you have ever seen the film Human Traffic, that's me) Predictably this ended in rehab 

Six months in rehab gives you nothing but time to reflect on your past and I started listening to music from my past and it struck me that I had forgotten how much I loved the stuff that I had loved as  a kid, particularly metal so I decided that I was going to build a music collection again as I'd realised how much it had been the soundtrack to my life. first with CD's and then vinyl, I was also digging on newer stuff like The Distillers, Rancid, NOFX, Marilyn Manson and System of a Down.

My most recent progression has been towards Prog, Post Rock, the more atmospheric,shoegaze, post punk and folk influenced  black metal, '70s electronic stuff, doom and some jazz and more contemporary EDM.

And one thing that I can say with pride is that I haven't outgrown any of it, I love it all!!

I've been into music for as long as I can remember. I have older siblings who were into the 70s music scene (my sister loved the Carpenters and their ilk, my brother was the classic rock fan) and when they listened to their respective music, I listened to it too.. I had a neighbor kid a couple of years older than me who used to hang out with my group. He was a huge KISS fan. Naturally I started to gravitate to that music. I loved it.

From there as I got older (into the 80s) and the metal scene took off ,I went with it. It was great. I saw KISS countless times with differing opening acts, making me a fan of them too. I got my first part time job, joined Columbia House and started expanding my collection. Albums and cassettes became cds and I haven't stopped collecting. My wife thinks I'm nuts, but it's really all I spend any fun money on.

Fun thread. Seems like a lot of us grew up in the same manner. I also grew up in a Christian home (and I am still a Christian). Mom & dad were like June & Ward. My dad wore a suit to work, my mom stayed at home. I have 4 older brothers, 2 of which were already grown by the time I came along. So I was exposed to music that my older brothers listened to. The one brother that I am the "best buds" with is 10 years older than me. I was born in 71, he in 61. My first exposure to what is known as "classic rock" was Bad Company. My brother bought it brand new on release day at KMart for 3.98 on vinyl (I don't remember this, he told me). I also remember when he bought Jimi Hendrix "Crash Landing" brand new.... I remember being creeped out by "Capt. Coconut". He also exposed me to Zeppelin, Sabbath and Deep Purple. But as a youngster I also had a love for The Monkees. As I said, mom and dad didn't care too much about what music we played as long as it wasn't too loud. My parents were Church Of God at the time and there were a few things that were not allowed -- I remember one time wanting to watch Dance Fever when I was about 8. Lou Ferrigno was a special guest and I just HAD to see The Hulk boogie.



My dad hit the roof when I had this show on.... Now that I go back and watch the intro, I am not sure if he was mad because of religious beliefs or because it was disco... And also after that intro I think even *I* would beat my own A$$ for wanting to watch such a show.

Around 1980 we moved from Michigan to Tennessee. My "buddy brother" stayed in Michigan and 3 of my 4 older brothers were gone. The one closest to me in age moved with us to Tennessee but we didn't have the same connection. Since I was a somewhat shy kid I stayed put in my room with records. I remember John Lennon getting killed Dec 9, 1980. I asked my parents about it and they told me he was in The Beatles. I remembered I had some Beatles 45's so I listened to those. I also remember around this time buying the 45 for "Just Like Starting Over".

I really got into a particular band sometime in 81 or late 80 - Styx. I discovered The Grand Illusion in our albums. I played side 1 over and over and over. But never played side 2. I eventually played side 2 and Styx became my favorite band and to this day over 30 years later they are still hands down my favorite band. I went and bought all of their albums up to the point and continued to buy releases from them when they came out, even all of the solo records. I remember buying the Queen Flash Gordon soundtrack and The Game.

By the mid 80's Styx went on hiatus and music was changing. I discovered Iron Maiden. I was a bit worried what my parents would think of Eddie but nothing was ever said. I liked most of the 80's metal bands, leaning towards hair metal or melodic metal. My first concert was Judas Priest with Great White as opener on the Defenders Of The Faith tour. I think I was 12 or 13 at the time.

I was into Motley, GNR, Great White, Poison, Def Leppard, Kiss WITHOUT makeup, ALL of that stuff that might have been considered mainstream. My musical ventures never explored punk or college alternative. I went to the University Of Tennessee in the early 90's and worked at the college radio station there for a semester. I didn't get into grunge at all, although I did enjoy Pearl Jam "10" and Red Hot Chili Peppers "B, S, S, M" and The Smithereens (which reminds me i need to get on iTunes and download some of their stuff). Other than that I never got into alternative or grunge. I still listened to my 80's metal and classic rock bands including Styx and REO.

Musically I have not changed at all. In fact, my personality is pretty much the same as it always has been. They say people change and sometimes are so much different than they used to be. I saw some friends when I went back to Tennessee that i had not seen in over 15 years. They all commented that I was EXACTLY the same as I was in 1989, even my haircut was the same. Even one time last year a grade school friend who now lives in Jacksonville called me and said "Hey, what are you doing?". And I said "Oh, just listening to Moving Pictures". He replied "You know, I could have called you 25 years ago and got the SAME ANSWER".

So here I sit almost 45 years old and listen to the same stuff I grew up with. I do not listen to new music and don't care to. Unless it is a new album from a classic band like Saxon or Maiden. I don't like grunge, nu metal or anything remotely modern. The Bad Company debut and Hendrix Crash Landing are still some of my favorite records. Some new bands I will give a listen if they sound like a classic band (Wolfmother).

Really the only thing different about me now is that I am no longer a Republican Christian, I am now a registered Democrat (and Christian). And mom and dad are doing good and I still talk to my brother about music ALL the time, in fact that is all we talk about. My oldest brother passed away in 2004 and the other two are bad about keeping in touch. Mom and dad are still kicking, old, but they are still Ward & June Cleaver.

My Music Journey was actually influenced by my parents big time, they were always into Hard Rock and Metal while being side-attracted to other stuff, they had things like Earth, Wind and Fire, Stevie Wonder and other stuff in their collection but they mostly played rock, loud. Whenever i hear stories about people complaining that as they were children, they had their parents shouting about them playing music too loud, i had the opposite, my parents were rocking out to Deep Purple's Made in Japan when I wanted some quiet moments and didn't even listen when i told them to turn it down
Even to this day they are the same, i gifted my father the Fleetwood Mac - The Dance DVD for his birthday and he immediately played it, brought out a bottle of Whiskey and for the next two hours it was loud music and fun. They still know how to rock loud and heavy.
They also showed me how to operate a vinyl player and i got their old reel to reel tape recorder with tons of tapes my father recorded in the mid 70's to the early 80's from AFN Radio with some great music. I was probably the only child in the 90's who knew how to operate not only a late 70's vinly player (that Marantz player is still in use nowadays by me) but also some old Uher Royal De Luxe Tape Player

I cannot even say how grateful i am that my parents are that way, even back when i was a child i knew my parents were different to everybody elses parents.
And that leads me to the earliest moment i had with serious music, i can't really remember how old i was, 6 or 7 or something like that but i remember when my father wanted to show me some "real" music, it was One of these Days from Pink Floyd on Vinyl and he blasted it loud and proud against me and it blew me away, it was a mixture of shock, awe, amazement and everything else but it made me a lifelong Pink Floyd fan and started a lifelong love with guitar driven music.
So basically when i was in grade school i was the only child who listened to Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Toto, Dire Straits, Guns n' Roses, Iron Maiden, Jethro Tull...instead of Vanilla Ice, DJ Bobo and all the Eurodance stuff. I think i was the only child in the early 90's that knew how to use a vinyl player.
Later on thanks to some influence in school and form the few friends i had i dabled into popular music which led me to buy some crappy albums like the Rednex, die Fantastischen Vier (rap music in german) and DJ Bobo and later on i even bought the first Spice Girls album and some Backstreet Boys album because...i guess i wanted to somewhat fit in with friends but i always returned back to Rock and Metal with some Blues, Reggae and other things mixed it. Blues was big, i heard Rory Gallagher who was basically unknown in the 90's but he was next to Steve Lukather, Ritchie Blackmore and David Gilmour one of my big influences to even pick up a guitar and learn how to play.
I somehow made it through the 90's and the crappy 2000's with the Nu "metal" era where i showed everybody that Papa Roach just stole all riffs from Iron Maiden and how much they suck to my education as a game developing programmer, even during that time i was an outsider. I was wearing an "Farewell to Kings 1977 Tour"-T-Shirt with a big RUSH above the skull and the first question i received was "Is that something from DJ Rush?"...I didn't even knew who that was.

Though nowadays i can look back to the music i went through as child and teen and listen to it with a laugh. The shitty 90's Eurodance phase that was so popular here in germany is actually funny and i laughed hard when i heard What is love from Haddaway being played in Saints Row 4 during the Spaceship escape with the player character shouting out "This is my Groove!". I feel the same with 80's Pop and even Disco music and it works in certain moments. When i cruise with my Lowrider around in GTA Online and Stayin Alive from the Bee Gees is playing, that's something i can smile and enjoy nowadays.

My parents are Colombian and Puerto Rican so rock music was not a big thing in my house. My sister listened to top 40 stuff, and her collection had maybe one or two rock singles in the collection like the Stones or Queen that had managed to cross over to top 40 but that was about it.

My brother listened to Ted Nugent, Aerosmith among others, but I did not pay attention since he was always a major pain in the ass, and figured he was not listening to anything worth while.

The first artist I remember sort of liking was Elvis Presley. The day he died, my mom made a comment that he was a good man and immediately they showed a film of his. I was more intrigued by his persona then his music.

When I was 11, my mom would make me go to church, which I resented. One day a they had one of those anti rock rallies by some cat named Rev Billy Mayo. He would play records backwards and all sorts of nonsense, but right before the benediction he played AC/DC's Highway to Hell and that changed everything.

While he was blasting it for whatever reason, the music stirred something inside of me, I immediately went up to the guy and took one of his pamphlets which turned into a handy buying guide.

Thanks to AC/DC and Mayo, I discovered Black Sabbath, which in turn lead me to Ozzy, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin etc.

Artists like Alice Cooper, spoke to me, more then any preacher did and it changed my life.

When I was 13, MTV promoted the hell out of The Doors then new live album 'Alive, She Cried' and I discovered a band that opened my mind to jazz, blues, beat literature, poetry, and it was so much more to me then just music.

As I got older, thanks to MTV, various girlfriends, friends, acquaintances I discovered a huge body of music outside my classic rock, metal. I would say music has enriched me life and perhaps has saved my life if I maybe a bit melodramatic.

ShadowAngel wrote:

 which led me to buy some crappy albums like die Fantastischen Vier (rap music in german)

You take that back!!!



Nothing reminds me of the good old days of MTV Europe than die fantastischen vier!  (Well maybe Bomfunk MC's and the gorgeous Marijne van der Vlugt)

Again, like many here, was raised (and still am) a Christian.

Growing up, what I heard was what my mom, dad and sister listened to, which was mostly Contemporary Christian Music (DC Talk, Carman, Bryan Duncan, Clay Crosse, Crystal Lewis were my mom's favorites at the time). My sister also listened to a lot of R&B and dance-pop music like Mariah Carey, NKOTB, Bell Biv DeVoe, and so forth. My dad said he grew up a Stevie Wonder/Motown fan, but for the most part he was listening to what my mom was listening to as well.

For me, I really only heard music through Disney/Bluth soundtracks, and video game music.
My first CD was the Super Mario 64 OST that I got at a Walmart store for free. I think they had it lying around as part of their subscription gift to the now defunct Nintendo Power (for which I was a subscriber in my youth) and didn't know what to do with them, so I asked how much it was and they said it would be given free. This, in a sense, in my induction into Japanese music, which would play a big influence on my life in years to come.

My mom was hesitant as a teenager to let me listen to secular music, so she monitored a lot of what I took in. But the first music CD I actually bought and owned of 'real music' was Relient K's self-titled debut after seeing their videos on TV at the time. That one was a big one, and I remember ordering and hearing a lot of less memorable CCM albums at the time. But what changed my life was hearing Dreams Come True's "Sweet Sweet Sweet" on the internet. It was a website talking about the history behind the Sonic games, and I had learned that this song was used as an instrumental at the end of Sonic 2, since the composer for DCT had worked on it. Now back then, Napster was still active and relevant and Japanese CDs were still hard and expensive to obtain. EBay's market for it didn't have a really huge user base as it is today. I had most of my exposure to foreign music through Napster, and being on dial-up you'd be lucky to even complete the download for one song. As things settled and eBay's market was in full swing, I acquired a lot of the ones I wanted to hear. Even throughout the years I had been sampling whole albums from every genre and region through SoulSeek, which I left because of the fickleness of the user community among other things, but it helped me hear a lot of obscure and well known classic music. However, it wasn't long after I heard DCT that a Japanese guy I talked to informed me about J-Rock/Metal, and this led to me sampling X Japan. I eventually bought their Blue Blood album from CDJapan. This of course, was after I had listened to it on a bootleg CD-R ad nauseum, so when I bought it I listened to it consecutively all over again. That was actually my first import before I began building my collection. It's been a long journey but I've had long-winded phases ranging from stuff like Italo-Disco, New Jack Swing, Eurobeat, Visual Kei, Minimalist, AC/Soft Rock, Experimental, and numerous other niche genres. I've really absorbed a lot of it and continue to expand my collection all the time.

Grew up in a pretty lax Catholic family. Did the standard schooling and occasional Sunday service, but noone was uber-religious.

My dad had a pretty decent record collection, starting with the doo-wop of the 50's thru the rock & psychedelics of the 60's. And being half-Italian, there was the mandatory listening of Sinatra, Martin, Prima, etc.

Mom didn't have much in the way of records, but I heard plenty of early Elvis, Beatles, and standard pop music of the era. My grandparents also gave me a full dose of Johnny Cash and other old-school country legends.

In the 70's, my parents tastes shifted to the sounds of the day and I heard my share of ABBA, Manilow, Humperdink, disco, etc.

The first band I really got into on my own was Huey Lewis & the News in the early 80's, thanks to massive radio airplay and a little thing called MTV. I started getting familiar with other bands in that era, but nothing that made much of an impact. I didn't have older siblings, so most of my music discovery was made on my own. The only time I really remember my parents (mom mostly) objecting to the music I listened to was George Thorogood. "All he sings about is drinking and being drunk".

High school brought a big shift in music direction for me. 1985 and I was in the thick of hair/glam metal bombarding me at every turn. Thanks to friends I made at the lunch table I learned more about the "old guard" of Aerosmith, Ozzy, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, and the newer kids on the scene like the Crue, Cinderella, Quiet Riot, etc.

1987 was a banner year for me though with the discovery of a little album called Appetite for Destruction. That one just really blew the doors off everything for me. This was a band for ME. It wasn't my parents music, or something an older sibling or friend told me about. I didn't have to backtrack their older material. It was new, angry and MINE. From that point on, I wanted harder and heavier music. That turned me onto more metal, traditional and thrash. Metallica and Megadeth were on constant rotation, along with the current crop of sleazy, glammy stuff. I could just as easily switch from Faster P*ssycat to Anthrax on my Sony Walkman.

College (or more appropriately Art School) expanded my musical horizons with the introduction of punk and deeper, more underground metal. There was a clear line drawn in the sand between the metal-heads and the "artsy" alternative crowd. To this day, I still can't stand REM just because it reminds me of those snooty douchebags. Grunge too. I held a loooooong grudge against the grunge and alternative movement that killed-off my precious metal.

While my tastes have gradually expanded to accept most grunge, I never cared for nu-metal, alternative or much of the current crop of modern rock. I like jazz and blues, and even found respect for Sinatra and Dean Martin that I hated so much as a kid.

My main love will still be rock and metal. I'm starting to wind down on the thrashier stuff, but traditional heavy metal will always be in my playlist. Basically, if it's guitar-based rock n' roll, I'll give it a shot. There is enough variety in the rock genre to keep me interested. Like a wise man here once said, it's either good or it sucks. That's a good enough measuring stick for me.

I also grew up in a strict christian home with christian music I didn't like. The only thing 'secular' that I was allowed to listen to was 1960s surf rock that I could tap into on the fancy internet radio stream from my parents newly purchased PC (circa 1998). I listened to a lot of dick dale, link wray, 2nd/3rd way surf bands that I can't even remember the names of anymore for much of elementary school. I figure surf has a large influence on me getting into punk and metal stylistically. The first tape I ever went out and was able to buy and keep secret was Nirvanas in utero this lead me to Frizzle fry by primus which was the next step in terms of heavy music and also absolutely necessary to keep low profile. At some point down the road I stopped giving a f*ck what my parents or people from church thought and was listening to tons of speed and thrash metal. Blind guardians first two records started that whole thing. I saw an article in revolver (of all places) about the reissue of those two albums. Instantly I became interested in the Christian bands of the genre like VR and Seventh Angel. Everything else came next, Sepultura, Voivod, English dogs, Dead Horse, Attitude Adjustment, etc. Somewhere down the road after getting really huge into thrash, death, and crossover I started hanging out with this school janitor that worked at my high school. Him and his wife used to promote diy punk shows in the desert outside las vegas in the early 90s during the nuclear testing protests. Any how, Eddie the janitor, gave me copies of my first two punk albums Fresh fruit for rotten vegetables and a best of comp of Millions of dead cops. Punk was nothing new to me considering I had already been listening to crossover bands for atleast a year or so, but discovering that me and my friends could just go and start a band and promote our own bands and shows and scene and not have to drive and hour or 3 away to participate in ANOTHER scene impacted me hugely. I began to take more interest in my local scene and got into classic bands like Dead moon, Melvins, and the wipers. Another side effect was pretty much losing any kind of attachment to labels and opened myself up to everything from Laurel aitkin to public enemy.

After highschool I started traveling, squatting and becoming introduced to the crust and folk punk scenes centered around bands like leftover crack. Now I listen to anything and everything but have taken an interest in metal and rock albums from the 1970s

Fat Freddy wrote:

 My brother and I used to sit in front of the TV with our cheap sh*t K-Mart tape recorder in hand and when a song we liked came on, we'd put the recorder in front of the TV speaker and press "record.

I did the same thing. Sometimes you could hear an occasional vacuum cleaner in the background or me going SSHHHHHHH!!! Most of the time I was taping off the radio with a hand held tape recorder, sometimes TV. I was finally able to make better sounding tapes once I got a "ghetto blaster" when I was 12.

manny wrote:

When I was 13, MTV promoted the hell out of The Doors then new live album 'Alive, She Cried' and I discovered a band that opened my mind to jazz, blues, beat literature, poetry, and it was so much more to me then just music.

I remember that! I eventually bought it on cassette when it showed up in the Columbia House catalog.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

The first band I really got into on my own was Huey Lewis & the News in the early 80's, thanks to massive radio airplay and a little thing called MTV.

I loved Huey for a while too. Rediscovered him a few years ago when he was coming to town. I thought "what the heck let's go!" and it was a FANTASTIC show. They played all of Sports! and endless hits. Still spin Greatest Hits on a regular basis.

This thread is an interesting read.  It provides some context to people's musical tastes and opinions.

Boris2008 wrote:

You take that back!!!

Hahaha, damn somebody knew them
I actually like their 4. Dimension album, it's quite psychedelic and experimental ("Tag am Meer" is a good song) and i kinda like some other songs of them like "Sie ist Weg" and "Der Picknicker", they have a nice beat and they are certainly better and more sophisticated than most of what the rap genre has to offer but the more mainstream songs at the time were stupid, they had a song called Arschloch (Asshole) that is basically 10 minutes of insults and nothing else. That's not music to me.

Today, being with my parents on christmas i was reminded of more music from back in my youth. Bat out of Hell from Meat Loaf and i love it, the title song is one the greatest over the top rock songs of all time and Paradise by the Dashboard Light is a song that became better when i became older and actually knew what it was about. As a kid i was like "what's that radio chatter? why is there a weird break in the song?!"

Bat out of Hell was a huge influence on me and still one of my favorite rock songs of all time 

I still dig Bat too (except for Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad).

I actually rode my bike to the local department store to buy that album on vinyl when it came out.  On the way back it started to rain so I tucked the album in its bag up under my shirt because I didn't want the cool album cover to get damaged.

EDIT: I was curious to find out how many copies of Bat have been sold. According to Wikipedia the album was certified as platinum 14 times over in 2011. The US and UK level for platinum certification is 1,000,000 so that's at least 14 million copies sold.

When I was growing up (also in a Christian home), music was everywhere. Parents were always playing something ranging from Keith Green, and Simon & Garfunkel to Deep Purple and Jerusalem(Sweden). I started carving my own way through music when I was about 12. I loved GNR, Def Leppard, Quiet Riot, etc. Though i was exposed to both Christian music and hard rock/heavy metal; I didn't really know there was such a thing as Christian metal. Then one day they came home from the local book store with a cassette for me to check out......that tape was Bloodgood - Rock in a hard place. Been hooked ever since (picked up Detonation like a week later). The next big moment for me was when I was 13 and saw Metallica 's One on MTV. I was blown away and searched out more Thrashy stuff, soaking up almost everything that was available to me through friends and ordering music through Mags. Thrash led to early death metal, led to Industrial, led to Doom......
My younger brother introduced me to punk rock and some hiphop, also dabbling in some alternative. Punk led to some Hardcore, led to Metalcore, led back to classic Thrash, led to Power and classic Metal......
Now I'm older and pretty much love anything metal from "Hair bands" to cookie monster style vocals. If it kicks my ass, I'm in.

I didn't really care about music 'til about 1984, when I got my first cassette. It was the Hall and Oats (Big Bam Boom) album. After that, I got Oingo Boingo's Dead Man's Party album (because I was a big fan of the movie Weird Science). Then sometime in 1988 my cousin introduced me to the band KISS. I really liked the song Tears Are Falling. A family friend got me their Smashes, Thrashes and Hits cassette. Then it was Winger, Bullet Boys and Skid Row. When I entered High School, it was all about Thrash! I've Been into metal ever since... but I also like 80s pop and New Wave. I also really liked Christian metal from the early 90s. I was huge into The Crucified, Tourniquet, Mortification and Seventh Angel back in the day.

PS, I came from a regular "moderate" Christian family (not strict). Although I'm sure my Mom and devout Aunt questioned some of my music at times.

When I was growing up, I heard a song. I liked it, so I started listening to more songs. Some I liked, others I didn't. That pattern continues to this day. What a journey it's been.

mikeinfla wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

 My brother and I used to sit in front of the TV with our cheap sh*t K-Mart tape recorder in hand and when a song we liked came on, we'd put the recorder in front of the TV speaker and press "record.

I did the same thing. Sometimes you could hear an occasional vacuum cleaner in the background or me going SSHHHHHHH!!! Most of the time I was taping off the radio with a hand held tape recorder, sometimes TV. I was finally able to make better sounding tapes once I got a "ghetto blaster" when I was 12.

Yep, I can remember there were several times where we'd be "recording" a song off the TV and Mom would come in and start asking us to do stuff...of course we'd go "Shhh! We're taping!" and her response would be "DON'T YOU DARE SHUSH ME!"... of course we'd just hit the "stop" button then and hope the song/video would get played again later, cuz she'd "ruined" it.

mc666 wrote:

When I was growing up, I heard a song. I liked it, so I started listening to more songs. Some I liked, others I didn't. That pattern continues to this day. What a journey it's been.