When did you become musically aware?

When I was in the 4th and 5th grade in grade school. By the time I was in 5th grade I was into bands like Ted Nugent, Thin Lizzy, Aerosmith, Peter Frampton, Boston and KISS. Kiss and Aerosmith were very popular bands at the time. I remember getting into an argument with kids how Aerosmith were way better than The Jackson 5 and the Bay City Rollers.

I had a friend in grade school whose older brother was into all this cool stuff. He got me into bands like Be Bop Deluxe, UFO, Judas Priest, Nektar, Yes, etc. I was a late bloomer but also started getting into Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix by this time.

By the early 80's I was getting into bands like Saxon, Motorhead, Iron Maiden, Twisted Sister (a local band from my area), Black Sabbath, etc.

I've been a hard rock/metal fanatic ever since that time.

Hard to say. I've been into music for as far back as I can remember. Didn't get into metal until the mid 80s.

My mom would play a lot of her records when I was very young. But my neighbors were older and they turned me onto Kiss, Ted Nugent, AC/DC, Van Halen, Aerosmith, Queen and Black Sabbath. It went all downhill from there.

Ya my dad listened to a lot of Priest, Def Lep, and all that good stuff, and my mom's old boyfriend was heavily in Metallica and some them in like 89. So ive been around it all my life so id say when I was about 10 I actually became aware of what music was.

The earliest memory I have is being about 3 or 4 and hearing Mott The Hoople for the first time, it stuck with me and I ran with it. Started collecting everything when I was about 12.

It was probably when I was in the 4th grade, up until then it mostly stuff I heard on TV and my parent's radio. Lots of Bob Dylan and Steppenwolf mixed with the old country guys. I got a Peter Frampton album and some Eagles and realized there was something more to music than what I had known before. Shortly after that I found KISS Dressed to Kill and Alive, I never looked back. I would walk up and down the street picking up bottles to return, I would pick vegatables in the fields and help clean yards to earn $$ for music. When I was 15 I got a real job and would take my whole paycheck to the record stores. It would piss my mom off like crazy when I would tell her I had no $$ after payday, I would sneak my albums in the house so she wouldn't know how much I was buying. Those were the days some folks are addicted to drugs and alcohol, I had music. From some of the posts I've read I get the feeling that I am not the only one with this affliction.

Leatherface wrote:

Hard to say. I've been into music for as far back as I can remember.

Thats me in as well. I picked up different music through my parents when we took our long car trips to see relatives. I was really into Billy Joel, Kenny Rogers, and John Denver. I also picked up (from the drives) Ronnie Milsap, Johnny Horton, The Highwaymen, and other older country songs. I also had a tape called Fun Rock that had all sorts of oldies on it. And when my mom drove us around she would tune into soft rock and AOR stations where I picked up songs from Heart, Night Ranger, Brian Adams, Roxette, Nelson, Toto, Rod Stewart, Phil Collins, later Genesis, A-Ha, Belinda Carlisle, Cindy Lauper, and many more (which is why today I still enjoy almost anything from the 80s). When I got closer to being 12 I would pick up songs from Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Van Halen, etc. from when my sister would watch MTV. Then later when I was a pre-teen (or tween as they call them these days) I saw the video for Enter Sandman which began my descent into the greatest music ever-METAL!!!!!!

Radio 1 played enter sandman on day andit blew me away compared to what i listened to at the time so i went and got st.anger

Always. Natural born instinct.

As a little kid, I remember my dad coming home with 3 big boxes of his old 45's and albums that he brought home after a basement flood at his parent's (my grandparents) house. Luckily they were up on shelves and didn't get damaged at all, they just wanted them out of their basement. He pretty much let me have them to play. I would make mix tapes for my parents to play in the car using the stereo in our basement. Mostly it was late 50's & 60's rock n roll stuff. Lotsa doo-wop, Motown, Beach Boys, etc. along with some "heavier" stuff, like Cream, Hendrix & the Stones. Eventually, I started listening to my own rock n roll of the time (70's & 80's). I didn't get into metal till I reached high school.

Well I always listened to Country music as a kid (namely Garth Brooks). Well I was at a church camp and I heard P.O.D. for the first time. I didn't know that anyone made Christian heavy music. So I got their cd at the time (Southtown). A friend gave me a copy of HM magazine with Extol on the cover talking about Undecieved.

I ended up liking a bunch of Christian metal bands (and gave up on P.O.D. since they're not metal enough). And I then found Megadeth, Metallica (WAY more Megadeth than Metallica), Metal Church, and so on. Now I love metal of all kinds. I now actually hate most all alternative music. Anything on the radio I won't listen to except for classic rock...which they should play more than just the "super hits" too you know?

It was almost 10 years ago now. I haven't looked back...well I just did while typing this up. Although I find more and MORE metal all the time. It really bothers me when I see the terrible shape that music is in now. "Metal" has been beaten to death and put on music that has nothing to do with metal AT ALL (this idiot in a class of mine a while back said Godsmack was metal *shudders*).

I'm rambling. Sorry. My grandma asked when I'd get away from that "heavy metal stuff" a few weeks ago when I saw her. I said, "Hopefully never!" My grandma loves me even still. Haha.

I can't remember when music wasn't a part of my life. I've often felt like music has been a soundtrack for my life. Whether those moments were really significant, or insignificant (though I don't really believe any moment we are alive is insignificant), I can on many occassions state how that song reminds me of that certain moment.

I can't imagine this world without music. I truly believe it's the one thing that I couldn't live without. The other thing I feel so fortunate about is that I have so many diverse musical tastes, that spand not only genres, but also decades.

My first memories are sitting down with my father at his turntable, and him going through his 45's and 33's. We would listen to the likes of "The Spinners", "Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose", & "The Stylistics" on his 33's, and then move to his 45's, which consisted of a ton of Doo-Wop from the 50's and 60's.

My first metal experience was through a metal/rock band that put on a convocation at our school sometime in 1983, when I was in 6th grade. They put a concert on after school, and played the likes of Priest, Maiden, and Def Leppard. That concert changed my life, and opened my 12 year old ears to another wonderful genre of music.