How your music tastes developed.

[METALMAN]

Another whimsical music list topic. God knows we don't have enough. Simply put down what you liked to listen to for each year of your life. It's quite interesting to see how your tastes developed over time and that sort of thing.

1990(I was born then) - nothing much

1991 - nursery rhymes probably

1992-1997 - nothing of interest

1998 - Got a CD player. Had no CDs though so my dad gave me The Best of Sting and Paul McCartney live from his collection, presumably because he didn't want them. I loved them both. I also liked a lot of my parent's other music such as Steely Dan, Prince, The Clash and Deacon Blue.

1999 - pop/chart music. I liked Eiffel 65(>_>), Blur, Jamiroquai, S Club 7. Favourite album: Now 44

2000 - I first heard blink-182. I also liked Robbie Williams in 2000 thanks to the awesome "Rock DJ". I really liked "Beautiful Day" by U2. Favourite Album: Now 47

2001 - This was a year that totally shook up my tastes. I got into Sum 41, more Blink-182, Slipknot...basically the Kerrang! bands of that time. Favourite Album: Take Off Your Pants And Jacket - blink-182

2002 - I was still listening to music from 2001. I also really started liking James Taylor, which isn't entirely in keeping with the other things but my dad listened to "October Road" in the car all the time and I loved it. Favourite Album: October Road - James Taylor

2003 - Got into Queen, The Beatles and David Bowie. Also lots of hard rock that I don't really like so much anymore such asGuns n' Roses, Foo Fighters, Led Zeppelin. blink-182 released their latest album but by this time they were regarded as "uncool" at my school so I listened to it in secrecy. >_> Also heard the Libertines for the first time - "Don't Look Back Into The Sun". I liked it but wasn't blown away. Favourite album: Revolver(1966) - The Beatles

2004 - Upon hearing their second album I well and truly became obsessed with the Libertines. I got into a lot of similar indie acts such as Razorlight, Franz Ferdinand and The Futureheads. Favourite Album - The Libertines - The Libertines

2005 - More of the same - Babyshambles, The Killers, Bloc Party, Kaiser Chiefs. Also got into some local bands like Biffy Clyro(to name the most famous. Favourite Album: Down In Albion - Babyshambles

2006 - Most significant year since 2001. I got into a lot of music other than rock music. I was introduced to acoustic type music such as Elliott Smith, Damien Rice et al which I really liked. Discovered the Smiths through their influence of the Libertines. I also got into the Cure. A friend introduced me to Belle & Sebastian, Ryan Adams and Death Cab For Cutie who are probably my three favourite artists to this day. Favourite album: Gold(2001) - Ryan Adams.

2007 - Continued the whimsical indie seam that begun with Belle & Sebastian. Followed it through Camera Obscura, Los Campesinos! and Yo La Tengo. Got into electronic/dance music a bit more, which I pursued due to my love of Klaxons, who aren't really either. I was led to The Rapture, LCD Soundsystem, Postal Service among others. Favourite Album: Cassadaga - Bright Eyes

2008 - Really got into folk music such as Neil Young and Bob Dylan this year. I'd always liked them but it was this year I became obsessed with them. Favourite album: A Larum - Johnny Flynn

2009 - Jazz. Lots and lots of Jazz. Really only been into Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Weather Report before but it was this year I discovered so much more. Favourite Album(so far): Deja Vu - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (1970?)

[Farmer Reil]

I have to ask, why call yourself metalman when you aren't, and have never been, remotely interested in metal?

Mine would go pretty much like this:

1986-1992: Not a great deal.

1992-1996: 60's and 70's rock and pop that mum listened to in the car (The Beach Boys, Robert Parker, The Animals, The Eagles, etc. Although most of these names I only learned after the event)

1996-1998: Queen, mostly. Again thanks to mum. Also my first introduction, though I didn't really know it at the time, to Dire Straits.

1998-2000: Embarassingly, the Spice Girls. Also Robbie Williams (fuck off, Angels was immense) and... oh dear God... Westlife. Luckily, just enough Dire Straits prevented me from becoming a raging homosexual.

2000-2004: Started listening to a buying my own music. This, also embarrassingly, included the first four Nickelback albums, as well as two Creed albums. Luckily I saved myself when I - almost by accident - bought Appetite For Destruction and then a Nirvana Best Of.

2005-2007: Went to Uni and got some sense knocked into me. My roomie introduced me to power metal, and I got into Hammerfall, Blind Guardian, Dragonforce and Rhapsody. I figure I'd always have liked this stuff if I knew it existed previously.

2008: Started digging into older stuff like Dio, Yes, Accept, Europe, Malmsteen, etc. Also Eric Clapton and Bruce Springsteen. Folk night at my new local pub introduces me to folk, and I discover I like some of it. Then I discover that the Finns do that kind of shit too, and the rest is history.

2009: More folk metal~!

[K]

I have to ask, why call yourself metalman when you aren't, and have never been, remotely interested in metal?

I have a similar question for PunkRockPete.

[METALMAN]

I have to ask, why call yourself metalman when you aren't, and have never been, remotely interested in metal?

Aside from a some Metallica the only metal albums I have are Korpiklaani and In Flames. Pretty odd bunch considering they are my only two. The name metalman came from a stupid t-shirt a friend had. I was a bit stuck for a username. I do regret it now. >_>

[K]

I should probably mention that at no point did I ever stop listening to any of this music, I've always acquired new stuff rather than discarding it and moving onto something new.

The first band I ever loved was The Misfits, thanks to an odd South African kid at my school. I then followed the Misfits band members out into the various spin off bands; Danzig, X-Ward, etc. That was my horror punk phase. All black, weird jewellery, big boots, etc. That kind of gatewayed into Metal, with Metallica and Iron Maiden and that, which my friends were all into, then that sort of branched into Rock... I kind of stayed there for a while, but eventually it led me to the Beastie Boys rockier songs (Sabotage, Fight for your Right, etc), which led to the Beastie Boys hip-hop songs. The hip-hop stuff stayed a dirty little secret for a while.

Eventually a co-worker introduced me to Jurassic 5 and I started to love Hip-Hop and got into that, it was a slow process but I'm well in now. Eventually I let some guards down and got into Rap as well (if you're the kind of person that makes that distinction, ignore if you're not).

It was probably at this point that I got into rap metal, Stuck Mojo mainly.

Later on another co-worker learning I liked what was/is refereed to as "intelligent hip-hop" (horrible label) and introduced me to Scroobius Pip (before he teamed with DLS) and I got into a little bit of spoken word/poetry as well.

At various points along the way I dabbled in "Indie" (mostly so I could pick up girls and take them to indie gigs) I have a weird thing about Indie, I love some acts but really don't understand how others are famous.

Nowadays I pretty much like most music, but I'm having trouble listening to Metal at the moment, this happens occasionally... I normally blast some Megadeth to get me back into it.

Edit: Oh, at one point I was into soul for a while as well, not sure how that happened.

So yeah, it's well hard when someone asks what music you like... you can't say "everything" because that's what people that actually don't like music say, but similarly you can't say "Rock, Metal, Punk, Hip-Hop, Spoken Word, Rap, Soul, Indie..."

Hmmm.

The end.

Edit: Shit... Turntablism.

Forgot about that one. That was probably Mix Master Mike and Cut Chemist that got me into that. Cut Chemist obviously leads to DJ Shadow and then I found DJ Premier and the Scratch Perverts and so forth.

Edit: Shit... and a Scratch Perverts gig got me into dance music, which led to Drum and Bass, although that's not something I really listen to at home... although I have a few brilliant mixes.

Edit:

Nowadays I think my favourite types of music are ones that are hard to pin into a genre. I'm liking DLS+Pip because they fuse Poetry, Hip-Hop and Dance into one. I'm liking death rap because it's Heavy Metal imagery in a hip-hop package. I love Rap Metal because they both evolved for the same reasons, but out of different community's, and mashing them together is beautiful.

Edit: Also I got into Grime at some point.

Sorry, I just like too much music, it's hard to remember it all.

[METALMAN]

What's the distinction between hip-hop and rap?

All the music I have of that type is just labelled as hip-hop because I'm ignorant.

Edited March 4, 2009 by metalman

[probablyoliver]

1997-00 Heard the likes of Portishead, Massive Attack, Morcheeba, Skunk Anansie and Radiohead coming from my sisters room. Fell madly in love (with the music, not my sister). Was also given a copy of Dr. Dre's "2001" by my neighbour which I fell in love but subsequently forgot about for nine years. Favourite Album: Kid A - Radiohead.

2001-02 Got into the likes of Rage Against The Machine, The Clash, The Jam and Nirvana. Favourite Album: Battle of LA - RATM

2002-03 The days of p-Rock TV. Fell in love with Less Than Jake, Alkaline Trio, Jimmy Eat World, Whitmore, King Prawn, Home Grown, Sugarcult, Jesse James, Tsunami Bomb, Sick Of It All and Rancid. These were probably the best days of my musical life. I had a skateboard and everything. Favourite Album: Hello Rockview - Less Than Jake

2003-04 Had my first taste of the Libertines. It was glorious. Also found my footing with the likes of Bright Eyes, Reuben, yourcodenameis:milo, Million Dead, Pixies and Mars Volts getting some serious attention from my CD player. Favourite Album: Surfer Rosa/Come On Pilgrim - Pixies

2005-06 More and more cool stuff with Architecture In Helsinki, Magnetic Fields, Willy Mason, Patrick Wolf, Maximo Park, Deftones, DnTel and Say Anything getting some airtime on speakers. Favourite Album:

2007-08 Went post-hardcore with Fugazi, Bear vs. Shark, Aereogramme, Blood Brothers, At The Drive-In and various others. Also went folk with John Frusciante, Elliott Smith, Iron & Wine, Obadiah Parker and Final Fantasy. Favourite Album: Terrorhawk - Bear vs. Shark

2009 Rap and hip hop. Although all of these were finds littered throughout the previous years, I've recently fallen back in love with all of them. Dr. Dre, Handsome Boy Modeling School, De La Soul, Cypress Hill, Saul Williams, Q-Tip, Atmosphere, N.W.A. and many others. Favourite Album: White People - Handsome Boy Modeling School.

Edited March 4, 2009 by 2.Ollie

[tristy]

Limp Bizkit got me into rock music, to be completely honest. A few years later, my best friend at the time bought me Sum 41's "All Killer No Filler" for my birthday (it's still a great album, imo). From there it gets blurry, but I remember being into alot of different shit after that, everything from N*SYNC (fuck you, "Gone" is awesome) to Garbage.

Somewhere around 2003, I got my mom to buy me NIN's And All That Could Have Been: Live DVD, and it was the start of a beautiful relationship. Also around that time, that best friend that bought me Sum 41's debut album introduced me to a band called the Mars Volta. To say I was freaked out by Cedric's vocals is an understatement. I hated it with a passion. Some years later, that song ("Cicatriz") and their debut full length album would be one of my favorites of all-time.

I do remember the first CD I ever owned, though. It was some rap compilation back in 1998 with stuff like "Guilty Conscience" by Eminem & Dre, Juvenile, Jay-Z, Three 6 Mafia, etc.

[K]

What's the distinction between hip-hop and rap?

All the music I have of that type is just labelled as hip-hop because I'm ignorant.

Some people class say, Jurassic 5, Pharcyde, Dilated People, Kanye, Mos Def etc under Hip-Hop, and then Biggie, NWA, Eazy E, 50 Cent and so forth under rap.

Now, with those examples it's easy to see a distinction.. but with Public Enemy, Nas, Jay-Z, Eminem and similar, the line is a little cloudier.

Personally I try not to subdivide them, it just took me a little longer to get into the more aggressive rap style of some artists.

I believe KRS-One said it best with "Rap is what we do, Hip-Hop is what we live".

[lari]

I was born in 1980. I guess I started with the usual kiddie stuff, plus later an assortment of poppy glam rock/metal like Scorpions, Europe, Twisted Sister and Quiet Riot. I then got seriously into heavy metal, around early to mid 90's. Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Judas Priest, Savatage... I started collecting CDs - lots of popular and also a bunch of more marginal music, but still mostly heavy metal. From mainstream 70's heavy metal to obscure 90's Australian power prog groups.

But hey, last week I bought two Dokken CDs. I guess now I've degenerated back into my childhood state of mind.

[YI]

The first album I ever heard was "Definitely Maybe"...fuck knows how old I was, but it was probably a couple of years after release, because I was familiar with "Don't Look Back In Anger", and I still remember asking my brother why it wasn't on () and him calling me an annoying little fucker (or something of similar effect). Now, about this, I seem to remember everything about this, besides the music. I listened to it on a portable tape player, in a Travelodge, in Derby...I believe...I do remember in the main foyer bit near the Little Chef there was a badass Mortal Kombat machine, which me and the brother played on...about the album, I remember fuck all, and I ain't going to say "From that moment on, I was hooked to music" and bullshit like that.

To be fair, it was years until music really played an important part in my life. I continued to basically follow on, listening to what my brother listened to. More Oasis, some Blur, Jamiroquai, James etc. But nothing made any impression on me, I just would occasionally listen to try and be like my brother. I still knew like everything from Robbie, S-Club and that. And, you know, some aunt would always buy you a NOW CD for Christmas/your birthday.

Travis fits in here somewhere.

It wasn't until like comp where I started to really get into music. Everyone loved Eminem, but I started to hang out with 'skater kids', and as such, was introduced to punk-rock. My interest in skating was accident prone and short lived, but I got more and more into punk-rock music. Both the more popular stuff and the lesser known bands; Pennywise, Blink (who I later went massively OFF for a while once getting a bit more 'musical knowledge' and being an annoying little cunt was all "Blink can't play their instruments, they're shit" ), Bad Religion, Sum 41, 4ft Fingers (who I still can't listen to without associating with my school friend James, they were his favourite band), Goldfinger, Strung Out, Millencolin, Pulley, New Found Glory etc...strangely, I could NEVER get away with Green Day, just never liked them.

I will agree with what's said about "All Killer No Filler" it's a hell of an album. I have so many memories tied up with that record, it's insane.

I also have a bunch of circa 2000/2001 dance CD's...but I never remember particularly being into 'dance' at that point. (Although I do love a bit of cheese now)

I got into mainstream 'rock' a lot as well. Mostly emo with a little bit of indie. I loved Hell Is For Heroes, Funeral For A Friend, Killswitch Engage etc.

I have a memory of being in Essex, must have been late 2003, buying; "Absolution" by Muse, "Room On Fire" by The Strokes, "Casually Dressed..." by Funeral For A Friend and an Outkast album...and listening to them on a really shitty laptop, because Funeral For A Friend has it's own 'special player' thing.

A new kid came to our schools GCSE years. He was into prog...he got me into prog...we used to talk about music loads. He lent me Dream Theater and Opeth CD's, he was awesome...now he drums in a shit as fuck screamo band and has MASSIVE holes in his earlobes.

I started being a bit more 'chilled out'...began liking indie more, delving into it more, instead of just 'what's popular' bands. And then I'd have a shitload of time on my hands, internet connection, and basically turned into the music nerd I am today.

The last 'big' musical checkout (like whole, fresh new genre) probably comes from my brother moving in with a drugged up, contemporary composer, who had decks and would just blast drum & bass...so my brother got me checking out a bunch of drum & bass artists, realised I loved it.

Edited March 5, 2009 by YI

[Skummy]

Growing up (so, the nineties), I listened to whatever my older brother listened to - mostly grunge; Soundgarden especially, and obviously Nirvana was pretty omnipresent around that time. Britpop passed me by. Also The Beautiful South, a lot - it's a Hull thing, I think, and they are my Mum's favourite band. Bits and bobs of other stuff my parents and brother listened to; Deep Purple, The Who, Bruce Springsteen. My Mother used to watch VH1 all the time from when it first started, and pretty much to this day only watches music television, so there was all kinds of stuff present, but that's what I remember. My Dad used to sing and whistle Elvis songs a lot, so imagine they must have been listened to at some point too. My grandfather listened to Johnny Cash, which I enjoyed but didn't really know who he was or anything, my grandmother listened to The Shadows and Lonnie Donnegan, and both grandparents listened to George Formby - in fact, a fair few of my earliest memories of my Grandad are of him singing "When I'm Cleaning Windows" - and while I've only recently started to enjoy their music now, it's probably been a subconscious formative influence. Grandparents' next-door neighbour, and best friend/bandmate of my older brother, would go on to become the drummer in Gorerotted - death metal is a constant soundtrack, but at the time could not possibly appeal to me - to my childhood ears, this is what I imagine the impenetrable sound of the teenage years to be; on some level, I think it's fucking cool. First band I remember being "into" was Queen, who I really can't stand any more, and around 2000/2001 got more into grunge stuff again.

2001/2002ish would have been when I started branching out more - got into some classic rock; bought Appetite For Destruction. Never found the more guitar solo heavy stuff too interesting, though, but I liked the more aggressive, heavier stuff. Gravitated towards Motorhead for that reason, who fast became my favourite band. Soon after, got into punk, which was probably the first musical "movement" I loved. The Ramones and The Clash were the main two; my science teacher at the time was a huge, huge Clash fan, and helped get me into all the classics in that respect. Still clinging on to metal to some degree - bought some Metallica albums. Bought a Megadeth album, but barely ever listened to it. All of my friends like metal, so it only seems right.

2002/2003, things started to get interesting. Through reasons I cannot begin to fathom, at some point along the way I found myself listening to Nick Cave, Johnny Cash and Tori Amos. I can't think of any outside influence that would cause this but, for whatever reason, I did. I hear Tom Waits for the first time around 2003. After being initially confused, I soon fall madly in love. I become obsessed with cover versions. Thankfully, through this, I discover plenty more artists. I fall utterly, sublimely in love, in every possible way, with Jeff Buckley.

2003/2004 - College. Over the Summer I become a full-fledged music geek, and more of a Ramones obsessive than I was before. I still have shoulder-length hair and a tendency to wear heavy metal T-shirts, but it's probably been some time since I actively listened to the genre all that much. Now, it's definitely all about Johnny Cash, Nick Cave, Tom Waits and The Ramones. Evan Dando becomes a factor, which as well as obviously opening my eyes to The Lemonheads, leads me to fall for the music of Gram Parsons. Holly Golightly, Billy Childish and The White Stripes start to shape my tastes towards garage rock. I meet two people at college - one is a psychobitchwoman, though I'm yet to know this - she introduces me to the music of Shakespears Sister and the combination of this and my still-recent discovery of The Cure plunges me headfirst into seeking out goth, and the most depressing music I can find. This self-indulgent depressive journey, along with my own descent that will lead to me being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, causes me to uncover all kinds of new bands. The second, and musically-speaking infinitely more important, fortuitous meeting is with a guy no one else wants to be friends with (yet - he goes on to become a popular eccentric, and then a member of one of Jersey's more successful bands) - we bond over a mutual adoration for the music of the Ramones and the New York Dolls. He introduces me to the better parts of the Beach Boys, and more importantly, to The Cramps, and to The Smiths - who I had never liked before. He plays "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out", and my life is changed forever. Music will never sound the same again. Somewhere along the lines, Joy Division happens. My radio indie and Muse-loving twin brother joins a black metal band. He is kicked out of said black metal band, but they become a fixture in our lives - he begins to listen to black metal. We will not discuss this for years.

2004/2005 - Between years at college I meet Kyle, who becomes a firm friend and musical co-conspirator. Through his extensive knowledge of underground metal, he turns me on to doom, reminding me why I fell in love with Black Sabbath just a few short years ago. Via our mutual admiration for Primus, I turn him on to the music of Tom Waits, to which he is forever in my debt. Together, we discover funk, jazz, spazcore, drone, noise...the avant-garde in general. We also serve to fuel each other's love for all things Mike Patton, and collectively obsess over Carnival In Coal. If I weren't a full-fledged music geek already, this is the period that flings me headlong into that area. The Smiths, Jeff Buckley and Tom Waits probably remain my three biggest loves, though, although Jeffy is on his way out - but will always hold a place in my heart. I become more and more involved in the local music scene, which up until that point, I had dabbled in as a spectator - now through a series of unsuccessful and underwhelming bands, and through the medium of the internet, my name is recognised, and I'm generally known as something of a muso. Via a girl, my hitherto minor dabblings into riot grrrl and psychobilly become more pronounced. Industrial and electro are introduced to me here too. At some point we see Nine Inch Nails and Saul Williams together.

2005/2006 - Twee-pop happens, much to Kyle's disgust. As much as I love SunnO))) at this point, I spend much more of my time listening to The Lucksmiths, and other such twee indie nonsense. And I adore it. I begin to define most of what I like as "post-punk", as this covers the era from which many of my favourite bands were formed, or bands who influenced them were formed. It's probably largely inaccurate. Things get blurry here, as by this point I'm essentially listening to anything and everything. I am, as a friend once put it, a "musical owl". Syd Barrett is the "true love" of the moment.

2006/2007 - Completing the cliche, I start working in a record shop. Opens my eyes to psychadelia a little more than I was already aware. Towards the end of 2007, I get into The Pogues to a worrying extent - I listen to barely anything but for weeks at a time.

2007/2008 - I give into common sense, and realise that I quite like Bob Dylan. I begin DJing, and become more obsessed with the avant-garde - but also with pop music. Phil Spector becomes a figure in my life. I see some of the most amazing music live - Damo Suzuki of Can, SunnO))), Earth, Boris, Julian Cope, Thurston Moore, Silver Apples, GZA, Aphex Twin, Seasick Steve, Black Mountain. I meet Damo Suzuki, and act like a dribbling child. I meet him several more times over the course of the weekend, and the effect is lessened. I meet Thurston Moore and, while impossibly tall, he is one of the friendliest men I've ever spoken to. I take amphetamines with Julian Cope. The future Mrs. Skummy attempts to get me into soul music, but doesn't do a very good job of it, but does go some way to broaden my horizons within genres I'm already familiar with.

2008/2009 - Classical music of the 20th century becomes something of an obsession - Stockhausen and John Cage change the ways I think about music. The work of Phil Spector, especially The Ronettes, become the soundtrack to my life. I realise that there isn't a personal problem in the world that can't be explained away, or at least aided, by either Ronettes or Lucksmiths lyrics. The Shangri-Las are amazing. Sun Ra becomes an obsession. I become "interested" in certain areas of music, not necessarily enjoying listening to it - this is true of much of the avant-garde; I love the idea of pushing boundaries and limits, and of pushing genres to their logical extremes - but what really starts to interest me is the moment that the avant-garde and pop crossover; the sublimely strange moments within a pop idiom - Silver Apples' early electronica, Roxy Music with Brian Eno, the Beach Boys stranger leanings...even up to likes of "Biology" by Girls Aloud which is, frankly, bizarre. At some point in a local newspaper, in a sporadic "what's on your iPod" feature, I am interviewed, and soon ridiculed for claiming that Girls Aloud are the best band in the world. I still maintain this view. Perhaps at this point, but I think earlier, I am blackballed from certain live music venues and chastised by the less desirable side of Jersey's music scene for daring to speak my mind about the island's "white reggae bands". More fantastic live music. I buy more albums than any year previously, making a point of stocking up on new releases, especially compilation albums. Scott Walker dominates my life. I also become obsessed with the music of Mark Sandman and Morphine, going so far as to buy a bass, strip it down to two-strings and change to the same tuning as his.

2009 - Continuing trend of obsessively seeking out music. Beginning to take more interest in hip-hop. Discovering a greater love for minimalism - often find myself falling asleep to Jesu, World's End Girlfriend, SunnO))) or especially Bohren & Der Club Of Gore - a band whose back catalogue I pilfered throughout college whenever I needed background music, but in the past year have come to adore in their own right. Lately I find myself listening to Darren Hayman, Townes Van Zandt, Television and The Fall. Amongst others.

That's my biography through music. Missing out lots, and probably a bit jumbled but that's it off the top of my head.

[RPS]

I have to ask, why call yourself metalman when you aren't, and have never been, remotely interested in metal?

I have a similar question for PunkRockPete.

I always have and will always love punk. I love everything from the Clash to the Dead Kennedys to Limp Wrist to Black Flag. It was my first true love. My tastes have just branched out since. When I first created the account, I loved punk.

Before 1999 - Pop

I went through whatever was popular. Didn't really have any definitive tastes.

2000-2003 - Punk

I was heavy into pop-punk. I heard Blink-182 and fell in love and didn't turn back. Green Day, Blink 182, Rancid, The Hives, Descendents, the Ramones, New Found Glory, Fenix TX, Saves the Day all that stuff. By the end, however, I was a huge fan of more classic punk bands. DK, Clash, Refused, Black Flag, were probably my favorite, but I loved anything loud, aggressive and completely out of control. I also loved the odd weird band, such as The White Stripes or Outkast.

2003-2005 - Indie/Punk

This was my indie and punk phase. I had pretty much ditched the poppy punk in favour of the classics bands - by this point I was done with Blink 182 and purely listening to the Clash, Bikini Kill, the Ramones, Refused, The Buzzcocks, etc. . In terms of indie, I was in love with Broken Social Scene, the Arcade Fire, Elliott Smith, The Hidden Cameras, Le Tigre, Bloc Party and others, but those were the major ones.

2004-2006 - Random

I would classify these as my uncertain years; it was just a weird time period. I pretty much had ditched punk by this point. I was huge into Kanye West, Blur, Final Fantasy, M.I.A., The Gossip, Patrick Wolf, Justin Timberlake, Bloc Party, My Chemical Romance, etc. It was just a free-for-all.

2006-Present - Electronica & Pop.

Now I've seemed to move almost completely into electronica. I listen to the odd indie artists like Antony and the Johnsons or Vampire Weekend, but for the most part my playlists consist of Portishead, Hercules and Love Affair, Daft Punk, Justice, M.I.A., the Chemical Brothers, Lo-Fi-Fnk, Moby, Klaxons, Girl Talk, Pet Shop Boys, Tiga, the Prodigy, Madonna, Scissor Sisters, Basement Jaxx, Cut Copy, Peaches, Junior Boys, etc. I also have pretty much just given into pop music and all it has to offer.

My top 10 overall artists listen to on last.fm pretty much echo this sort of trend - Blur, M.I.A., Final Fantasy, Justice, Antony and the Johnsons, Bloc Party, The Format, Elliott Smith, Rufus Wainwright, Justin Timberlake. A weird mix of indie, pop and electronica.

Edited March 4, 2009 by PunkRockPete

[Liam]

Like K, at no point have I really moved on from anything I've liked, I've just acquired more stuff if anything. I'm not going to do it in years, because I'll find it hard to work out what years equate to what >_>

But yeah, my Mum was into John Denver, Garth Brooks and so on, whilst my Dad was more into INXS, Crowded House, U2, Simple Minds and other stuff, so thats what I got into initially. My first CD I bought myself (I had had a few as presents) was Savage Garden 'Savage Garden', since they were another band that my Dad had a tape for. He then recommended for me to check out Nirvana at one point or another (can't remember how), and along with 'All The Small Things' by Blink 182 kinda opening my eyes to stuff outside of pop and radio stuff, Nirvana helped usher me into more 'alternative' stuff, as well as the song 'Black Hole Sun' by Soundgarden, another song from my Dad's personal choices.

So, grunge was the thing for a while, with me getting into AIC, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Screaming Trees, Pearl Jam and some others (inlcuding the schlocky alternative rock like Matchbox 20 and Live), whilst also branching into the nu-metal stuff that was out at the time, Linkin Park, Disturbed, Limp Bizkit, you know the sort. Whilst I'm not too sure where I would have heard them, In Flames was my next big love, bringing me into heavier metal, and then My Dying Bride (who I only checked out due to seeing a t-shirt on someone in my home town) getting me into even heavier stuff, with doom, black, death and so on becoming the big thing for me. On downtime from this kinda stuff, I got more into singer-songwriter music, with David Gray, Jeff Buckley, Nick Drake, Neil Finn and The Finn Brothers getting a look in. Second year at Uni, I decided to dig a bit more into old britrock stuff from bands like Pulp and Kula Shaker, whilst also going back into 80's UK stuff, such as Depeche Mode, New Order and Joy Division. Next thing for a little while was post-metal kinda stuff, like Isis, Cult of Luna, Jesu and so on.

But realistically, even though I'm more metal and rock than anything, I've got a varied selection of CD's. Even though I can't really piece together where I got into the acts, I've got stuff from The Beatles, Neil Young, The Flaming Lips, Massive Attack, Pendulum, Outkast, Snoop Dogg, The Streets, Clipse, Justin Timberlake, Miles Davis, The Rat Pack, Magnetic Fields and others, which although I may not have properly 'got into' the kinda music and other bands who play that kinda music, I've managed to skim stuff off the top that I like.

Last.fm makes interesting reading, as stuff on my computer is often stuff that I don't own on CD as much as anything: Fall Out Boy, Depeche Mode, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, Faith No More, Coheed and Cambria, Pearl Jam, Guster, The Magnetic Fields, In Flames and The Gaslight Anthem round out my all time top ten, when realistically only 3 would make my top 10 if I chose them myself (FNM, Pearl Jam, In Flames, and an outside shout for Depeche Mode). Whilst if you take it to just the last 3 months, my list looks like this: Klimt 1918, Big Business, The Gaslight Anthem, Unearthly Trances, Starsailor, Darkthrone, Cynic, The Streets, Mayhem and Satyricon, so yeah, a general hodge podge.

Edited March 5, 2009 by rvdwannabe

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

SECONDARY SCHOOL (1992-1999):

Britpop leading into the dance music of that era - Underworld, Prodigy, Chemical Brothers....

Towards the end I had flirted with groups like Feeder and Third Eye Blind.

UNI YEAR 1 (1999-2000):

Indie and trance.

UNI YEAR 2 (2000-2001):

Hard house and techno.

UNI YEAR 3 (2001-2002):

Electro, IDM, Electroclash. Ladytron.

POST UNI / PRE MARRIAGE (2002-2004):

More of the same, mostly electro and IDM and leading into the indie revival I guess. Polysics started to rock my world.

THE LOST YEARS (2004-2007):

Continuation and refocussing of the earlier stuff with Sigur Ros and Goldfrapp being discovered, Air and Bjork enjoying a resurgence.

THE GAMESTATION YEARS (2007-2008):

Post rock chill out beauty of Boards of Canada, Mogwai, more Autechre, Arcade Fire and Sigur Ros to the forefront.

THE JAPAN YEARS (2008-?):

Loads of English stuff gets played from back in ye olde days - Clash, Kinks....Mmmm lovely. Plus everything from 2001 is retained (except electroclash but I feel a revival coming!)

[Keith Kannon]

I got into music through wrestling, actually. So basically I got into a lot of

crap "nu-metal" at the start. Favorites at this point would have probably been

Drowning Pool and Saliva.

I got into Megadeth from a Smackdown vs. RAW game I believe. Still love them. From the edgier older stuff to the more standard heavy metal new stuff its all pretty great. I believe at one point I just got bored with what I was listening to and decided I wanted to try and get into more music, so I started listening to Nirvana. No idea where I heard of them from, but I was under the impression that they did 'Teenage Dirtbag' a song I remembered from being a kid. >_<

Anyway, so after getting completely and utterly hooked on Nirvana (still my favorite band) I still wanted to find lots of new music so I started to listen to lots of other stuff from that era/scene. I got into Alice in Chains, Soundgarden + Pearl Jam at first but found some less well known stuff as well, like Mudhoney. I loved Mudhoney, I heard there sound and sorta though, "this is what I want to listen to".

So I did some research and stuff and basically found out that Mudhoney where pretty much similar to punk-rock. So my music taste split three ways here really, I was still getting into lots of metal (more proper stuff at this point), into lots of 'grunge' and other hard-rock and was trying to listen to some punk-rock. So I started with the obvious one, the Sex Pistols. Got into them along with The Ramones and The Clash but with anything more underground then that I was a bit stuck. But through those bands I got into a bit more 'hardcore' stuff like Black Flag, and the more modern stuff like Comeback Kid, Modern Life Is War and Bane.

When I got into year 10 a friend of mine got me into lots of softer bands like Paramore and Blink-182. Got into lots of pop-punk (Fall Out Boy, Blink) and the hardcore influenced pop-punk (Four Year Strong, The Wonder Years).

I got into more metal as I've said. Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Iron Maiden would be favorites. I found more and more metal and became pretty obsessed with it at one point and started to listen to more 'extreme metal'.

I ended up getting into metalcore and "deathcore" as it seems to be called. Parkway Drive, I Killed The Prom Queen, Bring Me The Horizon, Job For A Cowboy, Architects...that sorta thing. It's all got that hardcore vibe which I liked. I started to really like anything which was fast or heavy at this point. Those bands aren't very popular with a lot of people into extreme music, but whatever. I love it. So from here I sorta branched out on to anything which was heavy or fast. Most recently I’ve been listening to a lot of grindcore…Napalm Death, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Gorerotted, Repulsion etc.

But yeah, I never stopped listening to anything really apart from the early crappy nu-metal stuff. This is probably a mess because I went from not being interested in music at all to it being the main thing in my life in like 2 years so it all happened pretty fast. In conclusion, I got into everything from pop-rock to death metal because of a wrestling game.

[Pesci]

Didn't really ever listen to music properly until I was about eleven and I started going on forums and everybody was listening to Linkin Park and stuff, got into Limp Bizkit through wrestling and then randomly became a massive Disturbed fan. Then I started listening to "classics" like Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin because everybody seemed to talk about them, then I got bored of that and started listening to the more popular indie bands because I couldn't be bothered to look any deeper and now I like... everything

I'd say the only stuff I can't appreciate much of now is metal/death metal/black metal/goat sacrificing music in general really. Wasn't big on "black" music until a couple of years ago and I didn't tolerate dance music at all until I started going out in town and now I'm at uni it's like the main music I listen to. Venturing more into North American indie music as well now, though I already liked a fair bit of that anyway.

Edited March 5, 2009 by Pesci

[Clawson]

Well up to grade 6 I never cared for music and never bothered listening to it. Hell the only thing I ever listened to in grade 6 was Enema of the State and Astro Lounge by Smash Mouth. And through grade 7-first half of 11, I never had more than 100 songs on my computer. Most of the stuff I listened to at that time was Red Hot Chili Peppers and Linkin Park. Basically, whatever my friend sent me.

Then in grade 11, I heard a Muse song for the first time and Absolution was the first album I had on my computer ever. I also had a friend that sent me more pop punk stuff that I got into, that looking back is kinda religious but it was catchy as fuck so I didn't care. Anyway, at the end of grade 11, I had maybe 1,000 songs on the iPod and had a vacation to Scotland/England. I had a few Oasis songs on the iPod by then, mainly the slower stuff from the Morning Glory era and while in Manchester my cousin basically filled my iPod with stuff like The Smiths, The Stone Roses and some more Oasis. I basically become extremely obessed.

All I can really remember about grade 12 is that I would listen to the odd album here and there but I would have to say 50% of the time I was listening to Definitely Maybe. I must have listened to it fully through 2 or 3 times a week and Supersonic at least 2 or 3 times a day (I got my new iPod halfway through grade 12 and Supersonic's play count is 765). Arctic Monkeys also became a huge band for me aroudn that time and I began to search out more Indie shit.

First and second year of university is when I started getting into other things, including The Beatles for the first time. Actually, you could probably describe my time in university here as the time that I finally got into the stuff that a teenaged Canadian should be getting into like The Tragically Hip and older classic rock.

Second year during the summer I worked at a job that meant listening to Top 40 radio all day and that stuff began to get more play on my iPod after I've spent so much of my life mocking it. So yeah all of the stuff I mentioned is still on my iPod some of it just gets more than others.

[Marcos]

Jesus my list is going to be way shorter than all you guys.

Basically the first songs I really liked were Hungry Heart (Springsteen) and Wish That I Knew What I Know Now (Rod Stewart) which I got into when I was about ten ('99). That developed over the coming years into the more upbeat songs of Springsteen (Glory Days, Born In The USA, Dancing In The Dark) with Meat Loaf (Bat Out Of Hell 1) and Aerosmith (Dude Looks Like A Lady, Mama Kin, Love In An Elevator). Basically I was the only guy in my year who didn't go down either of the two alleys for musical tastes (Dance or Rap). All my mates listen to either of the two, and rip the piss out of me when I talk about Meat Loaf and The Boss.

The past two years have seen Billy Joel emerge as one of the number one contenders (alongside Springsteen) for my favourite artist of all time. My dad introduced me to The Eagles two years ago, I have nearly all their songs on my itunes just now, with added Michael Jackson and Elton John in there.

So yeah basically it went (All (soft) Rock, none of this other pish ) :

Pre Academy (99-01):

Springsteen

Rod Stewart

Academy Years (02-07):

Springsteen

Meat Loaf

Bon Jovi

Aerosmith

Uni Years (07-09)

Springsteen

The Eagles

Meat Loaf

Billy Joel

Aerosmith

Michael Jackson

[Nerf]

For the first few years of my life, the only thing I can remember musically is Pink Floyd and Queen.

Some time in Primary School, I heard Limp Bizkit. That turned my attention to rock music, and also lead me to discovering Eminem of my own accord. Besides those four bands, I'd pretty much just hear a song from WWF and then set about finding out what it was, who it was by, other songs by the artist, and artists similiar to them. By the end of this period, I had a really diverse taste in music that consisted mainly of Sum 41, The Calling, 12 Stones, Disturbed, D12, Evanescence, and a couple of others I can't remember right now.

The pivotal moment was early high school, when a friend gave me "Nevermind" by Nirvana as a birthday present. I fell in love with that and went through the typical rock kid phase. Before this, even though I was listening to some metal and mostly rock, I was a chavvy little gobshite.

In the middle of secondary school, I was (embarrassingly enough) a proper Kerrang kid. I'd just listen constantly and discover new bands. I can't really pinpoint anything in particular, other than Green Day. I was pretty narrow-minded also, which had me listening to strictly varied levels of teeny bopper shite. I wasn't aware at the time that I was a teeny bopper, cause there weren't really any about. Funnily enough, I thought I was a right musical elitist with my super-secret Linkin Park

After this, I got into Iron Maiden, and really dug some classic metal. This lead to listening to the likes of Pantera, Megadeth and Anthrax, which probably moulded me into the person I am today. For the next few years, I sort of hot-spotted between bopper and metaller every few months, before sticking with metal for a long while. I also started getting into Punk around this time, and through this combination discovered bands like New York Dolls, Motley Crue, Hanoi Rocks and all the other posterboy glam stuff that I'm into now.

While maintaining a somewhat 'glam' image and listening to the music, I had other brief phases with indie - which consisted mostly of The Kooks, Arctic Monkeys and The Enemy. I also had a Hip Hop phase with the likes of Ice Cube, N.W.A, Immortal Technique and Kanye West.

I can't really recall how I discovered a lot of the bands I've listened to over the years.