How your music tastes developed.

[Skummy]

Gorerotted being mentioned twice in this thread is wonderful.

[SRN]

So, at first my music taste was, like alot of others, nothing to take about at all. One of my friends slowly got interested in metal, introduced me to Daggaard (a band I still dont like) and Dominion 3. Certainly not entirely metal, the were more atmospheric so I got into that for like ten minutes before leaving his place and heading home. I texted and asked what the hell we listened to and he told me something about Dimmu Borgir. And that was where it all started. I delved into black metal and began going through Dimmu Borgir, Immortal and Marduk but moved away from the last two to explore alot of other genres. Nothing really fancied me and my repertoire of bands to listen to shrunk. Then one night some random Finnish drunk hit me up on Messenger, he was from EWB, and he suddenly began sending me all this weird shit. Stuff like Rompeprop, strange Russian and Japanese death metal, Kronos, Uranus and Gorerotted. So I began to decipher all this nonsense and get fantastically into listening to death metal.

The usual suspects of Cannibal Corpse, Bolt Thrower, Death and other classics caught my fancy and from there it evolved into alot of stuff. A period of listening mostly to grindcore, then on to brutal death, then melodic death and then on until I had been through alot of subgenres. Black metal got back on the menu and with the addition of my new death metal obsession I suddenly had alot of silly music to listen to. Most recently I have been going back to old roots such as Rammstein and Amon Amarth, while also diving into completely different genres like indie rock, hard rock and post-metal (whatever that is; go ask Pelican ). So that is my rather ass backwards introduction to metal.

[DFF]

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~!

My own shares so many similarities that it's almost scary.

Conception ( ) - 1992/3: Not a whole lot that sticks out.

92/93 - 96/97: I don't actively listen to much music, but from parent's collection I hear a lot of Status Quo, Tina Turner, Elvis Costello, Shadows, Marc Bolan, Queen, Slade, Elvis Presley, Cliff, Paul McCartney, as well as general 70s and 80s pop and pop rock. This was all kind of in the background and it's just what I can remember now I know the artists.

96/97 - 2001: Again, not a lot, but I'd actively listen out for songs on the radio more. Generally listened to pop and some dance, with stuff like R Kelly (the ballady stuff) getting more play.

2001: I get introduced to Creed. Fuck all the haters, I will always love Creed. I bought my first album of any sort when I bought 'Weathered'. I start getting into post-grungey, radio friendly bands like Creed, Puddle of Mudd, etc.

Late 2001/Early 2002: I see the video for Run To The Hills by Iron Maiden from Rock in Rio at a friend's birthday party. I'm hooked.

2002 - 2005ish: Listen to more melodic heavy metal, hard rock and end up venturing into Power Metal (due to its similarities with heavy metal). Listen to a lot of Stratovarius and Hammerfall. During this time I also listen to a lot of other stuff too, including The Strokes, Nirvana (those two were my homework/revision soundtracks), Nickelback, Evanescence, etc. Anything with a guitar was fair game.

2005ish: I stumble across the website metalstorm.ee. And, being very nerdish, mark out a little at the search function that allows you to search for bands by country and seeing there's 1 for the Faeroe Islands. The bands in question were Tyr. After a while, I got into them.

2005ish - 2007: More of the above, with my taste slowly moving away from the softer stuff and more towards Hard Rock, Heavy/Power Metal. Get into Nightwish around this time, as well as Sonata Arctica. Listen to some prog.

2007 (I think): I stumble across Korpiklaani. Then, whilst searching for cool stuff on youtube I quickly come across both Wintersun and Amon Amarth. My love for melodeath is born. Really get into prog too.

Present Day: Melodeath is probably may favourite genre now, along with heavy metal. Still listen to some power metal too. Recently, I've been listening to a LOT of prog: Dream Theater, Rush, Between The Buried and Me, Jethro Tull, King Crimson. I will always love Creed and Status Quo.

EDIT: 2009: Decide that I actually like Ensiferum

Edited March 18, 2009 by UM-F'n-B!

[Timmoru Suzuki]

95% of my musical development has been over the last two years, and is down to UM F'N B/Winter 'F'N Sun/Dragon F'N Force/Whatever the sod he wants to call himself.

1986 - Born

Early and early teen life - My parents never play music whatsoever. My dad, to my knowledge has never owned any music on LP/Tape/CD, and my mum sporadically buying Jimmy Nail CD's and best of's doesn't count. We literally NEVER had music played as a kid.

About tenish - Begin buying the NOW CD's. My music knowledge extends to the contents of those and huge acts you can't avoid (Spice Girls/Robbie Williams etc)

About 2001 (About 14/15) - A buy "Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavoured Water" by Limp Bizkit because a friend at school kept harking on about it and had played "Rollin" and I quite liked it. I bloody love the first 2/3rds of the album and play it constantly. I gain a passing interest in other Nu-Metal acts of the time such as Linkin Park, Papa Roach and generally get a bit more into music. I also discover a love for Queen.

2001-2006 My music tastes and music collection is based mainly around WWE PPV themes and Wrestlers entrance themes that I like.

2006 - Begin hanging round with UMB/Winter/DFF/Whatever he's called, two years after meeting at college. I'll just call him UMB from here on out.

2007 - UMB begins inflicting his music tastes on me, and overtime, thanks to him I've developed love for KISS and Aerosmith, and have obtained 80% of my artists/songs knowledge. Generally what I like he does, he likes 1000x more stuff than me.

UMB plays me some Dragonforce. He loves them. I hate them.

UMB also begins an annual ritual where and several others try and get me to do to download. My distain for crowds of more than 5 people, loud music and not being clean prevent me.

Generally hang out in Rock places on nights out, prefer older stuff, like some new stuff.

A friend plays BuckCherry in his car, I like them.

I go and see BuckCherry. My first gig.

I go and see Electric 6 (after really liking "High Voltage"). Bloody great gig.

A friend drags me to see Shiny Toy Guns. Bloody crap gig. My last gig to date.

2008 - I get more into music in general, but discover that I tend to like one song from a band and NO more of their catalogue.

I get really into David Bowie, a bit into Skynard and thanks to an old school friend, a bit of T-Rex.

UMB still trying to get me into Dragonforce. I still hate them. He tries with Iron Maiden. Don't like them either (sorry)

Most of my mates REALLY into music and I pick up odd bits of knowledge. Tastes really develop for older rock and a few less mainstream modern bands. My music knowledge really develops and broadens.

UMB works at getting me into Metal. Don't mind it.

2009 - Have about 465 songs on my iPod. That's about every song I won't claim to dislike though. Lots of Queen, Bowie, KISS and Aerosmith, (and by lots I mean 10-15 songs by for me to like that much of one band that IS a lot), loads of WWE entrance themes, healthly amounts of T-Tex, Guns and Skynard, and then LOADS of 1/2 songs from LOADS of bands, a few variations from Rock (like Pendulum for instance)

The annual "get me to download" persuasion acts comes very close to working, but the announced headliners scupper their efforts.

Very recently begin giving Pearl Jam a whirl, also I get into Harvey Danger and Scars on Broadway.

More music exploration leads to even more bands that I like 1 song from and nothing else.

Thanks in large part to Guitar Hero 3, I cave and admit I think "Throught he Fire and the Flames" is quite fun. UMB decides that getting me into Dragonforce at a ratio of a song every two years isn't that bad a ratio.

Generally classic Rock is where it's at for me, or cheesy rock songs, I can live with Metal, but not hardcore/death/black metal. To be honest, I prefer good mainstream indy music to metal, but I'd rather have generic metal than generic indy. Not too keen on prog. Bar literally the odd song exception, anything else is meh or worse.

Edited March 18, 2009 by timmidian

[Verder]

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".

Isn't hip hop more like a whole culture featuring breakdancing, DJ'ing, graffiti and rap music as parts of it? Some people claim that hip hop is music about conscious things and stuff that really matters, while rap would be pure braggadocio, but I do not believe this is the case at all.

[VerbalPuke]

It started early for me, rocking in this small rocking chair at the ages of 5-7 listening to Motley Crue, and whatever popular rap artists my brother was listening to at the time. I also had a bit of an introduction to David Bowie due to my dad being a huge fan of his, he'll come back later.

Age 10-13: The journey really began with me hearing Iron Man by Black Sabbath for the first time at the age of ten. That began my foray into hard and classic rock, soon I'd be sucked in by The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Pink Floyd, and Alice Cooper. Around this time, my cousin turned me into a big fan of the Smashing Pumpkins. I would also discover that Rage Against the Machine were the greatest band on the planet right next to the Beastie Boys, and that Green Day were extremely catchy. There was also a small romance with Rammstein thrown in there, I loved them, thought they were great. There wasn't a definitive style of rock that I enjoyed, as long as I thought it rocked, it worked for me. Unfortunately, the middle school years became bleak for me as I wondered if I'd find anymore good bands. It seemed that nothing new or interesting was happening during 1999/2000 for music. Even then I wasn't going to fall for any hippy dippy jam band bullshit like Phish or the Dead.

Age 13-16: But as luck would have it, I'd see the movie Detroit Rock City, hear Blitzkrieg Bop, and soon things began to change. I immediately fell in love with this wild old band the Ramones, sure I had heard the name before, but now I actually had something tangible from them. It was fast, exciting, and easy to sing along to, I fell in love. I began looking for every Ramones song I could get my adolescent hands on, and soon would also be exposed to the Sex Pistols by a friend. So the Ramones and Sex Pistols were punk bands? And two of the most important? I think I may have found what I'd been looking for in music, and little did I know, this was just the beginning. Soon I'd be discovering the Dictators, Dead Boys, Germs, Fear, Battalion of Saints, Adolescents, and of course the Dead Kennedys. I wanted more, and my search continued with Bad Brains, Oi Polloi, and Johnny Thunders. This was also the time that I would start listening to Oi, and channel my inner working class skinhead. Angelic Upstarts, Sham 69, Cockney Rejects, Blitz, Combat 84, and Condemned 84 would litter my music folder with songs of blue collar uprising and marching boots. Another important figure at this time for me was Link Wray, he'd open my ears to surf and other classic sounds of the 1950s and early 60s.

Age 17: More of the same continued as I began to enjoy more proto punk such as the MC5, Iggy and the Stooges, and Rocket From the Tombs. This is also roughly the time that I began listening to the Cramps, Reagan Youth, Anti Nowhere League, and GBH. This was also the time that I discovered the toilet bowl rockers such as G.G. Allin and the Mentors. The Mentors would also be something of a catalyst opening me up to other metal bands. Basically I just fell deeper into classic punk music, and realized I would never look at conventional music the same again.

Age 18: This began my love of garage music, I'm not sure when or how I became a fan of the Mummies or Billy Childish, but they are the bands that opened the flood gates to the Monks, The Sonics, and even people like Chuck Berry. Around this time I also started discovering some of the curiosities in punk like the Screamers, The Offs, Feederz, Black Randy and the Metrosquad, and the Eyes. Basically, I was falling in love with the San Francisco scene, and also realizing that there was much more to punk than protest anthems and fuzzed out guitar. Surf also became prominent in my music collection, and probably the only music I listened to that could be danced to. This was also around the time I really started to appreciate a band that I'd call a favorite in a few years time, Motorhead.

Age 19-21: I was heavily becoming a fan of garage, surf, psychedelic, and rockabilly. I began looking at what influenced punk bands before and found guys like Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, The Trashmen, and even the King himself. At the same time, I was also really getting into hardcore punk acts such as Negative Approach, D.O.A., D.I., Wasted Youth, Kraut, Angry Red Planet, and Toxic Reasons. Basically, I was either listening to something that would piss your parents off, or something that would engage them to sing along with you. This is also around the time that I began listening to music that was heavy with synthesizers and keyboards, the Screamers were the catalyst for this. But I also found myself listening to Suicide on a regular basis, as well as Dark Day and Digital Leather.

Age 22-23: Blue Cheer found it's way into my collection, and with that, a renewed appreciation for Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, and Alice Cooper (especially his first two albums which are fucking classics). A friend of mine turned me into a big time fan of thrash metal, and it's funny because prior to this, I found it hard to really enjoy a lot of metal. I always liked Slayer, but now found bands like Toxic Holocaust, Inepsy, Sacrifice, Sacrilege, Violator, Hallows Eve, just as good, if not better. It was also the past year that metal turned me into a fan of crust, due to the fact that thrash and crust shared a lot of similarities in their music. Doom, Alehammer, Amebix, Crude SS, Bolt Thrower, Axe Grinder, and Battle of Disarm. I've also become extremely fond of Oi from France, it seems that the French have a plethora of punk bands that are largely forgotten with their American and UK peers. Within the last few weeks I'm starting to really love David Bowie's work. I've always considered myself a fan, but after listening to the vinyl my dad gave me, I'm understanding why he held Bowie in such high regard. The guy was a pure fucking genius.

This feels like a long winded post, but I also can't help but think I left out some things. I could add some hip hop in there, but it really never dominated my music tastes. Also, most of the music I enjoyed in my pre-adolescent and adolescent years are no more for me. In fact, I've even grown to loath some of the music I used to enjoy. I still love Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, Alice Cooper, and appreciate the Doors and Beastie Boys, but most of the other stuff is fucking garbage as far as I'm concerned.

I'll be 24 next week, who knows what the next year will bring for me musically. Even when I think I'm not finding anything new, it seems that every year of my life is marked by a point in time when I discover something new. My girlfriend has turned me into a fan of some of the stuff she likes, and vice versa.

Edited March 18, 2009 by VerbalPuke

[Gene Kiniski]

When I was young I used to listen to all country until I heard Metallica and like a little rock. Around the same time I heard The Offspring and it was over from there. Shortly after then I discovered White Zombie and Butthole Surfers. I am thinking I was around 10-ish then.

I stopped listening to country from then until I was in high school due to the "image" thing, but my ex got me back into it. Rap/Hip Hop has always been a part of it due to one of my older sisters so I'm not sure when it really came into play.

I'm also a sucker for pop music, have been my entire life. I just enjoy music. So much like Keith, I adopted new interest instead of dropping old ones. Except for ICP. Fuck ICP. That was a phase.

[James Casey]

I actually keep my CD collection in chronological order, a habit I picked up after reading Giles Smith's "Lost in Music". Well worth a read, incidentally. Anyway, it allows me to trace my path that bit easier than most.

Early 90s - I'd basically ignored music up to this point. I liked the odd song (Uptown Girl and Call Me Al being a couple of childhood favourites) but I was into books, TV, and computer games. When I was about 12, my folks got a Andrew Lloyd Webber compilation tape and I started getting into musicals.

I can only suppose that this made me receptive to a variety of musical genres, as it doesn't appear to have any other adverse impact on me.

1995-1997 - Start listening to London's Capital FM a lot. Poppy chart stuff. In 1996 I buy the first Lighthouse Family album, followed by my embarking on my continuing obsession with Louise.

1998-99 - University and a weekend job mean I'm exposed to a wider varety of music, and have the money to buy it. Despite this, I still buy both B*Witched albums, as well as those of Steps, Billie and All Saints. I also (and this is the accquisition I'm most ashamed of) buy two Mariah Carey albums because I fancy a girl who looks like her.

Yeah - you try and work that out.

Spring/Summer of 1999 sees me embark on my first relationships with the opposite sex. Musically, I come out okay - although I do have an R Kelly single that saw an embarassingly large number of plays while getting over my first real breakup. I spent a lot of money in a couple of days buying up the Jamiroquai back catalogue, and find a second hand copy of Eagle Eye Cherry's album in Leicester which, considering I'd gone there on the promise of debauchery, was a disappointing but not unwelcome highlight. As the year ended, I listened to a lot of Savage Garden as I tried to work out which of their albums I likeid more. I settled on the second one, after a lot of thought.

I also have my first encounter with the Barenaked Ladies as One Week is a temporary sensation.

2000 - Hear Blink-182 for the first time. Enema of the State sits between Sonique's Hear My Cry and Jamiroquai's Synkronized in my collection, which if nothing else shows that I had a lot more money to spend back then. I also go through the only period in my life where I'd remotely portray myself as cool, as I befriend a former model with an MX-5, and we bomb around North London listening to Eminem, Dido and Diana Ross.

2001-2003 - Final year at uni sees David Gray's White Ladder taking over the country. I pick up his entire back catalogue as well as his later albums. Just to show I've not lost touch with my pop roots, I also buy Busted's album, thus making me the only man over 9 in the UK with a copy. I also pick up Bowling For Soup's Drunk Enough to Dance for reasons I can't remember - but I fall desperately in love with it. I haven't bought any of their other stuff in case I'm disappointed by it, which is the only time I've ever made that decision. A big win on the Grand National drops me in HMV with a lot of money in my pocket, and I pick up the Nirvana unplugged and best of albums. I may be ten years late, but I like them.

This is also around the time that I started copying my music to my PC, and as I look at my collection I see a lot of albums like Norah Jones, White Stripes, The Thrills and the last Blink album that, I'm pretty sure, I've never actually listened to - just put straight on my iPod.

2003-present - Yeah, six years in one go. A dalliance with classical and the instinctive acquiring of the new BNL stuff aside, six years of being in a serious relatonship, getting married, paying for a car and so on... I've only obtained about twenty albums, a lot of which were bought for me. I like Snow Patrol and Linkin Park, don't much care for Kaiser Chiefs but think the Fratellis sound fantastic. I've bought a fair few singles online whereas previously I'd have bought the albums. My last two album purchases have been Alphabeat and the Ting Tings which, I guess, shows that I'll probably never entirely stop being pop-oriented...

[Gene Kiniski]

Speaking of "keep in order" I have a thing I've recently started where I burn a CD every month and label it, as well as saving the playlist, by month and year. For example, JAN' 2009 or MARCH 2009. I figured if I keep them in cases and make one once a month then in 10 or 15 years I can look back at what I was listening to then and compare.