Music Influences and the Early Years

[Mel81x+]

I was at a class this morning and was talking to someone about what they were listening to when they were younger. More importantly, what they thought shaped their music preferences as time went on. We're clearly not the same people we were when we were younger and listening to music so I thought I'd start a thread to talk about what music really influenced you when you were younger. Maybe first memories and some key albums too.

I can't put together a bunch of albums (there are too many) but if I did they'd all be late 80's to mid 90's in terms of music influences because I was a teen during that phase and we had grunge, the metal movement and while pop was around it wasn't something that we were listening to actively moreso just stuff that was played on the radio. I look very hard for instrument variety in my music now and I like that we've got so much easier access because you can truly find what you like although I do miss going into record shops and just randomly trying things out. 

What kind of music did you listen to when you were younger and how did that influence your music choices as you got older?

[Spike]

So the first piece of music I remember (maybe 5/6?) was a tape of Queen's greatest hits. I had asked how Freddie Mercurey died and the reply was 'motorcycle accident'.

[Spike]

I guess I've always liked alternative music, starting from the pop side of alternative music and then getting into the more obscure. I remember the first two albums I bought were Green Day's American Idiot and Good Charlotte's Life and Death. I can't say I particularly like that sort of music, but it did lead me to getting into the music of my mother's and her siblings. Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, Guns N' Roses, Pearl Jam, Hole, that sort of stuff that was popular in the late 80s and early 90s. Eventually I started to find out music like The Cure, The Smiths, Joy Division, New Order, Blur, Oasis, Pulp, Suede, that sort of stuff.

I was also very much into the Indie Rock of the 00s, but I was just the right age for a lot of that, Bloc Party, The Strokes, Interpol, Modest Mouse, Franz Ferdinand, are all bands that I've probably stuck with most of my life.

The last week or two, I've been back into the gothic esque music, The Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen, Bauhaus, Peter Murphy, Killing Joke, that sort of stuff.

[Bluewolf]

Definitely Punk... Never got more into music full time until that hit the scene.. Obviously expanded my horizons as time went on but easily my first and lasting enjoyment... 

So many great bands like The Clash, Sex Pistols, The Stranglers, Boomtown Rats, The Jam, Blondie, 999, Buzzcocks, The Damned, Siouxsie & The Banshees, UK Subs, Sham 69, The Dickies, Public Image LTD, X-Ray Spex, Generation X, Devo, Angelic Upstarts, The Rezillos, The Ruts, Skids, Ian Dury, Queen... The list is endless... Slightly changed a bit when it was dying out as bands like the Specials, Madness, The Beat etc started taking over as part of the then Mod revival scene.. so on and so forth until my collection took in Metal, Electro, Dance, Club, & Mainstream music and it just grew and grew from there... Anything from Sid Vicious to Pink Floyd.. 

[Carnivore Chris]

3 hours ago, Bluewolf said:

Definitely Punk... Never got more into music full time until that hit the scene.. Obviously expanded my horizons as time went on but easily my first and lasting enjoyment... 

So many great bands like The Clash, Sex Pistols, The Stranglers, Boomtown Rats, The Jam, Blondie, 999, Buzzcocks, The Damned, Siouxsie & The Banshees, UK Subs, Sham 69, The Dickies, Public Image LTD, X-Ray Spex, Generation X, Devo, Angelic Upstarts, The Rezillos, The Ruts, Skids, Ian Dury, Queen... The list is endless... Slightly changed a bit when it was dying out as bands like the Specials, Madness, The Beat etc started taking over as part of the then Mod revival scene.. so on and so forth until my collection took in Metal, Electro, Dance, Club, & Mainstream music and it just grew and grew from there... Anything from Sid Vicious to Pink Floyd.. 

So you went from sniffing glue to taking acid, to ecstasy?

[Spike]

On 02/09/2022 at 19:32, Carnivore Chris said:

So you went from sniffing glue to taking acid, to ecstasy?

And you went to sniffing your hands after scratching your bum?

[Devil-Dick Willie]

Mum was into radio shite, but also into older pop, like Abba, bay city rollers, monkies, beatles, rolling stones ect

Step dad was into modern alternative, older rock, some prog, but nothing too weird. He loved Leonard Cohen, Radiohead, Jeff Buckley, led zep, deep purple, pink floyd.

I loved the offspring, nirvana, Metallica, system of a down, RATM ect. 

[Bluewolf]

46 minutes ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

bay city rollers

Ha ha that takes me back a bit... There used to to be two sisters that lived at the top of our road and they were massive fans and went around dressed like this the whole time... scarves wrapped round their waists.. 

One of them sisters lives just round the corner from me now and her son used to date my daughter... 

[Spike]

21 hours ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

Mum was into radio shite, but also into older pop, like Abba, bay city rollers, monkies, beatles, rolling stones ect

Step dad was into modern alternative, older rock, some prog, but nothing too weird. He loved Leonard Cohen, Radiohead, Jeff Buckley, led zep, deep purple, pink floyd.

I loved the offspring, nirvana, Metallica, system of a down, RATM ect. 

Looks like my Limewire queue in 2006

[True Blue]

As a child i loved Michael Jackson and he probably loved me back, first musician i idolized. Later i loved hip hop and rap. Later moved to Limp Bizkit, Linking Park, Korn etc than to Slipknot, Mudvayne, Machine Head and more brutal. Now i enjoy Biffy Clyro and have a more diverse music taste.

[Panflute]

When I was a kid I liked West Coast hiphop, mostly just because it was offensive, but I also liked the whole G-Funk vibe. Then when I was about 12 or 13, my brother was listening to a Metallica bootleg (live at Blindman's Ball 1997, the song was Creeping Death), and I asked him to make a copy for me. Since then I've mostly listened to metal, though I also like folk, country, pop, postpunk and classical. There are very few genres I flat-out dislike. I think the common thread from then to now is that I've always liked music that was a bit different and that was hard/dark in terms of either its lyrical content, its music, or both.

[Devil-Dick Willie]

12 hours ago, True Blue said:

As a child i loved Michael Jackson and he probably loved me back, first musician i idolized. Later i loved hip hop and rap. Later moved to Limp Bizkit, Linking Park, Korn etc than to Slipknot, Mudvayne, Machine Head and more brutal. Now i enjoy Biffy Clyro and have a more diverse music taste.

Only revolutions is a god tier album. 

Puzzle, infinity land and opposites are all decent. 

Anything after blows harder than a top trombonist. 

[Mel81x+]

On 07/09/2022 at 09:11, Spike said:

Looks like my Limewire queue in 2006

what a trip down memory lane.

[Rick]

Used to listen to a lot of the older pop and rock through my parents. Dad loved Eric Clapton, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin….Cher and my mum likedThe Drifters, Dr.hook, Lionel Richie…..Backstreet Boys

I grew up just as the emo phase was sweeping the world so I went from stuff like Blink 182 & Fall Out boy to My Chemical Romance & The Used. Got into Avenged Sevenfold quite heavily during those years as well. 
 

I’ll go back and listen to MCR & A7X every so often, I can still get enjoyment out of them. But they are by no means a regular listen nowadays. Moved on to Radiohead, Grizzly Bear, Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes after my teens and then now I’ll listen to anything. 

[Cicero]

Fear the Reaper still holds up after half a century later.