Childhood Music / Taste Progression

[Gadlor]

I'm relistening to a lot of the stuff I used to hear my dad play when I was somewhere between 8-12 years old...I think what he chose to listen to during those periods is pretty indicative of the sort of music I like to listen to now, at least in spirit if not musical style. What were the sort of bands you heard growing up?

The big bands I remember hearing throughout my childhood (besides Sundays, when he listened to classical music to grade papers to) were these:

Jefferson Starship - still good, listening to them right now.
Toto
Survivor
Steely Dan
Steve Winwood
John Cougar Mellencamp
Alan Parsons
The Police

It's basically a lot of guitar and vocal oriented stuff, with BIG sounds. (except steely dan, but they're in a class by themself) That's definitely still what I like listening to - I love epic music, stuff that goes crazy and crescendoes.

Then I moved on to this stuff: (between 12-15)

Red Hot Chili Peppers
Lit
the Wallflowers
Steely Dan - bigtime
Metallica
Black Sabbath

And from there I found Blind Guardian and Skyfire and the rest is basically history. How bout you fellows?

Also - I definitely still can listen to stuff from any of my musical 'stages' and enjoy it. Have you outgrown the stuff you used to listen to?

 

[Gums]

haha, I remember owning a Lit cd.. didn't they only have one hit song though? The one about the car being in the front lawn and coming in through the window last night

 

[The Don]

I came about something like this:

When I was like 8-12 I played a lot of baseball and my dad always listened to Third Eye Blind and Greenday in the car, so I came to like them.

Once I hit middle school, I started listening to the following (mostly since that what my friends were into):
Linkin Park
Mudvayne
System of a Down
Cold

After the dark days of middle school, i started getting into the american metal for about a year. I thought it was "totally sick" and "uber badass" at the time I guess:
Killswitch Engage
Shadows Fall
Trivium
Lamb of God
Dimmu Borgir
Cradle of Filth etc etc

Then around the beginning of my sophomore year I found In Flames, and at that moment shit hit the fan. I found all the main melodeath bands, and in a half year's time I was into the likes of Skyfire and Kalmah and whatnot. The rest is history.

 

[The Don]

and yes i've outgrown most of that stuff, but I still like a few bands like Shadows Fall and Lamb of God (and Third Eye Blind...haha)

 

[froosch]

When I was really young I learned to like most of the stuff my mom liked, including mainly Elton John and Billy Joel. Although there was a bunch of stuff she liked that I really hated too, like James Taylor and "Love Shack" by the B-52's. My dad's always been a big Fleetwood Mac fan, but at the time the only song I liked was "Don't Stop." He was real into Van Halen and David Lee Roth, but my mom didn't want me hearing it. When I got older I learned to really like it.

In 2nd grade my friend got me into Alanis Morisette. Yup. He turned out to be gay. Still a good friend of mine though.

All through middle school the only music I was exposed to was Britney Spears and Eminem, so I thought most music sucked. Eventually I discovered I could download video game music, and so I did. Final fantasy music was my favorite. The only actual band I really liked was Skillet, a Christian electro-industrial band whose less recent stuff I still like. around then I discovered P.O.D. and Linkin Park. I liked it so I looked for more nu metal and hated it all.

In 8th grade I moved. This strange new world was full of the punk rockers I thought had died out int the 80's. Of course, this was the Hot Topic MTV era punk, but what did I know? Anyway, my friends got me into... what the fuck are they called? Damn. "Sticks and Stones" was one of their albums. Whatever. Stuff like that. It took me a few months to realize I didn't actually like it and was only listening for hte sake of my friends.

The one good thing that came out of that was that I was introduced to From Autumn to Ashes, who I think suck now, but got me conditioned for heavy screamy stuff.

The summer before freshman year my dad handed me Metallica's Black Album and it kicked ass. I got into Blind Guardian and Grave Digger, and it was fucking awesome! I'd never heard anything like it. I don't know why, but I was unfortunately unable to find anything else I liked. I didn't know what "power metal" and "death metal" were, so whenever I looked for more metal, it kept leading me back to Slipknot and Korn and other stuff I already know was bad.

Jesus, this is getting long.

Freshman year I made a friend who was into metal. Because of him I got into In Flames, and from there I was able to find my own path (though every so often he'd give me a new band to check out). From freshman to sophomore year I was all about...
- In Flames
- Skyfire
- Children of Bodom
- Lost Horizon
- Emperor
- Immortal
- Sonata Arctica
- Iron Maiden

In Junior year a friend sent me a review of Metallica's Master of Puppets. He thought it was funny how stupid the reviewer was and sent it to me for a laugh. Well, my taste in music had been starting to shift around then, and finding this guy's reviews expedited the process. You can find that specific review here: http://www.metal-archives.com/review.php?id=547#147

I bought an Overkill CD, "The Years of Decay," and from then on until now it's been all about thrash and traditional heavy metal. Of course I still like some of the stuff I used to like, but it doesn't get much better than...
- Overkill
- Holy Terror
- Deadly Blessing
- Satan
- Toxik
- Blitzkreig
- Sadus
- Agent Steel
- Kreator
- Sodom
- Kruiz
- Toxic Holocaust
etc, etc

I've also always been real experimental and always looked for new non-metal stuff. I'm not gonna list bands because this thing's a fucking essay as it is, but I'm into

- Heavy/thrash/power/speed/death/black/prog/melodeath/industrial/doom metal (pretty much everything except goth metal, really... "doom" includes everything from Sabbath to SunnO)))).
- Punk/hardcore/crust/grindcore
- Post-hardcore/emo/Spazzcore
- 3rd-wave ska/ska-punk
- Blues/Jazz (as far as jazz is concerned, I mean swing. Ellington rules)
- Post-rock/noise-rock/indie
- Prog rock/classic rock
- Rap/hip-hop
- Classical

 

[AlphaTemplar]

My parents listen to the most boring classical and folk music it is humanly possible to imagine, so I definitely didn't get my taste in music from them. Some of the first stuff I got into was Linkin Park, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Creed, Metallica, Smile Empty Soul, and so forth. After that, I got into metal - In Flames, Dream Theater, Alice In Chains (not really metal, but close enough), Skyfire, Iron Maiden, and so forth...simultaneously I was playing horn, and listening to some classic jazz (Ellington, Byrd, Basie, etc) and ska (mostly Less Than Jake). More recently, I've gotten into more experimental/post-rock stuff, some hip-hop, and more jazz. There's not enough metal that I still feel genuinely excited about - Skyfire, In Flames, Metallica at their prime, Amorphis's newest, Noumena, Iron Maiden, Agalloch a bit.

 

[The Don]

Haha it seems we were all some Linkin Park fans at one time. funny how that works out...

 

[froosch]

Dude, Linkin Park kicks ass.

 

[-Rivfader-]

Greenday to Ozzy to Metallica to Megadeth to Iced Earth to Morbid Angel to Children of Bodom to everything I listen to now

That is pretty much how mine went.

 

[murderedbysound]

when i was in elementary school I was listening to either Genesis, Peter Gaberial, Paul Simon and Alan Parsons Project. In fifth grade I got on the punk/alternative side of music. Offspring (smash), Green Day (Dookie), Bush, Smashing Pumpkins and Everclear etc. That was ok for awile till about 7th grade. Enter Metallica. Master of Puppets and And Justice For All became cds I would listen to for awile. High school brought my first real dulge into metal. Bands like Coal Chamber, Slipknot, Slayer, Pantera etc.
Senior year I found Carnal Forge, Children of Bodom and Kalmah. Those bands would bring me to Europe and I really haven't left either. Once in awile a band from the US gets my attention but not as much as Europe.
My dad since high school has gotten me into Dream Theater and Green Carnation. As I have gotten him into Dragonforce, Arena and few others. Its been a long road but fun for the most part.

 

[Gadlor]

Alan Parsons kicks ass. I love "The Turn of a Friendly Card" and "Old and Wise."

 

[murderedbysound]

Yes sir, Wheres the Walrus is the song that got me into metal.

 

[Perpetual Catatonia]

I guess I'll go by favorite bands ...

1999 - November 2004 = Limp Bizkit
November 2004 - May 2006 = Avenged Sevenfold
May 2006 - Present = Skyfire

I basically progressed from Nu-Metal and Rock, to Metalcore, and now I still listen to a lot of Metalcore, but am getting way into Death/Black/Folk/etc. Metal.

 

[AlphaTemplar]

Linkin Park's songwriting is pretty average, but they have some mad production skillz.

 

[AlphaTemplar]

http://www.metal-archives.com/review.php?id=547#147

Can we all agree on forming a lynch mob and discovering some innovative new way of slowly running this guys' soul through a lawnmower?

 

[The Don]

Can we all agree on forming a lynch mob and discovering some innovative new way of slowly running this guys' soul through a lawnmower?

haha i'll bring beer

 

[froosch]

Can we all agree on forming a lynch mob and discovering some innovative new way of slowly running this guys' soul through a lawnmower?

I disagree. That man is a fucking genius.

 

[Gadlor]

I disagree. That man is a fucking genius.

He slams Orion. I will castrate him and you, and boil your testicles for my supper.

To be honest, I don't see him really making any valid points. His argument is completely self-referential, relying upon his ideas of what metal is (thrash, evidently) and what it is not (anything progressive). He lists the bands he thinks are 'true metal' and slams the ones he thinks are not. I could just as easily rig up the same arguments for almost any album.

He seems to just have it out for Metallica, makes very silly personal attacks against Lars and Hetfield that have no basis in fact, and has created a completely subjective argument that I feel brings nothing new to the discussion of what is 'good' and 'bad' about metal. By making a circular argument, it precludes any discussion. In fact, it seems almost fanboyism - slamming Metallica over Overkill.

Just my take.

 

[froosch]

I'm not talking about that review. I agree that that one was pretty stupid. But his reviews in general have introduced me to incredible music that I'd have never found otherwise.

[edit] Come to think of it, most of his reviews are pretty similar. So I guess it's more like he's a doofus who listens to stuff that I tend to like.

 

[Gadlor]

Haha. Sorry, I thought you were supporting his argument thingy. Which would be bad. Because he's a twat. And you're not.