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What or who got you into the music you are into today?

My favorite form of music is METAL of all sorts.  I think that began with me at a young age with Motley Crue and Ratt.  My brother brought home the single of "Smokin' In The Boys Room" and "Round And Round".  Although my mother wasn't thrilled with that style of music, I later got into heavier stuff in middle school with bands like Metallica, Anthrax and Megadeth.  Some years after that I got into darker more brutal sounding stuff while in high school.

My passion of cheesey 80s music/decent pop music goes back to my brother who always had a radio on in the house or outside during the summer time.  As terrible as a lot of that music is, it really left an impact on me and is a bit of comfort food if you will. 

I was actually a later bloomer on a lot of artists now considered "classic rock".  It wasn't played much in my house and I really didn't get into until after high school.  Oddly after college and broadcasting school my first gig was a DJ at a classic rock station in MA.

I guess for the softer musical side of me, I can probably trace that back to my parents.  My father and mom were big into Elvis.  They also listened to a lot of country which although I'm not particularly fond of, I still enjoy from time to time. My odd love for polka music came from my mother who claims to be 100% Polish. 

As a kid I was into pop music until I discovered The Jacksons. I loved their mix of soul and funk with a dash of disco.
My sister introduced me to the music of Prince which was a life changing experience for me. Prince fused all sorts of genres. Rock, pop, funk, new wave, hard rock, synth-pop. His sexually explicit lyrics where the icing on the cake and the rebel in me loved blasting those (back then) shocking tunes about oral sex and incest.

Most of today's music doesn't do anything for me because its unoriginal. Great article about that: http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-02-19/lady-gagas-born-this-way-is-it-too-similar-to-madonna/

My musical preferences are extremely diverse, but back in the day I was really into Death Metal, such as Cannibal Corpse. As a small child I listened to whatever my mom listened to; she was into stuff like Matchbox Twenty and Train, NOTHING like I listen to today.

I'm in a "noise" band, so my influences range from Merzbow to Michael Jackson to Hank Williams Sr.

My earliest memories of getting into music were my parent's old 8 track tapes - Diana Ross and the Supremes, Ray Conniff, Nancy Sinatra, The Fifth Dimension.  After that, I mostly listened to whatever rock stuff was on the local radio station in the mid-late '70s.  Then I enjoyed the '80s New Wave and pop stuff, until one night I was walking out of the video arcade and a guy had Iron Man by Black Sabbath playing on his boom box.  I was hooked - that was the heaviest thing I'd ever heard in my life!

I dunno, my current taste in music is a conglomeration of all that stuff I guess.  I haven't listened to the radio in over 15 years.  Just "old" stuff for me.

Earliest musical roots probably came from my dad playing country music all the time.  As a kid I hated 95% of it, but I liked lots of Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and so on.  That stuff kind of laid dormant until I got into my 20s, when I started to appreciate country/folk/Americana more.

The Beatles were the first group I fell in love with.  The really opened up all popular music for me.  Following their more experimental stuff led me to Pink Floyd, King Crimson and prog rock, which prepared me to seriously listen to jazz and classical, which is what I prefer now.

A huge influence in my college years was the Dallas public radio station.  At that time they played an early version of what would become the "Adult Album Alternative" format.  They'd play Camper van Beethoven followed by John Lee Hooker followed by Merle Haggard followed by early Pink Floyd followed by Miles Davis followed by instrumental bluegrass followed by R.E.M., and so on.  A large part of my core album collection came from albums I first heard on that station.   

There was alot of stuff but when I really got into music was punk and hard core. I learned guitar at the time and just did power chords for like a year or more, didn't even bother with the top 3 strings. minor threat and stuff like that. I don't listen to alot of that stuff now but it still kind of forms the basis.

"beans, beans, the musical fruit..."

But seriously, I was hooked on rock and roll from an early age. Growing up as a child in the 70's and having three older siblings means that 70's rock was and continues to be big with me: Led Zep, Pink Floyd, early Aerosmith, Sabbath, and the like.

During the 80's I progressed from being into metal (Iron Maiden, Metallica, Slayer, etc.) and hardcore punk, then into just wierd stuff. Rev. Powell mentioned Camper Van Beethoven. I loved that band and still do. And got into really wierd stuff like Tom Waits. That influenced the type of music I tried to play in bands in the 90's: hard rock but it had to be a little bit wierd.

Nowadays I just like what I like, and that can mean a number of things. I (try to) play traditional Irish music, but I still love everything I used to, and slowly take on any artist that comes along that brings me joy in some form. I don't really have any particular musical style that I can't get something out of, except for Reggae, which I generally despise. Even some of the pop music that many members here would probably poop on I can appreciate. I no longer justify my musical likes/dislikes, that's something that I used to do and I think is just something that younger people do. Nothing wrong with that.

I just listen to what I like, whatever that happens to be.

Well, my parents would play Simon and Garfunkel, Leonard Cohen, the Rankin Family, and the Grateful Dead for me as a kid (among other bands) and that sort of shaped my musical interests now.  I listen to a lot of folk, hard rock, alt rock, and jazz now.  Oh, and some death metal for kicks (no idea where that came from  :lookingup: )

It was from MEEE! :bouncegiggle: :bouncegiggle: no, almost the same here- I actually found Death Metal by accident- Thank You Rock Band for Children of Bodom's Are You Dead Yet?
but my metal root came from Slipknot- no joke, not Metallica, not Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, etc... :tongueout:
Sublime came from my oldest sister who had Sublime Sublime- April 26, 1992 is my favorite song BTW! :drink:
Jazz and Blues is what you grow up on in New Orleans. :teddyr:

In my younger days I was into New Wave and Pop (the Cars, the Cure, Culture Club) music popular in the 80s as were all my young friends. Also liked popular local artists like Bryan Adams and Corey Hart...

My cousin tried to get me into metal with AC/DC, Metallica and Megadeath but honestly I found I prefer college rock/pop, especially R.E.M....I did like Blue Oyster Cult, Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne though.

As I got older, started getting more nostalgic for New Wave which eventually led to me discovering classic Punk which I now love the most - the Ramones, the Clash, the Sex Pistols and finally Black Flag. Flag led to me discovering hardcore which led to me discovering classic Straight Edge bands like Minor Threat, Teen Idles, Youth of Today, Gorilla Biscuits and 7 Seconds. I still like Punk and Hardcore Punk the best but have to admit I still love a lot of the stuff I've always loved like R.E.M., the Cars, the Cure, Spirit of the West, 54-40...great music is great regardless.

It's funny cause it was just me and my mom when I was growing up, for the most part.  And she listened to a lot of R&B style music and some '70s stuff, like Luther Vandross, Earth Wind & Fire, Kool and the Gang and the like.  I don't really listen to that at all. 

In fact, at the time, I didn't listen to much radio and my only real big exposure to music was through my mother's baby sister (there's a huge gap in age and her sister is more my age, more a big sister than anything.)  My aunt was in high school and we'd watch Beavis and Butt-head and MTV and that opened the doors to most of the music I listen to now: rap and metal/punk, and mid '80s pop. 

Mostly, artists like Dr. Dre, Public Enemy, Beastie Boys, Anthrax, Motorhead, Metallica, Misfits, Marilyn Manson, New Kids on the Block, Weird Al Yankovic, Aerosmith, Tom Petty, Ramones, The Clash.  My aunt used to throw parties (I was the youngest one by about 7 years) and they'd be listening to Talking Heads, Adam Ant, Pink Floyd, Midnight Oil, U2, Thomas Dolby, Devo, Oingo Boingo, Primus.  Also, they'd listen to mid '90s alt-rock, Green Day, Sponge, Bush, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, etc.  And for no apparent reason I like a lot of current music, like Lady Gaga, Kesha, LMFAO, Lil Jon, as well as classic stuff like Sinatra, Elvis, Buddy Holly, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and I don't know why.  It's an odd collection, I know. :buggedout: 

So I guess my biggest influence, if any, is my aunt and Weird Al.  Al mentioned liking some '50s artists, I looked them up, and it spun off of that.  Plus, I familiarized myself with the artists he parodied, like a lot of '80s bands, etc.