When did you truly become interested in music?

[FPLOON]

When I was shaking/twerking my ass to the music video of Juvenile's Back That Ass Up... I was 6 years old when that shit first dropped...

Spoiler: Fun Fact: This was where I first found out about Lil Wayne...

After you back it up and stop
Then drop, drop, drop, drop it like it's hot

Other than that, I like to give a shout out to radio stations 9.03, 9.25, and 9.33 for getting me into the music news loop, Tupac for being the first artist I knew my music history on at the time, my mom and grandma for giving me music osmosis with their music collections, and Gorillaz for being the first artist I bought in terms of albums and not featured soundtracks...

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

What I find amazing, I have a 16 year old daughter who is:

A. A badass gamer, rocks the FPS scene, tears shit up in GTA Online and loves gaming in general.
B. Has similar tastes in music as I do
C. Is interested in music beyond just listening, much like I did at her age.

Let me tell you this, she nearly parallels my own march through my teens with music. She will consistently come to me once every few days to ask me if I've ever heard of . I've caught her listening to a lot of the same shit I was hearing on radio play, but she's listening to Pandora. Its so insanely close to my own teenage years in many other ways aside from her being female and me being male, I'd almost say she's truly my daughter in spirit.
She's not blood, she's my step-daughter in a technical sense but I've been here for her for 10 of her 16 years, longer than any other man aside from her grandfather and I feel she's my daughter in all but blood, and family is not always something you're born into.

Anyway, she's so much like me in so many ways its scary, and the musical tastes are just one aspect. It trips me the fuck out seeing a reverse-gender parallel of myself growing up... some aspects are different but the base path is there. I see it and its really like deja vu in some respects.

Love the hell out of that girl though and proud as hell that she plays games, kicks ass, never lets anyone IRL give her shit (she's small but she'll fuck someone up, she's got a good arm and a hell of a punch), she listens to good music and is a Batman fanatic. I couldn't ask for anything more.

Just wanted to share that. Watching a child develop into an adult is a wonderful process. And the funny thing is I only played my musical tastes around her but I never forced it on her. She picked up the music all on her own and sought out more without my prompting. Its awesome, and I could never be more proud.

 

[Aerosteam]

I guess when I was 14-15 when I started finding music I like - nothing you'd really get on the radio. I wouldn't really deem myself as interested in music, as currently I only listen one source of it (LAPFOX TRAX) which I only got into a year ago, so I won't be expand my horizons anytime soon.

 

[000Ronald]

Well, I've always had a passing interest in music, in that I would listen to anything my mother and father let me listen to. They weren't conservative sorts by any means; the let me listen to everything from Journey to Prince to Pink Floyyd. But I distinctly remember both of them talking, around the time I went to middle school, about the awful, awful state of music[footnote]Which, in hindsight, I can hardly blame them [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovjG6tJroVE][/footnote]. And I was never allowed to watch things like MTV or VH1.

But as it happens, I remember the exact moment when I went from just liking music to being interested in music as an art form.

It was...probably September of 2006. I was in my room, playing a game (probably Shining Force) listening to the radio. My grandfather had given me an old radio he had lying around at some point; I had tinkered around with it and found a station that had some music that was to my liking. And on this station, a song came on; one that I'd heard before, but I'd never really listened to. That song was The Pot [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW0j0smt8fY] by Tool, and it was the first song I had found on my own that resonated with me in an important way. I sat and listened to the song all the way through. And I did that same thing the next few times it came on, too.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Probably when I was 6/7 ish? My brother started learning to play the guitar and would come back with Appetite For Destruction and the self titled Metallica album because he had to learn parts from it, and I just absorbed it. I got my cousin to buy me Infest when it came out. Then again, I remember when The Offspring released Americana and I could only have been four, and I distinctly remember spending a lot of time jumping around on sofas with my brother listening to Iggy & The Stooges.

I didn't really get into metal for a bit though, my oldest brother bought Leviathan by Mastodon (now one of my favourite bands ever) when it came out and I must have been 10. I remember almost shitting myself when he put it on, it sounded like the heaviest shit ever at the time.

I started playing the bass at 10/11 and I guess that's when I started getting really into music and started nerding out completely about it. Still, I think the early/mid 00's were kinda shitty for music, I've only really being paying attention to the current music scene since I got a Spotify account in what, 2010, 2011? People who say music is dead need to listen to more stuff.

 

[Saltyk]

When I got a car and could drive. Before that music was background noise. I mean I liked music in games, but that was stuff I heard a lot as I played the game and only then. It wasn't until I was locked in a moving metal box for 30 minutes at a time that music started to be anything I cared about.

I think Disturbed was the first band I really liked. This was due to them having a very unique sound. Being loud and energetic also made it easier to stay awake when driving.

My parents like Rock mostly. So bands from Queen to Fleetwood Mac were often playing in car rides. I also remember watching some Michael Jackson music videos back when those aired on TV and were big deals. Mostly remember Triller, though.

However, I also affected my mom's taste in music. When I was a young teen I tried changing the station to one I wanted to listen to and she stopped me saying the cliche "I'm driving so I pick the station" line we all know. Well, when she was teaching me to drive, I changed the station and when she objected I told her the same. And she accepted. Well, she soon started enjoying some of the newer Rock music. These days I think she likes a variety of newer songs, even from some bands and singers I don't care about.

 

[Cowabungaa]

I'm not really sure how to answer that, my interest in music developed really strangely. It went in fits and starts.

For starters, I rocked the fuck out of Mozart and Queen when I was only just past a toddler and got fascinated with jazz at the age of 12-ish when I got really into Simcity 3000 and Cowboy Bebop at the same time. From then on I started downloading the odd song through the ol' Limewire, it's a miracle our computer didn't get screwed over by malware and whatnot during that time. I must've picked my downloads carefully. This was the first song I think I really listened to, not your average teen song:


But I didn't really systematically look music up or started to recognize artists and bands until I got somewhere between the age of 18 and 20. It was only then that I started to delve deeper into what I already knew.

Fast forward a few years more, around 22/23 I got a huge boost when I became a lot more self-reliant in many ways. One of those ways was music and it was only then, so around 2/3 years ago, that I really started to branch out and a shitton at that.

Nowadays I have around 500 albums by about 250 artists saved in my Spotify account. Most of it niche or at least non-current, almost none of it modern popular music. Spotify, and similar services, are such an amazing tool for easily discovering all kinds of music you wouldn't easily encounter otherwise. Like, me and my brother can school my parents when it comes to music from the late 70's and 80's, it's awesome.

 

[sanquin]

I've always had an interest in music since as long as I can remember. From the moment I had my own radio with a tape recorder I started recording songs to listen to on my walkman. Which was at like...age 8~10 I think? Though my current musical tastes didn't develop until I was 15~17 or so. I still listen to the stuff I used to listen to every now and then. Popular radio songs from the 90's, music my parents played like dubliners/celtic woman, etc. Though I mostly keep to metal and pagan music these days, with a healthy dose of Miracle of Sound's music in between.

 

[happyninja42]

Excellent question!

I always enjoyed music, but the first time I recall actively seeking out music, and a specific album to listen to was...I dunno...maybe when I was 9? 10? I honestly don't recall how old I was, but my older brother put on RUSH: 2112. It was summer, and our parents were at work. I was playing out in the back yard, and he started blaring it on the stereo. I heard it through the screen door, and got about 3 minutes into the overture, and decided I wanted that shit. I ran inside, grabbed one of our blank cassettes and stopped the music to restart it. My brother came stomping in, wondering why I turned off the music, getting ready to be mad at me. But then I looked at him and pointed at the double cassette deck and said "I'm making a copy of this stuff!" He was like "....oh, ok then, carry on! " So I restarted the album and listened to the whole thing. That started my lifelong love of RUSH, and is probably the start of my personal love of music, on a level beyond "yeah I like music". Actively seeking it out.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I remember only getting into music by playing Guitar Hero 2 and 3 back when they were still good. I like soundtracks more than standalone music now but I still listen to Iron Maiden, 3 Inches of Blood, Queen and some other stuff. I have a soft spot for electric guitars and incredibly cheesy over the top metal.


The GG soundtrack would be great even if electric guitars weren't the best thing to ever happen to music but Heavy Day is pretty much musical perfection. Actual fact there, keep it to yourselves ok?

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

I actually didnt get into music until my early 20's. I thought I didnt like most music, I just didnt realise I liked the more underground sort of electronic musics. Luckily I live in an age where you can find whatever type of music you like on the internet in practically unlimited amounts if you know where to look. First off it was Newgrounds music lol.

 

[cdemares]

Early Highscool, AFI's The Art of Drowning. I was also following my brother into hardcore punk in general at the time. But Art of Drowning is when I started to read into music and albums for subtext.

 

[PapaGreg096]

I sort of got into music when I started to Papa Roach and 3 days grace but I didn't really get into music when I started to listen to the Gorrilaz

 

[MysticSlayer]

In general, I got into music early. I can't remember how young I was when I would start expressing preference for music on the radio, but it was probably around the time I could express preference for anything. I was seven when I started playing an instrument. Then again, my mom was really into music, so that helped me get into it very young.

I guess my current tastes in music developed around 5-6 years ago. Basically, I went through a Linkin Park (and related) phase around 7-8 years ago. That evolved into only liking metalcore, and that went into finding the loudest, most aggressive death metal I could find. Then I settled down into the music I now enjoy, which is mostly power metal but gets into a lot of genres related to it. I still occasionally like listening to melodic death and black metal, but definitely not what I used to listen to (except on rare occasions).

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

How old was I in 2009?

Right, I was fifteen, and the big resurgence of The Beatles blew the doors open on classic rock, something that would later became almost exclusively what I listen to. I know that's a pretty broad term, classic hits/rock but you know what I mean.

Sure, I heard of the Beatles and some of their songs but never really listened to them, you know?
Then The Beatles Rock Band showed up at E3 and I was like "That's what they sound like?" It just struck a chord in me that I've never felt before.

Got the game, got the box set, for the next two years or so I regarded The Beatles higher than the Pop regards the Bible. I've since calmed down, listen to them less, honestly, a little hard to call them my favorite band anymore, but I'll never deny the impact they had on my life.

I went to see Paul McCartney with my mom in Seattle three years ago; the future birth of my kids have some stiff competition as the happiest day of my life.

 

[BreakfastMan]

I dunno, probably around 17 or 18, really. I used to like music a lot when I was a child, my parents, say, but I just kind of fell out of enjoying music for a while. When I entered high school, I listened to music more, but I just listened to the same few songs over and over. Later in high-school, I started branching out and exploring songs similar to what I was listening to over and over again (mostly classic rock), and just kind of branched out from there. I wouldn't say there was any band in particular that sparked an interest; I just needed something to fill the air while I was working on homework.

 

[Zen Bard]

Tough to say. Both my parents sang and played instruments so music was always in the house. I was always fooling with our piano and even took formal lessons for awhile.

But I didn't truly become interested in music until I got my first guitar. I was twelve. And it's probably no coincidence that I discovered music around the same time I discovered girls.

The first real band that grabbed me was KISS. As a comic book nerd, I loved their larger than life personas. And the songs were easy enough for me to learn (or at least fake). Soon I graduated to Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Cream. I ran through the whole classic rock/hard rock gamut.

But everything got kicked into high gear when I got to college. My roommate was a bass player and was heavily into jazz fusion; Stan Clarke, Allan Holdsworth, Weather Report.

That shit blew my mind and opened up a whole world outside rock and metal.

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

Probably around 5 or 6. Not kidding either. First, my cousins played Michael Jackson's Bad and MC Hammer. Fell in love with that. My mom forced me into playing piano, which I absolutely hated. Soon after, I started getting into grunge, metal (mostly thrash metal) Anthrax, Sepultura, Megadeth, then Slayer, etc. By this stage I was adamant about playing drums, so my parents let me go on that note to quit piano, a decision I've never looked back on.

As I started getting better at drums, I branched out a little bit when I heard Rage Against the Machine and Pearl Jam, was interested in funk (through metal funk fusion Infectious Grooves), which eventually got me interested in jazz, as my dad said I needed as broad an influence base as possible if I were to play any meaningful type of music. So I got into jazz and punk rock around the same time, continuing into other genres such as fusion and latin jazz, industrial metal, and then rap into a big way as I started my teen years.

I'm glad I was so open-minded through people close to me, mostly my father and brother, and keep that wide taste 'till today. I don't know where the electronic stuff fitted in there, probably around the time I was old enough to go clubbing, but it's all pretty much close equal measure, though the heavier stuff is closest to my heart.

My only regret is that I don't pick up enough newer stuff, feel like my taste has gone stale and I'm kind of stuck in the late 90's / early 00's but that's probably life taking over priorities and such, not having enough time to look for music, or even putting it on unless I'm in my car.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Last year. Listened to some Nujabes around January or so, got used to hip-hop lite, and I gradually started growing closer to rap.

Then I heard To Pimp A Butterfly, and since then, I've been practically drowning in music every day. It is just an absolutely spectacular album, though I love practically everything Kendrick has released. I listened to it for about 5-6 months straight after I heard it around May, but afterwards I began going through numerous other rap albums like Tetsuo & Youth, Control System, Run The Jewels, Danny Brown, etc.

Went through a lot of classics too as well, and most recently, I was hooked on Death Grips for the past couple of months or so. But I still go through many different genres: got a bit of post-rock with Godspeed You! Black Emperor, little bit of D'Angelo, Everything Everything, Julia Holter, prog rock with a good amount of Pink Floyd(and most recently, King Crimson), etc.

Currently I'm going through a bit of EDM with LCD Soundsystem, but otherwise, I try to listen to about one new album every week or two. I'll probably be fixed on The Life of Pablo this week and next, providing Kanye doesn't go full Yeezus :x

 

[Scarim Coral]

When Daft Punk released their Song "One More Time".

Sure back there was a couple of songs I like that that country band, Got my Jones (can't remember the exact name) and Effet 65 I blue but One More Time just blew me away!

After that I started to buy ablums and single starting with Daft Punk.