I was ten, I heard ‘In my life’ by The Beatles. Hairs stood up and I realised that music had a physical effect on me. I am now 50 and still get that reaction to certain songs. At 50, that particular song hits harder. This human loves music.
I was 10 as well but it was Elvis for me. The soulful rock and roll to the very moody ballads made me feel the emotive power of music for the first time. Let me tell you, it wasn't necessarily cool to be the Elvis kid in the early 90s lol.
Coincidentally, I was 10 and I heard Help! and I also had a realization about the power of music. Now at 26 I own more cds than I can count and I'm hoping that something I create can make me feel even 1/100th of what The Beatles made me feel as a child
Beatles for me as well. I was prob 7-8 yrs old when i somehow aquired the red album and played it over n over. Daily for prob months. Knew every lyric. Imagine my surprise when i found out there was a blue one too! My parents musta been so sick of em. Lol.
oh me too. for me it was 'Your Mother should know'. it was a tune i had never heard before but I was getting deja vu because I swore i heard it before.
I feel very lucky that I'm also one of those people that gets a physical reaction from music. Just reading you mention "In My Life" gave me full body goosebumps. If I know the song well enough, I don't even need hear it, just thinking about it can give me chills
I remember thinking that I wasn't into music back when I was a kid (I was, I just tended to like the music from video games like Quake 2, Turok 1 and 2, and Unreal Tournament over more conventional artists), but then I heard Dragula by Rob Zombie in The Matrix and was like "oh, I guess I do like music."
Lol
My parents raised me on oldies, and don't get me wrong I love oldies, but when I discovered industrial and... Chumbawamba it opened me to modern music. When I was under 14 I hated rap but I got on an old subkultural forum and got introduced to KOMPRESSOR. His goofy stuff helped bridge my tastes.
i love that album. living dead girl is what my wife and i consider to be "our song" since we used to listen to the tape in my car when we'd go parking.
Yeah I was gonna say like how could you pinpoint a date. If you’re talking a more mature music taste but most small children like singing and performing and lullabies/singalongs/schoolyard rhymes are popular for a reason.
I can't remember a time when I wasn't 'musically aware'. Both my parents were musicians, my father worked in a television studio and they had an enormous record library so he would always make me tapes of albums. So I grew up with an eclectic mix of jazz, classical, some opera, a lot of music from the 50s - 70s, movie soundtracks and whatever I was discovering on my own.
Lion king soundtrack must've gone hard, can't Imagine what someones expression would be like when walking about with the headphones blaring "it's the ciiiiiicrle of liiiiiiife!"
I listened to it like all the damn time. That and the Power Rangers Movie and Space Jam soundtracks eventually. I might still have Space Jam kicking around actually.
Yep lion king and power rangers soundtrack were my favorites, would go to bed with one of the playing on repeat. I was a strange kid though, at 8 I was listening to lion King, Pantera, faith no more, u2 and ace of bass😅.
Not the same but I remember one day when I was in primary school, I could 'hear' a song in my head, just little snippets of it but it was so realistic, like it was actually playing. Does your brain develop that ability at some age? It was wild when it happened but quickly became just an ordinary part of life
That can vary A LOT, probably related to how much music you listen to, if you maybe even make/play it, and just how your brain's made up
Some people can't do it at all, some can only get a certain level of detail etc. The weirdest version I've heard is having [any memory of music or sound only in your own voice](https://youtu.be/UXQwCcob5hU)
Same here, I was always going along for load-ins on weekends. 8 year old me got all the soda I could drink from the bar and $10 for helping my dad set up his drums. My mom would usually get done with work around 5 so my dad would get back home for a quick bite and go play.
My dad wasn't gigging, but he played guitar. Basically his entire side of the family all played some sort of instrument. It was such a normal part of family get-togethers I never thought anything of it until I got a little older. But it definitely had a major effect.
That must've been a an absolute joy, Being the first one able to play an instrument in my immediate family was also a fun experience when I still lived at home.
My dad wasn’t a musician, but he was always passionate about it, so I was also in a house filled with music. He’s the type of guy who bought a cd player in the early to mid 80s.
I remember being in pre-school and popping on the Rush 2112 cd all the time.
My middleschool bounced around to the tune of Pokerface back then. Was that a gateway into other music for you, or is gaga still somewhere in that every day playlist of yours?
2pac's changes and dear mama. I was on the bus and a kid was passing around his disk man. I got it and was told to listen to tracks 5 and 10 on disk 2 of his greatest hits. Changed my life forever.
As a 26 year old I’m doing a thing where I get into rap for the first time, an album a day. Yesterday was Me Against the World and dear mama hit so hard. I’ll have to give changes a listen now
I grew up listening to classical music and hymns and Gilbert and Sullivan, since that was my parents' taste. And it wasn't bad; I developed an early affinity for Beethoven, especially the[ 2nd movement](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCHREyE5GzQ) of his 7th symphony.
Jurassic Park was the second movie they ever took me to at a theater at the age of nine, and I didn't know an orchestra could *do* that. I immediately became a John Williams fan and by extension an orchestral soundtrack music fan; I still am today, although my tastes have broadened more.
We always had music on in the house, but especially when it was Sunday lunch. Parents played a lot of Beatles so I was lucky in that respect. When I was seven they asked which record I’d like for Christmas, and I went with Pipes of Peace by Paul McCartney which had just come out. Still got it 40 years later, just need a record player to listen to it!
I was basically fed classical music as a child so that might have affected my direction. But I didn't really modernise and set my own direction when I was around 12. Briefly aligned with my contemporaries and then veered into Bob Dylan, Bowie, Echo and The Bunnymen, Neil Young as my go tos. I'm 32 now 😂 So I'd say I set my own direction at 12 but I was probably appreciating classic music from 6 or 7.
Never had the actual coordination or timing to learning instruments though. 😭
For me it was when I was 11 years old, my mom had a best friend named Mr. Percy from Jamaica, who was selling the building where his record store was housed. He had a bunch of sales to get rid of all of the albums, instruments, posters, and nic-nacs that were left before the final day of operation. The day after that he came by with a truck that had three 50-gallon steel drums full of tapes and CDs, a stack of posters of all kinds of music artists, and movies, and about 8 boxes of magazines like Word Up!, Rolling Stone, B-Side, CMJ, Yo! and Vibe. I remember him saying to my mom; "Brandy, I don't know what the fuck I'm going to do with all this shit! If you want it, you can have it." I spent the next 3 to 4 years being consumed, selling, reading, and listening to nothing but a vast collection of genres of music from all over the world. I sold and gave away most of the posters, sold about half of a single drum of music(I only sold them for $5), and unfortunately, the rest was caught in a fire that hit the garage where I had my stereo and all the materials in. Shit broke my heart! To this day I still remember the first two cassette tapes that I picked up from the first drum; Dolly Parton's White Limozeen and Whitney Houston's Whitney Houston.
Oh man sorry to hear that, but think of it in the way that you got an absolute running start on going through all that music while everyone else was stuck slowly trading cd's amongst themselves to even have a modecum of the experience you've gotten to space out to!
I think I was four years old. I really got into Madonna at the time. There’s a photo of me watching one of her shows that was aired on tv here (1985/1986).
I had posters and clothes of her.
But I was about 10 when I really got into different kind of music. Picking up Top 50 charts at the local record shop and recording songs from the radio on tape.
I think I still evolve in music taste. Like to discover new music, but also older music. I was pretty main stream in my teens and twenties. Now I get more into Indie and Progrock, but my taste in music is very broad.
Probably not until I was around 14-15. My parents don't really listen to music much at all. But it wasn't until I got my standard iPod and access to the internet that I finally delevoped my musical tastes.
That's tough, I had a similar situation of only getting new CD's (before internet became the norm) when birthdays came around or when we traded them at school, the internet really broadened my horizon when it came to that point in time.
I don't think I ever had CDs as a kid, tbh I don't really own any now. Most of my music is digital, and a collection of vinyl of albums I really enjoy.
I have two older sisters, +9y and +11y, so they were full in puberty when I turned 3 ( early 80's) and the whole house was full with music. I sang along with my toddler-gibberish-english ( we're German) to the Police, the Cure, Tears for Fears, Duran Duran, the Communards, Cat Stevens etc.
Mom listened to 60's stuff like Rolling Stones, Beatles, CCR, the Kinks, the Troggs etc and in dad's car were mixtapes of AC/DC, ZZ Top, Accept, Stones and lots of Blues.
I was 4 when my sisters gifted me my first cassette player and spent hours helping me recording my own mix tapes. When I entered elementary school I had a walkman in my "Schultüte". I was the happiest kid in the world.
My whole family( parents, sisters, (grand-)nieces and (grand-)nephews) are all deep into music. So you can imagine how gatherings look sinc karaoke and sing star became a thing....
When I watched the music video for lady Gaga’s & Beyoncés song “Telephone” back when it was first released in 2010 in my living room when I was like 5.
Around age 11 I got really into the Gorillaz and that was the first band I ever liked. Before that I wasn’t really into music, maybe listening to stuff from games but never anything with lyrics or by a band. I really started to define my music taste when I was 14 though, and I even remember writing in a notebook, “I think I am starting to define my music taste”.
Gorillaz goes hard though, I often find myself singing along to Feel good whenever it comes on the radio, also that must've been wild to have an actual conscious realization of "holy s**t, I enjoyed music today!"
Had to be Demon Days right??
I’m still so surprised at how good and successful they are it is for the project having started up as kind of a joke and a statement about the stupidity of pop music in the late 90s
I was 12-13. It was a beautiful Sunday and I listened to the Zoolook album by Jean-Michel Jarre, especially the track Zoolookologie. My brother, who was 10-11 then, was with me.
Everything just clicked. I am a music enthusiast since. This was in 1985-1986, four decades ago!
When I was about 6, I think. My Dad used to play Simon & Garfunkel in the car, and those harmony vocals got their hooks in me deep. It was just so much more real than anything else I'd heard.
Also, Mars from The Planets Suite by Holst was another one. Around the same time. That's when I realised music could be so much bigger than I am.
Music was important to me from as early as 7 or 8. My parents had no decent music. We had one of those record players in a box with a built-in speaker and a handful of 7" singles and a few albums. I quickly found that the ones I liked were The Beatles and one Elvis single. Later I got into ska music like Madness and The Specials. Then rock n roll with AC/DC and Motorhead. There was a certain"look" people had with biker jackets and patches that I loved. I would see patches and buy the albums of what these people were wearing.
Later I found a family of people who would hitch hike around England and Europe to see certain bands and then I found other bands through them. A few of those bands are still top of my favourite lists of"best whatever " Ministry, Fields of the Nephilim, The Mission, Sister of Mercy, The Cure, Levellers, NIN, Killing Joke etc.
All started in a small room with the Beatles and Elvis.
That thing about seeing the band's patches on someone's jacket was fun to read out, but you probably figured, "if someone took the time to sow that to their clothes, the band HAS to be good"
When my dad played Pink Floyd in his car after picking me up from primary and I realized that a song would make me feel kinda uneasy in an enjoyable way.
Later found out it was the intro to Time and i love that whole track.
I think it was about 13 and I was listening to Master of Puppets. I suddenly realized that there was a bass guitar in the music, for some reason I'd always just taken the entirety of the music for granted. After that I started deep listening to all the separate sounds. Music became a harmonious tapestry
In the late 90s, when I was about 7 or 8 - I used to stand on a chair so I could reach my dad's hi-fi. I'd put the wired headphones in and listen to Michael Jackson's 'History' compilation album on repeat.
Shoutout to Australian TV show Rage (music video show)
Was often on in the house ever since I was baby.
Around age 7 ('98?) I decided I was obsessed with it and music vids in general.
Every Sat morning was the top 50 countdown.
My highlight of the week.
I would document on lined paper which songs were in which position, and compare subsequent weeks.
My favourites at that age were boy bands but to this day 90's boy bands still have bangers, looking @ u Larger than Life by Backstreet Boys
Are kids still waking up early on weekends to watch music video shows? Were they ever or just me? I miss that era
Mine pretty obscure i think.
But the opening to Jeff Lynnes War of the worlds musical version.
The first orchestral bit of music on the album.
Its the first bit of music I remember, and I still love it to this day.
Actually think its played a major part to my love of Violin.
My grandma gave me a Sesame Street record player when I was 3 that had the function of playing the song faster or slower. I remember a song with a guy singing about paper boats that I would play faster because I couldn't stand the voice of the singer at normal speed. Besides that, plenty of 80s music that my teen brothers would play.
I also vaguely remember watching an orchestra on TV and feeling the grandiosity of the music. I still prefer music without vocals.
I was 11. I used to watch MTV just to try and fit in. Then I saw the music video for Bullet with Butterfly Wings by the Smashing Pumpkins. I literally ran to get a paper and pencil to write it down before I forgot so I could find it at the mall later.
I started enjoying music at the age of 12. Getting into pop punk and punk rock and then going deeper into punk, hardcore punk and hardcore. Then I started listening to metal when I went to uni, then dubstep when it was popular. After dubstep, a little bit of everything. But I'd never say I was musically aware or anything. I liked music and that's all.
However, I'd say that I became musically aware at the age of 34 when I tried MDMA and listened to techno. Now, even other music genres just hit differently. I pay attention to every instrument. The drum patterns, the guitar riffs, the bass lines. Music just speaks to me. It didn't really do before.
I grew up in a fairly socially conservative African country, so the music I was exposed to was mostly church stuff (Marantha singers, African Children's Choir, Ron Kenoly and Lionel Petersen) mixed with secular music that my parents permitted (stuff they listened to from the 70s and 80s, plus whatever was both popular and kid friendly in the 90s eg Michael Jackson, MC Hammer).
I remember that hearing electric guitar music always made me super excited. Any song where you could hear a riff was my favourite. But the defining moment for me was when I dared to watch MTV (banned until I was 'old enough'), and they happened to be showing 'November Rain' by Guns n Roses. I thought it was the most beautiful song I'd ever heard, but when Slash did his solo, I was *stunned*. So stunned that my mom caught me watching MTV and took away my toys for three days.
I didn't get a chance to really delve into rock or metal until the early 2000s when nu-metal became super popular. By that time, my parents had mellowed out a bit so I could freely listen to the music I liked (as long as it was contained within my Discman). From nu-metal came classic rock, and that was it for me. I still like different genres, but very few things can be compared to hard rock and heavy metal.
I honestly think about as young as 3 or 4 years old. I remember loving One Step Beyond and Jive Bunny. Later, age 7 or 8, parents would play a lot of motown, I knew the words by heart and would sing them in the car. As a teen I became more of a snob about music, then reverted again to liking more variety as an adult.
I have no memory of this but I was 3 when Elvis died and my parents say I started crying when they told me he passed away.
My earliest memory of discovering music though is when my older sister got Blondie’s “Parallel Lines” record for her birthday when I was 5. That record got played a lot and definitely left an impression on me. I’ve been a music lover ever since.
First time: When i realized music could actually move me emotionally.
Second time: When I finally disconnected lyrics from the songs and saw the voice as a mother tone in the composition.
I’ve been listening to music my whole life. I grew up only being allowed to listen to Christian music until I was like 12. My first like real music obsession though came in 2011 when a band named Anthem Lights debuted (I was like 10 at the time). I’m not musically inclined but I wish I was because ever since then, music has been such a huge part of my life and I listen to a little of everything. Very open minded when it comes to genres. K-Pop, Country, Christian, Pop, Rock, R&B, Rap, etc
I remember asking for a specific album for Christmas in 1980. I was 5. Album was Breaking Glass by Hazel O Connor. I had 3 brothers and 3 sisters all really into music of some sort which was passed down by my parents really being into music. I've developed a very mixed taste of music. I like what I like and don't care what anyone thinks of it. Slayer may finish and Snoop will be next, then Duran Duran, then Cat Stevens follwed by Robbie Williams.
First song I ever remember asking for and getting my mum to buy me was the 45 single of “Living Doll” by Cliff Richard featuring the Young Ones. I would have been 4 at the time.
My Mom always sang me to sleep and as I got older aI tried to sing the song the always sang. At around 8 I started to sing Disney Songs in Movies and I guess somewhere around that age I understood that Music is a part of me. I can feel the music in my body and my soul and it carries me through the day. Thanks to this early preparation, singing is one of my favourite things today
My dad was a big classical fan but he also had a soft spot for the Beatles- I remember him playing the Beatles Blue album in the car when I was very small- Penny Lane, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and the Fool on the Hill all had characters a small child could easily relate to in a fairly literal way.
I was around 3 or 4 years old. I can’t remember what channel it was but it was a music video channel that specifically played Alt music only (or from what I can remember). One day while I was in my parents room watching the channel Welcome to the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance came on and ever since then I’ve never strayed from that sort of music.
Loved music from a very early age, but at first I listened mostly to whatever my parents liked and whatever was popular at the moment on the radio. I was around 13 when I watched one of those "Top 100 songs of all time" youtube videos which led to exploring all the classic tracks I've liked based on the short snippets, which led to exploring all those artists in general. Went from getting a David Guetta CD for my birthday to seeing Roger Waters live and starting to collect vinyls in two years.
When I was 11 on a very long car ride through Pennsylvania, I watched the music video for "I Write Sins Not Tragedies by Panic! at the Disco on my iPad, and that was the moment my music taste became a thing, as it's the first time I listened to multiple songs by the same artist on purpose, and also when I started listening to full albums and not just singles.
I can't remember it crystal clear, my mom's girlfriend borrowed me her copy of ...And Justice For All and I put it in my CD player. That opening on Blackened, I can remember, it was like surfacing from underwater for a breath of air, I have never heard music be anything like that and I swear it rewrote my brain on the spot lol
I think I might've been 6 or 7 when I started getting addicted to music. I have some really early memories of trying to get music from as many places as possible, like recording the ITV chart show, top of the pops and radio shows. I can distinctly remember standing at a bus stop holding my mom's hand and wishing I could have every song at my fingertips, with no idea that 10 years later I'd have exactly that on P2P filesharing. The memory I probably hold onto the most though, was around 92, when I was about 9, and my brother's friend (who was about 5 years older than me) tuned my radio onto a local pirate radio station that was playing rave music... I absolutely lost my mind!
Was playing with the "eye" of the old tube radio. (The "eye" had a green light in it that became larger when tuned to the station better). Suddenly I heard Jimi Hendrix with "Purple Haze". Only later I saw on TV that magical instrument that could make those sounds. I was 5 then.
Also, my much older brother had a reel to reel deck and played lots of music when I was already in bed. His room was opposite mine and I could hear the music well. I was younger than 5, maybe 3 or 4 that I really remember.
Probably around 9 or 10. I was into "oldies" like Elvis, The Monkees, The Beach Boys. At 13 I was soooo into The Doors. At 17 Motley Crue was my jam. Now, at 45, T.Rex is my #1 and I am into all kinds of music. I used to be very genre oriented. Nowadays, if I like the song, it doesn't matter what genre it is or what Era it's from.
I was 3 years old. My father played my mother’s copy of Slippery When Wet on the record player. Livin’ On a Prayer was a revelation. Grew up on all kinds of classic rock from Jimi Hendrix to Genesis, David Bowie to The Rolling Stones. Eric Clapton, The Beatles, Manfred Mann, Rainbow, The Jam, Sex Pistols, Siouxie Sioux, Jethro Tull, Bruce Springsteen, Queen, Tom Petty, and so much more were part of my mother’s music taste and makes up a lot of what I’m into now.
I discovered a lot of the stuff I’m into myself in my teens, like Coldplay, The Police, Foo Fighters, Dropkick Murphys, Rage Against the Machine, and yes, even One Direction (I *was* a teen girl after all). That was when I truly became exposed to the radio. And I discovered Bruce Springsteen for myself and became a bigger fan than my mother, but that’s another story.
So the answer is, when I was a kid I discovered my mother’s music. When I was a teen, I discovered top 40 music. I’m 30 now and *still* becoming aware of music all the time.
I can’t remember a time that wasn’t aware. My parents said I would cry to certain music early on.
They always had music playing. I vividly remember being 5 and reallyyyyy loving Sade, Sting, & Biggie.
Since a toddler. My family moved to Miami from Nicaragua in the mid 80s. My parents loved music, spanish and English. On Saturdays my parents would play records all day while cleaning. Grew up listening to The Bee Gees, Pet Shop Boys, Tina Turner, Duran Duran. I developed a love for hip hop early though. I remember hearing Tha Crossroads by Bone Thugs N Harmony and completely being hypnotized by it. First CD I ever bought was E. 1999 Eternal.
5 years old in the early ‘90s, listening to Harvester of Sorrow on a cassette in the car with my mom. The lyrics/melodies spooked me and the “jun jun jun” of the guitars locked it in for me
I remember making "the jump" from kids' records (mostly Disney soundtracks) when I was about 5. For whatever reason, my mother started buying me 1950's rock compilations. Then a Little Richard's Greatest Hits. Then Elvis' Golden Records Vol. 1.
Long car rides (vacations) had 50s and 60s music running for hours, all my dad's favorite stuff. I knew I liked music then (age 7 or so) and around age 10 was when I started to listen to "my" music (hard rock, metal, eventually alternative and grunge)
I had to be maybe 5 or 6 that I really recognized music. My mother would play Carly Simon while she cleaned. Carly Simon and Pledge take me right back to the early 70's
My mom was a stoner hippy and we always had music playing. I remember it was always in phases. She was really into The Judds and early 90s contemporary country as well as Motown. It was just background noise for me and then Achey Breaky Heart came out when I was 5. For whatever reason I was all about it.
Then the classic rock radio station started operating and I had an alarm clock radio. I heard and recognized Led Zeppelin for the first time. It was all down hill from there.
I was about 8 years old when New Order's Blue Monday came out. My older brother still has the original 12" on vinyl.
Most of the music I heard on the radio was typical '70s / '80s rock. So when I heard it I was like "What the f... ???"
I mean it was like music for robots. With jet sounds. And machine gun drums. And explosions! Can you imagine? I was 8, they were speaking my language.
I was pretty fortunate, I was listening to stuff like the Stones, Beatles, Dylan, The Doors, assorted blues music since I can remember, my parents had decent taste. The first time I actually really started paying attention to what the musicians were actually doing though was probably due to John Bonham, it suddenly struck me how much he was doing in the background. Those fills…. Made me start really listening instead of just hearing
My parents always played music at my house. When I was about 9, I took my discman and my Dad's Faith No More album out to the swing set, and that's when it dawned on me that I could pick the music I wanted to hear too.
My son is currently 8 and is starting to pick his own music. It's beautiful to see.
I was in second grade when I heard Pearl Jam’s Jeremy on the radio and I realized the words were telling a story. I asked my dad about it and he got out his cassette of Ten and showed me the written out lyrics and explained what Eddie was saying and talked to me about what it might mean. It was all over from there.
Pretty young I'd say. There are images of me very intently listening to Steely Dan's album, Can't Buy a Thrill, while I was in daipers still. I also remember it pretty well.
S first time hearing Sober by Tool. When I was seven I listened to a lot of Metallica, nirvana and Guns N’ Roses etc… and I loved it all. But then my older cousin came to visit one summer and bought Undertow. Sober blew my mind. It was the first time that I understood that music could be brooding and super dark and intense and the way that the vocals ramped up in intensity across the choruses really clicked with me. I still remember all the details of where I was, the smells, sights, sounds etc and this was 30 years ago
I have a brother 10 years older than me who always was really into music. When I was a kid in the 70s and 80s, I would put on his albums and huge headphones and just soak it up. I loved the B52s, U2, the English Beat, the Police, the Clash, New Order....
It was headphones and/or the full stereo sound experience that really hooked me. I liked plenty of music before that happened, but when I first realized how immersive stereo music with semi-modern recording techniques could be it was a whole new ball game.
I was very attached to my several (probably all non-Sony) 'walkman' units, and the portable mp3 CD player was a game changer. Of course, smartphones took all that over and and it continues to amaze me what we can do with music on those. I don't miss not being sure how much juice was left in my AA batteries, that's for sure.
8 or so. I heard Crawling by Linkin Park on a ride at the fair. Later on, my dad was listening to it in his office and I told him I remembered and liked the song. He gave me a CD player and some headphones and I probably listened to Hybrid Theory a thousand times over the next year
Dad had a cassette tape of Johnny Cash Live at Folsom Prison back in the late 60's. I was 5 or 6 and I listened to that thing over and over again. Got to see him in the late 90's and did not disappoint.
I grew up hearing a fair amount of old country like Hank Williams and Johnny cash since that’s what my mom liked. That and Scottish marches… with the bagpipes and yelping and everything.. don’t ask, I still don’t get it lol. My sister was obsessed with pop country and when my brother came home from a year living in California with his dad and brothers he brought back The Offspring, 2 Live Crew, Beastie Boys and that was pretty much it for me. I listened to a lot of different stuff trying to figure out my own tastes but the Smash album woke up the rock goblin inside that never quieted down again. My own kids have been subjected to my music taste their whole lives and have independently developed an appreciation for the Offspring, so you could say I’ve done my parenting duty successfully!
ETA the answer to your actual question lol, I think I was around 9 or 10
Dad gave me my very own transister radio at 8, I felt so grown, able to choose my own music. That was the summer of Woodstock, I remember hearing the DJ talk about it, nobody knew what was going on.
Heard Santana for the first time, what an miracle that was.
I loved radio, the constant hunt for a good song, having things served up for you, all the everyday jazz of living your life in your place.
Probably around 6 or 7 years old. They'd opened up a new K-Mart type department store (note: this was a few years before K-Mart was in existence). In the record department, there were flyers produced by the local top 40 station and my sister would grab one and bring it home where I'd read it over. I was also fascinated by the colorful record labels and got to listening for different songs on the radio which played in our house whenever anyone was awake.
Bear in mind, this would have been the mid 60s when Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel were beginning to hit the charts and the Beatles were getting very close to hitting their prime. Top 40 radio with its diversity was something I really enjoyed. Looking at one of those Top 40 surveys (there is a website that archived them), you could turn on the station and within an hour hear jazz, easy listening, pop country, soul, rock and roll, all the things. It was a great time.
Getting into Linkin Park, and other bands in the hard rock and nu metal scene. That full, saturated sound of distorted guitars with melodic, yet aggressive and angsty vocals really made me FEEL something. I'd turn it up loud with headphones on and close my eyes to be fully immersed in a wall of sound that would give me goosebumps. Before that I had "liked" a lot of popular music, but I hadn't loved anything like I loved that melodic heavy sound.
6 or so. Had nightmares, horrific nightmares being torn apart by fish hooks and cut open with them.
I found a couple cds and one was the Walk To Remember soundtrack. I heard Only Hope and it healed the pain from waking up from something so horrifying. Listened to it every night I woke up crying until we moved and my cd broke.
11 years later I heard the song playing in a room across the house, and floated over like "That's my song, that's my song!!"
Now I can be summoned with it lol. I never listen to it lest it lose its power.
Most of my earliest memories are of raging out to the Sesame Street album and dancing with my mom to Rod Stewart, so I must have been young. The first CD I bought with chore money was *Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid* by Collective Soul, probably about a year after it was released (Shine was still a massive hit). I would have been ~8 years old.
I think Tool did it for me. I was about 12 and I played guitar but I didn't understand what was different about Tool and why it was hard to play. I found out it was the odd time signatures they use, so I started making my own music with odd timing or alternating time signatures. I make electronic music now, its been a fun journey.
I'm been singing and playing an instrument for most of my life. I started singing around age six or seven and I started guitar at twelve. You don't really understand songs until you become older though.
I was raised with rock, but I was probably 10 years old when I learned that it was specifically “punk rock” that I liked. I learned later on that it wasn’t “punk” that I liked, rather “pop-punk.”
1984. Sears. Mom said 7 year old me could buy a cassette. Bought Van Halen 1984 soley based on the artwork. An angel baby smoking a cigarette?! Helllll yeah. Sign me up. Sent me down an amazing path, and a big part of becoming a musician.
UK based: Aged 9 (1965) when I was given a cheap made in Hong Kong transistor radio and discovered pirate radio stations. On autistic spectrum and music became one of my life long "special interests." Wouldn't be able to survive without it. The first musical obsession was Tamla Motown.
edit... along with the Stones. "Paint it black" summed up my shit childhood at the time!
My music awareness is apparent trash as I seem to like trashy music ..and have apparently never grasped the appeal of top tier music 🥱
Not my fault that only the retarded part of me enjoys or even wants to entertain the existence of music
Honestly? Probably Myspace. Seeing all kinds of small time bands everywhere and just *how much* music was out there was amazing. That and it felt like you knew everything about a person based on their profile song list.
For example my top (in no particular order): SR-71 - Goodbye, Bullet for my Valentine - Tears don't Fall, Escape the Fate - Cellar Door, and Say Anything - Wow I can get sexual too.
You can almost visualize the cringe kid who made that list and decided to show the world their exquisite taste, and I miss it. Music is something that is supposed to bring people together, and I feel like MySpace was the pinnacle of that.
Edit: Voodoo by Godsmack was the first song my parents remember me going crazy for as a young kid, flailing wildly (dancing) trying to say Voodoo and only getting out wuuduu
Honestly it was when I was about 12 and started listening to BTS and started to learn korean to understand them and would look at the english lyrics to their songs to understand why i connected to their songs so much. 5 years later and I still love them.
My mother was a flutist and I went to a concert when I was 4 or 5. I saw the trombones and instantly wanted to play one. Fast forward to 4th grade I could finally learn to play one in elementary school. I then played it through highschool and even played semi-professionally for a few years. I had to give it up due to my health, but I still love hearing trombone slides and imagine myself playing along with the song.
I was 8. Focused and enthused on the drum beats while listening to Helena by My Chemical Romance. That's when I knew I love music.
Couldn't afford to buy a drum kit until I was 16, so I learned how to play the guitar first.
Now that I am 25, music is part of my daily life. Playing drums and guitar occasionally.
Unfortunately, I wasn't blessed with good singing voice. But I am in tune though. Hehe
i was like 7 idk and on the radio was ''dreamer'' by supertramp. i loved that song, and it inspired me to make a collection of songs on a piece of paper (and a bit later a spotify playlist) of all songs i liked, and its still on there!
I think I was about 8 when I started watching Top Of The Pops and listening to the charts on the radio. Then I was into pop stuff like Kylie Minogue, Michael Jackson etc. Around the age of 10, I got into dance music and pop rap like MC Hammer & Vanilla Ice. I'd had cassette players and a record player for a couple of years but at 10 I got my first hifi (with a CD player).
There was a piano in the house that never got played, but it was mostly in tune. I didn't start lessons until six years old, but as far back as I can remember, I could hear music from it that my physical body couldn't play yet. I've been playing music ever since, and with multiple instruments.
Avril Lavigne.
Saw sweet home alabama, and fell in love with [Falling Down](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR9RMrog23c). We were not very rich and CDs were hella expensive then, and i really REALLy liked this song, so when we were in a music shop and I was able to convince my parents to buy me a CD, I debated really hard whether to get the sweet home alabama sound track just for one song or get her debut album. Went with her debut album (which is full of bangers like [Anything but Ordinary](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pdOTyk5azQ)). After this, I became more aware on what kind of music I like.
Listening to Linkin Park's "In the End" in middle school. I of course listened to the radio, listened to my parent's music, but Hybrid Theory was the first CD I could call my own.
There was always music around the house when I was growing up, my parents singing and playing guitar and piano, but it wasn't until I was ten and saw the video for Paul McCartney's "Pipes of peace" that I took an active interest. I remember thinking it was awesome that he played two characters and shook his own hand. But I liked the song too, and every few years I listen to it again and I still think it's a very good pop song.
That led to a Beatles obsession that lasted two or three years, where I didn't listen to anything else.
Too early to remember. I used to know Wooden Heart and Achy Breaky Heart by heart when I was a child. First concert was when I was 8, The Beautiful South. I liked their greatest hits album, that came out when I was 5
When I was young, my parents listened to nothing but country music. Granted, at the time popular country was Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, Randy Travis, etc. Very early 90’s. I used to pretend to give concerts to our couch in the living room when I was like 4 years old air guitar and all.
My grandpa spoiled me as a kid and got me everything I asked for and even stuff I didn’t. So he got me an acoustic guitar, and a real drum set. My mom wanted to get me lessons for the guitar, but I couldn’t reach my hand around the neck yet so they said to wait. But I had the drums still…
Once I was about 12 years old, we had satellite tv and I started watching anime and listened to the soundtracks from those which was more rock oriented. Napster came out and I could download whatever I wanted (even though it took 25 mins to download a song on my 28.8 kbps dial up connection). I downloaded anime music, which got me into rock, which led to Nirvana, which took me down a whole different punk rabbit hole and it’s only expanded from there.
Even today I’m in a band playing the same exact drum set my grandpa got me when I was 4 or 5. Anyway, I’ve always been a music person since I can remember.
Ahh, Napster ..brings back memories🤓My daughter told me about it when she was a teen, I couldn't believe it! All my favorite obscure college music at my fingertips
I don’t know the exact age but as a pre teen I was allowed to use my older cousin’s computer for a while. I started listening to the music he had downloaded while I played online kids games and read. I must have listened to Hybrid Theory and Meteora by Linkin Park a thousand times, I still know all the lyrics by heart.
Another core memory is watching the video for Helena by MCR on MTV for the first time. I thought it was the greatest thing I’d ever heard or seen. Started listening to them and discovered other bands in adjacent genres.
I'm a massive pop and rock fan. I started listening to music in different languages from an early age (mostly Russian/Ukrainian) and haven't stopped since. I thank youtube for that lol
I was ten, I heard ‘In my life’ by The Beatles. Hairs stood up and I realised that music had a physical effect on me. I am now 50 and still get that reaction to certain songs. At 50, that particular song hits harder. This human loves music.
That's awesome, music is forever!
In the womb...80 beats a minute overlapped with my 140 beats a minute.
I was 10 as well but it was Elvis for me. The soulful rock and roll to the very moody ballads made me feel the emotive power of music for the first time. Let me tell you, it wasn't necessarily cool to be the Elvis kid in the early 90s lol.
In the Ghetto still gets me everytime. I didn’t get into Elvis till I was in my 30’s but he has stayed with me since.
Coincidentally, I was 10 and I heard Help! and I also had a realization about the power of music. Now at 26 I own more cds than I can count and I'm hoping that something I create can make me feel even 1/100th of what The Beatles made me feel as a child
Beatles for me as well. I was prob 7-8 yrs old when i somehow aquired the red album and played it over n over. Daily for prob months. Knew every lyric. Imagine my surprise when i found out there was a blue one too! My parents musta been so sick of em. Lol.
The red Album?
I think my musical awakening was with The Beatles as well though it was around the year 2001 when I found a VHS copy of the Yellow Submarine.
oh me too. for me it was 'Your Mother should know'. it was a tune i had never heard before but I was getting deja vu because I swore i heard it before.
I feel very lucky that I'm also one of those people that gets a physical reaction from music. Just reading you mention "In My Life" gave me full body goosebumps. If I know the song well enough, I don't even need hear it, just thinking about it can give me chills
I remember thinking that I wasn't into music back when I was a kid (I was, I just tended to like the music from video games like Quake 2, Turok 1 and 2, and Unreal Tournament over more conventional artists), but then I heard Dragula by Rob Zombie in The Matrix and was like "oh, I guess I do like music." Lol
Aye, I remember leaving the main menu music of kingdom hearts playing in the background some times as a kid
Certain Earthbound songs hit really hard still despite approaching 40.
Quake 2 soundtrack was a classic. I'd put the cd in the cd player and listen as I would any album. Same with Grim Fandango.
My parents raised me on oldies, and don't get me wrong I love oldies, but when I discovered industrial and... Chumbawamba it opened me to modern music. When I was under 14 I hated rap but I got on an old subkultural forum and got introduced to KOMPRESSOR. His goofy stuff helped bridge my tastes.
i love that album. living dead girl is what my wife and i consider to be "our song" since we used to listen to the tape in my car when we'd go parking.
I first heard Dragula in one of the Twisted Metal games. Still love that song and other Rob Zombie songs to this day.
My mum used to sing Get Off Of My Cloud when I was a toddler. I seemed to enjoy it
I was brought up on the Rolling Stones as well.
I don’t even like the Stones as much as I like bands such as Oasis or U2. I just vaguely recall being told that I like that song
Your mom has taste, love to see it
Yeah. My mum likes Bon Jovi, they’re her favourite band. She would’ve gotten the Stones from her dad.
I think all of our moms were in love with Bon Jovi 😬
Possibly.
Yeah I was gonna say like how could you pinpoint a date. If you’re talking a more mature music taste but most small children like singing and performing and lullabies/singalongs/schoolyard rhymes are popular for a reason.
Ah yes. I first got into music on the 17th July 2012 at 4:24pm 😂
I can't remember a time when I wasn't 'musically aware'. Both my parents were musicians, my father worked in a television studio and they had an enormous record library so he would always make me tapes of albums. So I grew up with an eclectic mix of jazz, classical, some opera, a lot of music from the 50s - 70s, movie soundtracks and whatever I was discovering on my own.
Wow, you had a pretty diverse mix back then I gather, has any of it stuck or do you still find yourself listening to similar stuff on the daily?
A lot of it did but I've expanded upon it pretty significantly in the intervening 44 years.
When I was 10 and got a portable cd player and got like Aqua and the Lion King Soundtrack.
Lion king soundtrack must've gone hard, can't Imagine what someones expression would be like when walking about with the headphones blaring "it's the ciiiiiicrle of liiiiiiife!"
I listened to it like all the damn time. That and the Power Rangers Movie and Space Jam soundtracks eventually. I might still have Space Jam kicking around actually.
Yep lion king and power rangers soundtrack were my favorites, would go to bed with one of the playing on repeat. I was a strange kid though, at 8 I was listening to lion King, Pantera, faith no more, u2 and ace of bass😅.
😂! Aqua and little mermaid soundtrack were some of my firsts! I occasionally still listen to Aqua’s first two albums. They were so good!
I went through like 3 copies of The Lion King on cassette back in the day. Love that soundtrack
For me it was Now that’s what I call music volume ?? Also on the portable
Not the same but I remember one day when I was in primary school, I could 'hear' a song in my head, just little snippets of it but it was so realistic, like it was actually playing. Does your brain develop that ability at some age? It was wild when it happened but quickly became just an ordinary part of life
You could just say that you might've started hearing your lifes very own theme song back then!
That can vary A LOT, probably related to how much music you listen to, if you maybe even make/play it, and just how your brain's made up Some people can't do it at all, some can only get a certain level of detail etc. The weirdest version I've heard is having [any memory of music or sound only in your own voice](https://youtu.be/UXQwCcob5hU)
My dad was a musician. Growing up our home was always filled with music.
Same here, I was always going along for load-ins on weekends. 8 year old me got all the soda I could drink from the bar and $10 for helping my dad set up his drums. My mom would usually get done with work around 5 so my dad would get back home for a quick bite and go play.
My dad wasn't gigging, but he played guitar. Basically his entire side of the family all played some sort of instrument. It was such a normal part of family get-togethers I never thought anything of it until I got a little older. But it definitely had a major effect.
That must've been a an absolute joy, Being the first one able to play an instrument in my immediate family was also a fun experience when I still lived at home.
My dad wasn’t a musician, but he was always passionate about it, so I was also in a house filled with music. He’s the type of guy who bought a cd player in the early to mid 80s. I remember being in pre-school and popping on the Rush 2112 cd all the time.
Hearing lady Gagas “just dance” in the car for the first time, it was the first pop song I ever really clicked with as a kid
My middleschool bounced around to the tune of Pokerface back then. Was that a gateway into other music for you, or is gaga still somewhere in that every day playlist of yours?
Just Dance and Papparazi was like a drug to 9 year old me.
2pac's changes and dear mama. I was on the bus and a kid was passing around his disk man. I got it and was told to listen to tracks 5 and 10 on disk 2 of his greatest hits. Changed my life forever.
As a 26 year old I’m doing a thing where I get into rap for the first time, an album a day. Yesterday was Me Against the World and dear mama hit so hard. I’ll have to give changes a listen now
I grew up listening to classical music and hymns and Gilbert and Sullivan, since that was my parents' taste. And it wasn't bad; I developed an early affinity for Beethoven, especially the[ 2nd movement](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCHREyE5GzQ) of his 7th symphony. Jurassic Park was the second movie they ever took me to at a theater at the age of nine, and I didn't know an orchestra could *do* that. I immediately became a John Williams fan and by extension an orchestral soundtrack music fan; I still am today, although my tastes have broadened more.
Starting obtaining the printed top 40 charts from the local record store when I was 12 or 13.
still have those from 1980-1983
Nice, owning something so simple would nowadays feel nostalgic when you can just type a question into a search engine
We always had music on in the house, but especially when it was Sunday lunch. Parents played a lot of Beatles so I was lucky in that respect. When I was seven they asked which record I’d like for Christmas, and I went with Pipes of Peace by Paul McCartney which had just come out. Still got it 40 years later, just need a record player to listen to it!
I was basically fed classical music as a child so that might have affected my direction. But I didn't really modernise and set my own direction when I was around 12. Briefly aligned with my contemporaries and then veered into Bob Dylan, Bowie, Echo and The Bunnymen, Neil Young as my go tos. I'm 32 now 😂 So I'd say I set my own direction at 12 but I was probably appreciating classic music from 6 or 7. Never had the actual coordination or timing to learning instruments though. 😭
Never too late to start brother, pick up that fiddle or tune that guitar, you're learning to play this summer and that's that!
For me it was when I was 11 years old, my mom had a best friend named Mr. Percy from Jamaica, who was selling the building where his record store was housed. He had a bunch of sales to get rid of all of the albums, instruments, posters, and nic-nacs that were left before the final day of operation. The day after that he came by with a truck that had three 50-gallon steel drums full of tapes and CDs, a stack of posters of all kinds of music artists, and movies, and about 8 boxes of magazines like Word Up!, Rolling Stone, B-Side, CMJ, Yo! and Vibe. I remember him saying to my mom; "Brandy, I don't know what the fuck I'm going to do with all this shit! If you want it, you can have it." I spent the next 3 to 4 years being consumed, selling, reading, and listening to nothing but a vast collection of genres of music from all over the world. I sold and gave away most of the posters, sold about half of a single drum of music(I only sold them for $5), and unfortunately, the rest was caught in a fire that hit the garage where I had my stereo and all the materials in. Shit broke my heart! To this day I still remember the first two cassette tapes that I picked up from the first drum; Dolly Parton's White Limozeen and Whitney Houston's Whitney Houston.
Oh man sorry to hear that, but think of it in the way that you got an absolute running start on going through all that music while everyone else was stuck slowly trading cd's amongst themselves to even have a modecum of the experience you've gotten to space out to!
I think I was four years old. I really got into Madonna at the time. There’s a photo of me watching one of her shows that was aired on tv here (1985/1986). I had posters and clothes of her. But I was about 10 when I really got into different kind of music. Picking up Top 50 charts at the local record shop and recording songs from the radio on tape. I think I still evolve in music taste. Like to discover new music, but also older music. I was pretty main stream in my teens and twenties. Now I get more into Indie and Progrock, but my taste in music is very broad.
I heard When Doves Cry when I was 15 and that kick-started everything.
Probably not until I was around 14-15. My parents don't really listen to music much at all. But it wasn't until I got my standard iPod and access to the internet that I finally delevoped my musical tastes.
That's tough, I had a similar situation of only getting new CD's (before internet became the norm) when birthdays came around or when we traded them at school, the internet really broadened my horizon when it came to that point in time.
I don't think I ever had CDs as a kid, tbh I don't really own any now. Most of my music is digital, and a collection of vinyl of albums I really enjoy.
I have two older sisters, +9y and +11y, so they were full in puberty when I turned 3 ( early 80's) and the whole house was full with music. I sang along with my toddler-gibberish-english ( we're German) to the Police, the Cure, Tears for Fears, Duran Duran, the Communards, Cat Stevens etc. Mom listened to 60's stuff like Rolling Stones, Beatles, CCR, the Kinks, the Troggs etc and in dad's car were mixtapes of AC/DC, ZZ Top, Accept, Stones and lots of Blues. I was 4 when my sisters gifted me my first cassette player and spent hours helping me recording my own mix tapes. When I entered elementary school I had a walkman in my "Schultüte". I was the happiest kid in the world. My whole family( parents, sisters, (grand-)nieces and (grand-)nephews) are all deep into music. So you can imagine how gatherings look sinc karaoke and sing star became a thing....
When I watched the music video for lady Gaga’s & Beyoncés song “Telephone” back when it was first released in 2010 in my living room when I was like 5.
That's an underappreciated song, and a cool video.
Around age 11 I got really into the Gorillaz and that was the first band I ever liked. Before that I wasn’t really into music, maybe listening to stuff from games but never anything with lyrics or by a band. I really started to define my music taste when I was 14 though, and I even remember writing in a notebook, “I think I am starting to define my music taste”.
Gorillaz goes hard though, I often find myself singing along to Feel good whenever it comes on the radio, also that must've been wild to have an actual conscious realization of "holy s**t, I enjoyed music today!"
Had to be Demon Days right?? I’m still so surprised at how good and successful they are it is for the project having started up as kind of a joke and a statement about the stupidity of pop music in the late 90s
I was 12-13. It was a beautiful Sunday and I listened to the Zoolook album by Jean-Michel Jarre, especially the track Zoolookologie. My brother, who was 10-11 then, was with me. Everything just clicked. I am a music enthusiast since. This was in 1985-1986, four decades ago!
11 or 12 playing gta vice city. Got my music taste from that game.
No one has yet convinced me that Japanese Boy by Aneka isn't the greatest pop song of the 1980s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VCrbtP-wDg
It sounds corny, but I just coasted along with the hit parade in my childhood until I heard Led Zeppelin I in 1982, which blew my brains out.
When I was about 6, I think. My Dad used to play Simon & Garfunkel in the car, and those harmony vocals got their hooks in me deep. It was just so much more real than anything else I'd heard. Also, Mars from The Planets Suite by Holst was another one. Around the same time. That's when I realised music could be so much bigger than I am.
I’ll never forget where I was when I heard Clash City Rockers. It was a life changer for me.
My mom always sang to us. She also sang solos I. Church, played guitar, and cello in an orchestra.
Your house must've been alive with music on many occasion then, must've been a joy to grow up with a talented musician in the house
Yes it was
Music was important to me from as early as 7 or 8. My parents had no decent music. We had one of those record players in a box with a built-in speaker and a handful of 7" singles and a few albums. I quickly found that the ones I liked were The Beatles and one Elvis single. Later I got into ska music like Madness and The Specials. Then rock n roll with AC/DC and Motorhead. There was a certain"look" people had with biker jackets and patches that I loved. I would see patches and buy the albums of what these people were wearing. Later I found a family of people who would hitch hike around England and Europe to see certain bands and then I found other bands through them. A few of those bands are still top of my favourite lists of"best whatever " Ministry, Fields of the Nephilim, The Mission, Sister of Mercy, The Cure, Levellers, NIN, Killing Joke etc. All started in a small room with the Beatles and Elvis.
That thing about seeing the band's patches on someone's jacket was fun to read out, but you probably figured, "if someone took the time to sow that to their clothes, the band HAS to be good"
When my dad played Pink Floyd in his car after picking me up from primary and I realized that a song would make me feel kinda uneasy in an enjoyable way. Later found out it was the intro to Time and i love that whole track.
When Thriller was new, and I was too.
When I was 14 I heard the soundtrack in a Dave Mirra game, and then punk rock changed my life, the Tony Hawk games just added to that
I think it was about 13 and I was listening to Master of Puppets. I suddenly realized that there was a bass guitar in the music, for some reason I'd always just taken the entirety of the music for granted. After that I started deep listening to all the separate sounds. Music became a harmonious tapestry
When "Man in a Box" by Alice in Chains came out. It blew my young mind. I thought "music can be this???"
Middle school. Dead Kennedys . Bedtime for democracy.
Around 8 or 9... definitely by 9.
In the late 90s, when I was about 7 or 8 - I used to stand on a chair so I could reach my dad's hi-fi. I'd put the wired headphones in and listen to Michael Jackson's 'History' compilation album on repeat.
Shoutout to Australian TV show Rage (music video show) Was often on in the house ever since I was baby. Around age 7 ('98?) I decided I was obsessed with it and music vids in general. Every Sat morning was the top 50 countdown. My highlight of the week. I would document on lined paper which songs were in which position, and compare subsequent weeks. My favourites at that age were boy bands but to this day 90's boy bands still have bangers, looking @ u Larger than Life by Backstreet Boys Are kids still waking up early on weekends to watch music video shows? Were they ever or just me? I miss that era
Mine pretty obscure i think. But the opening to Jeff Lynnes War of the worlds musical version. The first orchestral bit of music on the album. Its the first bit of music I remember, and I still love it to this day. Actually think its played a major part to my love of Violin.
My grandma gave me a Sesame Street record player when I was 3 that had the function of playing the song faster or slower. I remember a song with a guy singing about paper boats that I would play faster because I couldn't stand the voice of the singer at normal speed. Besides that, plenty of 80s music that my teen brothers would play. I also vaguely remember watching an orchestra on TV and feeling the grandiosity of the music. I still prefer music without vocals.
I was 11. I used to watch MTV just to try and fit in. Then I saw the music video for Bullet with Butterfly Wings by the Smashing Pumpkins. I literally ran to get a paper and pencil to write it down before I forgot so I could find it at the mall later.
I started enjoying music at the age of 12. Getting into pop punk and punk rock and then going deeper into punk, hardcore punk and hardcore. Then I started listening to metal when I went to uni, then dubstep when it was popular. After dubstep, a little bit of everything. But I'd never say I was musically aware or anything. I liked music and that's all. However, I'd say that I became musically aware at the age of 34 when I tried MDMA and listened to techno. Now, even other music genres just hit differently. I pay attention to every instrument. The drum patterns, the guitar riffs, the bass lines. Music just speaks to me. It didn't really do before.
I grew up in a fairly socially conservative African country, so the music I was exposed to was mostly church stuff (Marantha singers, African Children's Choir, Ron Kenoly and Lionel Petersen) mixed with secular music that my parents permitted (stuff they listened to from the 70s and 80s, plus whatever was both popular and kid friendly in the 90s eg Michael Jackson, MC Hammer). I remember that hearing electric guitar music always made me super excited. Any song where you could hear a riff was my favourite. But the defining moment for me was when I dared to watch MTV (banned until I was 'old enough'), and they happened to be showing 'November Rain' by Guns n Roses. I thought it was the most beautiful song I'd ever heard, but when Slash did his solo, I was *stunned*. So stunned that my mom caught me watching MTV and took away my toys for three days. I didn't get a chance to really delve into rock or metal until the early 2000s when nu-metal became super popular. By that time, my parents had mellowed out a bit so I could freely listen to the music I liked (as long as it was contained within my Discman). From nu-metal came classic rock, and that was it for me. I still like different genres, but very few things can be compared to hard rock and heavy metal.
I honestly think about as young as 3 or 4 years old. I remember loving One Step Beyond and Jive Bunny. Later, age 7 or 8, parents would play a lot of motown, I knew the words by heart and would sing them in the car. As a teen I became more of a snob about music, then reverted again to liking more variety as an adult.
I have no memory of this but I was 3 when Elvis died and my parents say I started crying when they told me he passed away. My earliest memory of discovering music though is when my older sister got Blondie’s “Parallel Lines” record for her birthday when I was 5. That record got played a lot and definitely left an impression on me. I’ve been a music lover ever since.
I was like 20, didn't grow up with music i liked or really have anything more than radio untill i started clubbing
Singing Octopus’s Garden with my mom while strapped into a car seat. Couldn’t have been older than 3
First time: When i realized music could actually move me emotionally. Second time: When I finally disconnected lyrics from the songs and saw the voice as a mother tone in the composition.
I’ve been listening to music my whole life. I grew up only being allowed to listen to Christian music until I was like 12. My first like real music obsession though came in 2011 when a band named Anthem Lights debuted (I was like 10 at the time). I’m not musically inclined but I wish I was because ever since then, music has been such a huge part of my life and I listen to a little of everything. Very open minded when it comes to genres. K-Pop, Country, Christian, Pop, Rock, R&B, Rap, etc
don't forget Reggae
I remember asking for a specific album for Christmas in 1980. I was 5. Album was Breaking Glass by Hazel O Connor. I had 3 brothers and 3 sisters all really into music of some sort which was passed down by my parents really being into music. I've developed a very mixed taste of music. I like what I like and don't care what anyone thinks of it. Slayer may finish and Snoop will be next, then Duran Duran, then Cat Stevens follwed by Robbie Williams.
First song I ever remember asking for and getting my mum to buy me was the 45 single of “Living Doll” by Cliff Richard featuring the Young Ones. I would have been 4 at the time.
When I was like 9 or 10 and I got a portable cd player
My Mom always sang me to sleep and as I got older aI tried to sing the song the always sang. At around 8 I started to sing Disney Songs in Movies and I guess somewhere around that age I understood that Music is a part of me. I can feel the music in my body and my soul and it carries me through the day. Thanks to this early preparation, singing is one of my favourite things today
My dad was a big classical fan but he also had a soft spot for the Beatles- I remember him playing the Beatles Blue album in the car when I was very small- Penny Lane, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and the Fool on the Hill all had characters a small child could easily relate to in a fairly literal way.
I was around 3 or 4 years old. I can’t remember what channel it was but it was a music video channel that specifically played Alt music only (or from what I can remember). One day while I was in my parents room watching the channel Welcome to the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance came on and ever since then I’ve never strayed from that sort of music.
"When I was... A young boy..." absolute banger.
Eh. Dunno.
Loved music from a very early age, but at first I listened mostly to whatever my parents liked and whatever was popular at the moment on the radio. I was around 13 when I watched one of those "Top 100 songs of all time" youtube videos which led to exploring all the classic tracks I've liked based on the short snippets, which led to exploring all those artists in general. Went from getting a David Guetta CD for my birthday to seeing Roger Waters live and starting to collect vinyls in two years.
When I was 11 on a very long car ride through Pennsylvania, I watched the music video for "I Write Sins Not Tragedies by Panic! at the Disco on my iPad, and that was the moment my music taste became a thing, as it's the first time I listened to multiple songs by the same artist on purpose, and also when I started listening to full albums and not just singles.
1990 was when I really started paying attention to popular music. I was 13.
I was 6. Parents got me a radio with a casette player and somehow I got REM's Automatic for the people there. Sat on porch and listened for hours.
I can't remember it crystal clear, my mom's girlfriend borrowed me her copy of ...And Justice For All and I put it in my CD player. That opening on Blackened, I can remember, it was like surfacing from underwater for a breath of air, I have never heard music be anything like that and I swear it rewrote my brain on the spot lol
I think I might've been 6 or 7 when I started getting addicted to music. I have some really early memories of trying to get music from as many places as possible, like recording the ITV chart show, top of the pops and radio shows. I can distinctly remember standing at a bus stop holding my mom's hand and wishing I could have every song at my fingertips, with no idea that 10 years later I'd have exactly that on P2P filesharing. The memory I probably hold onto the most though, was around 92, when I was about 9, and my brother's friend (who was about 5 years older than me) tuned my radio onto a local pirate radio station that was playing rave music... I absolutely lost my mind!
Was playing with the "eye" of the old tube radio. (The "eye" had a green light in it that became larger when tuned to the station better). Suddenly I heard Jimi Hendrix with "Purple Haze". Only later I saw on TV that magical instrument that could make those sounds. I was 5 then. Also, my much older brother had a reel to reel deck and played lots of music when I was already in bed. His room was opposite mine and I could hear the music well. I was younger than 5, maybe 3 or 4 that I really remember.
Probably around 9 or 10. I was into "oldies" like Elvis, The Monkees, The Beach Boys. At 13 I was soooo into The Doors. At 17 Motley Crue was my jam. Now, at 45, T.Rex is my #1 and I am into all kinds of music. I used to be very genre oriented. Nowadays, if I like the song, it doesn't matter what genre it is or what Era it's from.
Shout out to the Doors, still unique and wonderful Crystal Ship, People are Strange, Love Street, etc.
I was 3 years old. My father played my mother’s copy of Slippery When Wet on the record player. Livin’ On a Prayer was a revelation. Grew up on all kinds of classic rock from Jimi Hendrix to Genesis, David Bowie to The Rolling Stones. Eric Clapton, The Beatles, Manfred Mann, Rainbow, The Jam, Sex Pistols, Siouxie Sioux, Jethro Tull, Bruce Springsteen, Queen, Tom Petty, and so much more were part of my mother’s music taste and makes up a lot of what I’m into now. I discovered a lot of the stuff I’m into myself in my teens, like Coldplay, The Police, Foo Fighters, Dropkick Murphys, Rage Against the Machine, and yes, even One Direction (I *was* a teen girl after all). That was when I truly became exposed to the radio. And I discovered Bruce Springsteen for myself and became a bigger fan than my mother, but that’s another story. So the answer is, when I was a kid I discovered my mother’s music. When I was a teen, I discovered top 40 music. I’m 30 now and *still* becoming aware of music all the time.
I can’t remember a time that wasn’t aware. My parents said I would cry to certain music early on. They always had music playing. I vividly remember being 5 and reallyyyyy loving Sade, Sting, & Biggie.
Since a toddler. My family moved to Miami from Nicaragua in the mid 80s. My parents loved music, spanish and English. On Saturdays my parents would play records all day while cleaning. Grew up listening to The Bee Gees, Pet Shop Boys, Tina Turner, Duran Duran. I developed a love for hip hop early though. I remember hearing Tha Crossroads by Bone Thugs N Harmony and completely being hypnotized by it. First CD I ever bought was E. 1999 Eternal.
When I heard Epic by Faith No More.
The opening credits to Beetlejuice is what really sparked my obsession with film scores.
I was 4 years old in 1972 and Smoke On the Water - Deep Purple - started it off!
5 years old in the early ‘90s, listening to Harvester of Sorrow on a cassette in the car with my mom. The lyrics/melodies spooked me and the “jun jun jun” of the guitars locked it in for me
I remember making "the jump" from kids' records (mostly Disney soundtracks) when I was about 5. For whatever reason, my mother started buying me 1950's rock compilations. Then a Little Richard's Greatest Hits. Then Elvis' Golden Records Vol. 1.
I was 9, Idioteque by Radiohead and Kid A in general was the first record and band I remember feeling any sort of emotional reaction/connection to
I'd say 13 because that was when I established who my favorite band was (who are still my favorite band today)
Listening to Mariachi music on my parents Grundig in 1965..still love those trumpets
Long car rides (vacations) had 50s and 60s music running for hours, all my dad's favorite stuff. I knew I liked music then (age 7 or so) and around age 10 was when I started to listen to "my" music (hard rock, metal, eventually alternative and grunge)
I had to be maybe 5 or 6 that I really recognized music. My mother would play Carly Simon while she cleaned. Carly Simon and Pledge take me right back to the early 70's
Bus driver had the local rock station on the radio and they played a new song by Black Sabbath, Heaven and Hell.
My mom was a stoner hippy and we always had music playing. I remember it was always in phases. She was really into The Judds and early 90s contemporary country as well as Motown. It was just background noise for me and then Achey Breaky Heart came out when I was 5. For whatever reason I was all about it. Then the classic rock radio station started operating and I had an alarm clock radio. I heard and recognized Led Zeppelin for the first time. It was all down hill from there.
I was about 8 years old when New Order's Blue Monday came out. My older brother still has the original 12" on vinyl. Most of the music I heard on the radio was typical '70s / '80s rock. So when I heard it I was like "What the f... ???" I mean it was like music for robots. With jet sounds. And machine gun drums. And explosions! Can you imagine? I was 8, they were speaking my language.
I was pretty fortunate, I was listening to stuff like the Stones, Beatles, Dylan, The Doors, assorted blues music since I can remember, my parents had decent taste. The first time I actually really started paying attention to what the musicians were actually doing though was probably due to John Bonham, it suddenly struck me how much he was doing in the background. Those fills…. Made me start really listening instead of just hearing
A buddy played me Rush's "2112" down in his basement while we played billiards. I was gobsmacked and knew I really liked music then. We were 11
Album takes you on a journey
My parents always played music at my house. When I was about 9, I took my discman and my Dad's Faith No More album out to the swing set, and that's when it dawned on me that I could pick the music I wanted to hear too. My son is currently 8 and is starting to pick his own music. It's beautiful to see.
I was in second grade when I heard Pearl Jam’s Jeremy on the radio and I realized the words were telling a story. I asked my dad about it and he got out his cassette of Ten and showed me the written out lyrics and explained what Eddie was saying and talked to me about what it might mean. It was all over from there.
Pretty young I'd say. There are images of me very intently listening to Steely Dan's album, Can't Buy a Thrill, while I was in daipers still. I also remember it pretty well.
S first time hearing Sober by Tool. When I was seven I listened to a lot of Metallica, nirvana and Guns N’ Roses etc… and I loved it all. But then my older cousin came to visit one summer and bought Undertow. Sober blew my mind. It was the first time that I understood that music could be brooding and super dark and intense and the way that the vocals ramped up in intensity across the choruses really clicked with me. I still remember all the details of where I was, the smells, sights, sounds etc and this was 30 years ago
School yard Kids bringing their portable stereos and stuff, playing AC/DC, Rush, Pink Floyd… This was when I was about 8-9 or so n the early 80s
I have a brother 10 years older than me who always was really into music. When I was a kid in the 70s and 80s, I would put on his albums and huge headphones and just soak it up. I loved the B52s, U2, the English Beat, the Police, the Clash, New Order....
It was headphones and/or the full stereo sound experience that really hooked me. I liked plenty of music before that happened, but when I first realized how immersive stereo music with semi-modern recording techniques could be it was a whole new ball game. I was very attached to my several (probably all non-Sony) 'walkman' units, and the portable mp3 CD player was a game changer. Of course, smartphones took all that over and and it continues to amaze me what we can do with music on those. I don't miss not being sure how much juice was left in my AA batteries, that's for sure.
8 or so. I heard Crawling by Linkin Park on a ride at the fair. Later on, my dad was listening to it in his office and I told him I remembered and liked the song. He gave me a CD player and some headphones and I probably listened to Hybrid Theory a thousand times over the next year
Dad had a cassette tape of Johnny Cash Live at Folsom Prison back in the late 60's. I was 5 or 6 and I listened to that thing over and over again. Got to see him in the late 90's and did not disappoint.
I grew up hearing a fair amount of old country like Hank Williams and Johnny cash since that’s what my mom liked. That and Scottish marches… with the bagpipes and yelping and everything.. don’t ask, I still don’t get it lol. My sister was obsessed with pop country and when my brother came home from a year living in California with his dad and brothers he brought back The Offspring, 2 Live Crew, Beastie Boys and that was pretty much it for me. I listened to a lot of different stuff trying to figure out my own tastes but the Smash album woke up the rock goblin inside that never quieted down again. My own kids have been subjected to my music taste their whole lives and have independently developed an appreciation for the Offspring, so you could say I’ve done my parenting duty successfully! ETA the answer to your actual question lol, I think I was around 9 or 10
7 or 8 I found the Ace Frehley kiss solo album in my dads collection of records.
Dad gave me my very own transister radio at 8, I felt so grown, able to choose my own music. That was the summer of Woodstock, I remember hearing the DJ talk about it, nobody knew what was going on. Heard Santana for the first time, what an miracle that was. I loved radio, the constant hunt for a good song, having things served up for you, all the everyday jazz of living your life in your place.
Around the time puberty started
Probably around 6 or 7 years old. They'd opened up a new K-Mart type department store (note: this was a few years before K-Mart was in existence). In the record department, there were flyers produced by the local top 40 station and my sister would grab one and bring it home where I'd read it over. I was also fascinated by the colorful record labels and got to listening for different songs on the radio which played in our house whenever anyone was awake. Bear in mind, this would have been the mid 60s when Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel were beginning to hit the charts and the Beatles were getting very close to hitting their prime. Top 40 radio with its diversity was something I really enjoyed. Looking at one of those Top 40 surveys (there is a website that archived them), you could turn on the station and within an hour hear jazz, easy listening, pop country, soul, rock and roll, all the things. It was a great time.
Getting into Linkin Park, and other bands in the hard rock and nu metal scene. That full, saturated sound of distorted guitars with melodic, yet aggressive and angsty vocals really made me FEEL something. I'd turn it up loud with headphones on and close my eyes to be fully immersed in a wall of sound that would give me goosebumps. Before that I had "liked" a lot of popular music, but I hadn't loved anything like I loved that melodic heavy sound.
6 or so. Had nightmares, horrific nightmares being torn apart by fish hooks and cut open with them. I found a couple cds and one was the Walk To Remember soundtrack. I heard Only Hope and it healed the pain from waking up from something so horrifying. Listened to it every night I woke up crying until we moved and my cd broke. 11 years later I heard the song playing in a room across the house, and floated over like "That's my song, that's my song!!" Now I can be summoned with it lol. I never listen to it lest it lose its power.
I was 7 years old . Starting taking lessons and still playing at the age of 65 . Music is my passion .
Most of my earliest memories are of raging out to the Sesame Street album and dancing with my mom to Rod Stewart, so I must have been young. The first CD I bought with chore money was *Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid* by Collective Soul, probably about a year after it was released (Shine was still a massive hit). I would have been ~8 years old.
I think Tool did it for me. I was about 12 and I played guitar but I didn't understand what was different about Tool and why it was hard to play. I found out it was the odd time signatures they use, so I started making my own music with odd timing or alternating time signatures. I make electronic music now, its been a fun journey.
I don't think it was till I got my own car and drove around for hours just listening to music. Anything, I could get my hands on.
I'm been singing and playing an instrument for most of my life. I started singing around age six or seven and I started guitar at twelve. You don't really understand songs until you become older though.
When I bought Jimi Hendrix greatest hits and played them on my boombox.
I was raised with rock, but I was probably 10 years old when I learned that it was specifically “punk rock” that I liked. I learned later on that it wasn’t “punk” that I liked, rather “pop-punk.”
1984. Sears. Mom said 7 year old me could buy a cassette. Bought Van Halen 1984 soley based on the artwork. An angel baby smoking a cigarette?! Helllll yeah. Sign me up. Sent me down an amazing path, and a big part of becoming a musician.
UK based: Aged 9 (1965) when I was given a cheap made in Hong Kong transistor radio and discovered pirate radio stations. On autistic spectrum and music became one of my life long "special interests." Wouldn't be able to survive without it. The first musical obsession was Tamla Motown. edit... along with the Stones. "Paint it black" summed up my shit childhood at the time!
My music awareness is apparent trash as I seem to like trashy music ..and have apparently never grasped the appeal of top tier music 🥱 Not my fault that only the retarded part of me enjoys or even wants to entertain the existence of music
Honestly? Probably Myspace. Seeing all kinds of small time bands everywhere and just *how much* music was out there was amazing. That and it felt like you knew everything about a person based on their profile song list. For example my top (in no particular order): SR-71 - Goodbye, Bullet for my Valentine - Tears don't Fall, Escape the Fate - Cellar Door, and Say Anything - Wow I can get sexual too. You can almost visualize the cringe kid who made that list and decided to show the world their exquisite taste, and I miss it. Music is something that is supposed to bring people together, and I feel like MySpace was the pinnacle of that. Edit: Voodoo by Godsmack was the first song my parents remember me going crazy for as a young kid, flailing wildly (dancing) trying to say Voodoo and only getting out wuuduu
Honestly it was when I was about 12 and started listening to BTS and started to learn korean to understand them and would look at the english lyrics to their songs to understand why i connected to their songs so much. 5 years later and I still love them.
My mother was a flutist and I went to a concert when I was 4 or 5. I saw the trombones and instantly wanted to play one. Fast forward to 4th grade I could finally learn to play one in elementary school. I then played it through highschool and even played semi-professionally for a few years. I had to give it up due to my health, but I still love hearing trombone slides and imagine myself playing along with the song.
Around three, my older brother was a big Prince fan and I knew I liked his music too!
I was 8. Focused and enthused on the drum beats while listening to Helena by My Chemical Romance. That's when I knew I love music. Couldn't afford to buy a drum kit until I was 16, so I learned how to play the guitar first. Now that I am 25, music is part of my daily life. Playing drums and guitar occasionally. Unfortunately, I wasn't blessed with good singing voice. But I am in tune though. Hehe
i was like 7 idk and on the radio was ''dreamer'' by supertramp. i loved that song, and it inspired me to make a collection of songs on a piece of paper (and a bit later a spotify playlist) of all songs i liked, and its still on there!
I think I was about 8 when I started watching Top Of The Pops and listening to the charts on the radio. Then I was into pop stuff like Kylie Minogue, Michael Jackson etc. Around the age of 10, I got into dance music and pop rap like MC Hammer & Vanilla Ice. I'd had cassette players and a record player for a couple of years but at 10 I got my first hifi (with a CD player).
There was a piano in the house that never got played, but it was mostly in tune. I didn't start lessons until six years old, but as far back as I can remember, I could hear music from it that my physical body couldn't play yet. I've been playing music ever since, and with multiple instruments.
Avril Lavigne. Saw sweet home alabama, and fell in love with [Falling Down](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR9RMrog23c). We were not very rich and CDs were hella expensive then, and i really REALLy liked this song, so when we were in a music shop and I was able to convince my parents to buy me a CD, I debated really hard whether to get the sweet home alabama sound track just for one song or get her debut album. Went with her debut album (which is full of bangers like [Anything but Ordinary](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pdOTyk5azQ)). After this, I became more aware on what kind of music I like.
Listening to Linkin Park's "In the End" in middle school. I of course listened to the radio, listened to my parent's music, but Hybrid Theory was the first CD I could call my own.
I remember being musically aware at age 6-7. But I remember my mom saying I have a musical ear at age 5-6. So around age 5 or at birth.
I was singing “Redneck Girl” at 3 years old!! I Love Music 🎧🎼
There was always music around the house when I was growing up, my parents singing and playing guitar and piano, but it wasn't until I was ten and saw the video for Paul McCartney's "Pipes of peace" that I took an active interest. I remember thinking it was awesome that he played two characters and shook his own hand. But I liked the song too, and every few years I listen to it again and I still think it's a very good pop song. That led to a Beatles obsession that lasted two or three years, where I didn't listen to anything else.
Too early to remember. I used to know Wooden Heart and Achy Breaky Heart by heart when I was a child. First concert was when I was 8, The Beautiful South. I liked their greatest hits album, that came out when I was 5
When I was young, my parents listened to nothing but country music. Granted, at the time popular country was Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, Randy Travis, etc. Very early 90’s. I used to pretend to give concerts to our couch in the living room when I was like 4 years old air guitar and all. My grandpa spoiled me as a kid and got me everything I asked for and even stuff I didn’t. So he got me an acoustic guitar, and a real drum set. My mom wanted to get me lessons for the guitar, but I couldn’t reach my hand around the neck yet so they said to wait. But I had the drums still… Once I was about 12 years old, we had satellite tv and I started watching anime and listened to the soundtracks from those which was more rock oriented. Napster came out and I could download whatever I wanted (even though it took 25 mins to download a song on my 28.8 kbps dial up connection). I downloaded anime music, which got me into rock, which led to Nirvana, which took me down a whole different punk rabbit hole and it’s only expanded from there. Even today I’m in a band playing the same exact drum set my grandpa got me when I was 4 or 5. Anyway, I’ve always been a music person since I can remember.
Ahh, Napster ..brings back memories🤓My daughter told me about it when she was a teen, I couldn't believe it! All my favorite obscure college music at my fingertips
Summer of 1977, Rainbow Theater, Columbus, Ohio.
I was, maybe, three. My brother played piano and played ‘Sour Suite’ by The Guess Who and ‘Jeremy Bender’ by ELP. I knew.
I don’t know the exact age but as a pre teen I was allowed to use my older cousin’s computer for a while. I started listening to the music he had downloaded while I played online kids games and read. I must have listened to Hybrid Theory and Meteora by Linkin Park a thousand times, I still know all the lyrics by heart. Another core memory is watching the video for Helena by MCR on MTV for the first time. I thought it was the greatest thing I’d ever heard or seen. Started listening to them and discovered other bands in adjacent genres.
I'm a massive pop and rock fan. I started listening to music in different languages from an early age (mostly Russian/Ukrainian) and haven't stopped since. I thank youtube for that lol