Who inspired your musical taste?

[HardyGirl]

I was thinking about this yesterday as I was playing The Playa Cofi Jukebox.

When I was a kid, my older brother and sister (twins, sister is now deceased), had very different musical tastes. My brother Darryl, is very much an R&B Motown kinda guy. He would play The Jackson 5, The Temptations, Four Tops, Delfonics, Stylistics and others constantly. He was always playing his stereo in the house, and homemade tapes on his boombox when we went to the park. My sister, Drenette was bused to a school in a prodominently white area in NYC near Central Park West (no racial slurs, trying to make a point). Since most of her friends were white, she listened to music like Seals & Croffts, Donovan, Blood Sweat & Tears, America and so on. I shared a room and a bed w/ her, and the clock radio in our room would always be playing and when she took me out to meet up w/ her friends, this is what they'd listen to. On Saturday mornings, sometimes it was a battle between them to see if we'd be tuning in to American Bandstand or Soul Train, (on at the same time). As a result, my musical taste is pretty varied. Since I'm black, this has sometimes caused problems for me, since many black folks think all I should listen to is R&B, Soul and Rap.

OK, long-winded, but I said all that to ask the musical question, who inspired your musical taste?

[kennermike]

My Dad and mom .especially my Dad they were big Disco and Funk people they would go dancing sometimes on Saturday nights

I grew up on,KC and the Sunshine Band, The Whispers, EWF, Bee Gees, SOS band, Kool and the GANG, Micheal Jackson Off the the Wall album Sister Sledge ,Chic was especially huge at my house,and every other group that was making the airwaves between 1977 through 1980.Those are my roots in music
Except for the Village People as a 6 year old in 1977 you have to draw the line somewhere

[Mikey]

My older sisters got me liking classic pop.

My older brother got me to liking country

My mom got me to liking polka's

I started liking harder rock on my own.

[Riffster]

I think i discovered my tatses on my own, i like a little bit of everything actually well except most thing current.

always liked the Monkees from watching the re-runs, Beach Boys morphed into the Stones and Beatles and then harder stuff AC/DC, Van Halen, kiss and the Who, I think it just evolved

[megoapesnut]

Mostly my friends. Up until 9th grade I was on oldies fan. I mostly listened to ELVIS, Buddy Holly, Beach Boys, Beatles and other 50's, 60's music. The summer before 9th grade, we took a bus trip to Wildwood, New Jersey. I played one of the games on the boardwalk. The one where you throw a wiffle ball onto a grid and if it falls in one of the few colored holes, you win your choice of prizes. The prizes were pretty lame so my friend told me to snag the one album they had. It was the Eagles - The Long Run. I listened to that when we got home and realized that current music was pretty darn good. After that it was Casey Kasem's top 40 every weekend and by the time I was in high school my friends were listening to Van Halen, Judas Priest, AC/DC, etc. That's pretty much the way my taste went from there. Then RUSH - Moving Pictures was released and I was an instant RUSH fanatic. Sometime after high school, I started to mellow a little and picked up an appreciation for David Sanborn, Al Jarreau and Karen Carpenter (sweetest voice there ever was). I still listen to those when the mood strikes me, but I am a rocker at heart.

[Werewolf]

Interesting question.

Hmmm, I was exposed to fairly different types of music. My Mom was more of a hard rock and classical music type and my Dad was more into country. Don't care for most country except for some Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison. I also got exposed to whatever was popular at the time through the stations my Dad played on the car radio.

I still remember the first albums I picked out for myself as a little kid. A Peter Pan Monster Mash 45 and a Kiss Rock and Roll over LP.

I remember my sis had an Everly Brothers and Simon and Garfunkel LPs. Think they were a gift from my Aunt. Could not stand them and she played them all the time. To this day the "Sound of Silence" makes me irritable.

[Brazoo]

Friends - we all use to make mix tapes and pass them around. I always thought my friends with the older siblings new the coolest music.

[jp1969]

I shared a room with my brother who is 6yrs older than I.He had one of those portable record players,you know the 1s that could fold into a suitcase?
I have fond memories of listening to the stones,Elvis,The geuss Who and all my bros faves.My brothers turned me on to all my faves.Until I grew into a rebelious teen that is.

[livnxxxl]

I think I found mine by listening to KISS on the radio when Mom and Dad would so generously now and then let me listen to "my station" in the car.

"Shout it" and "Detroit Rock City" were two of my favorite songs that I first listened to.

[the editor]

As a pre-teen - I was influenced a lot from my parents with early Beatles, Elvis, Buddy Holly, The Platters, Simon & Garfunkel and even Disco (which I loved). My older brother and his pals were the typical "Scarbarian" teenagers of the late 70s - early 80s in suburban Toronto. Their "type" inspired the Wayne's World cast of characters. There was one guy I remember who had a Renault LeCar done up to the teets (sound system courtesy of Radio Shack) and he would always be blasting Rush's "Tom Sawyer" when he came over to pick-up my bro. So I kinda got into some of that prog-rock crap - extending as far as Boston, Styx, Floyd, AC/DC, ELO etc. Then my sister was into late punk-ish, early new wave stuff - Blondie, Plasmatics etc. and took me to my first concert at 14 - watching Split Enz at famed Massey Hall in the early 80s. In high school - i was a Brit Pop fanatic and then became a real hip-hop fan. I like it all I guess. I draw the line at Bieber though.

[Hector]

My dad was into classical music, regional Mexican ranchera music, danzón, tangos, boleros, salsa, cumbias, and Spanish flamenco music.

My mom also shared his love for rancheras/danzón/tangos/boleros/salsa/cumbias...but she was also a huge Elvis Presley groupie, so I got to hear a lot of 50's rockabilly too, lol.

But the one who really influenced me the most was my older half brother. He's a Mexican citizen...and when I lived in Mexico for seven years, I was so intrigued by him, for he listened to nothing but 60s and 70s rock music instead of Mexican music, he was we call a Mexican rockero, lol.

So from ages 7-14...I got bombarded with Beatles, Stones, The Who, Hendrix, the Doors, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Queen, Janis Joplin, Black Sabbath, KISS, and on, and on, and on...lol.

...and to this day...that's why I still like the most...

[Meule]

My dad. And my friends as far as metal goes

[LonnieFisher]

Dr. Demento!

[stevenlore]

The Beatles, and John Lennon. The Lennon/McCartney song writing team really reaches me on a personal level. Then there is John's solo work that is just The Beatles to the next level. Songs like "Cold Turkey", "Working Class Hero", "I Found Out", "Imagine", "Mind Games", they are just timeless and human. I am just drawn to songs that have some sort of meaning to them, more than just "boy meets girl" stuff. That is fine when you are 16 and that is all you think about. Now sure, the Beatles wrote plenty of that kind of music, but they grew into prolific song writers that had something to say. But unlike alot of bands who stayed in that style, The Beatles grew up and started to write about what effected them as grown ups, war, taxes, children, jobs, just real life.

My older brother got me into the Beatles and from there I became a big fan of John Lennon. To this day my music that I listen to is 75% Lennon and Beatles.

From there, I got my younger brother into The Beatles.

Eventually I started liking Talking Heads and I got my older brother into them.

[EmergencyIan]

My parents inspired my musical tastes. And, it wasn't intentional.

- Ian