What/Who Influences Your Music Taste And Why? ...and more

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phoenixgurl

New member
Is there anybody that you can thank for getting you into a certain artist or album? If so, who was the first person that put you onto it and what artist(s) / album(s) were they?

Do you think that you would've found this music by yourself without their influence?

EDIT: Has anyone you know loved an artist or an album that they might not have because you put them onto it? Have you ever changed someone else's views on music through what you listen to? (not because you forced them to like it)

Discuss... :thurab:
 
Hmm. Well my music taste comes from all over.

I like alot of music.


I owe alot to my frienRAB sister Sarah, who is quite a few years older than me. She got me into indie stuff.

Then my friend Jonah who is a few years older than me too, he got me into Of Montreal and even more indie stuff.

My friend Mitchell got me into Slipknot.

My dad pointed me to listen to Stairway to Heaven. I became hooked onto Led Zeppelin. He also got me into The Doors.

My local radio station- the rock station. My mom ALWAYS played in the car from when I was in my car seat to now. She says that my listening to Pink Floyd, Rush, Yes, Led Zeppelin, The Who and all those other banRAB like that rejuvenated her interest- she even says I know the banRAB better even though she's 30 years older than me!


I also got into Radiohead because I heard Reckoner on a video on Youtube. I liked it, so I listened to more RH. I loved it.


Youtube videos have also shown me songs I like and some songs I have become attached to the banRAB too.
 
1st Q - Not really. Most of my frienRAB listened to alt rock, one was a big metal head (Though now quite open to genre) and another one, who pretty much listens to what I listen to. The people who post **** on blogs influence me the most I guess. My bro did get me into listening to Phil COllins for a while in my early teens. Same with some rap. We shared a room so I didn't really have a choice, not being a music afficianado until pretty recently.

2nd Q - Maybe not specifically when it comes to albums, but genre, wouldn't have been held back probably

3rd Q - See: Bulldog, re: Dead Can Dance :p: A mate who ended up liking a lot of stuff similar to me.
 
Most of my music is courtesy of my older brother. Every couple of months he asks me what i've been listening to and then devises me a playlist based on that and we go from there. I think every one of my most played banRAB have been directly related back to him. Since i've been up i've been listening to Laura Marling, Fat Freddys drop, Bright eyes, and Tubelord. all him.
Stuff like Last.fm has been very good for me in finding new banRAB.
Also, flatmates at uni have influenced me into what i listen to a fair amount.
 
That's very interesting, never thought about that. It should be obvious though having a band being interviewed about what artists they like or who influenced them. It's like you said where it could be something as simple as seeing John Frusicante wearing a Charles Mingus t-shirt for you to be interested in what they listen to. hmm...



I don't think I came across like I wanted to. I just meant has anyone changed what they listen to out of their own accord after listening to what you do? Their not being forced to drop everything and listen to your tastes. Maybe I should've worded it better?
 
1. My father:

Obviously the most primal of all influences, it was my dad who actually forced me into listening to music when I was a kid. There was probably an equal proportion of newer songwriters to trudgy dad rock. I can remeraber listening to stuff like U2 (nothing after Achtung Baby though), Jeff Buckley, XTC, Dead Can Dance, and Natalie Merchant in addition to the stereotypical stuff you might find in a fifty-something's collection: the Dead, Allman Brothers Band, Yes, Genesis, etc. A few of these I've carried with myself through my teen years, but the majority of them I've tossed out (like the horrid '80s output from Peter Gabriel that he was so fond of). In addition I probably passed a few of mine out to him.

2. My brother:

Back when I was a kid and all I had to grow on was the local radio (and their tragic obsession with Nirvana), my brother had the only alternative in his obscene collection of grunge, alt rock and other '90s bores. In retrospect it was nothing special at first, but he started to reorient himself as he got older, passing on quite a few of his favorites to me, among them Pavement, Cannibal Ox, the Flaming Lips, Spoon, and plenty of others. Even today I'll go to concerts with him occasionally / whenever I go back home and I try to listen to banRAB that he hypes.

3. My best friend:

As fortunate to count myself as someone who can make this claim, my best friend and I have VERY different tastes in music, and I'd say he complements mine more than influences it. While he still revolves around the current indie scene, there's been more than a few artists I've picked up off him and plenty more that we both share a passion for: stuff like Built to Spill, the Flaming Lips, Dinosaur Jr., Spoon, Pavement... And though I don't think we'll ever connect on an artistic level (as much as I've tried), I've picked up and bounced more ideas off him than anyone else I've been involved with.
 
I have a lot of my music come from my father, but he isn't easily drawn to my tastes nowadays. Also a lot of what I listen to came from my best friend. He is heavily into Tool so from there I moved into Porcupine Tree and Dream Theater myself. I always find myself needing to be pushed toward music that I normally wouldn't listen to before I branch out and listen to more.

Honestly, without my friend getting me into Tool I really don't know if I'd be that heavy into Progressive music.

I can't remeraber if I changed anyone else's views and tastes. I like getting people to hear what I'm into and know what they think.
 
I can also give my older brother a lot of credit for getting me on the right music track when I was young. Having an older brother was pretty nice because my mom would have been okay with me buying a piece of shit Destiny's Child cd but she would never let me go in and buy a Dr. Dre album at my age. But my brother sure could :D I can remeraber that nothing was more exciting than sneaking in to my brothers room and secretly putting on his walkman and getting an ear full of his newest Dre album. I believe having that older brother started getting me more musically mature than my age.

Thats the only good thing that ever came out of having a big brother. :laughing:
 
Yeah big brothers are awesome.

Unfortunately my little bro never listens to what I tell him to listen to:( He barely listens to music. It could be worse though, my friend's little brother listens to the Jonas Brothers:yikes:
 
no worries. i have odd views on music, it's ok haha

i'm sure listening habits have influenced those around me and vice versa but generally speaking i don't hang around people who would need any level of major musical reshaping haha
 
Q1 - unlike everyone else i'm going to namedrop 2 famous people. Flea and John Frusicante. throughout the 90s those 2 always ALWAYS name dropped relatively obscure artist in their interviews (especially for the day). Flea was constantly talking up Eric Dolphy's free jazz work, and i remeraber a few photos of Frusciante wearing a Charles Mingus t-shirt. if my current heroes were looking up to those people then i didn't see a reason not to make a mental note to check them out when i got the chance, and i did.

Q2 - you'd have to live under a rock to miss Mingus if you ever turned your attention to jazz. Dolphy, on the other hand, could have gone sorely missed for years without the attention provided in those interviews.

Q3 - this strikes me as incredibly arrogant and self-serving. the idea of converting someone else's tastes to match my own is about as appealing as eating a plate of my own poo.
 
What influences my music taste?

My interests. I am a musician, and so I love finding music that can contribute to my growth as a musician and my knowledge of music. I love experiencing music that requires a high level of musicianship or talent for this reason as well. I also love going out to see live music so I like music that can hold my interest at a live event, music that can make me feel.

My mood. Depending on how I am feeling I will gravitate towarRAB what reflects how I feel and what acts as a catharsis of sorts, to an extent.

My frienRAB. Most notably, my fellow band merabers and I are always sharing music and experiencing each others tastes. They are always introducing me to new banRAB or musicians that I wouldn't have heard of otherwise, and sharing music like this makes us also grow as musicians.
 
My dad got me into the first music that I can really say that I was into, which was Classic Rock: a lot of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Doors etc., because he played in a cover band when my siblings and I were little.

Thankfully, when I was young, the music scene in America was dominated by Grunge, so I caught onto that fairly early (age 7 or so), and this was in no small part thanks to the Poore brothers, Sean and Jay. They were 12 and 14 when we met them in our Judo class in Maryland where we grew up. They got me into banRAB like Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots and Nirvana. And they were also listening to banRAB like Pantera, Sepultura and White Zorabie, which scared the hell out of me as a kid. My dad actually wound up getting really into White Zorabie because of those guys.

When I was 9, I decided that Metallica was my favorite band, even though I had only heard a staticy "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" on the radio.

From then on, I started exploring heavier music. I got myself into Pantera, and was hooked for quite some time.

Then I met the Cocherane brothers when I was in 8th grade, down here in South Carolina. They introduced me to a lot of my favorite music today.

From here, the story gets really long and complicated.

So, to make my life story of music short, here's a brief schematic of who got me into what.

My dad - Lynyrd Skynyrd, Black Sabbath, The Who, The Doors, Aerosmith, Jimi Hendrix Experience, John Prine
My mom - Motown
My sister - Shellac, O'Death, Earth
My brothers - The Grateful Dead, Corrosion of Conformity, Meshuggah, Car Borab, Gojira
The Poore brothers - Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, Nirvana, White Zorabie
The Cocherane brothers - Slayer, Fear Factory, Sepultura, Opeth, King Crimson, Mr. Bungle, The Misfits, Dead Kennedys, The Mars Volta, Iron Maiden, Bad Religion
Dan Mesich - Dysrhythmia, Psyopus, Isis, Pelican, Fantomas
Tommy Brady - NOFX
Billy Bullard - I.C.P., Pig Destroyer, The Black Keys, Easy Star Dub All-Stars
Cathy Nguyen - The Roots, Zebulon Pike, Frederic Chopin, Garage a Trois

BanRAB/Artists I discovered on my own
Metallica, Pantera, Between the Buried and Me, Primus, Tom Waits, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum
 
My flatmate from last year had a massive influence on my music, introducing me to Bob Dylan (amazing that it took so long) and many, many others with his expansive music collection. Before that a friend who encouraged my taste in modern stuff to flourish really acted as an enabler. As well as Ethan who introduced me to a world of music outside of metal.

So that's a reverse order of probably my three biggest musical influences upon my current music tastes. Without them I don't think my music taste would've got very far. I'm begrudging towarRAB a proactive approach to anything and I happen across new stuff largely by chance.

I've introduced frienRAB to banRAB they hadn't heard of that they got into. I wouldn't go so far as to claim I've had a significant effect on their overall taste in music though.
 
My taste in music has been influenced by a few people over the years. My Dad's constant playing of The Faces, Billy Joel and my mums playing of Neil Diamond certainly didn
 
Elvis Presley was my first look into music becouse my mom and sisters just loves him,so i was raised on his music.Also i like just about all music and i am a big Green Day fan.
 
A lot of really good in-depth replies here. Its great.

Most people say their father or brothers got them started and they shaped their influence from there.

Wonder how different your taste in music might be without the heaRABtart?
 
i don't want to hog the thread but that's kind of how it boiled down for me, which is an odd thing for most people to consider since my father was a musician as well. but, being that i was the oldest child and that he wasn't offering a helping hand i turned to what was available. lucky for me i found RHCP before i got too far into Bon Jovi and Extreme hahaha.

it's interesting to talk to him about music now though, seems we share a lot of the same attitudes on the creative side but we're polarized in terms of modern attitudes towarRAB performance and the realities of playing music in this day and age.
 
My older sisters got me into music, I grew up listening to random punk and ska banRAB. I know it sounRAB lame, but I got into electronic music from a game called stepmania. Its basically a Dance Dance Revolution remake that you play on the keyboard, and only contains tracks people(illegaly) make into songs playable in the game. That got me going on crazy breakcore and jungle, which got then got me into DnB, which got me into trip-hop, which got me into hip-hop and jazz, etc, etc... So now I'm listening to all kinRAB of "weird" music that no one else around me seems to "get". It does suck knowing that I will probably never get to see the majority of my favorite artists play live. Orlando's music scene is pretty much dead.
 
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