While I have pretty broad tastes and there's alot of overlap, in general I'm an '80s music lover and a '90s television and movie fan.

This might be partially from my own experiences as both times happened. I heard lots of pop music as a kid. My parents liked it, as did alot of other people I knew, and it just permeated the culture anyway, so I was very much exposed to it. I also had a shorter attention span when I was really young, so it took me longer to gravitate towards television until 1991 when I was 9-10 (although I already loved video games). Up until that point, I couldn't always sit through an entire movie either.

TV and movies also deal more with the entire scope of life and get into personalized situations with people. In that respect, I can get into the '90s more in an "I lived it with detail" way which I can't always relate to with everything from the '80s. Like, I'd feel more comfortable actually living there. Also, I became interested in deeper, more serious stuff, like Dateline, Unsolved Mysteries, talk shows, politics and police stories. Because of this, I probably have an extremely accurate picture of several aspects of that era due to paying attention to everything.


This seems to be the other way around with alot of people. Given, it might be largely centered on cartoons or other kids' stuff, but many people's first significant pop cultural memories tend to usually be with something they saw on TV. Probably video games would be a big part of it, especially for current '00s kids, since there's so many systems and choices. Although I know almost every kid loved the NES back in the day too.

Music probably tends to come a bit later. Like 6 to 10 with most kids, and even then, sometimes it's just casually. Of course it depends on the individual (yeah, I know I say this all the time, but I've seen so many examples that you can't lump people of certain ages together). However, I've noticed alot of my peers born in the early 1980s aren't as "hardcore" into '80s music as I am. Especially the more cheesy, dated stuff that's exclusive to that period, such as arena rock, pop-wave or hair metal. Alot of people I went to high school with sorta liked and knew about it, but more on a basic level and favored early-mid '90s alternative rock or hip hop. On the other hand, I love alot of that too, just maybe not quite as much.

How was everyone else's experience in relation to mine? Do you think it was unusual for me to become attached to music first?


P.S. I really need to figure out a way to condense my posts. ;D

I was a late boomer to a lot of things. I didn't really get much into music or TV or movies til 13. And even then it was just casual. Wasn't til 15 that I really formed my own musical "taste". I was also into more early-mid 90s alternative and hard rock than my peers who were into mostly 00s alt. rock & metal.

I came up in the Nirvana/Pearl Jam period and thus listened a lot of that growing up. I pretty much thought Nirvana was the be all - end all of everything. Anyway, from that I took the same distortion and over-driven guitar heavy music and started listening to a lot of Metallica, Motorhead etc and just sort of went from there.

Basically I listen to the music I grew up hearing in the 80s and 90s.  Nowadays, I generally listen to anything that isn't popular in North America (pending a few exceptions). 

It's funny, what got me to broaden my musical tastes ... Back in the late 90s, a German DJ named Sash! had this hit called 'Stay' that spilled over into the Canadian Top 40.  I saw the video on TV and was like "Wow!  I love this song" so I went out to find a Sash! CD, but instead, I found this CD in a used CD shop called 'Now That's What I Call Music! 38' that had that song on it.  It was a UK CD, and needless to say, I loved alot of the songs on that CD, so I started collecting these CDs and slowly got into the UK Music scene.  Nowadays, I keep track of what's in the UK and Internaional charts, and I always find new favourites

I think my tastes all started around the same time. For as long as I can remember, I loved listening to music on my parent's stereo and enjoyed watching TV shows and movies on TV (as long as it didn't come on past my bedtime). If the stereo wasn't on, then the TV was on, and vice versa. By 1996 or 1997 I started to grow bored with the current music scene, and was even more nostalgic than ever.

My taste in music, formed really later in my life, especially with 80's music.

Lately, I starting to kind of like listening to Carly Simon and Joni Mitchell.

I have always loved music, right from first being able to speak I was learning lyrics! One of my tutors at college said if they set my coursework to music I'd be a straight A student.  ;D

I was into ABBA from the age of 5, I was then into chart stuff at school. I was a bit of a Ska fan until the New Romantics came along. My brother  was into METAL and I liked some of it but it wasn't until I heard the likes of Bon Jovi that I found my calling!! I became a huge Glam Metal fan with a bit of a side thing for thrash. At one point I went to 76 gigs in 7 months whilst writting for a local music paper.Interestingly I have always loved 50's Rock and Roll, Eddie Cochrane for example and I'll happilly listen to a bit of classical music too. 

I was born in Holland Dutch mom - American dad.

In 1969 we moved from Holland to the states. We were barely stateside a few months and my father got shipped off to Vietnam . My mom worked nights and slept days and I remember watching the electric company and Seasame street and learning english from these shows.

When my father returned we moved a lot. It was hard making friends because we moved every year to two years. The only thing that never changed was the TV schedule so the tv became my best friend.  Hence my signature  ;)

Even when I went to other countries, there were always a few American shows I could watch.

I got into music big time around 1983.  Started off into a lot of the Hard Rock & Metal at the time (Def Leppard, Kiss, Mötley Crüe, AC/DC, Quiet Riot, Van Halen etc.).  I liked a great deal of Top 40 also; watched MTV a lot.  The end of 1984 I started messing around with "tape editing" tracks to make my own remixes.  Didn't even hear about beatmixing/mixshows until 1985 until Hot Mix popped up on the airwaves of KOPA-FM early that year.  It took me about a year to remotely figure out how mixing two songs together works (without a mixer nonetheless; I was pretty creative as a young lad and MacGuyvered two belt-drive turntables to feed into my boom box ;D).  I started buying 12" singles and pretty much ended buying cassettes, except blank ones to record my mixes.

I had aspirations of DJing in a club and got a break in 1990 at a teen club I frequented regularly in North Phoenix.  Prior to 1989 most of the music I played was mainstream Top 40 and R&B.  After getting the club gig I've done my best to keep up with current "dance club music" and my preferences/tastes in music have encompassed the following:

1990-1991: Hip-Hop/Top 40, later in the year House/Acid and Alternative/Progressive/Industrial Dance Music (Nitzer Ebb, Depeche Mode, New Order, Nine Inch Nails etc.)
1992-1993: Techno/Rave/Electronica (The Prodigy, Altern 8, 2 Unlimited, Urban Shakedown, Moby, SL2), Grunge (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden etc) and Italo-NRG (Cappella, 49ers)
1994-1996: Euro-NRG (Corona, Whigfield, Real McCoy, Culture Beat), Trance, Trip-Hop
1997-2003: House, Techno, Hip-Hop

Mid-2003 I finally had my own PC with cable modem so I started catching up on some great music I may have missed from the past 25 years or so.  Was given my own 80's mixshow on Renegade Retro, so my preferences have reverted back to dance music from about 1980-1995.  In November I'm showcasing all 90's music for the third year in a row.  And as of late I'm becoming fond of the whole Disco-Punk/Electroclash scene.  8)

I didn't own a CD player until 1991.  I started buying CDs then if I wanted albums or compilations, but still bought a lot of vinyl.  I finally got a dual CD player designed for DJs in 1999 - at that point my CD purchases increased dramatically.  Then I finally bought a CD burner in 2001.  I probably have over 1,000 CDs now. :P

As far as movies and TV, those tastes also surfaced in my formative years.  I love a good comedy.  I'm not a huge fan of reality TV, except for "The First 48" on A&E because that's as real as it gets.

Well, I first got into listening to the Ramones at around the age of 13. I was rummaging through my older cousin's music, and I stumbled upon a few of their tapes....I listened, and have been a huge fan ever since.


As for my passion for all things retro....I guess I kind of inherited that from my parents. They were always into antique/older things...and it just escalated for me. :D

Hmm well at home we always listened to the Top 30/40 on Sunday evenings and watched Top of the Pops on Thursday (back when it was decent).  I was singing pop songs from a fairly early age.  The first song I can recall learning all the words to was Sunday Girl by Blondie.  I have two older brothers and they started to get into more alternative music.  Paul favoured electronic stuff such as Gary Numan, Kraftwerk etc.  Stuart went for the punk stuff - Sex Pistols, Stiff Little Fingers, Crass etc.  I liked much of the stuff that they listened to.  In particular early stuff from The Cure and I was a big Toyah fan (though no one else was!)

Also we listened to a radio show on Sunday lunchtimes.  I can't remember the name of it but it was by Jimmy Saville and he would feature two different years and play some of the top songs from the week.  He would get you to do little quizzes amongst the family like naming the exact song title as given on the record cover.  Through listening to this I also started to like sixties music and got into music trivia.

Nowadays I'm not sure what my tastes are!

I was a late boomer to a lot of things. I didn't really get much into music or TV or movies til 13.


ditto