I started Neal off young with pop music at about 18 months of age.  I was watching the extras on the Monterrey Pop Festival, and he really liked the Association, "Along Comes Mary".  We went through the rest of the tracks, and there was a couple other tracks he seemed to like quite a bit.  So I burned him a custom mix with just the songs he liked.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4Vqoxa-lOY

He'll be five in a couple months now and he's definitely very picky about which songs he likes.  The oddest part for me is that I thought at his age he'd prefer more melodic songs like the Association or the Beach Boys. Instead the music he prefers is more atonal like Devo, Nirvana, Weird Al, and now Static-X. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps0MfBG5-Uo

I don't remember liking anything my parents didn't like until I was at least ten.  I know I had access to my own radio by age 7 and I definitely stuck to the same radio stations my parents listened to until at least age 10 or 11.  Neal on the other hand is able to pop around on YouTube as he sees fit while I'm doing something else (within earshot of course, I know there's plenty of inappropriate things on YouTube).  He doesn't seem to have strayed far from what I listen to yet (though I can safely say it's not all what Susan likes), but he's definitely picky about what he likes already.

So, when did you start listening to music that your parents didn't listen to?

I was 9 or 10 when "Pop Musik" by M came out!  I remember my mother like "What the hell is this?" and I was thinking "This is the coolest thing I've ever heard".   ;D

I've always played music for my daughter from many different eras because that is what I listen to.  She likes Joy Division, oddly enough and some others that are off the beaten path of what you think might interest kids.  She's also only 7 so she loves Miley and the Justin Beiber and I'm like "What the hell is that?"  :D

I pretty much just listened to whatever was on the radio, or what my mom listened to as she liked what was on the radio also.  First album I ever loved was a cassette we had called 'Rock Sizzzlers'.  It was a Polystar compilation of 16 various artists from 1984.  I still have the original cassette, but it is so worn out, I have since found a replacement.

http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/5/8/2/5/4/5/webimg/271563478_tp.jpg

I really started developing my own taste in music around age 12-13. Throughout most of middle school, I just listened to whatever my older brother listened to. Even before that, I listened to whatever my dad listened to, which was mostly New Age music and Smooth Jazz, as well as songs from Bollywood films.

5th Grade

7 or 8.

I can remember being into stuff that mom didn't like about that time. 

I remember developing my own taste in music when I was in my teens,I enjoyed the jamminoldies.

Around 5th-6th grade (11-12 yrs old, 1983-84).  Started out as a lot of Top 40 and Rock/Metal, then evolved into what was being played in nightclubs/on Hot Mix.

I was about 6. The year was 1969. Really good stuff was on the radio back then. I still like the music from that period the best. Got in to the Beatles, Stones, CCR, and whatever else was on AM radio. Liked the early 1970s music, bubblegum stuff, depressings songs, love songs, Partridge family, Carpenters, Chicago and other acts of that time period.

In the mid 70s I began to listen to FM radio and got into louder music.

I was about 6. The year was 1969. Really good stuff was on the radio back then. I still like the music from that period the best. Got in to the Beatles, Stones, CCR, and whatever else was on AM radio. Liked the early 1970s music, bubblegum stuff, depressings songs, love songs, Partridge family, Carpenters, Chicago and other acts of that time period.

In the mid 70s I began to listen to FM radio and got into louder music.


Pretty much the same for me..though I was 4 in 1969.

I started thinking about music at the age of 5 but started developing my own taste in music around the age of 8 or 9.

I started thinking about music at the age of 5 but started developing my own taste in music around the age of 8 or 9.


You were pretty young as well ! I remember I used to nag my parents for 45s instead of toys  ;D  I still have them all too!

From the ages of 11-13, there were defining moments that my taste in music drifted from my parents:

-I began taking my walkman with me on car trips to listen to my Corey Hart, Tiffany, and Glass Tiger tapes

-I remember changing the radio station while I waited for my mom when she went into the store to pick up some food, and I remember her to change it back to her station while a Debbie Gibson song was playing.

-Being in a diner when a Milli Vanilli song was playing and thinking how cool I thought the song was while my parents were complaining that it sounded like a bunch of noise.

-Rick Astley's "She Wants to Dance With Me" kept playing constantly in the car while we were in Florida, and I was silently marveling over how he was such a hot awesome singer while I could tell that my dad was becoming annoyed (lol).

My mom likes to tell a story about how I used to sing "So Happy Together" by The Turtles word for word when I was about 4... I don't really remember that, though.  When I was really young I do remember liking my dad's music (doo-wop & motown) better than my mom's (Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, etc).  I think Olivia Newton-John's Magic was the first I really liked that I hadn't gotten from my parents... I guess I was 8 then, and my taste developed from there. 

Looking back, it seems like most of the songs I really liked were from 1977 (age 5) and 1983 (age 11).  The ones from 1977 I may have discovered later, though.

Well first started maybe around 8 or 9 but it wasn't until 2001 that I really started listening to music lots. These days I'm pretty eccentric, I've grown to love the Beatles and even like Led Zeppelin and like alternative hard rock kind stuff as well, along with the Rihanna/GaGa/Beyonce more embarrassing stuff lol.

You were pretty young as well ! I remember I used to nag my parents for 45s instead of toys  ;D  I still have them all too!


Nice one, Moo. I am glad you kept all your old stuff.  8)

Yeah, my family were pretty poor when I was a kid so I relied on my dad's record collection and that kind of influenced my taste in music (which is probably why I love stuff even people my age have problems dealing with...like Ladybug's 'Pop Music' by M, lol). As the 1990s started I yearned for the 80s music...Most probably because it was my childhood, times were simple for me back then and the status quo was stable to an extent.

Do you have a favourite song you listen to over again?

I began to develop my own taste in music at around 12-13. I used to just listened to what my family listened to. Now I primarily listen to power metal like Freedom Call and Japanese rock like Psychic Lover.

My earliest developed tastes in music started around the age of 5 or so, as far as I can remember.

My dad and mom's preferences were what I listened to. Mainly Aerosmith, Black Sabbath and the Beatles to name a few. In the 80s and 90s I listened to Weird Al alot and in the early 90s my tastes started gravating toward the alt. rock and grunge scene music wise. I haven't really develop any taste in any of the newer bands that are out now, other than a few new songs here and there.