At what age did you discover the music you like best

[iLikeBeer]

I trace my TRUE love for music to when my family moved to Wooster, Ohio when I was between the 7th and 8th grade in the early 80's.  The College of Wooster had a radio station that played exclusively college radio and this quickly became my favorite radio station and most of my friends I made were also like minded in our love for the local college radio station. 

I did evolve into becoming a pretty big Dead Head as I got into high school as two of my best friends had parents who were big Dead Heads. One of my friends inherited his dad's VW bus; a vintage pop up camper which we painted SYF's and roses over the whole thing.    Of course, I never gave up my love for new music either even though most of my Dead Head friends were pretty close minded to listening to anything other than Dead/Phish/other jam bands. 

While I have always been open to looking for and seeking out new music as I continue to do to this day, I always go back to my roots I formed when I discovered college radio in the early 80's and of course, the Grateful Dead...

[manonthemoon]

I think for me its an ongoing thing.  My first love was grunge/alternative in the early/mid 90's then metal later in the decade and then since then I really don't have a typical genre, just bands I really like and enjoy.  MMJ I didn't hear until 06 but love it just the same as Soundgarden or Pantera, etc.  I usually tend to just be in certain moods and my music choice varies with that so I listen to everything from bluegrass to hip hop to black metal to punk, really never made a difference about what era the music was from.

[el_chode]

Def ongoing. Most 90s alt is now pure nostalgia and a lot sounds like overproduced super-forced crap. However, i grew up on classic rock, and liked Phish but was too young to "get it", and perhaps it set the stage for a decade or so later. Hard to say. But running my college radio station irrevocably changed/broadened my tastes to include so much music - and made me hate bands like U2 an ever clear. I've always had band obsessions. First Soundgarden, then Wilco. MMJ has endured the most/longest at just about a decade now. My wilco/MMJ obsession was a dueling fued for a long while.

I'd like to think MMJ will persist. You all are my biggest source for new music, so MMJ is technically the tree trunk right now for all tastes that branch off it.

[EverythingChanges]

they mastered the art of an album, and no band did what they did

The Wall is not an isolated instance of the rock opera and I'd go so far as to say it's one of the less appealing, tho that may be my bias against latter Waters works. Dude got dark and creepy and I always prefer the wonderful psychedelia of their early work (and hold Live at Pompeii as one of my all time favourate musical anythings).

The Who pretty much created the rock opera. First came A Quick One While He's Away (my fave Who song!) which was about 10 minutes long and told the story of a woman who's boyfriend has been away for a long time so she takes up with "Ivor, the engine driver" and when the boyfriend returns she has to tell him about the relationship.

The Pretty Things released SF Sorrrow in 1968 (I'm less familiar but my husband LOVES this) . A year later Tommy by The Who came out.  Four years after that The Who released Quadrophenia, another rock opera and my fave of the bunch.  Both of The Who operas were translated to stage and/or screen. 

Almost anything by Alan Parson's Project is a concept album. My Dad listened to APP in the 70s, meaning I had to, too. Lamb Lies down on Broadway by Genesis is a standout.

Of course, these are just the most famous examples. There were loads more cohesive, concept albums, too. I will agree that into the '80s, the concept/rock opera style record was ditched for a more singles focused approach to music, but it still happens. My faves might be Neutral Milk Hotel's In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, OK Computer and Kid A from Radiohead, Kate Bush's Hounds of Love, Blur's Park Life...

I'm not saying Floyd weren't awesome at the concept album or didn't employ that method of album making, but there are LOADS and LOADS of awesome examples of albums that work as a whole experience before and beyond Floyd.

Now, I think I need to listen to some Who and Neutral Milk. 

The darkness of Waters' later work is what made it so powerful imo.  If they were the same band today that they were during Sgt. Peppers, they would have never of held the mantle that they do.

@exist, I understand what the Beatles did for music and they were a huge inspiration for countless bands from yesterday and today.  However, they just lack the musical depth that Floyd had, even with Sgt. Peppers considered.  They might be the more inspirational band, but they are not the more groundbreaking and musically innovative band.  Echoes is a masterpiece, and I far as I know, The Beatles never made a song that came close to that in lyrical power or musical genius.  Maybe this is just me being biased about a band I truly love against a band that I find to be simply okay(I do understand that The Beatles are a truly great band, but their music is just missing something for me), but I will always stand firmly behind Floyd. 

[iLikeBeer]

Def ongoing. Most 90s alt is now pure nostalgia and a lot sounds like overproduced super-forced crap. However, i grew up on classic rock, and liked Phish but was too young to "get it", and perhaps it set the stage for a decade or so later. Hard to say. But running my college radio station irrevocably changed/broadened my tastes to include so much music - and made me hate bands like U2 an ever clear. I've always had band obsessions. First Soundgarden, then Wilco. MMJ has endured the most/longest at just about a decade now. My wilco/MMJ obsession was a dueling fued for a long while.

I'd like to think MMJ will persist. You all are my biggest source for new music, so MMJ is technically the tree trunk right now for all tastes that branch off it.

My college radio station SUCKED!  Totally top 40 crap and not a true college radio station in the least?!    My roommate for my soph and junior years was very much into classic rock and I turned him on to a lot of new music and we thought it would be cool if we could do a show on our college radio station that was a cross between classic and true college radio music bringing the old and the new together.  We pitched our idea to the douche who ran the station and he said we could do the show if we wanted to work the 2 am to 6 am shift?!  We pretty much told him to fuck off at that offer.  That was the closest I got to ever working radio... 

[el_chode]

There were 3 stations at my school: NPR jazz, top 40, and us - the black sheep. The administration always tried to shut us down for various reasons. I always suspected that was like 15% of why I got thrown out. The GM before me had the cables cut to the antenna by the dean. Total PCU type shit. I lobbied the school and got a 30k budget to renovate and put the station online. Part of this was because we were free-format and uncensored. DJs could do whatever they wanted. My buddy got prime time "gone phishing" blocks. As did my show, "I sold my soul for David Groel". The local actual DJs got to spin/mix vinyl thurs/fri/sat during party hours. Sunday was for kids who did sports/politics. Late night was for n00bs. Other shows included the feminist group playing tons of Tori during their women of rock hour, Afro-carribean council had a prime-time show for carribean music, etc. Most of all, the only qualifier was during the interview: anyone who said that Coldplay was the new Radiohead or Staind was awesome didn't get a show. I was basically Barry from high fidelity picking a staff.


Other than that, I'd say we were around during the last good era for indie/college music in the early-to-mid 00s. The black keys were just getting attention. Acoustic Cituosca was the top spin for a few months. Modest Mouse was still innovative. Good times.

[Jaimoe]

In the early 1970s, I was given my first vinyl LP: Meet The Beatles. I was around age 5 or 6. I followed that up with the Red Album and the Stones' High Tide and Green Grass. I got into Zeppelin through older friends a few years later via Houses of the Holy and The Who was already on my radar before Moonie died in 1978. I've been a fan of rock with a British accent from the get-go, although I like it all. Blues and Hendrix followed in the early '80s. Jazz and Zappa in the '90s. Since I'm a guitarist, I tend to lean towards guitar-led bands, but I like hard-bop jazz fronted by horn players, although Wes Montgomery and Oscar Peterson are brilliant in their own right.

[zanjam]

7th grade - The Doors, The Who, Lynryd Skynrd (only one of these still resides in my top three!!)

11th grade - Yes, Pink Floyd, Rush, The Who, The Grateful Dead

Beyond - The Grateful Dead shaped my life.  Went on to love all the jam bands, in varying degrees of obsessiveness (early days Blues Traveler/Spin Doctors, Phish, WSP.)  I also had some hard core moments with The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Traffic, Clapton, Frank Zappa, Neil Young, Pearl Jam, The Rolling Stones and Guns 'n Roses.

Currently obsessing over MMJ, Wilco, Ryan Adams, Jack White, etc.

And now all y'all are stuck with me.  So there.