What was your musical upbringing?

[Vincent Vega]

What was the music you were brought up around as a child, that you grew up hearing because of family around you?

For example, in my childhood:

Dad: Listened to the Stones, Grateful Dead, GN'R, the Cranberries, Patti Smith, Jim Carroll

Mom: Listened to stuff like Cat Stevens, Simon & Garkfunel, Tracy Chaman, liked stuff by the Pointer Sisters, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, etc.

Both: Had music like Doo Wop and old fashioned rock on the radio growing up.

Sister 1: Loved Metallica, Aerosmith, Slayer, Megadeath, Skid Row, GN'R, Poison, David Bowie, Infectious Grooves, STP basically every big 80s and 90s Rock act except Nirvana. She got me into Beck about a month after Mellow Gold came out and had me memorizing and singing the chorus to "Loser" within two months of it coming out. She was hip. Watched all the classic '90s cartoons with me (Beavis & Butthead, etc), played Sega with me. She was hip.

Sister 2: Was into Rob Base and all sorts of Rap & Hip Hop from the '80s and '90s when I was growing up, also loved '80s power ballads (one of her favorite songs is "When I see You Smile" by Bad English).

Sister 3: Didn't know her that well but she was into Cypress Hill and other stuff like that when she was a teenager, in the '90s (she was born in 1980).

Later in Life:

Brother in Law- Introduced me to Zeppelin, Rush, Queensryche when I was a young young teen, several other bands.

Edited December 7, 2012 by Vincent Vega

[Guest Len B'stard]

My Mum and Dad didn't really listen to music. My Dad just ain't a fan in general, to him music is just something on the radio or whatever, don't think he's even bought an album in his life. And my Mum don't even speak English although she liked like, Indian music but there weren't none of it about here in England in the 80s and early 90s when i grew up, couldn't really buy it anywhere and anyway we didn't really have much money in them days and what we had didn't go on Mum buying soundtracks to Bollywood films.

Any music i got into was my own doing or picked up from people around the way or whatever. There was never really no music playing in my house.

Edited December 7, 2012 by sugaraylen

[classicrawker]

My father hated my music..........my mother was not a big music fan

[Chewbacca]

My mom listened to Gn'R.

[Chinaski]

My mum used to listen to Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson etc etc. I kind of just found it sort of pleasant until a couple of years ago where I kind of re-discovered it on my own.

I didn't live with my Dad but as I got to know him when I got older it turned out I had nearly identical tastes to him. He used to know guys in The Kinks and The Who, loves Led Zep, Hendrix, Dylan

My sister was a couple of years older than me but always had a terrible taste in music. She used to love whatever was on the radio and still does to this day. It kills me each year to see a woman in her twenties getting Glee boxsets repeatedly and that being the extent of her musical experience.

[Bumble's Bridge Pickup]

Quite non-existent. Dad always played the same five Clapton and Santana albums in the car, mom never listened to anything. Despite this they wanted me and my brother to start playing piano as a hobby when we were kids, but it felt pointless because we didn't like the jingles we had to learn.

Now I wish they had given me some motivation to practice by showing me any good music. I would love to be able to play keys a bit.

I first really connected with video game, movie and cartoon soundtracks and hummed them inside my head obsessively.

I only learned about rock music in 2007 or so, and started actively listening to it in 2008, and it's become a huge source of pleasure in my life.

Edited December 7, 2012 by Bumble's Bridge Pickup

[izzygirl]

My parents aren't very inetrested in music. I mean, they like music, especially my mum, but just "in general". Both of them mainly listened to Spanish music like Albert Hammond, Camilo Sesto, Juan Pardo, Joan Manuel Serrat and stuff like that (which most of you have never heard ). My mum loves Mexican music (rancheras and all of that) and my dad was a fan of Mike Oldfield when he was in college. That's all.

I doubt my parents know who The rolling stones or John Lennon are. In fact, when I said last year that I had to buy Springsteen tickets my mum asked me if he was famous.

[jekylhyde]

My parents don't listen to music. Sure, they listen to radio and like christmas carols, but they really don't listen to any bands or anything. Had to get into everything by myself, which is cool, though .

[arnold layne]

My dad liked the Rolling Stones. I also remember listening to Jimmy Buffett a lot.

[username]

Hmmmm, very wide.

Beatles, Stones, Clapton, Cocker, Buena Vista Social Club, Texas Tornado's, Eagles, Ry Cooder, Otis Redding, Crosby Stills Nash, Neil Young, Creedence Clearwater, Dire Straits, BB King, Dylan, Queen, Beach Boys... Lot's of Dutch and some Belgian stuff as well. Countless old blues artists... My dad and I have very similar taste in music. Both on modern bands and older ones. So apparently a lot of it stuck with me.

But yeah, there was always some music on at home. In the car too. My dad recorded loads of cassette tapes with his own compilations to play at home and while driving. And before that the radio was always on.

Edited December 7, 2012 by username

[The Linguini Occurrence]

I grew up with Jimi Hendrix, which is probably why I got into Prince and then Lenny Kravitz.

[Nick83]

I listened to the radio. There wasn't music played around the house or any sort of strong opinions towards any music.

I just got lucky by experimenting with CD's that were in the house, and then I started to read music magazines.

[arnold layne]

My dad likes listening to Frank Sinatra whenever we eat spaghetti dinners.

[bran]

my mom: she likes alot of old country music like loretta lynn, hank williams, johnny cash.

my dad: lots of classic rock, hard rock and metal. bands like gnr, thin lizzy, lynyrd skynyrd, david bowie, judas priest, iron maiden, black sabbath, rainbow also loves the ramones.

my older brother: he had a pretty wide variety he was big into grunge like nirvana, pearl jam, soundgarden. he also was into nu metal like korn. he also liked some thrash like metallica, slayer and demolition hammer

my younger brother: he is into rap, classic rock and country

my youngest brother: he likes metal and metal core

I took a lot of from my dad, but after some initial bands i was on my own to find bands and what styles i like.

[Dan H.]

My dad likes dad rock.

[Facekicker]

It amazes me when someone says their parents listened to GNR. I forget how many children are on this forum who missed out on the real Guns N Roses.

[username]

It amazes me when someone says their parents listened to GNR. I forget how many children are on this forum who missed out on the real Guns N Roses.

I don't know you personally at all. But as a rule - if you've seen the original GnR, you're far over the average age here.

[Kill Devil Hill]

I grew up on Sabbath; my parents are Sabbath stans. My mom was actually a fan of lots of different music. She loved Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Elton John, Faith Hill, George Michael, Leann Rimes, Mariah Carey, Shania Twain, En Vogue, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Rush, Guns N' Roses, Van Halen, and Queensryche, as well as a few one-hit wonder singer-songwriters. My dad was more of the guitar guy. He loved Yngwie Malmsteen, Ritchie Blackmore, Gary Moore, Eric Clapton, Steve Vai, Jimi Hendrix, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Santana... and Celine Dion. My sister's only two years older than me, so the only music she exposed me to was ABBA.

When I went to elementary school, urban was huge, so I was exposed to a lot of urban music, too. We got cable when I was, like, five, so we'd watch Jumpstart to catch new music videos, which exposed me to the rock that everybody here seems to hate. I don't care. I'll defend Nickelback and Avril Lavigne's first album 'til the end of time purely because of nostalgia.

I've been told that my music taste was strange, but now that I think about it, with the environment I grew up in, it makes perfect sense. I still pretty much listen to all those artists.

Edit: How could I forget? The two albums my parents played in the car all the time were Strangers in the Night (UFO) and Beast From The East (Dokken). I still have the first album. I've actually been searching for the latter for over a year. It had this bitchin' version of "Unchain the Night," iirc.

Edited December 7, 2012 by Kill Devil Hill

[Facekicker]

From my Dad - Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Mamas & The Papas, Black Sabbath, Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Pavarotti, Classical Music, James Taylor, Dire Straits, The Blues, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Billy Joel, Buddy Holly, Cream, Blind Faith, The Drifters, Joe Cocker, Glen Campbell, Neil Diamond, John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers, Johnny Cash, Canned Heat, Queen, Santana, Simon & Garfunkel and loads more

From my Mom - Rod Stewart, Thin Lizzy, Tina Turner,

From my Brother - NWA, Snoop, Dre, Wu-Tang, ODB and loads more rap, hip hop and dance stuff.

Appetite was the first album I bought. It was on a cassette tape.

I remember GNR were the first band that felt like "My band" as opposed to a band my parents liked first. They like GNR though. I remember my old man being blown away by Slash and then arguing with me over who was better Slash or Hendrix. He usually finished the argument with - "Yeah well at least he's not named after taking a piss." He was only winding me up though.

[bran]

From my Dad - Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Mamas & The Papas, Black Sabbath, Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Pavarotti, Classical Music, James Taylor, Dire Straits, The Blues, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Billy Joel, Buddy Holly, Cream, Blind Faith, The Drifters, Joe Cocker, Glen Campbell, Neil Diamond, John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers, Johnny Cash, Canned Heat, Queen, Santana, Simon & Garfunkel and loads more

From my Mom - Rod Stewart, Thin Lizzy, Tina Turner,

From my Brother - NWA, Snoop, Dre, Wu-Tang, ODB and loads more rap, hip hop and dance stuff.

quite the variety

[chevelle]

My parents like music, but not in the sense that they exactly went digging for the obscure stuff - so I grew up on the diet of 60s/70s/80s pop hits, some glam rock, a tiny bit of metal (pretty much exclusively Metallica and Black Sabbath), that kind of stuff. When I look back, it is a fairly wide breadth of genres, but I wish they would've exposed me to some less than Top 40 stuff at the same time. And, of course, my dad was the one that introduced me to GNR, which started me on my own path.

[Redhead74]

My parents were always listening to music. My weekend memories have a soundtrack to them comprising: Leonard Cohen, Pink Floyd, Neil Young, Cat Stevens, Grace Jones & Johnny Cash.

[jordan19]

Genesis, Phil Collins, Bee Gees, UB40, Bob Marley, Barry White, James Brown

But later by mates was introduced to Guns N' Roses, AC/DC and I introduced myself into: Black Sabbath, Angek Witch, Blue Oyster Cult, Ozzy Osbourne, Body Count, MD.45, Megadeth, Metallica and more list is very long