This is sort of a big picture question, but I'm curious as to how everyone got "introduced" to music when they were younger and how you managed to hear about a lot of bands. Where are you in the family birth order? I'm guessing for a large number of you, musical introductions may have been via an older sibling.

I'm an oldest child, so my "first generation" music was probably Kiss, Cheap Trick, Beatles and Stones, all introduced by older friend (I'll throw in Johnny Cash, even though I didn't appreciate him when I was kid, my dad played him constantly and I grew to be a big fan over time). My second generation interests were probably spawned by music videos on Night Tracks, namely a mix of new wave pop and hair metal, which then fortunately morphed an interest in all kinds of music via magazines, like Star Hits, Rolling Stone and SPIN which is where I think I heard of the majority of bands I love.

Initially, it was my parents -- Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Chubby Checker, Elvis Presley, etc. My mom would listen to the radio during the day, which exposed me to lotsa girl bands, ballads, what are basically considered "oldies" now. When I was in 5th/6th grade, I got introduced to 16 and Teen Beat Magazines and my teenybopper love affairs began (Donny Osmond, Bay City Rollers, Shaun Cassidy...). Lotsa popular bands were mentioned in them which exposed me to other music. I remember one of my teachers (could've been one of the nuns) playing Carole King's "Tapestry" album and falling in love with it -- continues to be one of my all-time favourites.

When I got into high school, I started listening to KROQ's Rodney Bingenheimer on Sunday nights -- he introduced me to sooooo many other bands and gave me a new interest, punk rock. Took me outta my then fascination with disco. When punk came into my life, that was it -- after that, my music geek interest just escalated. Reading magazines, Trouser Press, meeting boys who were kind enough to make me mixes -- they all added fuel to what has become an obsession.

I listened to whatever 8-tracks my parents had in the car -- movie and Broadway show soundtracks, usually. Then one day my dad brought home copies of Sgt. Peppers and Magical Mystery Tour and let me choose which one I wanted (since I was older) and gave my sister the other. I chose Sgt. Peppers and realized, for the first time, that there was genuinely COOL music out there.

Then, when I was 13 I discovered Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Ozzy Osbourne and my life was never the same.

I started by wearing out a Neil Diamond record when I was three or four. I used to fall asleep to him all the time. My mom actually had to buy I second copy because I wore out the first one. I wish it could have been someone cooler but hey, I was barely out of diapers. I remember loving the oldies stations when I was young so I was into Elvis, the Drifters, Beach Boys, etc. until junior high when I started listing to the pop stations and lowering my IQ.

when I was a kid I constantly listened to my parents' White Album and The Monkees. I listened to crap thru junior high until my sister's boyfriend introduced me to bands like Naked Raygun and Pegboy and it was all downhill from there

Classic rock from my mom and dad (Doors, Doobies, Zeppelin, Who, Floyd primarily)

Then I got into some bands like RHCP and other cooler 80s/early 90s bands from some radio.

And then Rap from my brother. Except he mostly did west coast gangsta stuff.

My mom listened to a lot of Simon & Garfunkle and Willie Nelson, and she would play some of their songs on piano. My dad listened to lots of country, but when I was a kid, I hated it. I don't know if he was listening to older or newer ('80s) stuff.

When I was really young (like 5 or 6), they bought me a bunch of beach boys tapes. I don't know which ones they were - probably best-ofs and various themed comps.

One early influence on my taste was a tape that came with a used truck my dad bought. I remember the tape said "Ford" on it, and it had "Billie Jean" on it and "Africa" by Toto.

My parents were really conservative and protective (I'm an only child) so they pretty much forbid me from listening to rap or watching MTV when I was a kid in the '80s. When I was 8 or 9, I remember going over to a friend's house and listening to 2 Live Crew. I was really scared about my parents finding out.

Since my family was really religious, a big part of my early music experiences came from church music. Specifically old gospel hymns sung really badly by backwoods white people.

When I was 3, i wore out a Kenny Rogers LP. When I was 6, i got a copy of Thriller from my best friend across the street. My parents also are religious, so no t.v. was in our house for a long time, and now that they've got one, they still don't have cable. I moved in 3rd grade, and made a new best friend who had a cooler older brother, and awesome parents with great taste. I was the oldest in my family, so i helped my brothers out as i could. Got heavily into classical until 9th grade, which was when i bought my first cd player. My best friend's mom gave me The White Album, and his brother would make us mix tapes of all kinds of wild stuff... Pearl Jam before they broke, same with Smashing Pumpkins, RHCP, Primus, Red Red Meat, Poster Children, Husker Du, Massive Attack, Parliament, etc. So for 14, we were way ahead of the curve thanks to his 18 year old freshman in college radio in Champaign brother.

I forgot about my intro to rap! My parents bought me a 'Breakdancing" album which came with a big foldout on how to bust some dope moves. I never bothered with the dancing due to genetic laziness, but the album contained 'The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel', which I think is one of the greatest songs of all time.

I'm an only child so my earliest introduction to music was from my parents.
My Dad had Johnny Cash(and other country), Bobby Darrin and musicials.

My Mom had stuff like Motown, Tom Jones, Latin, Ray Charles

I can remember thinking it the oddest thing as a kid that my parents had the soundtrack to Hair.

I 'discovered' the Jackson 5 and KC & the Sunshine Band on my own.

Then I found a 45 belonging to one of my parents with "I Want To Hold Your Hand" on it and it was like I had discovered a new world. I can remember listening to it over and over again as I danced around my bedroom.

Then I got a little older and my older cousin influenced me just in the names of the bands he listened to. They seemed so exotic. Molly Hatchet, Blue Oyster Cult, Jethro Tull etc. Not to mention that all those album covers were enthralling.

Kiss was next

Finally, HS had the greatest influence as far as paving the way somehwat to what I listen to now.

Steve

hmm. there are a few things.

i destroyed a copy of thriller simply through listening to it every day through the early years.

my dad trained me by turning on the classic rock radio station and then turnint it off after i heard the beginning riffs. i had to tell him who it was. he would turn it back on for a second or two if i needed another clue. i eventually was picking out stuff that he didn't know.
he bought me the best of roy orbison when i was 8. i loved that shit, and still do.

my dad and mom listened to some pretty good stuff. the beatles and that sort of thing so i think i was always surrounded by good stuff.

later i got a bag of tapes from a friends older cousin in college. within that bag was a bunch of crazy stuff from alice in chains to early bad religion stuff. that was it, i was hooked. i listened to the beastie boys and run DMC when i mowed the lawn, doing permanent damage to my hearing.

i think that's about it.
ian

Mom introduced me to Bob Dylan, some classical, Beatles, etc...

Dad introduced me to the Ramones, Police, Stones, Who and other obscure rock from his day........

i took it from there.....

I'm the youngest of three girls. My oldest sister is 10 years older than me. Mom and Dad didn't influence me too much, but they liked big band/swing (my dad's a lot older than my mom) and some country/western. My first concert was with them when they took me to see Elvis, but they later took me to see Tony Orlando and Dawn (that was probably my mom's choice more than anything).

My oldest sister was really into Elton John, Paul McCartney and Wings, David Bowie, Heart and other AOR stuff from the 70s. My older sister was into lite rock-- Leo Sayer, Firefall, Seals and Crofts, Gino Vanelli-- that stuff, although she did rock out to Boston every once in a while. So I guess I got most of my influence from my oldest sister, but my older sister taught me that it's okay to like fluff music too!

First albums... hmm, I remember getting Saturday Night Fever and Grease for birthday gifts at a very young age. I think the first record I ever bought on my own was Foreigner's "Feels Like the First Time" and I was probably 7. Not a great intro record, but whatever (and of course, I had no clue what the song was about). More than anything, I liked listening to my oldest sister's records, esp. the Elton John. By the time she was in college, I was in 3rd grade, so she introduced me to a lot of the college music she listened to, like REM, B-52s, Talking Heads, etc. I pretty much didn't get into the really cool stuff until maybe middle school, around 7th/8th grade. Y'all already know how much I'm into Duran Duran, but I started listening to the Cure, the Smiths, Depeche Mode, etc. all during that time period as well.

The other cool thing is that although I was familiar with classic rock, I didn't really appreciate it until I met my husband. He grew up listening to Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, the Who, Jimi Hendrix... so when I started spending a lot of time with him, he really taught me how to listen to those bands properly, if that makes sense. Also, he was always really into delta blues and punk/hardcore (which I was slightly into in highschool), so he just broadened that area for me as well.

Otherwise, I'm always interested in hearing what you all are listening to!

Two words, one title :

"KISS : Alive!"

I suppose there was music around my life before that, even though I can't remember anything. I had an older sister, & I assume she played stuff...but nothing that "stuck".

But when I was 9, the cool kid down the street ( shout-out to Mike Journot, wherever you are ) had "KISS : Alive!" . It was the first thing that really grabbed me by my young nuts & made me wonder "what was THAT?" It was loud, it was catchy, & they looked fucking EVIL. I was hooked.

Then about 2 years later, I saw a report about some kind of new-fangled music called "punk rock" on the NBC newsmagazine "Weekend". This stuff made KISS look like kid's play. Shortly thereafter I bought "Never Mind The Bollocks", "Rocket To Russia" & received "London Calling" as an 8th grade graduation present ( along with The Boomtown Rats "The Fine Art Of Surfacing" .

KISS may have been my Big Bang, but that TV report was my Dawn Of Man.

I didn't care for what my mom listened to: Mac Davis, Neil Sedaka, Barry Manilow, etc....

Growing up I listened to mainly classic rock as a result of my brother's and one cousin's influence. My brother mainly listened to the Beatles, Stones and the Who so having to be different I took the Kinks, Doors and Led Zepplin as "my" bands. This was all during the 80s btw.

I didnt' get into indie rock per se until I was in my 20s and a friend at work introduced me to some cool bands.

it seems like music has just always been there. i can remember playing small thick plastic red and yellow kid 78's (mostly songs about nursery rhymes) over and over again on a small record player when i was 3 and 4.
i was super into showtunes so i was listening to south pacific and tons of disney albums. my uncle was super into the beatles when they hit so we had meet the beatles when that came out and that was all she wrote.

i got a transistor radio in a stuffed poodle when i was 7 and once my brother and i not-so-surgically removed the radio from the dog, it was constantly attached to my left ear.

my cousin who was 4 years older than me got me addicted to american bandstand. the first 45 i ever bought was the beach boy's california girls. i carried a radio wherever i went. then i turned 10....

I had a decent foundation from my mom's love of oldies stations, so I got exposed to a lot of old rock and roll and motown. Unfortunately, I was Jr. High-aged during the early nineties and horrible things happened. During some of high school I still listened to a lot of radio, but slowly discovered that I only ever liked a few songs. In college I finally started meeting people with broader tastes, and I discovered CMJ. Now I have poor taste that is much more personal.

I'm the eldest child in my family so I took inspiration from my parents.

My dad was a hippy art school type. By the time I appeared he was heavily into Krautrock and stuff like Steely Dan, Alan Parsons Project, Pink Floyd etc.
He was also really into soul. I had a fairly spartan upbringing but although we had no tv, telephone or fridge we did have a kick ass stereo and lots of cool vinyl.

A bit later when my dad finished his lithographic apprenticeship and we could actually afford a tv, I remember he used to watch The Old Grey Whistle Test and I soaked that stuff up. I also have fond recollections of the driving holidays we had round the Scottish Highlands with the Isley Brothers on the tape deck.

i grew up in some very isolated places, so i could only hear music in a few select places. at first, i would listen to my parents music. they had some motown and simon & garfunkel, which i love still to this day. another source i had was the few times i listened to radio when i was visiting a place that had it. my family usually made visits to my granparents and uncle and aunts farm (which were within about 5 minutes drive of eachother). when youre out there, youve pretty much have one choice, being am radio, which in alberta is pretty much filled with country stations. so, actually, the genre that got me started in music was country. i still also love country, as long its not the mainstream country crap theyre pumping out these days. the first album i ever bought was the boys are back by sawyer brown. for the time, a mainstream country album. at about this time, i moved to another town, where my friends started to get me into early 90s dance pop, which primed me for a lot of electronic music i would listen to later on. i also started when i was about 12 or 13 to watch more and more music shows on tv. i used to watch city limits and the wedge on muchmusic religiously. it was there that i saw three of the most important videos in making me aware of music. they were bull in the heather by sonic youth, typical girls by the slits, and army of me by bjork (all by female musicians, coincidentally enough). through them i was turned on to all kinds of stuff, like punk, post punk and new wave, and electronic, which i went totally mad for for about a year in my teens when most of my friends only liked mainstream rock. from there, i pretty went through all the other genres.

i have no idea. neither of my parents (nor step-parents) are really into music. they have a few hundred LPs, but i can't recall hearing them very much. i'm the oldest child and my little sister isn't into music either. my dad always listened to tapes or the radio in the car when i was a kid, but he's never been very serious about it. we never listened to music at home. my mother's spanish and always listens to salsa, merengue, et cetera, but i didn't really get into any of that until the last five years. i had a lot of friends in school who liked music, so i think it was just a gradual progression until i really fell in love with something.

Bee-Gees, Kingston Trio, Oldies from my dad.

Michael Jackson, Duran Duran, Wham, Depeche Mode, Billy Idol from sis & random music video shows

Branched off on my own via my schoolmates & got into Hip Hop in '86 via Run DMC, LL Cool J, Kool Moe Dee, BDP

Then things really got interesting Holiday Season '91 when I discovered MARS fm. Meat Beat Manifesto, The Shamen, Orbital, The Prodigy, Swervedriver, Teenage Fanclub, Catherine Wheel, Nirvania, PWEI, The Orb, Ministry, NIN, KMFDM, Acen, Altern 8, Human Resource, Del the Funkee Homosapian, Psychic TV, Bowie's Sound + Vision, Brain Eno's Fractal Zoom, Madchester, Carter the USM, Moby, My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, Dub, tons of random Techno & House & a lot of the New Wave I grew up on.

exposed to music from mom, then radio, then probably other school kids & friday night videos.

I'm an only child of two only children, so there were no siblings or cousins on hand to influence my musical tastes. On road trips, my dad had a pretty consistent 8-track rotation consisting of the following:

The Rolling Stones - Made in the Shade
Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Willie Nelson - Shotgun Willie
Willie Nelson - Phases and Stages
Jerry Jeff Walker - Viva Terlingua
Jim Croce - You Don't Mess Around With Jim
The Association - Greatest Hits
Leon Redbone - On the Track
Wanted! The Outlaws

I didn't know yr. pops was an ex-con, Bob

there was always music at my house.
my dad listened to motown, beatles, csny, cat stevens.
mom listened to john denver.
oldest bro listened to stones, dead, elvis costello, rem, ub40, U2, smiths, new order.
two middle bro's listened to judas priest, ratt, motley crue, iron maiden, sabbath, etc.

thankfully, my oldest brother took an active interest in introducing me to music or i could be posting on some metal board right now.