All I had ever heard when I was a little kid was country music because that’s what my parents’ radio in the house and the car were always tuned to, which I didn’t mind, but it didn’t really do anything for me. For the most part, I didn’t pay any attention to music and it always seemed to just be background noise. Then one day when I was probably about ten years old, my mom was rearranging the living room and had dug a lot of LPs and 8-tracks out of their stereo cabinet. Being curious, I started looking at them and asked my mom who The Beatles were, since I had not heard of them at that point and was looking at the 1968 Hey Jude / Revolution single with a bright green apple printed on the label and the sleeve. She put the single on the turntable for me and played Hey Jude and I was hooked. Things got even better when she showed me how the record player worked and I flipped the single over and played Revolution. I think my brother and I spent the rest of the week rifling through my parents’ collection of LPs, singles, and 8-track tapes, listening to anything and everything.
By the time I got my first cassette player for Christmas of 1986, I was already listening to everything I could find, particularly pop and new wave bands. Transformers The Movie was released to theaters earlier that year and I had fallen in love with Weird Al Yankovic’s song “Dare to Be Stupid” so my parents also got me the Dare to Be Stupid album for Christmas and I think I played it until I wore it out. Listening to Weird Al parody different artists and their music styles led me down different paths to discovering great pop and rock bands that I hadn’t heard of before.
As I grew older and entered junior high, my brother was listening exclusively to glam rock, hard rock, thrash, punk, and heavy metal and he turned me on to artists like Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, KISS, Poison, Def Leppard, Anthrax, Metallica, Megadeth, The Misfits, and The Ramones. I had been listening to a little hip hop and rap and really liked what I was hearing when I first listened to Run DMC, Doug E. Fresh, Slick Rick, and the Beastie Boys. Of all the rap I listened to, the Beastie Boys became my favorite group of all time, especially because of albums like Paul’s Boutique, Ill Communication, and Hello Nasty. Lately, I’ve been listening to their Sounds of Science anthology album and had forgotten about Biz Markie performing a cover of Elton John’s “Benny and the Jets” on it.
In high school, I began to listen to more rap and discovered gangsta rappers like Ice Cube, NWA, Dr. Dre, and the Geto Boys as well as House of Pain, Cypress Hill, and more hip-hop style like A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, and 3rd Bass. My love of rap early on led me to start listening to nerdcore rap, which I still listen to today - specifically mc chris and LEX the Lexicon Artist. The mainstream grunge movement also started in the early 90s and I was listening to Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, and Alice in Chains.
Later in the mid-90s, one of my best friends who is a few years my junior, got me listening to Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, and Jimmy Buffett. Better late than never, I suppose. It was also in the mid 90s that I discovered Beck, Oasis, and Weezer - who turned out to be my favorite alternative rock band.
A few years ago, my wife got me to listening to Elvis Presley, especially his work from the ’68 Comeback Special until his death and I usually keep the Aloha from Hawaii album in rotation on my iPhone.
I still listen to the radio from time to time to see what’s current… I like some of Taylor Swift’s new stuff and Billie Eilish gets some air time in my car, but for the most part, all the new singers (especially the guys) are a bit too whiny for my taste.
Now you kids get off my lawn!
@Clinton McClure - Dude, this is such a great post!!! I apologize for just getting around to reading it in its entirety tonight. Pretty busy these days...
You LISTENED! That's the only way to actually LEARN.
