What got you into music?

When I was little, I apparently kicked and screamed when there was like any music around me... But then, for some reason, when I was about 11, I got into Green Day. My Dad didn't really care for them though, so he introduced me to his CD collection... Now I'm into Aerosmith, The Beatles, Sabbath, GNR, Hendrix, Metallica, Nirvana, The Police, RHCP, The Stones, Rush, Smashing Pumpkins, Tool, U2 and much more... Yourselves?

Well my parents played music from there time when I was young, just like most parents. lol. So I've mainly grown up on 60s - 80s music. And I do still listen to a lot of it. (less of the 80s, though. XD)

I figure a more interesting response would be how I got into playing music. It was basically all my cousin. He played the trumpet in the marching band when I was in 5th and 6th grade. I wanted to be just like him.

I played the trumpet just like him. But around late 2004/early 2005 I really started realizing that I just didn't like the trumpet. I didn't enjoy band like the others and I didn't really have any feelings more my instrument. It was just another class and just another thing to do.

For some odd reason I was obsessed with the clarinet. I don't remember where or how that obsession started, so that was my second instrument. And then I got into the bassoon as a result of sitting behind them in 10th grade (which actually was 2004/2005 as well) (Basically, because at that point I finally realized what they were and what they sounded like. XD)

And now I play the bassoon for band and it's my main instrument! Yay!

I suppose my parents got me into music. Although I've grown out of what they've introduced me to and started listening to music they've never even heard of.

There's really two different stories for me. One is about how I got into playing music, and one is about how I got into listening to music, becoming a music fan. There's some overlap, but they are mostly distinct. I think, judging by the opening post, this is more about the latter.

Bear with me, this is going to be long-winded.

If my parents are to believed, when I was a baby and would go to little mother/child rhythm classes, I'd always end up humming little melodies to everything, even before I could talk. So I suppose that would be the start point for both.

Growing up, my parents didn't really play us that many children's songs or albums. Other than the occasional Raffi tune and Anne Murray's There's a Hippo in My Tub and a few others, we pretty much grew up listening to what my parents listened to. My mom loves The Beatles and would also play us records from The Mamas & the Papas and other pop acts from the classic rock era. In fact, she used to sing us "Golden Slumbers" as a lullaby. My dad was more into the rock side of things, being big into Zeppelin and Rush and other such bands. He worked as a roadie and stage tech for a lot of bands in his twenties and thirties, so he was pretty big into music.

Every Sunday there's a radio station that places exclusively songs from the 60s and 70s. Nearly every Sunday we'd also go visit my dad's parents, about an hour and a half away. So of course we'd just listen to that station. Because of that to this day there are still songs I know every word and every note to, but have no idea what they are called or who sings them. I didn't know that the song I heard at least once every weekend for over ten years was "Stairway to Heaven" until I was sixteen years old, for example.

But that's my parents music. I love a lot of it now, but at the time I was rather indifferent to it. When I was young my siblings and I were big fans of musicals. We probably played the Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Grease soundtracks more than anything, and it drove my dad nuts. Not long after that, me and my sister got these compilation tapes (I have no idea what they were) of some pop-rock songs from the 60s-80s. My favourite song that I would always get my parents to rewind and play over and over was "All Day and All of the Night" by The Kinks. I decided that The Kinks were my favourite band, and my parents got me a greatest hits CD (the first CD anyone in my family owned, as far as I know). Still love that band.

When I was about nine years old one of my mom's friends gave me the soundtrack to the TV series Friends. No idea why, at the time I never watched the show. On that soundtrack was a song called "Shoe Box" by a band called Barenaked Ladies. I fell in love with it. Soon, I declared them my new favourite band. My uncle got me their first record, Gordon, and when I turned 10 I got my dad to take me to see them live at this big free outdoor festival that used to be held in my city every summer.

From then until probably around the tenth grade, all I listened to was BnL and other songs I liked from the radio. When I turned 13, I had my Bar Mitzvah and a friend of my dad's got me my very first CD walkman. By then I was already taking transit to school, and now I had something to do as I rode the streetcars and subways around the city. Thanks to Napster (and later Kazaa), I could download songs that I liked from the radio and listen to them when I wanted.

When I got to high school, I noticed that a lot of kids my age were wearing t-shirts from bands I had never heard of. This was my introduction to the fact that music existed that didn't play on the radio, and music not styled like Top 40 music existed. So I got two of my friends to make me big lists of songs so I could download them and widen my horizons. One of my friends was really into punk and pop-punk, the other listened to pretty much exclusively hip-hop. I also got other friends to make me Mix CDs.

That's probably the start point of me getting really into music. Throughout high school I went through a short punk phase, and a somewhat longer ska phase. By the end of high school, I was listening to more and more different kinds of music. That just sort of continues to this day.

So really I have to thank my parents and my friends for getting me into music.

I probably could have just typed that last sentence, but I like getting carried away. A and B the C of D and whatnot.

My parents, like others, got me into music originally. I really wanted to be like my dad and brother though, and play an instrument, so I signed up for band in 4th grade to play percussion. I just loved it, so I started adding instruments by what I thought looked cool and fun to play (guitar, bass, piano etc).

Listening wise, I branched off from my parents to more modern stuff, but I still listen to a lot of Classic rock and other things that they originally exposed me to. New stuff just doesn't have what Classic rock does. I was introduced to the Classical genre by teachers in the IB music class I took while living in England. I really hadn't listened to much orchestral music, but they turned me onto it.

Music got me into music, of course.

I used to just be one of those people that enjoyed music, but didn't really pay attention to it that much. If there was a song I liked on the radio, I'd enjoy it when it came on, and then forget about it after it was over.

And then, high school came along and I met a man named Jor-El (Yes). He was extremely into music, constantly listening, always talking about it with his friends, etc. etc. He was extremely into indie music; his collection was probably about 90% indie. But, he wasn't an "indiefag," as the internets say, that only listened to the most random, most obscure music he could find. If it was good, he listened to it, including mainstream music (RHCP, for example).

Anyway, he introduced me to a band called Of Montreal. And the rest is history. Now, music has become my life. Every day, every hour, every possible moment I can, I listen to music. All thanks to that one man.

My parents made me play the violin when I was very young. I was apparently a very mischevious kid, and they figured that I should instead focus my energy on something more productive. To this day I'm not really fond of the instrument, but probably because I never really cared enough about popular violin literature, especially given the emphasis placed on Classicism/Romanticism as a whole, to express a deep enough interest to want to perfect my playing. Throughout my high school and early college careers I really just skated by in terms of practice, generally doing just the bare minimum to excel and nothing more. Other students even said that I would have been phenomenal if only I had been more dedicated. Honestly, I would've probably been much happier as organist, harpsichordist, or perhaps a recordist had I known then about the repitoire and history of the instrument, but now it is way too late to learn to play those intstruments with the proficiency I would desire to attain.

But I try not to think about that too much. I really I can't deny the fact that learning the violin was the gateway drug that got me where I am today. I'm much happier composing anyways, and personally I think it works perfectly for me. In my department of study I'm not expected to express myself in a draconian adherence to how my professors think I should do so, nor am I restricted to merely reinterpret the works of others. Instead I can be as free with my music as I please, and my instructors are wonderful in that they aid in honing my skill where the mechanics and architecture of music are concerned.

Anything beyond that is inconsequential.

Coincidentally, I made a journal on my last.fm page about this very subject some months ago. Find it here.

I'll try to shorten it up. Here it goes: At an early age I heard a Rush song that I really liked. I generally rejected any music that I heard. When I started getting into video games, I embraced video game music. Eventually I heard a CCR song that I liked. Continued rejecting music till about 13 or 14. Heard an Offspring album that I loved at the time. Listened to Captain Cornflake's radio on last.fm, then went off to buy Era Vulgaris and Led Zeppelin 4.

So, I suppose you could say that it was Rush, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and video game music that opened the door, and The Offspring took my hand and showed me inside.

My close childhood friend introduced me to MTV when I was pretty young, and I hated most of the music on it, but it really opened the door. I remember Points of Authority by Linkin Park was popular, and it was one of my favorite songs. I ended up collecting Linkin Park albums for about a year or so, and listening to a lot of semi-heavy rock of that sort. Through the years I started to dislike Linkin Park and go for slightly less heavy music, and a lot of classic rock, just from riding in the car with my parents. I pretty much shunned all rap music simply because I didn't feel like enough work or talent went into it. As I got older and started to play the guitar and study music theory, I got into a lot of guitar virtuoso music, like Gilbert, Petrucci, Vai, and Satriani, along with some classical music (also, a choir class I had originally joined as a joke introduced me to a lot of new music). Eventually my friends introduced me to the heavier side of music, like death metal and metal core and screamo and that sort of thing. At first I shunned this too, but it grew on me in a large way, partly in thanks to songs by The Fall of Troy that showed me just how beautiful and emotional this type of music can be.

Now a days I listen to whatever sounds good, regardless of genre or effort put into the song. Whether it be Arsis, Coldplay, Philip Glass, or Kanye West.

My parents only helped me get into music a little bit.
My mom listened to the ramones and my dad listened to queen, but the rest I found out on my own like the Sex Pistols.

I've just always been someone into music.

My earliest memory of music was hearing Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven. To this day, when i hear that song i am reminded of a very foggy memory of being in Sacramento.

I always liked music. Nothing "got me into it" perse. I used to rock Elton John tapes when i was very young and id watch MTV. In those days, MTV was only music videos. My parents never ever censored or chose what we listened to. It was against their moral fiber to do so. I was exposed to everything from Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young to Anthrax. Never were there boundries. All of us kids were left to form our own opinions on what kinds of music we liked. I guess i was extremely blessed by this.

I got into heavier music by the age of 11 to 12. I turned away from the pop and hip hop that was popular at the time to grunge and metal. My siblings turned to country (particularly my sister) due to the fact it was pretty popular in this town in which we had just moved to at the time. They wanted to fit in, i didnt care. I never even heard of country music (aside from like Patsy Cline and Merle Haggard) at the time. It sounded pretty bad in my opinion so i stayed away from it.

As for playing music, that inspiration stuck at 13. I wanted to do stuff like Eddie Van Halen and Jimi Hendrix. LOL! yeah right, huh! But still, i wanted to be able to play guitar.

Well, when I was young, my dad would always rock out to AC/DC, Rush, Journey, and my mom would always have Metallica and Smashing Pumpkins playing. So I grew up listening to them, and now I'm a great fan of them. I've gotten into a lot of pop music from the radio. One of my cousins always show me some of her favourite bands, and so I get into those bands. And I've gotten into JPop and JRock from playing a lot of Dance Dance Revolution games. Play Guitar Hero got me into even more bands. So yeah...that's how I'm into music like I am today.

Listening to jazz and ska all the time because my brother and father would play it all throughout the house. Then when I was about 7 or 8, my school took a field trip to see a pro orchestra perform some Disney ♥♥♥♥ and that what got me into playing the violin

I've always been into music.

Well, when I was young, my dad would always rock out to AC/DC, Rush, Journey, and my mom would always have Metallica and Smashing Pumpkins playing. So I grew up listening to them, and now I'm a great fan of them.

O_o Yeah ummm now i feel really ancient. Those are the bands I grew up with. They were pretty new at the time.

My dad built me a new computer, and he threw in an HDD full of music. This was a godsend considering I was still on dialup, if I even had an Internet connection, which I usually didn't.