How has your taste in music changed over the years?

[0mastar]

I might as well do this using before Smogon, during Smogon and how it is now. Simply because Smogon has pretty much changed my music taste and views on music so much more then anything else.

Before: I used to listen to pretty much anything that was in the top 40 charts, and also the old 60's music that my parents like, including The Beatles. Then as time passed at my first school I started listening to things like Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg during Year 7 (age 11-12), then as I went into secondary school that changed into the whole nu metal thing with Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit in year 9-10 (ages 13-15).

I pretty much didn't have my own music taste during this music phase, as I was just leeching music from my friends at school, and listened to whatever they listened to as it was the cool thing to listen to at the time.

During: Found out about the likes of Dream Theater, Ben Folds and CAKE after a while here, and pretty much ditched the whole rap and nu metal thing, and moved on to generic metal with the likes of Metallica. I also got into the progressive music which bands like Rush and Dream Theater.

Then last year (aged 16), a friend at school and also an e-friend, got me into a Neutral Milk Hotel. Since that moment I pretty much ditched the whole metal and prog stuff which I then found boring to listen to. During this time I also found out about last.fm, which meant I could find new bands similar to ones I already liked.

Now: Post-rock, 'indie', screamo, hardcore, experimental, grind, etc. I seem to like pretty much every genre now, although I still stay away from the metal and prog that I used to listen to so much. I listen to some pop stuff from time to time, and also some hip-hop such as Jedi Mind Tricks. Although I just find myself on music hits, such as listening to screamo for about two weeks, then moving onto indie, then post-rock, etc. Then that just gets repeated. I'll also listen to a lot of stuff from local bands, and go to a lot of local concerts, where-as a few years ago i'd never really listen to local bands as i didn't think they were well known enough to be good.

Finding out about Soulseek also helped.

 

[thecrazylazyguy]

I have slowly drifted from hardcore rap to hardcore metal to pretty much anything that I feel has a good beat and What I think are good lyrics. I am like to listen to something different daily now

 

[Echo]

In elementary school I actually got into music fairly late; around the fourth grade, I think. My family doesn't really have such musical roots, so I was starting root the same way with a bland taste in music. My cousin got me into some basic stuff over one nice summer and she added basic rock to my tastes. Favorite bands at that time were the cool-boy-stuff, ranging from Linkin Park to Slipknot to Rammstein.

Finland is generally a metal country, so that might explain my preferance to some types of metal (nu and industrial, for example) at such a young age, but meh... As I was saying, my cousin listened to some basic rock, so I added Bon Jovi, U2 (lol yes), Aerosmith, the Offspring, Red Hot Chili Peppers and stuff like that to my list. I can also recall Nickelback's Silverside Up -album being hot stuff. haha

The next year I moved to the US and I never had time for music, because I couldn't download anything (didn't know how to) and I had like no CDs. So, two years (6th and 7th grade) were non-musical until I got back to Finland.

So, then started junior high school, which was pretty terrible at the beginning in terms of music. My friend was really into rap, so here comes 50 Cent, Eminem, Xzibit, Ludacris, etc etc. I've still kept some bands like Rammstein as bands worthy of listening. This period didn't last for too long, to be honest.

On the summer of my eight grade, I took up punk. Starting from Millencolin, which is a band I still enjoy listening, and ranging from stuff like Bad Religion (still kicks ass) to the Offspring. Those were the three main punk bands I listened to. Punk and rap was such a weird combination, so when 9th grade came, I discluded rap almost completely, barring Tupac.

9th grade was my first musical revolution, because I took up a whole new genre, which I hadn't actually even heard of before: trance. Ian Van Dahl, DJ Tiësto, Shpongle, Infected Mushroom, 1200 Micrograms and the likes were introduced to me by friends and I really liked the genre. Through last.fm I developed that genre further and added more techno and electronica. I also started liking some basic rock again; RHCP for example. I unfortunately found non-mainstream trance as late as the last year.

When I started high school: hello music revolution. I started downloading music like crazy and developed an interest to genres like ambient, breakbeat, goa trance, psychedelic rock and relaxing shit like that. I also took up indie rock (Minus The Bear, Bloc Party, Built To Spill) and made my collection of trance artist broader. Some new additions were ATB, Ferry Corsten, Mauro Picotto, Paul Van Dyk, Paul Oakenfold, Johan Gielen, Etnica, Novaspace, Pulsedriver, and the list goes on for a while.

Also, some random bands like the Bloodhound Gang, Weezer, Switchfoot, Gorillaz, Disturbed, Bullet For My Valentine and the like have always been on my lists with a decent amount of good songs (Bloodhound Gang is an exception, because they have no bad songs).

After joining Smogon, I added stuff like against Me!, ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, 311 and Breaking Benjamin on my playlist.

So yeah, that's that in a nutshell.

 

[thecrazylazyguy]

Really I didnt start listening to music until I was a teenager, when I look back at it its quite suprising

 

[giga]

pre smogon- wigger inspired wannabe who liked classic rock but it didnt fit in with friends so whatever

post smogon and ftp and last fm and earthwalker3 and 0mastar- still kinda wigger but i listen to everything from fucking gay icelandic people making up languages to rock without words to post rock rules me world as does rap still but i view it differently!

grammar comes and goes however

edit: sublime through and through

 

[LazarusLong]

92.3 kroq? Carl is a jersey boy?

When I was growing up, until high school, I listened to nothing but hip-hop, with a little R&B. That's all I was into, seriously. My favorites were the Wu-Tang Clan (especially Method Man, I fucking love his voice) and the Fugees.

That being said, it's important to note the influence of my father. He loved "weird" music, eclectic stuff like Tom Waits, later Leonard Cohen, etcetera. He also was really into classic rock (ala Clapton, Jefferson Airplane, and the Rolling Stones, but not really LZ so much...). Plus he was big into folk songs. Yeah, my dad was an old hippie, can you tell?

We used to always make fun of him because he'd clean the house listening to something like "I'm Your Man" by Cohen, with these huge speakers that made the entire block we lived on reverberate with his bassy voice. At the time it used to embarass me and my sisters (we already felt somewhat alienated being the only white kids around), but something in there stuck with me, because now I love the same old bands he does.

Anyhow, up until high school I listened to just hip-hop, pretty much. I think the last hip-hop album I bought was DMX's "It's Dark And Hell Is Hot," IIRC. That was in my freshman year of high school.

From there I started listening to things other than hip-hop. Like Carl, I listened to just about anything on my local alternative station, which was the same as his - 92.3 kroq.

I moved to Maryland between my sophomore and junior years in high school. At this point I'd just started getting into bands like Tool and System of a Down. I was pretty big into those, especially SoaD, for a while. I also started collecting a combination of pseudo-punk bands (NoFX, which I can't stand now, AFI, Bad Religion, the Dead Kennedies). From there I even had a touch of Marilyn Manson, and I listened to a fair bit of Screamo. Oh yeah. After The Eulogy was my favorite in those regards.

Senior year in high school it was all about Radiohead. I became a HUGE Radiohead fan, massively so, collecting their hard to find b-sides, everything. I'd also just started getting into the Strokes and the White Stripes, especially loving the angular guitar sounds of the latter.

Then college, where I was constantly being exposed to new music. A few have really made an impact. I got really into the Moldy Peaches for a while, plus I developed a taste for industrial noise bands. Einsturzende Neubauten is still one of the most amazing bands I have ever heard, even if I don't listen to much of that anymore. I also started listening to a lot of 80s and 90s britpop. There was quite a lot of Adam Ant and Blur in there. Nick Cave was another thing I picked up in college, as was Murder By Death (they played three shows at my campus in the year I was in college, two as Lewis and Clark and one as Murder By Death). And David Bowie... christ, I love Bowie, I can't believe it took me until college to get into him. Sigur Ros was yet another college band for me. I was also introduced to Modest Mouse in college, and fell in love with The Moon & Antarctica.

Then I dropped out of college and moved back to Baltimore, and it was all about small and local bands for a little while. The Oranges band, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, that sort of stuff. I also got REALLY into Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen, especially Cohen at the time. "The Future" was practically always playing around me.

Then came Modest Mouse fever. Out of nostalgia, I picked up a copy of TM&A, which I'd loved in college. Curious as to other stuff they did, I went to my local record store and bought Lonesome Crowded West, This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About, and Building Nothing Out Of Something.

Holy shit. They blew me away, like no artist other than Tom Waits has ever done. A year later was the whole Modest Mouse explosion after Good News came about, and even seeing little kids singing "Float On" in mickey mouse ears couldn't turn me away from them. To this day, Modest Mouse and Tom Waits are my two favorite artists/bands.

Modest Mouse got me into Built To Spill, because I'd once heard them described in the same sentence. From there I started getting into all the post-rock bands, like Slint, and my favorite of them, Mogwai. I also started rediscovering punk rock, this time in the form of bands like Black Eyes, McLusky, and the Dwarves. I started listening to a lot of old blues, and began picking up Nina Simone and Janis Joplin all over again.

Now, if it's weird and experimental, I'll give it a shot. Hell, I'll give almost anything a shot. According to my iTunes, the bands I listen to the most are, in order:

1. Modest Mouse

2. Tom Waits

3. Broken Social Scene, surprisingly. But only Almost Crimes, no other BSS song has made it up there.

4. Black Eyes

5. Mogwai

6. David Bowie

7. Depeche Mode

8. Against Me! (thanks, Glen)

 

[DM]

According to my iTunes, the bands I listen to the most are, in order:

Is there a way to sort plays by artist? Or are you just sorting by play #'s and noting the names?

 

[nardd]

radio disney in elementary school (nsync/britney spears/who let the dogs out)

middle school was mainly linkin park and rock in general

highschool(in 11th now) is mainly classical music, rock, classic rock, and jazz

 

[Pax Deorum]

My music taste has never really changed much since I'm not very picky :S
I've been a huge New Age fan since I was a kid (my mom got me into the likes of Enya, Enigma, etc). Ever since I've had what I call phases. I got into the Grunge and cousins scene in the 90s. My rock taste then got broader and I got into other Alternative Rock bands, the most important being The Cranberries. A few years later I got into a few electronica/trip hop artists like Bjork and Lamb. This never changed much as the years passed until earthy got me into Post Rock and I started exploring again

 

[norulz]

My brother is like my spotlight, whatever he starts listening to, I end up mimicking him, except for rare exceptions (he loves Pearl Jam, The Mars Volta, At the Drive In, and I don't)

Anyway, I started off with Limp Bizkit, (but now I don't even wanna remember why I listened to that) then moved on into more serious bands like Pink Floyd, The Police, Muse, Pixies (is fun too!), Nine Inch Nails, Faith No More.

I don't have any particular bands I dislike, except for a few like Evanescence, Linkin Park, which I find terrible.

Anyway, my music tastes haven't degenerated much, hopefully they will, and I will discover better and better bands, of course Pink Floyd and Muse will always have a spot in my music taste.

Edit: Just read Lazarus' post and found out he likes Depeche Mode, shit how could I have forgotten this, I love this band!

 

[Arcturus]

IMO you need to start liking ATDI. They rule more face than almost every other band I listen to.

 

[DragonDance]

Early Days:

Not much, although i had a billy-ray cyrus tape that i whored.

Grade 5/6: again, not much, although i listened to a bit of rap.

Grade 7: More rap, although late in the year i was introduced into metal. Like Altmer, I started with nu metal (mainly Linkin Park), but it was metal none the less.

Grade 8: for the first part of the year all I listened to was Linkin Park. Untill I found Metallica. After them, i kept getting more and more metal.

Grade 9 (current year): Even more metal. Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Dream Theater, Black Sabbath, among others. I still listen to a bit of nu metal, but it is slowly fazing out of my Last.fm charts (Linkin Park has gone from #2 to #7 in a matter of 4-6 weeks) . Now i like Thrash Metal, Heavy Metal, and a bit of Prog. Metal (DT and Opeth, mainly).

 

[dayren]

i listened to mostly rap and pop until i reached 8th grade, which by then i was listening to mostly death, heavy, thrash metal, rock, and some emo

edit: i am in 9th grade now.

 

[orangekows]

when i was 5 my grandpa got me into classical. i was really into it for about a year and then i just listened to whatever was on the radio, either pop or rock. when i was 10 i got into rap and was really into it for a couple years. when i was 12 i started listening to Green Day, The Offspring, System of a Down and Sublime. that was all i listened to for awhile.

then when i was 14, i discovered smogon which really got me into music. i started listening to Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, Pink Floyd and some other prog. i started listening to punk for awhile too.

now i listen to indie/metal/screamo/hardcore/post-rock, but my taste keeps changing.

 

[Lemming_Messiah]

I started out with Linkin Park.

Don't worry.

I grew up a bit since then (although many of their Reanimation tracks are interesting from a musical construction perspective, I find their lyrics and singers absolutely terrible).

Currently, I'm loving the music from the previous generation.

Grunge rock in general (I find Nirvana to be the lyrical paragon of punk-derived music).

Tool's first two albums (beautifully arranged and well performed all around for a unique sound. Lyrical/Vocal complexity and harmony are preserved, even with the tempting use of distortion) are excellent. Major point here: In their first two albums, the voice is treated as an instrument, as is distortion (apart from the guitar). Thus, harmony exists. I tire of curent rock's trend of covering singers with distortion, or using the same bland distortion throughout a song. It sucks.

Gangsta rap is bad in principle, but amazing in construction (at least on Dre's end). The Chronic is on my MP3 player, fo' sho'.

I'm also enjoying things that are old or close to being original.

Led Zeppelin
Pink Floyd
Iron Maiden
Queen
Rush
Kansas
The Eagles

Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. A book, but still, awesomesauce.
Salinger's A Catcher in the Rye. Same as above.
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen. The shit. My favorite book so far.

Metallica is subjectively good, and I respect its criticisms.

System of a Down is similar in terms of criticism, but I find that people either love it or hate it. I love it. Chaos in a Compact Disc.

Also, who doesn't like Cake?

EDIT: I totally forgot Nine Inch Nails. I'm a nihilist, so this part is easy right?

While I'm at it: I like Rob Zombie. His horror film approach to music is great. His horror film approach to horror film, is god-awful.

 

[Charade]

I only recently got into music, so my tastes haven't had much time to develop. It started off with a friend recommending me Pink Floyd. I then expanded deeper into Progressive Rock, then to classic rock (which isn't actually a genre) and currently I'm getting into Krautrock and little bit of Jazz.

 

[nidogod]

I went the same generic path as most other people into metal. In most of grade school I'd listen to my parent's music (classical and jazz), classic rock, and whatever the newest fad song was. By about 5th grade I got into Eve 6 and Blink-182. Musically it didn't influence much of anything, but this was the time that I was beginning to play drums, so Travis Barker's style has had a lasting impact on me.

In 7th grade I discovered and fell in love with Iced Earth. I wasn't keen on the metal scene so I'd listen to trash like Evanescense and KoRn and what have you with it. From Iced Earth I branched out to Blind Guardian, Helloween, and other well known power metal bands along with multiple folk and prog acts. That continued through freshman year. By sophmore year I began listening to more extreme bands, mostly the big well-known death and black bands. My taste has stayed the same since then. In my senior year now, my taste changes with the seasons rather than with time. In the colder months I'll listen almost strictly to power and folk metal, with a few black metal bands thrown in (the more folky ones). In warm weather I enjoy rap, rock, black, and death metal more.

Now that it's warm out, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jedi Mind Tricks, Weltmacht, Darkthrone, Angelcorpse, and Persephone have been the bands I've been listening to the most at work, whereas just a month back it was Seventh Wonder, Pain of Salvation, Manowar, Cellador, Windir, Vintersorg, and Eluveitie.

EDIT: Actually, now that I think of it, my taste has recently changed in that I've been listening to more jazz, swing, and various kinds of folk music. I don't really know or have much music from any of them, but I'm really enjoying the small amount I have.

 

[Lemming_Messiah]

and various kinds of folk music. I don't really know or have much music from any of them, but I'm really enjoying the small amount I have.

Beware, us Kentuckians can play a mean dulcimer.

I have a friend who is able to play "Schism" on a mountain dulcimer. It's hilarious to watch, since you don't expect a rinky dinky 3-string $15 instrument to perform so well. My life will be complete once I find a guy who can play One-Winged Angel on a recorder.

 

[nidogod]

^ I haven't gotten into anything with a dulcimer as of yet. I've been listening to mostly European folk music, where dulcimers don't seem to be too common.

 

[McGrrr]

Primary school: classical music from Tom & Jerry soundtrack.

Early secondary school: thought Nirvana were the BEST BAND EVER for about a year. Grew out of that phase pretty quickly. Listened to mostly British rock/pop namely bands like Radiohead, Oasis, Blur, Travis, Verve, Suede, Manics and Pulp. Enjoyed some other stuff like Fatboy Slim, U2, REM and Massive attack also.

Late secondary school: there was a lot of jazz in our school and that rubbed off on me. Began to tap into oldies like Pink Floyd, Queen, The Who, Bowie and The Beatles. Took a liking to The Streets, Muse and Coldplay, but couldn't really engage with most new music.

Sixth form: rediscovered classical music and fell in love with Liszt, Chopin and Mozart in particular. Gradually grew out of the whole Britpop thing, but I still had a soft spot for Oasis, Radiohead, Muse and Blur. The only new music that I liked were The Killers, Franz Ferdinand and Gorillaz.

University: nowadays, my musical diet consists of mostly classical. I continue to listen to most of the bands I grew up with, but out of the emerging scene, I only really like The Arctic Monkeys. Throughout my life, I have always enjoyed good pop, so I like stuff like Imruglia's "Torn" and a few S Club 7 tracks!!

 

[Trax]

~10-12: Light Punk-Rock, No Fun At All was my favourite band for a few years in there, then I grew up a bit heh.

13: Discovered the Dead Kennedys, but I also started to listen to more metal such as Pantera and Metallica.

14: Started to hate Metallica etc, didn't really listen to much that wasn't.. Pantera.

15-16: It was at this stage a friend got me into D.R.I (a punk band who crossed over into a sort of thrash metal sound), also listened to a heap of Bad Religion. First heard Damnation A.D. (you'd have to call them Hardcore I suppose), really got into them, got into some fairly heavy metal also (Arkangel amongst others), also got introduced to European metal (In Flames, specifically) and quite liked it.

17 (now): Listening to a heap of metal, still play the better parts of the punk I listened to (Dead Kennedys, Bad Religion), and also Hardcore, Hardcore is good stuff. Friend also recently introduced me to Testament (and Altmer is now accusing me of playing them far too much), which is about the only thrash metal I've liked for a fair while.

My musical taste doesn't change, it just grows and becomes more selective haha.