Good afternoon! Well, the college football season is over and we’re into the long, slow offseason. The wait will be as excruciating as waiting for quitting time on a Friday afternoon. So, here’s something to while away some of the afternoon and help you look “busy”. This’ll be an occasional feature during the offseason but, I make no promises it’ll be weekly…
So, I have a theory. It’s my theory. Others may have the same theory. I have not researched my theory because I am lazy. I’d just prefer to expound on it and rely on my own ignorance and not someone else’s.
My theory is, your musical tastes are set during your period of youth from the age of 10-18. It’s a time where you are learning new things nearly every day, adapting to growing up and cementing your tastes in a variety of things, including music. And, in my age, once you turned 16 and got your drivers license, your car became your rolling soundstage where you listened to any and everything you could get your hands on. I’d say I probably spent more time in a vehicle, riding around for necessity or pleasure, between the ages of 16-18 than any other period in my life. And, music was always playing.
So, the period of time I was 10-18 was 1974-1983. The artists that I latched on to then, I still listen to, today. Some of those artists were: KISS, The Commodores, Blondie, The Cars, The Police, The Rolling Stones, Ted Nugent, Van Halen, Prince and The Eagles. Now you might say, well, those are all well known artists that millions like anyway. Yeah, but, when I first started hearing them, some of them were new, just starting out. The Stones? I didn’t really notice them until the “Some Girls” album. Just a product of the age I was born in.
So, what years were your 10-18 years? Who were the artists you picked up on then that you still go back to and listen whenever you can?
I’m so old. Motown Sound, Beachboys, Otis Redding.
Turned 10 in 1992. Graduated HS in 2000. Favorite bands, in some semblance of order (non-exhaustive):
Led Zeppelin
The Beatles
Metallica*
Robert Earl Keen*
Waylon Jennings
The Mavericks*
The Band
Jimi Hendrix
Sturgill Simpson
Tyler Childers
James Brown
Make some chronological sense of that one.
*denote active in a meaningful way between 1992 and 2000.
I’ll add that Napster hit right at the end of this era for me, and I think digital music completely changed how people developed their tastes. I had a couple of binders full of CDs when I came to college, but I don’t think I bought more than a handful once I got there. What you hear is now driven by personalized algorithms rather than by DJs and record executives. That means your list can go in all different directions and is generally going to be timeless, so long as something is available on your streaming service.
That would be 1983-1990 for me. My parents introduced me to the Beatles, Stones, and Doors through their record collection; pop radio from ’82-87 (Police, Billy Joel, early hair metal like Crue, Scorpions, Def Leppard), and all those Billboard 80s hits from those years. The Cult, Drivin’ n Cryin’, with a little Hank Jr thrown in.
The biggest one, though, alongside the Beatles/Stones/Doors, was riding on a yellow school bus on a field trip when a friend handed me his Walkman and hit play. “The One I Love” was the song, and within a couple months I had everything R.E.M. had released in my collection (Chronic Town thru Document and wound up loving every thing they did through Monster.) I’m pretty sure it had an influence on my choice of school. Then I got into Widespread Panic while in Athens…so my iPhone playlist covers a pretty good bit of ground between all this.
I could survive on a desert island with a loop of Beatles Stones Doors R.E.M. Panic
Can remember recording Casey Kasem off the radio onto a reel to reel recorder. Didn’t really start listen to radio until maybe 15, Carolina Beach music during those summer months. Just listened to whatever was on the radio but didn’t develop my preferred listening choices until getting to Athens and after. At 15 , AC/DC, KISS, Queen, Bob Segar and Jimmy Buffet were getting popular air play. I get into The Band, Otis Redding, and Faces now more than back when they were popular. Developed my liking for upbeat Blues sound nowadays. Been to the NO Jazzfest many times and can sit in the Blues Tent all day and be perfectly happy.
What if I told you… I currently own a digital copy of every American Top 40 episode Casey Kasem hosted? We play them on a loop around here, it’s very interesting to go back and hear all those shows. The other day, we heard a Long Distance Dedication a girl from Ty Ty sent in to AT40 and it got chosen. Was pretty neat, my younger sister even knew who she was.
For me it would be 1976 to 1984.
Billy Joel
Queen
Police
Rick Springfield
Kansas
KISS
(Jefferson) Starship
Doobie Brothers
Bruce Springsteen
Chicago
REM
The Police
However, I love music from all eras and styles. My iTunes has over 3,800 songs ranging from Rock and Pop to Rap, Soul and Alternative.
Anybody remember the Taylor Made Opry?
For me it would be 1976 to 1984.
Billy Joel
Queen
Police
Rick Springfield
Kansas
KISS
(Jefferson) Starship
Doobie Brothers
Bruce Springsteen
Chicago
REM
The Police
However, I love music from all eras and styles. My iTunes has over 3,800 songs ranging from Rock and Pop to Rap, Soul and Alternative.
All of those but don’t fully agree with the premise. R&R is dead and can’t stand today’s copycat computer enhanced pop music. Did not care for country other than the classics but in the last few years modern country has taken over for my 70’s and 80’s rock. I know many classic country music lovers disdain the heavy rock guitar influence but it’s a great replacement.
I go back to very, very little. Most of what I listen to now, either it wasn’t available to me or I wasn’t open to it.
I was into almost exclusively Led Zeppelin and the popular bands of the mid to late 1980’s. Van Halen. Guns and Roses. A little Metallica. Some U2. Some Sabbath. By the time Nirvana showed up and killed it all, I was out of college.
I listen very little to any of that stuff from the 1980’s anymore. Just grew out of it I guess. When Guns and Roses went back out a few years ago I had no interest in seeing them.
If there was one band’s music that I can keep returning to it would be AC/DC. Just timeless rock and roll.
So for me, your theory doesn’t work. That said, the music that I have picked up on in the 40-ish years since is almost always pre-1990 so maybe there’s a sliver of reality there.
I wish I had pandora or spotify when I was that age. Who knows where I would have landed? Perhaps not what 96Rock was playing.
I was very into GNR when they came out but, I’m not interested in the Axl and a bunch of nobodies GNR.
Damn shame they couldn’t have stayed on track after Appetite. Thought we had a new, and American, Rolling Stones.
Turns out Mick is slightly more professional…
“Its So Easy” still kicks ass. As does “Rocket Queen” and “Paradise City”…
Gosh, so many changes during mine. 1971 – 1979. Both my mom and dad loved to listen to music so me and my brother listened to a lot of what they were listening to at age 10 -13/14. Dad was still mostly country with a blend of pop (Eagles, Tom Jones). George Jones, Conway Twitty and dad was a huge Willie Nelson fan. If you were in the truck with dad, he had either “The Red Headed Stanger tape going or Wille’s “Phases and Stages” (If you have never heard that album, you missed out on some great song writing) I still listen to it to this day, especially when my brother and I get to sucking down some cold beer.
High School was “Frampton comes Alive” Jefferson Starship (red Octopus). I still remember every Thursday night sitting or standing by Hugh York’s Mustang before we go out to practice under the lights getting ready for Friday’s game with Frampton’s “Do you feel like I do” blaring over his speakers. Also we had, Super Tramp, Foreigner, Hank Jr. Stxy, Journey, Marshall Tucker Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd and then the Motown with The Whispers, Commadores, Earth, Wind and Fire, Ohio Players. Greatest time of music EVER!
I still go back and listen to The Statler Brothers’ Greatest Hits that used to play on a loop in my Mom’s 8-track in-dash player… in the old Buick LeSabre. Reminds me of her so much.
1970 thru 1978. Led Zeppelin, The Beatles together and solo, Aerosmith, The Isley Brothers, Cheap Trick, James Brown, P Funk, Hall and Oates, Lynerd Skynerd, Elton John, Waylon Jennings, Rod Stewart, ELO, Boz Scaggs and several others that I can’t remember right now.
1994-2002
Who I listen to?
Pearl Jam
Counting Crows
Alice in Chains
Metallica
Pink Floyd
Dawes
Little Feat
Sturgill Simpson
Dire Straits
Tom Petty
John Prine
I’ll forever regret not going to Ireland and seeing a Prine and Sturgill show. 2017 I think??
Mine was 1973 – 1981. I always said my music “sweet spot” was 1973 – 1986, when I finished my time at UGA. I worked part time at a local radio station from high school thru college so music was everything to me. Still in radio today but that was always my sweet spot. I had two considerably older brothers so the Beatles were a big influence as well because of them. Van Halen was king. Journey, Chicago, Fleetwood Mac, Boston, Doobie Brothers, and Bocephus.
My theory is that musical tastes evolve and grow as you grow.
Until I could drive, I only listened to what the adults listened to which was WSB 750 in my case before it was talk radio (all we had was AM radios in cars then). I can’t even recall now what was on.
In 1967 when I got my license, it was still just AM radio until a year later when I got a ’67 Chevy Impala convertible and also bought an 8 Track tape deck that I installed my self. At the same time, friends of mine in high school that were huge jazz/ blues fans got me interested in those genres. Actually to a Jazz festival at the old Atlanta Stadium and saw Jimmy Smith, Miles Davis, Herbie Mann and the like. On the 8 track I had Little Stevie Wonder, Four Tops, Otis Redding, Chamber Brothers, Junior Walker and the All-stars, Righteous Brothers, Hugh Masekela and for a change of pace Gordon Lightfoot. Also, of course, the Beatles and the Stones. [True fact: I had a history course at UGA and had to do a presentation, and I included the Abbey Road Album in it and got an A].
Flash forward to my UGA days and my tastes became even more eclectic. John Hartford, Leo Kottke, John Fahey, ELP, Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker, Paul Winter Consort, Renaissance. As an adult over time I am into a lot of Jazz (Marsalis, Barbieri, Coltrane and the like as well as lesser known European artists. Also folkie-rock types like Joni Mitchell, Sarah MacLachlan, CSNY hell everything. I also have grown fond of music my parents listened to likr Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis, some Sinatra, and Jo Stafford and Frankie Laine. It never ends.
Maybe I should say, those years set the baseline for your tastes? It’s still a working theory, lol.
I’ve bored my family and friends for years with a similar theory, but mine was the music of the decade from 13-22 (basically middle school, high school and college). I feel like middle school is when a kid starts really breaking from what their parents listen to, high school is the sweet spot for teens, and for me, my taste changed a ton in college – probably because of the great live music available to me in Athens that was outside the mainstream.
Anyway, for your time frame, 10-18 for me is 1988-1996. I remember when 99X launched in 1992. And for the next decade I pretty much only listened to a strange blend of 99X and the underground Christian Youth Group Rock of the late 90s (if you grew up in a big youth group at the time, you know…).
I don’t listen to much of the old CCM music anymore outside of Jars of Clay (who kept the quality up and the cringe factor down) and Derek Webb.
From the 90s Alt era, I still love Pearl Jam, STP, Indigo Girls, Vigilantes of Love (found them while in Athens), old Smashing Pumpkins (nothing after Mellon Collie), plus a ton of the one-hit wonders regularly show up on my playlist.
That said, I’ve refused to quit listening to new music. I don’t follow the Billboard Hot 100 anymore (outside of what I hear from my teen daughter….some of which is good, some of which makes my ears bleed). But what radio calls AAA has some great new music – a nice mix of good old rock, alt-country, soul, etc. Too bad there is no good AAA station in Atlanta. So 90% of my music discovery is on Spotify, other city’s AAA stations, and a few message boards I hang out on.
13-22 is a good period as well, I debated college years with myself in the formulation of my theory but, I kinda felt that what I picked up on and listened to in college was just an extension of the genres I had latched on to earlier in my life.
If I had more time, I’d leave a longer reply. I just stopped by to say that 1991-1999 were the golden years of music for me (as defined by OP), and 99x had a massive part of that.
For those of us that also actually grew up in the Athens/Watkinsville area, “Bulldog” 103.7 and 99x were the ONLY two stations programmed into the radio in my old, hand me down 1991 Volvo driving to and from Oconee County High School.
I will say the theory doesn’t work/fit for me. My range would be 1980-1988 and I was a big Classic Rock and Hair Metal guy in high school, but I don’t listen to Motley Crue, Ratt, Bon Jovi, Guns n Roses, or Metallica much anymore if ever. Hell, one of my first concerts was RUN D.M.C., LL Cool J, and Stetsasonic for $15 at the Savannah Civic Center and I really don’t listen to that anymore…lol.
I do still like Van Halen and Drivin’ n Cryin’ from that era and bands like Led Zeppelin, Stones, Willie, Waylon, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the Allman Bros which I discovered at that age even though they were more 1970’s. I didn’t get into R.E.M. and Widespread until right after college really and still listen to them quite often. As I have gotten older, I have gotten more into alternative country and modern southern rock with bands like The Wild Feathers, Susto, Sturgil Simpson, Tyler Childers, Stapleton, and the Future Birds mixed in with classic/outlaw country. I also enjoy the Yacht Rock genre. So, I would say my musical tastes have changed and grown as I have gotten older, but are more based in my college years and time right out of college than from when I was 10-18 years old.
Added thought: There are some singers in particular who are fine as far it goes with their singing, but who have great bands that they work with that interest me because of their band. Stateside (kind of) Van Morrison is in that category. Overseas, a folkie gal named Kate Rusby has an okay voice, but her band always sets her music apart in my view for the variety of the instruments and the layers they bring to the recording. Many of the shows on ACL advertise brand name musicians, but the lesser known bands steal the show often enough.
1972 to 1985…..then grunge came along and I’d have to add 1991 to 1999.
Late 70s-mid 80s for me.
I still love Prince especially his stuff during that time. I wore out my 1999 and Purple Rain cassettes. I still have Prince essentials on my music on my phone. When “Kiss” comes on now, I can’t help but turn it up.
As a teenager, I loved Midnight Star, Gap Band, Run DMC, and a lot of old school rap and R&B. I’ll still crank some of that when I’m in n the car alone.
I developed my love of 70s and 80s rock once I got to Athens.
I am am a 66 high guy! Temps , Tops, Spinners. Saw Otis Redding’s last coming home concert at city auditorium! Betty Swan and Barclays!! At least they said l did!! Also Arthur Conley!! Anyway, good times, but glad l am old!! Go Dawgs!!
Sweet Soul Music…
1965 to 1973 for me.
Beach Boys
Safaris
Beatles
Stones
Them
Cream
Jimi Hendricks
Led Zeppelin
Johnny Winter
Muddy Waters
James Brown
Joe Cocker
Allman Brothers
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Pretty much in the order I found their music.
84-92 for me. As such, I seem to remember some of favs from the time span were
Huey Lewis and the News
Duran Duran
The Thompson Twins
Jan Hammer (oh, Miami Vice)
Herbie Hancock
When I was younger. Lots of one hit wonders in that time I still like to listen to. As I hit my teens:
AC/DC
Metallica
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Guns n Roses
Personally some of the stuff I go to more than anything happened past 1992. I went Governor’s Honors in Summer of 92 which is where my roommate exposed me to RHCP and the Spin Doctors, along with They Might Be Giants and a bunch of alternative stuff. I loved the early to mid 90s music the most, to be honest.
Ah, memories.
1981 to 1990 for me. Purple Rain came out around 83, Green came out in 89 and Seven Turns in 1990. I’d heard Prince, REM, and ABB plenty before those dates, but those were the albums that hooked me and eventually I had all their entire catalogs. Fortunate to see Prince once live, REM a few times, and ABB (or Gregg solo) more times than I can remember.
87-95. Prime grunge baby(!) and still listen today. Also the classic rock folks mainly thru influence of my parents- mostly dad.
With my hs graduation money I bought the Led Zep box set. Some of the best money I’ve ever spent, easily.
Some bands that I discovered and love AFTER said years:
White Stripes
Black Keys (earlier stuff)
Kings of Leon (early stuff – 1st album is amazing)
Heartless Bastards
Added bonus: how awesome is it when you discover a ‘new’ song that you didn’t already know from an artist you already love or like. That’s a great feeling.
Around 84-86 I was a freshman/sophomore in HS and caught a ride with a friend to school. Steve-o had a sweet 1980-ish white camaro with a bitchin’ Pioneer stereo and cool taste in music.
Turned me on to:
The Pogues
Husker Du
The Cult
The Cure
Pixies
Guadalcanal Diary
Coolies
Hoodoo Gurus
Scruffy the Cat
Dead Milkmen
And of course, REM
…probably a few more I can’t think of right now.
I subscribe to your theory in general, but would expand it (based on my experience, and those of various friends) to include college. My taste expanded significantly in Athens, once I got more exposure to live music, and radio beyond 96 Rock, specifically 90.5 FM (where I worked for 4 years).
My years (per your criteria) are 76-84, but 84-89 are when a lot of different acts got on my radar.
Early phase:
Rush
Yes
The Who
Stones
Beatles
Cheap Trick
Genesis
Police
Cars
College
REM
XTC
Elvis Costello
Joe Jackson
The Smiths
The Cure
Squeeze
Crowded House
(this is Dawg Vegas, btw)
I have a pedantic comment. You do NOT have a theory in the scientific sense. As scientific theory, by definition, is backed up by emperical data. So if someone says, “well, it’s just a theory” they are downgrading the term. It’s not “JUST the theory of relativity” or “JUST the theory of evolution”. These theories are backed by decades of scientific research.
You don’t have a theory. You have a hypothesis.
Duly noted. And, you are?
Oy – I’ve been an ass on here before, but… good grief 🙄
Right? A whimsical post to while away the time. And then, Bill Nye shows up.