Parental and childhood influences on music taste
By cconrad
@cconrad (30)
United States
June 8, 2009 1:52pm CST
The vast majority of people I know do not share music taste with their parents. I am 23, so my parents are in their 50s and like music from the 70s and 80s. Up through high school, I never really listened to anything. I didn't own any CDs, I knew what I heard on the radio occasionally, but that was about it. I almost felt left out, because I wasn't totally into the stuff that was considered mainstream. Some time around college, I took one song I liked and looked into it (genre, who it was, where it came from) and it ultimately led me to listening to so many things that my father enjoys. We don't get along very well at all, and I was very surprised to learn that most of everything he has in his CD library is something I enjoy. To this day, I still don't listen to the radio and my father and I give each other recommendations on new music.
Do you think this is because I was exposed to this music extensively as a child without really realizing it? Do you think that people who listen to 'mainstream' music only are doing it only as a way of fitting in? I think if music wasn't filled with so many notions of popularity, people wouldn't be afraid of branching off and liking something that isn't so popular, and I bet it would lead them back to what they heard a lot as a child. Or maybe not!
1 person likes this
8 responses
@ezekiel71 (132)
• United States
9 Jun 09
i love music, for me it is a way of expressing whats inside of you.I grew up in a home with no electricity but my mom loves to hum a song and the rhymes just sets into my mind. I never heard my dad sing ( and i dont put blame on him for that). What kind of music you are listening to reflects what kind person are you. What we let our child hear influence every part of them. Child learn from what we do and what they see from us not from what we say.
@friskimage (170)
• United States
9 Jun 09
I am 50 years old and like a lot of the new music. But for me it has to be music, not into rap or booming woofers with no melody. Sure, I like classic rock, but for the most part am tired of hearing the same old songs over and over. Coldplay, Collective Soul, Maroon 5, U2, Incubus, 311. Examples of what I am into. I think there are a lot of eclectic new musicians out there. I don't want to be stuck in the past.
@pillusch (1147)
• Mexico
9 Jun 09
I believe that music and the taste in music changes constantly, and that ‘mainstream‘ music is just a reflection of that taste.
I like some of the songs my two boys, 13 and 14, listened to, and I ask them sometimes to download a particular song for me. But on the whole I prefer a different cup of tea. Now, I’m from your parents generation, and I’d like to congratulate you. You actually have something in common with your father, great! As you say, you don’t get along very well, which, I guess, is pretty normal. But you’re way ahead if you actually share a like. That’s more than most people can say.
@leiann_561 (332)
• Philippines
9 Jun 09
do you know videoke? coz that's where i learned to read. i still remember most of the songs that my mom and dad used to sing when i was little. as it turns out, i actually like those songs from the 70s and 80s. it's good to listen to old song every once in a while. you get to compare the eras from which the songs came from.
@check23 (448)
• Philippines
9 Jun 09
My parents did influenced my sisters music taste but me, nah. I have my own taste of music. I already have a baby and he's 10months old now. I think I influenced his taste. My favorite is his favorite too. Whenever he hears the song, he'll look for it whether on tv or player and he enjoy listening to it. =D
@ravinskye (8237)
• United States
8 Jun 09
I think part of my influence comes from my parents. My parents are in their 50's and I'm 28. Growing up I heard a lot of 80's rock and older 70's stuff too. As a teenager I listened to my own stuff, basically whatever what was popular at the time. But I liked my parents stuff too. Now as an adult I like a bunch of stuff and I like to shock people telling them that my parents listen to heavy metal and stuff like megadeath and tool lol.
@ds6413 (2070)
• United States
8 Jun 09
Hello cconrad , well I grew up with music. My grandfather was a musician who played in the clubs in Chicago mid 1920's probably up to mid 1930's. He never really spoke of his life in Chaicago but he played in some clubs during that time. when he married my grandmother he still played music but he did it with others who liked Jazz music. I have all of his music still and a couple of his saxophones and he had many. I like most kinds of musical genres only I never really liked country music.I studied music in college.My grandfather was the main influence in music and I know he liked listening to all kinds.
