Do you remember the first time you really clicked with music? I remember being on a family vacation at 9 or 10, getting some sort of random Beatles “Hits” cassette tape at whatever gas station, and playing it nonstop in my off-brand Walkman. That was the first time I really felt music in my bones, and to this day few things are as exciting as finding a new song to love.
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Jimmy hendrix released all along the watch tower. Yes, I am that old but I got to see some of the greatest bands live. .
That is totally a win. I love being able to humblebrag to my kids’ friends that I saw Radiohead a couple of times on their Kid A tour. Knowing my dad saw Sly and the Family Stone in concert kind of blows my mind.
This definitely feels a little embarrassing, but we’re all strangers. It would have been late middle school, I just got a philips mp3 player from church and loaded some albums on it. My gf broke up with me at some point and Bullet For My Valentine’s Scream Aim Fire and Panic! At The Disco’s Pretty. Odd. kept me company. I have 2 music degrees now I am constantly having aesthetic reactions to music.
I listened to hair bands (Motley Crue, Poison, Warrant) at that age so I certainly can’t judge anyone!
What kind of music degrees? What exactly do you mean by aesthetic reactions?
I have 2 music Ed degrees! An aesthetic response is essentially an emotional connection. The idea is that a person’s brain reacts to parts of music (dynamic, timbre, tempo, melody, etc.) in a way that generates that emotional response.
Mid 80s, I was on a long bus ride with a group and I had borrowed my brother’s Walkman with Steve Miller Band’s Greatest Hits. I remember playing it for hours, front to back several times in all its cheesy glory with the hum of the bus and the passing scenery. Later it was all punk and Nine Inch Nails or Dead Can Dance, but ol’ Steve will keep on rockin’
I was 16 in 1991, browsing through my dad’s vinyl collection, hoping to find another album that had a saucy gatefold cover like Queen’s Jazz… instead, I found myself drawn to Marillion’s Script For A Jester’s Tear album and decided to listen to it. Instantly loved it, played it over and over, started listening to more of my dad’s stuff (Psychedelic Furs, Pink Floyd, Genesis).
Discovered music that would define my tastes for the next 30 years, and also discovered that my dad was actually a really cool dude.
I love this! I never heard of the artist or album. Looking at the cover, I can see why you were drawn to it! It’s so wonderfully bizarre… I remember being wowed to learn that my dad had seen Zeppelin in concert a few times. It was like he’d been in the presence of a god!
I was probably like 12 and I heard Voodoo Child (Slight Return) by Jimi Hendrix and his guitar and that song struck me to my core. Total chills across my body and a tingly sensation in my ears.
I was never into music before hearing that song. Jimi Hendrix is a god as far as I’m concerned he got me into music.
That is an amazing song. My favorite Jimi song is Bold as Love. Such a good vibe. (And it’s the perfect album closer). I love when music gives me chills, it doesn’t seem to happen nearly as much as it used to, though. I wonder if that’s a part of getting older. I still love finding a new song or artist to love of course, but when it really hits you on a visceral level it’s a whole 'nother level.
For me, I think it was with Killing Me Softly by the Fugees. I remember actually listening to the lyrics and thinking about them. From there I explored Pink Floyd and other classic rock. It took a while for my tastes to excited but I started exploring metal and grunge in junior high.
Played Guitar Hero for the first time and it was all downhill from there
Any particular song you came back to more than others?
Dani California is a little more nostalgic than most songs but most songs on there are really good
The first time I heard Pink Floyd. My sister’s boyfriend played DSotM and I loved it. I think I was 10.
That album became overplayed for me unfortunately, but I remember what an experience those first listens were. I was older, though. It’s cool that you connected with such a musical trip at such a young age.
I think I was lucky to be around people who loved good music. That may be the difference with our experiences, is the age when we first heard it. I must have played it hundreds of times. I don’t purposefully listen to it now that I’m older (49), but I still get chills if Time happens to be playing.
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Discovering Metallica (this was when the black album came out, so they were suddenly everywhere) and getting into their previous 4, now classic, albums definitely filled a need in me when I was a teen.
~2004
Artist? Song?
My friend’s dad let us use his Walkman. We listened to GWAR’s Ragnarok. I was probably 9. I was hooked on heavy music from that point.
I was already somewhat into music a long as I can remember… But I wouldn’t say I got super into music until the day I heard Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit in '92. I was in 4th grade, my family was sitting in a drive thru waiting to pick up food and my mind was blown as it played on the radio. This was rock music, but something new, something different. And then I got obsessed with grunge and alternative music
I would get a second similar sense of wonder in 2013, when I discovered the Cambrian explosion of *wave music (chillwave, vaporware, witch house, future beats, and other newbreed electronica). With Purity Ring’s Lofticries leading me down that path
Hearing American Idiot (the song, then the album) during the initial pop punk boom was life changing for me and created a life long love of pop punk.
I honestly don’t remember a time before music was tied to emotions and events. Even as a baby I had a clear preference for classic rock over other genres, and if my parents couldn’t get me to stop fussing they would put on the Eagles, Tom Petty, or America to get me to calm down. My tastes grew and evolved as I got older, but music has always been as much about the feeling I get from a song as it has been the quality of the song itself.
