Music that redirected your taste in music.

I listened to country exclusively as a small child. Loved and still love those old country artists. But, when I was 14, my brother one day switched the radio to Lucky Lager Dance Time, and suddenly I was digging Elvis, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and the like. Jerry Lee Lewis became my main man, musicwise. And Harry Belafonte in 1958 was a life changer. He opened up worlds of music I would never have known about. Then, in 1964, I discovered Bob Dylan and my world instantly expanded, yet again. In the 1960s music was so diverse and free that I discovered new artists to love every week. Beatles, Donovan, Stones, Animals - the list could go on for pages. I still find artists to love, but none has the effect of those early days.

Jean Luc Ponty, Emerson Lake and Palmer, and William Orbit (arranger)

My tastes don't so much get redirected as expand to fill four dimensional space. And chiefly it's other people who help me in this process.

At high school I had a bunch of friends with really eclectic tastes for the time, so I got into krautrock, fripp, eno and the art rock crowd. My brother fuelled my taste for what was then called 'new wave': xtc, cure, early U2 and human league. One woman introduced me into flamenco, another into TMBG and Pearl Jam. Playing in bands in Oz in the early 1980s have given me an affection for the largely underground Australian indie rock scene. Triple J radio opened up the wonders of ambient music and still turns up alternative gems. I read a lot and passionate writers could inspire me to explore other musics, from jazz to classical, world to shoegazer, my natural curiosity has had me acquiring gregorian and buddhist chants, north african rai and indian ragas, indonesian gamelan and japanese girly pop punk. A comedian introduced me to Jim White and that modernish psycho country.

And then there's the web, including you guys. I think the first thing I ever bought on faith due to a web recommendations was on alt.music.alternative (yep kids, before the web had pictures, or even refresh buttons) where someone asked for good music for a hangover and someone recommended the Trinity Sessions by the Cowboy Junkies - great choice.

Now there's the internet archive and free albums galore, WFMU, the Toronto Star podcasts, and a million blogs. So much music so little time....

I can't point to anyone, musician or othe wise who changed or informed my musical taste.
My taste has never been particularly redirected. I don't dislike anything I ever liked. I still love all of it.

I think it was more a matter of my ear being wired for it and for my life being rich with it. If you asked me who my favorite musician, singer, or composer is - I couldn't choose.
My dad loved musicals and my mother listened to the radio as she cleaned the house. My first musical memories are Camelot and my mother whistling Winchester Cathedral or Georgie Girl as she made the bed.

My parents were from Texas but we lived in New Jersey - every summer we'd stop in Opreyland in Nashville as the halfway point- when we didn't go via Nashville - we'd go via Memphis or New Orleans- music was always involved.
I loved all of it country, blues, dixieland - whatever.
My older brother listened to the Stones, Clapton, Who and I'd listen to whatever he was listening to from outside his bedroom door.
I grew up in a baptist church - lots of hymns.
I grew up taking piano lessons from the age of eight - Mozart, Hadyn, Bach, Chopin, etc.- my favorite melodies are chopin - my favorite to play is Hadyn- my piano teacher - Miss Louise - helped me there.

WNEW radio out of New York City- Dennis Elsas was the dj from 6-10pm- I listened every night- he played everything and everyone.
Now I listen to my kids' and students' ipods to find new artists.
I don't really like the radio anymore- too programmed and formulaic )and too many ads).

I think it's sad that music (unless it's live) is becoming less and less of a communal listening experience.
Before I knew where to look for what I liked - the only reason I learned about different genres of music is because I heard what people around me were listening to.

my friends have had a big effect on what I listen to. music was and is a big part of the group, and we always share the new bands and artists we find. there really isn't one type of music we listen to, and in the words of someone I heard, "there is good music in every genre, you just have to sift through all the **** first". "expanded" is a better word to use than "redirected" as someone has also said.

Mr. Bob Marley, "Catch a Fire" heard it first in the dorm room of a scholarship soccer player from Bermuda my freshman year and I have never since left the reggae scene in over 36 years. In the early days there were lots of times I was the only white face in the crowd.

Moved from Marley and the Wailers to Tosh, to Jimmy Cliff, to Third World and Burning Spear and settled down as a tour groupie for Steel Pulse.



from side two

My kid has introduced me to some groups and songs I really like,
such as My Chemical Romance, Panic at the Disco, Coldplay, and a few other
groups with weird names. I don't like all of their songs, but some are exceptionally good.