When did you start to love music and why?

5th grade, man! I won an am/fm boombox with a tape player at the spelling bee!!! yeah, you read that right! I slept with that thing listening to new wave (kroq radio) in LA. It sounded fantastic listening to all those synthesizers. I was hooked. I begged my parents to buy "for the house" the all in one piece pilot system with the separate speakers!!!! wowwww!!!! a console system!!!! and it was all practically mine!! I had a great childhood. that was only the beginning. what memories of old....so much has happened since then. I love the stories here.

I'm a blizzard baby (accident). Blizzard of '66 to be exact. My siblings are quite a bit older than me. My brothers and sisters have seen Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix live as well as early The Who and others. Every one of my siblings had a hifi or at least a good receiver, turntable and speakers. There was music coming from every room when I was a child. Everything from Janis Joplin, early Genesis, The Bee Gee's and Perry Como (grandmother born 1902). It was a right of way to have a stereo in your bedroom in my family. I started with headphones listening to Dr Dimento in the early 70's and by '75, I was all over Aerosmith and the Bay City Rollers. I joined the chorus and Orchestra where I obviously sang and also played trumpet and piano. I did very well until I started smoking pots, at which point I stopped playing all instruments.

Fast forward 35 years and I own three cuica's and a few tambourims ( like a tambourine but a Brazilian take on it) and I play around with them. There was a point in my life where I really got into 1960's Brazilian pop which would be the equivalent of rock in the U.S. at that time. Musicians such as Milton Nasciemento and Gilberto Gil collaborated with The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix way back when.

Lots of fun. I always had the ability to play music through a decent rig. It will get better next week.

By the way. I listen to a huge variety of music. I rarely ever play classic rock although that's what I grew up on. Too boring to me. When I hear the old classics like Hendrix, The Who, The Doors etc I turn that garbage off. I wore it out and I'm not a nostalgic person. I seek out newer music. There's a lot out there.

Gz3827, thankyou for your positive response. For that reason I'm going to grandfather you in. I would love to hear your story. I promise to keep it confidential if I could but you know there are hundreds of people that visit this thread and they will be waiting for your response, no pressure here.

My love of music was triggered when, while listening to the radio in 1956, I heard Gogi Grant's recording of "The Wayward Wind."

Regards,
-- Al

Hey Phd … I’m always happy to be grandfathered in so I’m certainly not complaining. But truth be told, I did already contribute ‘my story’ earlier. I guess it didn’t make much of an impression, but whaddya want? The competition here is fierce, LOL!

First prize so far definitely goes to Sfar. When I read “My bedroom was in a coverted porch that wasn't connected to the rest of the house” I just about lost it. Then came “the empty West Texas sky,” and I did lose it! The “whacko” preachers and the absence of classical music were just icing on the cake.

For better or worse, reading the other real life ‘confessions’ in this thread have reminded me of some of what I had either lost to failing memory (like those little red plastic transistor radios that all the kids coveted) or repressed on purpose (who wouldn’t want to forget Mitch Miller and his “bouncing balls”?). And no thanks to Lowrider bringing up Mitch and Ray, I am now being haunted by other long forgotten sights and sounds that have crept back into my consciousness (Lawrence Welk waving his baton to “a one, and a two, and a …” not to mention that auditory sedative and elevator music pioneer, Mantovani).

In 50 years I wonder what they’ll be writing about what’s produced today? Look out Miley Cyrus!