Who influenced your taste in music?

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AirWalke

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Iowa State influenced my taste in music the most. In HS I was basically a top 40 listener... but some guys on my dorm floor introduced me to all kinds of awesome 'alternative' music... and I was hooked and have never looked back.

Holy ****, how could I forget about this? My first year at ISU was back in the early days where such safeguards didn’t exist for music and general network security, but there was an app that allowed us to browse others’ Shared Libraries in iTunes and download their music directly if we saw something we liked. It was like Kazaa or Limewire but without the malware.

So even though I didn’t know 100% of my dorm’s inhabitants I would wager that a good percentage of them indirectly helped to introduce me to some of my musical tastes that persist to this day.
 
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CloneFanInKC

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Parents. Their vinyl collection had everything. Mamas and the Papas. Led Zeppelin. Elton John. Jim Croce. Rolling Stones. Beatles. BeeGees. Abba. Carol King. Carly Simon. Iron Butterfly.
Parents = winner for my biggest influence.
 
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tplumm

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The summer before my junior year, the Missippi 8 conference had a summer league at North Scott. I rode from Muscatine to Eldridge with a senior who had a POS pickup with an amazing stereo…on the way home he blasted the Boston Don’t Look Back album. I was forever hooked. Will never forget that ride home
 

NWICY

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We've got a local-ish drive in movie theater (a little over an hour away) and before the movies they play oldies for like 4 hours before the movies start. It's the best thing ever. They also have an arcade and a go kart track, in addition to a big snack bar. In the summer we grt there about 6, eat dinner, play arcade games, drive go carts, enjoy the sun and tunes, first movie starts around 9pm (always a double feature). Admission is cheap and includes both movies. Sometimes they do a triple feature and sell pancakes and sausages afterwards - on those days we don't get home until about 4am and the eastern sky is getting light.


OK that sounds really fun .
 

JP4CY

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What influenced me the most?
Strangesearch

It had the biggest impact on me.
Pull over a few folders, throw em on Winamp, crack a few Nattys.
 
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besserheimerphat

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OK that sounds really fun .
It's amazing. It ends up being about $125 for our family of 6 but considering that's for 2 current movies, a half hour of arcade/carnival games, (4) 5 minute go kart rides, pizza, popcorn, a 3 pound brick of curly fries with cheese, and their refillable 100oz soda that you can use year after year, it's a better "value" than a day at the Iowa State Fair (IMHO of course). Going to the regular theater as a family is almost as expensive.
 
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Bipolarcy

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My tastes are all over the place, and I have my family and friends to thank.

Dad: Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings
Mom: Elvis
My aunts: The Beatles, Meat Loaf
Friends: Everything from rap to heavy metal
We weren't real big on music in my family, but I will say that my sister was probably the biggest influence on me. She convinced me after playing her Beatles records over and over and over again that I hated the Beatles. I tended to buy music that was quite a bit edgier than that. All Beatles music to me was bubble gum crap. As unfair as that might seem to all of you, that's the way my 16-year-old brain interpreted it and it would be hard to convince me otherwise now.
 
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Cyclonepride

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We weren't real big on music in my family, but I will say that my sister was probably the biggest influence on me. She convinced me after playing her Beatles records over and over and over again that I hated the Beatles. I tended to buy music that was quite a bit edgier than that. All Beatles music to me was bubble gum crap. As unfair as that might seem to all of you, that's the way my 16-year-old brain interpreted it and it would be hard to convince me otherwise now.
I was a little kid when I saw my aunt's Meat Loaf album (Bat out of hell), and I was wondering just what kind of weird **** my aunt was into lol.
 
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JM4CY

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Television.

The glory days of late 90s/early 00s MTV may have had a slight impact on me still to this day since I’m dropping $250 on a ticket to see Blink 182 in Chicago next month.
Immediately-Turn-TRL.gif
 

clonechemist

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Like everyone else it was first oldies (leaning top 40 and folk/americana) from my parents, and then MTV when we ‘finally’ got cable in 5th grade.

Just to throw this out there, the one ‘underground’ oldies band my parents listened to that seems less well known is called Mason Proffitt. I still listen occasionally and the mouth harp still slaps:





Lastly, Coen Bros music soundtracks: Big Lebowski really turned me on to Townes Van Zandt, and O Brother Where Art Thou put me on the older roots stuff.
 
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Cyclones8824

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I used to just listen to pop mostly but my uncle let me listen to Eminem so now I just listen to rap
 

MeanDean

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Like everyone else it was first oldies (leaning top 40 and folk/americana) from my parents, and then MTV when we ‘finally’ got cable in 5th grade.

Just to throw this out there, the one ‘underground’ oldies band my parents listened to that seems less well known is called Mason Proffitt. I still listen occasionally and the mouth harp still slaps:Th





Lastly, Coen Bros music soundtracks: Big Lebowski really turned me on to Townes Van Zandt, and O Brother Where Art Thou put me on the older roots stuff.

That album was in a LOT of collections in my area growing up. Wondering if you're from the same area.
 

MeanDean

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Older Brother and Sister. Top 40 all the way from Christmas 1964 when our family got our 'nice' console stereo. Was always a battle to get R&R AM radio reception. All depended on the time of day and atmospheric conditions. These stations faded in and out so if any of them came in clearly that was what we/I listened to: WLS-Chicago KIOA-Des Moines KSTT-Davenport. At night we could usually pull in KAAY from Little Rock.

Didn't really veer too much off the pop reservation much. Seeing American Graffiti in 1973 and obtaining the soundtrack on 8-track broke the dam for pre-1964 exploration where I started exploring doo-wop and rock-a-billy and even things like The Fleetwoods that I really just love to hear now.

Best friend in college and I were both into Beatles and fueled each other's curiosities. And compared to now, you had no access to anything except vinyl or tapes. No video, no books (hardly). We couldn't even tell for sure who was singing on a lot of the songs. We'd speculate. It wasn't until that stuff became somewhat available that we could even recognize their individual speaking or singing voices.

Late 70's and early 80's liked some punk and new-wave pop stuff, especially Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Squeeze, BoDeans, Marshall Crenshaw.

Lost interest in most newer music after about 1986.
 
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clonechemist

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That album was in a LOT of collections in my area growing up. Wondering if you're from the same area.
Interesting! My parents grew up in Waterloo and SE Iowa respectively.

I always thought MP had an interesting sound that tied in with CSNY, solo Neil Young, Creedence, etc. I gather they may have been regionally popular but never made it big.
 

MeanDean

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Interesting! My parents grew up in Waterloo and SE Iowa respectively.

I always thought MP had an interesting sound that tied in with CSNY, solo Neil Young, Creedence, etc. I gather they may have been regionally popular but never made it big.
They were from Indy/Chicago and toured the Midwest a lot. I can tell you in Muscatine that album was a big seller. I think they may have had a tour stop there - which may have been part of the reason for that. So SE Iowa definitely fits.
 

RoseClone

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My uncle had a collection of Hank Sr albums which I wore out. He and my aunt would take me to their jam sessions in Clemons and other small towns in central Iowa.

Hearing the Suntones barbershop quartet on the Jackie Gleason show as a kid planted a seed of the joy of harmonies. Started singing in a quartet in high school as well as at ISU and have been at it for over 45 years.
 

MisterO

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Dad: 70’s/80’s rock- Boston, Foreigner
Mom: Beatles, Hall & Oates
Friends: Rap, R&B, Metal
Obsessing with U2 in the 90’s got me listening to Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Bowie, the Stones, and Radiohead.
Old car that I drove my Freshman year at Iowa State that only had an AM radio: Oldies

Wouldn’t change any of it.
 
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cyputz

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Like everyone else it was first oldies (leaning top 40 and folk/americana) from my parents, and then MTV when we ‘finally’ got cable in 5th grade.

Just to throw this out there, the one ‘underground’ oldies band my parents listened to that seems less well known is called Mason Proffitt. I still listen occasionally and the mouth harp still slaps:





Lastly, Coen Bros music soundtracks: Big Lebowski really turned me on to Townes Van Zandt, and O Brother Where Art Thou put me on the older roots stuff.

Saw Mason Proffit few times in 70’s. Once in iowa
Love that group