over the years ive become interested in the range of music that people were brought up listening to. i mean, what your parents listened to before you had the good sense to discover new music for yourself.
i have only limited knowledge of and to be fair, not all that much interest in huge artists like the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan etc and i blame this on the musical diet that i was brought up on.

my house was a hotbed of prog rock and electric folk. i was brought up on Jethro Tull, Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention etc. Then there was my dad's more, um, eccentric taste that involved the Bonzo Dog Doodah Band, sea shanties and i kid you not, records of whalesong. Now, I'd like to think that I've become a well rounded individual since then, but can't help feeling I missed out in my formative years. I now have a wide ranging taste in music, but have an undeniable soft spot for folk, that i keep well hidden.

so, what were you brought up on? How do you think it informed your taste/ knowledge of music?

i was brought up with the rolling stones, beatles, and motown from my dad and trex, elton john and diana ross from my mom. my brother was my major influence though as he was ten years older than me, he played U2, Simple minds, frankie goes to hollywood, electropop.

Dylan , Clapton , and blues from my dad , and ska , particlarly madness, from my mum.

Add to that Token Women, Blues of all shapes and sizes-predominantly Muddy Waters and the like, Eric Clapton (Solo and Cream)- Daddy

West Gallery Music (Hymns and things from the 1800s), Classical music (Especially the ballets) and then random things like old 40's songs, the Andrews sisters and the like (One of my earliest memories is being towelled dry after a bath when I was about five and being sung 'A bushel and a peck')- Mummy

From my brother I didn't get much influence-but much of the stuff I listen to now-Nirvana, Faith No More, Placebo etc can be linked back to the music he used to listen to when he was my age.

my sister and me were obsessed with madness for years.

Tis great. Never made a better skanking song than 'one step beyond'.

Blimey, you all had cool parents. I got brought up on Phil Collins, Barry Manilow, Abba (before they had their renaissance and everyone decided they weren't naff after all) and Fleetwood Mac. Still, it could have been worse - my Dad's having some bizarre midlife crisis and is now into Euro Trance.

dad - beatles, led zeppelin, cream, clapton, elp, caravan, hendrix, who, buffalo springfield and the loving spoonful

mum - paul young

my dad always used to make tapes from the top 40 for us with madness, adam ant, wham, michael jackson, etc etc. i then graduated on to nicking his vinyl. it was a key stage in my growing up when i started introducing music to him ( "whats that one that goes quiet then loud?" "nirvana? smells like teen spirit?" "yes, that one. can i tape it off you?'")

edit - he has gone pretty old now. lots of chris rea and 'best of top gear' comps.

My Dad went for similar stuff lots of Rolling Stones, Led Zepplin, The Who etc but also seemed to have the required dad interest in the works of Phil Collins. I used to listen to his CDs/Vinyls of Deep Purple, Bad Company, Iron Maiden(!) and so forth as a nipper. I can see a certain infulence in my listening habits these days but my dad is still amazed that people still buy vinyl.

yeah, i forgot to mention that my mum's music collection consisted of abba gold and Neil Diamond!

My musical memories from childhood are a strange mixture of Steeleye Span, Carl Orff, Wagner and Mike Oldfield. I haven't heard any Steeleye Span for years now, and haven't the patience to sit through much Wagner, but I still like Carmina Burana and have a soft spot for Tubular Bells.

Yeah my dad owns those Top Gear collections too - their mostly very lame apart from the odd rawk classic.

My parents used to whip Oldfield out at Christmas-It's not Christmas Eve until someone plays In Dulci Jubilo and Portsmouth.

My parents had lots of folk music: Peter, Paul & Mary; Joan Baez; Judy Collins; Kingston Trio, etc. My dad also listened to lots of sea shanties also. There were loads of Broadway soundtracks around too. However my father usually had us listening to comedy albums from his era.: Spike Jones, Stan Freeman, George Carlin, etc.

I was brought up on Michael Jackson, U2, Dire Straights, thats all I know

My mum brought me up on Rock'n'Roll & Country and Western. My Dad had a soft spot for Motown. And I still listen to it all (well only really Johnny Cash & Dolly Parton on the C&W side, which she did introduce me to)

Like SpaceSickPup I was also weened on Mark Knoffler, I also had Patsy Kline,
Connie Francis, Elvis and Yaz...go..figure!

-m0r

Parents - Ray Conniff, Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, Glen Campbell, Crystal Gayle, ABBA, Elvis' Christmas album.

Six-years-older-than-me brother - Sex Pistols, Specials, Madness, The Beat, Blondie, Flying Lizards, Sham 69.

Four-years-older-than-me sister - Tears For Fears, Wham!, Haircut 100, Howard Jones.

After all that lot I think the first single I ever bought was probably Shaddap You Face by Joe Dolce. It seemed hilarious to my ten-year-old ears.

I've got ABBA coded into my psyche. Its hardwired into my brain. Cheers mum.

Same here with the shite. Abba, Elton John, and the worst of all - Cliff Richard.

i forgot Queen and status Quo, how could i have missed queen! also chas and dave

I`ll admit, my Dad liked Queen, so that wasn`t too bad. As for Status Quo, I like all their early stuff, the 3-chord stuff just makes me want to drown things.

i also had a lot of comedy albums played by my dad. stuff like tom lehrer and ivor cutler. I'm quite disturbed to see that sea shanties were more widespread than i thought though!

Good thread!

My hours-long car journeys as a child consisted of listening to:

Fleetwood Mac, Simply Red, Danny Wilson, The Pretenders, Travelling Wilburys, Iron Maiden, Hue & Cry, 'Soft Metal' Compilations, Mike Oldfield, Paul Young, Fine Young Cannibals, John Secada and so on.

I rebelled against all of them to be into electronic music the way I am today!

Oh yeah, in the car we had Vin Garbutt (Old friend of my dads-I'll be extremely impressed if anyone here's heard of him) - North-eastern folky stuff, highly enjoyable.

I was brought up on bands liiiike Madness, The Jam, stuff my dad listened to. I always insisted that in the car we had 'Madness - Seven' playing, happy days.

I had the privelage of growing up with The Police, Chicago and a bit Phil Collins, unfortunately...

My parents had very wide ranging tastes in music - long car journeys to Devon to go on holiday were always accompanied by Fleetwood Mac and the Beach Boys - so I had a very open minded view of music from a kid. My dad is really into ska and reggae, as well as folk (he's a guitarist and used to be in a folk-rock band before he became a management consultant ), but we also listened to stuff like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Mary Chapin Carpenter, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, the Beatles, the Stones - a big mixture basically. But whenever I hear 'I Get Around' all that springs to mind is cartons of Ribena and being stuck on the A303 outside Exeter

There was no music my house as I grew up. If stereos were turned on they were playing Radio 4. I have absolutely no idea where my obsession with music came from.

My Dad's got a pretty cool record collection, although it stops in 79 when I made an appearance. However, it's picked up again in CD format now that my brother and I are making our way in the big wild world.

Beatles, Bowie, Buddy Holly, Kate Bush are ones that I can remember from my childhood. He's got loads of Rock 'n' Roll, Jazz, Blues. Recently he's professed a liking for Basement Jaxx and he's an avid Jools Holland watcher. My mum prefers Scottish Country Music, but that's only if she's pushed to listen to music at all, usually she'll listen to audio books.

It was my Dad's 60th a couple of weeks back. 9.05am he was standing at the bus stop, bus pass in one hand, £40 of HMV vouchers in the other. He's fab!

its good to see people mentioning spike jones - i'd forgotten about him. we used to love his tapes. and the bonzo dog doo dah band! great stuff.

Oh yeah, me too - i should dig out those tapes



Oh the irony.

I did quite well out of my parents, plenty of Beatles and Led Zeppelin.

I had to learn to appreciate Irving Berlin and Bing Crosby, but I got there in the end.

I think my dad had original records. "Cocktails for Two <hick>". A lot of the songs were parodies of which I did not know the originals. I should dig out the recordings, I bet it's even funnier now.

My Dad was really into Billy Joel.

He also used to play 'Peter Skellern sings Fred Astaire' all the time. I still have nightmares!

My mum doesn't really like music. She wants big band stuff she can clap along to and occasionally asks me to play my 'violin' (I play the flute). My dad had us listening to Black Sabbath, Boney M, Dire Straits, Kate Bush, the Beatles, silly songs, folk music....he's got good taste actually. Recently I've got him into Muse, Nightwish and Fiona Apple.

When I was really young we'd always have a mixtape of feelgood pop in the car that we would listen to wherever we went, it had Madness (House of Fun was my favourite song as a kid, i was VERY shocked to find out what it actually was about...), The Beatles (Love Me Do), Bill Withers (me and my sister used to compete to see which of us could last for the whole of the sustained note on Lovely Day ) and a host of others.

As I grew up, my parents got me more into the Beatles, neither of them liked the Stones too much, my Dad likes Dylan and i've just rediscovered Blood On The Tracks, he also got me into Simon and Garfunkel, and my Mum got me into punk, a bit of ska, and the Prodigy. She used to blare Fat Of The Land very loudly about the house, bearing in mind that she was in her late 30's at the time, and she also used to play Prodigy Experience a lot when I was really young, and she went to a rave in the early nineties when I was 6, sadly she didn't take me but i'm sure she would have tried.

NO!!!!

Elton john, abba, boney m, the sweet, david bowie, bay city rollers, the monkees, spandau ballet, tom jones, hot chocolate, roy orbisson, boy george and culture club, toto, david essex,cliff richard roy wood, wizard, elo, etc. it wasnt very good was it....although i do like david bowie.

Simon & Garfunkel
Tom Jones
Long John Baldry
Jim Reeves
The Hollies
Nick Lowe
Dave Edmunds
Demis Roussous (sp?)
Abba (it was the law in the late 70's & early 80's)
Simon & Garfunkel

I have no affection whatsoever for any of these acts, so the parental brainwashing didin't work.

My parents had and still have horrible taste in music. Status Quo, John Denver, Gordon Lightfoot, Foster and Allen, Paddy Reilly's Ireland.

All evil stuff designed to make you an elbow patch wearing beardy window licker with an interest in sociology and the effect on froglets

The Smiths (a lot), The Wedding Present, The Clash, The Undertones, Leonard Cohen, Billy Bragg, Sex Pistols, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, David Bowie, The Cure, Carter USM, 60s girl groups, The Beach Boys, New Model Army, The Cocteau Twins, all sorts really.

My parents have always had brilliant music taste and have never stopped buying new music or seeking out new bands.

Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Nina Simone, Miles Davis (inspired me to learn the trumpet...), John Coltrane...
parents had pretty good taste really...

The Beatles
David Bowie
Genesis/ Phil Collins
Paul Simon
Madness
Ian Dury and the Blockheads
Sting
Lots of jazz
Queen
Lots of 60's compilation stuff

My parents were never especially musically minded - they didn't subject me and my brother to any specific type of music really, beyond whatever we heard on the radio. From what I can remember of the mid-late 70's, the few things that stand out are an amalgam of 'Bohemian Rhapsody', Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, 'Wuthering Heights', George Formby, 'Heart Of Glass' and Abba.

My musical influences really came from one of my cousins, who bought me my first ever 7" singles (by Adam And The Ants) which I played to death. I was a serious Ant fan at the time, and soon made friends with another fanatic who listened to things like Art of Noise and Nik Kershaw. Okay, cheesy 80's pop, but I enjoyed it.

My cousin's taste in music had always really intrigued me: predominantly synth-based stuff including Kraftwerk, Human League, Gary Numan and Depeche Mode. Plus he played in a school band, and had all these funky synthesizers and other electronic contraptions, including this funky synth-drum that made funny squelchy froggy noises - I loved it! I can still remember him playing me 'Ghost Town' by The Specials, when he'd just bought it. That and the b-side, which I can still recall the lyric for: "Wish I had lipstick on my shirt, instead of piss-stains on my shoes." I reckon he just delighted in playing a song with profanity in it to a minor, bless him! He was probably the singlemost important influence on my music tastes to this day.

Generally though, I listened to pretty much anything that was on TV or radio - I was never often exposed to anything beyond the realms of the weekly Top 40 rundown on Radio 1, sad though that may sound. Occasionally, I would hear stuff that my friends' parents would play, primarily late 60's/early 70's stuff including Bread, Mamas And The Papas, etc, which I always really enjoyed. Generally, if I liked the sound of it, I was happy, and that's what mattered back then.

The same principle still applies today, really.