Your Musical Wheelhouse

[mcad64]

My brother and I had this discussion the other day. I am youngest of seven. I am 50, oldest is 62. Growing up I was exposed to a large variety of music and as such like to think that I have a fairly diverse taste in music. HOWEVER...my brother and I discussed what I called our musical wheelhouse. That is, the music that your are most comfortable or familiar with. Your warm and fuzzy music. Your goto music so to speak. We tried to narrow down what we thought were the prime years for your musical wheelhouse. I first stated 10 to 19 years of age. Then I thought again and realized that perhaps that was too broad. Is it more like 14 to 19? Roughly high school age? Or do you include university age? What are the years growing up where the music is most indelibly imprinted on your brain? Does this make any sense or am I completely in left field?
Mike

 

[Botch]

Interesting topic. And for me, at least, you are completely in left field! :mrgreen:

I consider myself fortunate that I grew up in a time when music education was still funded in the public schools. It drew me in, learning recorder and harmonica in 2nd grade, getting a trombone in 5th, jazz ensemble in 7th, orchestra in 9th, jazz ensemble and my first bar/rock gig in college; it all layed a foundation for me.
However, I never quit discovering new worlds. My last two years in college I inherited a fiddle from my Great-Grandfather, and soon was playing in a bluegrass band. That led to country-rock, another band, and Poco, Pure Prairie League, Eagles, The Band, etc. Then that led to playing in pure country bands, not my favorite kind of music but the demand, and the pay, were good; I picked up, learned, and immersed myself in pedal steel guitar. Then I added a keyboard, then another one, and soon I drifted back to music I liked more, rock. Other "wheelhouse" moments:

- Discovering college radio; that drug me deeper into classical and jazz, and introduced me to Alternative.
- 1978, ultimate High School band trip: 2 weeks in Europe! Seeing how IMPORTANT music is to other cultures.
- 1978 again, Saturday Night Live, seeing King Crimson do Elephant Talk and having my head blown open!
- 1978, my first year in college also introduce me to Steely Dan, Rickie Lee Jones, Joni, Earth Wind & Fire, so many others.
- 1982 (?): The Police release Ghost in the Machine.
- 1983: MTV!
- 1997, joining a dance/techno band, learning to sequence, and falling into a whole new world.
- 2004, I got an unusually large income tax refund, and decided to replace my tacky "sax" solos on synthesizer with a real Tenor, and learned a whole new instrument well into my 40's; that too opened up a whole new world of things to listen to with different ears.
- 2009+, guys on this here forum introduce me to Scott Hamilton, Porcupine Tree, Here Come The Mummies, etc. Right now I'm listening to, for the 3rd time today, Sante Fe and the Fat City Horns, somekiller charts!

I guess, for me at least, there were no "wheelhouse" years; I'm always learning of something new and getting excited about it.
I hope that never changes. bscene-drinkingcheers:

 

[Zing]

I guess, for me at least, there were no "wheelhouse" years; I'm always learning of something new and getting excited about it.
I hope that never changes.

^ This.

I think predefining an era or period of time is subjective. It's never going to be the same for everyone (unless you just simply ask what had the biggest impact on them during a specific time). But I'm with Botch. I've gone through a few musical phases in my life. What impacted me the most in high school, I can't stand now. Yet, the phase I'm currently in has lasted the longest of them all. In that regard, I suppose that means it's had the biggest impact but I expect, at some point in the future, it'll change again.

 

[PaulyT]

Agreed. My musical tastes - the styles of music I listen to - have expanded dramatically in the last 5-8 years.

But in general I still can't stand the pop crap that was the norm of the 80's when I was in high school!

 

[Flint]

Everyone is different. I identify my musical heritage with hundreds of specific artists and specific pieces which touched my soul during the period i developed my own identity - basically from when I was 12 until I was 24. During that period I discovered Buddy Holly and the Beach Boys as well as Missing Persons and Joe Jackson. I spent hours engaged in the glory of Bach, Handel, and Beethoven (among others). I also relished in the genius of Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Bill Evans. Basically, Even the classic protestant hymns from the late 18th to early 20th century touched my soul. Basically it was everything I could find during that time, but it wasn't just music from that time. I didn't like the radio, ever, and I looked to my older brothers, mother, father, teachers, and those who influenced my musical heroes' for guidance on what to discover.

That said, I love and appreciate music from any period ranging from the earliest known music to the latest genius works from the newest generation of artists. Sure, I fall back on the stuff which I identified with during that 12 year period for comfort, but I would never call it my "wheelhouse".

So... this idea of a wheelhouse makes sense to me, but it doesn't functionally work for me.

 

[Batman]

Every waking minute of time spent in the car with my dad was Elvis, Elvis and more Elvis. Because of his career in the car business, often he was working nights while I went through his record collection. Which of course had a shyt ton of Elvis, but he also had the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and a bunch of others. But his collection influenced my tastes early in life. My dads youngest brother (Scott) was only 2 years older than me, so he was more like a brother and when my grandfather passed away he lived with us during his HS years. I looked up to him and spent a lot of time riding around with him and our girlfriends. That's when I was introduced to Depeche Mode, The Cure, U2 etc and the alternative genre in general. Today's alternative genre is really watered down and more mainstream than it's ever been, with a lot of "pop" sounding garbage mixed in all too often. Since I've been hanging out with -B- over the last 13-14 years his musical tastes have influenced my tastes once again. So I'm certainly in agreement that anyone who cares about music of any kind of genres usually goes through multiple phases.

 

[lulimet]

My experience is different from everyone else's. Because I was born in a communist country, we weren't allowed to listen to any music other than the folk and pop music made by our country's artists. The only way you could even listen to music was thru the radio or TV which maybe only 1/3 of the population had access to.
We had no vinyl, tapes, CDs, or a stereo system. They were never sold during communism. So I didn't listen to any music in the first 12 years of my life.
Communism fell in 1990 and we had more freedoms. Also importing things from Western countries was made much easier so we started getting tapes and some CDs which of course were copied and being sold completely illegally by Western copyright laws but we had no such laws in our country back then.
I still didn't show any interest in music because most of the music we were being exposed to was techno and mainstream pop. But that all changed in 1994 when I bought my first tape. It was Metallica's "Master Of Puppets". I was 15 and a somewhat angry teenager because of the economically depressed time that the country was going through, but that album was like a medicine. It made me calm and feel more positive. Then I started hanging out with the metalheads throughout high school and was exposed to many more Metal bands.
Then in 1998 our family moved to the US. I was 19 and got my first job ever (two jobs actually) and had a lot of spare income because I was living with my parents and had no bills to pay. With the first paycheck I bought my first stereo system. And after that, every week I would buy 5-10 CDs at the local CD store. It helped that the owner of the store was a Metal fan so he could get me any CD that I wanted even if he didn't have it in stock.
The first 6 years I bought a lot of CDs. About 600 or so. Now my collection is at around 1000.
My musical tastes have not changed much at all. It is still 95% Heavy Metal with the other 5% being mostly Classic Rock.

 

[Botch]

That's a really cool story, Lulimet! If I could ask, what country did you grow up in?

 

[lulimet]

Albania

 

[Haywood]

That is very hard to pin down, because my comfort food music covers a wide range of both genre and time. My taste in music is also a lot broader than it was in high school. If I had to name a wheel house, I would say classic rock from 1970-1990 and pop music from 1980-1995, but that's a very broad generalization.

 

[heeman]

Interesting topic for me also.................

Back in the early 70's:

The Who; BTO; ELP and Elton John........first albums to play on that amplified turntable and 2 detached 6" Speakers

and of course one of my all time favorite bands of all time YES!!

Late 70's:

YES, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Rush and Pat Travers

80's - 90's:

Mostly Progressive Rock and Hard Rock tending to listen to more diversified stuff like Steely Dan; Phil Collins; etc.......

Late 90's to Present:

Extremely diversified and lovin' every second of it........