Serious question...

[Guest]

Throughout grade school, I was majorly into Kiss. I thought they were the be all end all. While I loved Kiss, no one else seemed to understand what made them great and I didn't follow this. I couldn't understand why everyone else didn't like Kiss. Then in sixth grade, I picked up skateboarding from some of the neighborhood kids. Along with skating came skate videos and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. Along with the visual of seeing people do amazing things on a skateboard that I could only imagine doing, there was something going on with the music that was included on these. Most of it was fast, it was loud, and it was abrasive and clearly they did not give a fuck what people thought about their music. Something clicked. I would leave THPS on just to listen to Police Truck and Eurobarge. During the school year, we had a demerit system, where for everything you did wrong, you were issued a demerit. This was a Catholic school mind you, so very often I was doing something wrong. Anyway, for each quarter, if you went that long without getting 3 demerits, you would be rewarded somehow, with like ice cream or a jeans day (Yes, not having to wear a uniform was a reward.) This particular semester's reward was a lock-in night. I'm not entirely sure why I went to this lock-in, as I wasn't particularly liked by anyone at my school, but I went anyway. SO yeah, at this lock-in, there was a schedule of events which included watching movies, going to the gym for various games, etc. One of the things on this list was a band. Apparently, my social studies teacher's son had a band, and she had gotten them to play for us at this lock-in. So, I'm in the gym with everyone else and all the sudden I hear the band start. HOLY SHIT! THIS SOUNDS JUST LIKE THE MUSIC FROM MY SKATE VIDEOS! It was amazing. This band was Rule 22 and they changed everything. Their set was amazing. EVERYONE there was jumping around. It was interesting to see how the music had changed everyone. Even the meatheads who would normally be busy threatening me where just having a good time. After their set, they were selling CDs and being in sixth grade, I didn't even have the 5 dollars they wanted for it. Neither did anyone else. So the drummer at the time was like "Alright, whoever can answer this question can win a CD." I needed that CD. No one was going to take it from me. I was ready. The drummer asked "Who played the song 'I Wanna Be Sedated'?" No one had their hand up except me. I knew it! I knew who played that song! It was The Ramones! The CD was mine. Anxiously, I opened it up and started looking over the insert. In this insert was a list of bands. That list became my bible. And thats what lead me to where I'm at today.

I'm glad I wrote all that, even though no one's going to read it.

[flood]

i heard weird al for the first time on mtv. realized he was totally punk rock and was making great music mocking the mainstream. shortly after that i saw the don't let start video on nickelodean's "nick rocks" show... which in retrospect only played tmbg and kings x videos for some reason.

and it went from there... getting into dead milkmen from a neighbors older brother, and then having my musical world blown open when i bought the epitaph songs about anger fear sex and death comp

[cadetapplesauce]

probably lifetime - jersey's best dancers

[dante3000]

I listen to awful music so I don't know how to answer this.

[rtw88]

It was probably the first time I heard Planes Mistaken for Stars. I downloaded some mp3s off purevolume or something after I saw my friend mention them in a livejournal entry as their current listening. I was totally floored by their passion and intensity. Some time later I placed an order from No Idea and ordered some Small Brown Bike, I Hate Myself, and Hot Water Music, and it's been going from there.

[xxmartinxx]

I loved music from an early age. I had a blue record player that I would listen to for hours as a small child.

I remember sitting in my friend's basement when he brought down a bunch of tapes he stole from his older brother's room. He popped one in the boombox and I was instantly in awe of what I was hearing. It was RUN DMC's new album, "King Of Rock".

These sort of eye opening, mind blowing music moments would continue to happen throughout my life. I think good music does that to you.

In 1986 I got into skateboarding. Back then, if you skated you listened to punk. It was all over the skate magazines like Thrasher. So I borrowed anything I could get from my older brother's friends; Misfits, Clash, Ramones, DRI, Circle Jerks... the more I heard the more I wanted to hear. I'd tag along to shows of a local punk band called the Goo Goo Dolls. Even after I stopped skating, I still had no interest in popular music. Now I'm 34 and still listen to the same stuff I listened to when I was 10.

[enjoyadrian]

I remember in second grade my parents bought a stereo system that had a cd player. this was the first cd player our family had! To celebrate this fact, my mom took my sisters and I to target so we could each get a cd. One of my sisters got the dangerous minds soundtrack. I, under the influence of my oldest sister chose green day's "dookie". My oldest sister got weezer's blue album.

While i was knocked out by green day, weezer took the cake for me. I made a cassette tape rip of the blue album and listened to it on my tape player as i rode my bike. I remember feeling special telling my friends about it in school, but they didnt know what i was talking about (again, i was in second grade).

what's funny is that i still dont own that album on vinyl.

[aviolentworld]

My friend and I went to go see the movie "the Chase" w/charlie sheen. At the end there was this awesome song called "please play this song on the radio" we found out it was NOFX, went to Tower Records on Pleasant HIll road in Duluth, GA and picked up a copy of White Trash, two heebs and a bean for $7.99 on Cassette and listened to it non stop for two weeks. That got me into the punk rock and changed my life forever. Seriously.

dude kristy swanson was such a babe in that movie.

[rtw88]

My friend and I went to go see the movie "the Chase" w/charlie sheen. At the end there was this awesome song called "please play this song on the radio" we found out it was NOFX, went to Tower Records on Pleasant HIll road in Duluth, GA and picked up a copy of White Trash, two heebs and a bean for $7.99 on Cassette and listened to it non stop for two weeks. That got me into the punk rock and changed my life forever. Seriously.

You should have just said Charlie Sheen and then refuse to elaborate.

[mutinyzine]

I listened to a lot of metal and stuff when I was a kid, like Megadeth, AC/DC and stuff like that. I then moved on to heavier stuff like Carcass, Morbid Angel and Sepultura. Then I heard Pearl Jam around the time "Ten" came out and that blew me away and led me onto bands like Soundgarden and Alice In Chains.

I guess I got into punk and hardcore through skateboarding and I think my first punk favorites were the first Face To Face record and a record by Guns n' Wankers that I had on tape. Nowadays I like everything that's good, from Country to Crust.

[sonix]

[thesupervillain]

[spikewilbury]

My first CD was Will Smith's Big Willy Style.

In 8th grade my sister took me to the Big Stink Festival in Portland. I saw Blink-182 and got really into them.

My Freshman year of HS, I went and saw Blink-182 and Bad Religion opened for them. I bought the All Ages compilation.

I then got into classic rock and went on from there. Now I enjoy a wide variety of musical styles. I love going to shows. I search for new music all the time from indie to metal. When something clicks it's awesome.

[Guest drahtuos]

maybe this for me too, stwha is one of my first favorite albums. but then there was also this and it came before..

and i don't know, hard question to answer really, because there have been a lot of particular moments in my personal music history that have altered how i felt about music in general.

[theambulancereview]

3EB, nice!!!

[trainreck]

there's a couple albums that were very influential to my future music tastes:

Metallica - S&M i remember talking my uncle into buying this for me when i was probably 11. i knew that metallica was heavy metal but i didn't even know what heavy metal really was. i was blown away by the heavy guitars and i especially loved the fact that there was an orchestra playing along with them. this album really got me in to metal and just heavy music in general (and to this day i can't help but love any album that has an orchestra)

Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon i first heard this at my friends house when his parents put it on. all the strange sounds were so new to me and the whole atmosphere of the album was just so great. as soon as i could save up the money i bought a copy for myself and i was hooked. this album lead to my love of classic/prog rock

Nirvana - Nevermind this is another album that was like nothing i had ever heard. it was just so loud and crazy to me. this introduced me to alternative rock which eventually lead me to bands like blink 182 and the offspring which eventually lead me to get really in to punk in my high school days

i still love all these bands and all these different genres

[dylan]

its awesome reading all these stories. most of them make me feel old as fuck haha

i found a cd called "hey brother can you spare some ska" it had cherry poppin' daddies and long beach dub allstars on it, which were the only bands on it that i knew. but since it was only $3.99 (which also blew my mind, i never saw a full length cd for that cheap) i figured i might as well get it since all the rest of the bands might sound like the 2 i knew. this got me into ska which lead to everything else

[brad]

had to have been full collapse by thursday in my freshman year of high school. Before that all i really listened to was like less than jake (and lets be honest...losing streak is awesome) but i remember getting a bunch of my cds stolen in the winter of freshman year. that weekend i talked to some kid on a hockey team i was on who told me a story about this band thursday and i pretended like i've heard the name before. I go home, download understanding in a car crash and buy full collapse the next day. went apeshit and really introduced me to everything.

album changed how i thought about life and people and the power of music.

and as for the cds that i lost - i have no freaking clue which ones they were...and it had to have been around 20. it must have been like eve 6 or the band that sang "you get what you give"

actually one that i lost that did suck was everclear - so much for the afterglow...that was a good one.

[whateverrrr]

the weakerthans & saves the day.

also, two of the only bands I like from that era of my life.

[pjaicomo]

In middle school I was listening to a bunch of shitty music, and one day my best friend's brother came home from college with a CD of New Found Glory. That wasn't the moment, but because of that I somehow heard about Alkaline Trio. On a whim I mailordered Goddamnit from Asian Man. When that CD showed up in the mail, everything changed for me.