Music seems to have been a part of my life as far back as I can remember. My parents often would put on a record on their record player on Saturday mornings and start house cleaning. When done, my dad would often show the records, how to handle them, and let me look at the gatefold ones while the album played.
"Yoko sucks! Yoko sucks!"
Probably the two earliest albums I can recall are Let It Be and Abbey Road. To this day, I enjoy this era of the Beatles quite a bit more than the earlier material. Following that, the next two albums I can recall enjoying were Michael Jackson's Thriller and Bucker and Garcia's Pac Man Fever. I can clearly remember receiving these albums as Easter gifts (there might even be visual proof of this somewhere).
Issued to all white suburban kids.
Roller Rink Memories
I still have the Bucker and Garcia album, but I do not have the Michael Jackson album anymore. Not sure if that would have been worth money or not today.
As the 1980s trucked along, I honestly felt that music was just awesome. My dad often cranked up some old 70s rock here and there (Tom Petty, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin) or my mom would crank up some more Pop-ish stuff like Heart (who experienced quite the revival in the 1980s) or more classical stuff, like George Gershwin. My dad was also a fan of country but at the time in my life, I didn't care for it. He also had one of those little containers full of 45s from the late 50s/early 60s with all kinds of one-off bands from that era - nothing I was ever really fond of but interesting for what it was. For me, the pop of 1980s was where it was at. I can recall enjoying music from Van Halen, Bon Jovi, Madonna (who also made me feel kinda funny), Electric Light Orchestra, The Cars, Pet Shop Boys and the like. The Top Gun soundtrack was also a favroite of mine. I didn't realize until later in life that this style of sound was having a major impact on me and the kind of music I still like today.
Still hotter than today's pop stars.
I still wake up to 1984 as my alarm.
But probably the artist I can recall really enjoying the most prior to becoming a full on teenager was "Weird" Al Yankovic.
I also had a hamster just like this.
While I don't think polka was my favorite style of music, the way he was presenting it with the parodies and the stylings. There was something very interesting about it. His albums, In 3-D and Even Worse were my absolute favorites. Also, the movie he did. UHF, remains an all time favorite of mine.
You tell him your books are late.
Around 1989, I began to invest heavily in MTV as we had a larger cable reach at the time and began to enjoy the videos. I do miss the times you could just leave it on and get a variety of stuff. As 1990 entered, I turned 13 and things began to change. Hair Metal (Rock? I mean, how many of them were actually metal by definition - maybe Nitro) and quickly, bands like Poison, Motley Crue and Skid Row began to enter my cassette player and I began to seriously collect music at this point. But all that would change one day in my 7th Grade Choir Class.
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